SEO in 2026
Majestic.com
SEO is continuing to change at an alarming pace. And yet, in some sense, the principles of good SEO remain the same.
Hello, and welcome to SEO in 2026 – a significant repository of current thinking from many of the world’s leading SEOs.
We're pleased to be able to welcome you to the fifth book and fifth series in this podcast, now well and truly an annual tradition, brought to you by Majestic.
“How people search has seen a bigger shift in the last 12 months than the last 12 years, and this makes SEOin2026 a must-read for anyone working in the industry. Majestic has brought together 117 of the SEO industry's brightest minds to share their insights into what matters, and what doesn't, to continue to drive growth with organic search during a period of massive uncertainty, and the book should be seen as a valuable reference point to keep your strategy on the right track.”
JAMES BROCKBANK
Managing Director and Founder, Digitaloft
“I highly recommend that every SEO professional set aside a couple of days for SEOin2026. You'll thank me for helping you plan your year effectively. I'm extremely grateful to have the opportunity to work alongside some of the world's leading SEO champions.”
NITIN MANCHANDA
Founder & Chief SEO Consultant, Botpresso
“This collection of wisdom from many of the best minds in SEO today is a great line in the sand of where we as an industry are, what problems we face, and how we tackle them. Anyone in SEO or marketing should be dipping into this on a regular basis.”
SIMON COX
Technical SEO Consultant, Cox and Co. Creative
“This series continues to be the industry’s leading source of the most timely advice a marketer could ever want. The most forward-thinking SEO experts in the world come together once a year to create this invaluable collection of new knowledge that should never be passed up on!”
PAM AUNGST CRONIN
President and Founder, Pam Ann Marketing and Stealth Search and Analytics
“2025 has been a sprint for the SEO industry, with AI reshaping how we understand visibility, relevance, and authority. SEOin2026 is not just another trends book; it’s a roadmap for what’s actually coming. I loved being part of it and seeing how experts around the world approach the same challenges from different angles.”
RAMONA JOITA
SEO Consultant and Founder
“David is good at drawing out the substance of a conversation. He will explore the topic and challenge assumptions, steer the conversation into an unexpected direction, and build on your ideas – making you think a bit deeper and sharper. Our recent conversation flew by as always, and as always – I’ve come out energised about the topic with more to think about.”
SUKHJINDER SINGH
Freelance SEO Consultant
Hello, and welcome to SEO in 2026 – a significant repository of current thinking from many of the world’s leading SEOs.
We're pleased to be able to welcome you to the fifth book and fifth series in this podcast, now well and truly an annual tradition, brought to you by Majestic.
“How people search has seen a bigger shift in the last 12 months than the last 12 years, and this makes SEOin2026 a must-read for anyone working in the industry. Majestic has brought together 117 of the SEO industry's brightest minds to share their insights into what matters, and what doesn't, to continue to drive growth with organic search during a period of massive uncertainty, and the book should be seen as a valuable reference point to keep your strategy on the right track.”
JAMES BROCKBANK
Managing Director and Founder, Digitaloft
“I highly recommend that every SEO professional set aside a couple of days for SEOin2026. You'll thank me for helping you plan your year effectively. I'm extremely grateful to have the opportunity to work alongside some of the world's leading SEO champions.”
NITIN MANCHANDA
Founder & Chief SEO Consultant, Botpresso
“This collection of wisdom from many of the best minds in SEO today is a great line in the sand of where we as an industry are, what problems we face, and how we tackle them. Anyone in SEO or marketing should be dipping into this on a regular basis.”
SIMON COX
Technical SEO Consultant, Cox and Co. Creative
“This series continues to be the industry’s leading source of the most timely advice a marketer could ever want. The most forward-thinking SEO experts in the world come together once a year to create this invaluable collection of new knowledge that should never be passed up on!”
PAM AUNGST CRONIN
President and Founder, Pam Ann Marketing and Stealth Search and Analytics
“2025 has been a sprint for the SEO industry, with AI reshaping how we understand visibility, relevance, and authority. SEOin2026 is not just another trends book; it’s a roadmap for what’s actually coming. I loved being part of it and seeing how experts around the world approach the same challenges from different angles.”
RAMONA JOITA
SEO Consultant and Founder
“David is good at drawing out the substance of a conversation. He will explore the topic and challenge assumptions, steer the conversation into an unexpected direction, and build on your ideas – making you think a bit deeper and sharper. Our recent conversation flew by as always, and as always – I’ve come out energised about the topic with more to think about.”
SUKHJINDER SINGH
Freelance SEO Consultant
Episodes
Mentioned books
May 21, 2024 • 17min
If you want to progress with your SEO career, stop overworking - with Adrijana Vujadin
David and Adrijana discuss if you want to progress with your SEO career, you should stop overworking.Talking points include:How much work is overworking?What if overworking is your company culture?What if you’re your own boss?Is it not OK to overwork at the start of your career?If you’re an SEO manager, how do you ensure that you don’t overwork your team?How do you detect if you’re doing too much?When does overworking lead to burnout?How do you recover from burnout?
May 20, 2024 • 16min
Learn Analytics To Better Understand User Behaviour - with Irina Serdyukovskaya
David and Irina discuss the importance of learning analytics To better understand user behaviour.Talking points include:What aspects of analytics do SEOs have to master?What do we need to know about GA4?— GA4 offers a lot of options on how we can analyse content consumption and user funnels. How do you analyse content consumptions and how do we measure where this fits into the bigger picture?What is a user funnel inside GA4 and how does this add value?Do you prefer using another tool like Looker to analyse your data?Do you add data from other ounces such as Search Console?Is there a decent alternative to GA4?Will the way in which data collection and analytics continue to evolve?
May 17, 2024 • 16min
Focus on tracking the metrics that matter, most aligned to your customer’s needs - Becky Simms
David and Becky discuss the importance of tracking the metrics that matter, i.e. the actions most aligned to your customer’s needs.Talking points include:What are the metrics that matter?What are the metrics that don’t matter?Is focusing on ROI and focusing on the metrics that matter the same thing?How do you know what you should be measuring?How can we better understand the customer journey?How do we know what the customer’s desired action is at each stage of the funnel?How do we get buy-in from our client to focus on the right metrics?How does this help to direct the future strategy?
May 16, 2024 • 14min
Know the importance of proper analytics, after all the changes with GA4 - with Gemma Fontane
David and Gemma discuss the importance of knowing the importance of proper analytics, after all the changes with GA4.Talking points include:What does GA4 mean for SEOs?What specifically are the needs of SEOs in terms of data?Is it too late to change now?How to use GA4 to lead your SEO strategyHow to use GA4 to lead your hollistic strategyHow to train internally about GA4
May 15, 2024 • 16min
Target low volume, high ROI keywords - with Araminta Robertson
Araminta Robertson shares with David Bain the importance of targeting low volume, high ROI keywords in 2024.Key discussion points include:Why focus on keywords that have under 50 searches per month?What’s your perspective on targeting zero-volume keywords?How do you know if keywords are likely to be high ROI?How do you go about interviewing your salespeople or conducting customer research?What do you mean by targeting them with in-depth content?What tools do you use to assist you with this process?
May 14, 2024 • 17min
Prepare a database for your brand, company, product, service, offering & yourself - Olesia Korobka
David and Olesia discuss why you should build a database for your brand, company, product, service, offering & yourself.Talking points include:What is this database for?Is this for search engines?How does it help you understand your:- own marketing positioning,- Voice- customers better.Is this what users want instead of the SERP?
May 13, 2024 • 18min
Learn to work with large volumes of data and assess scale - with Pedro Dias
David and Pedro discuss the importance of learning to work with large volumes of data and assess scale.Talking points include:AI will gradually empower content creators to produce at scale, and SEOs to analyse large volumes of data - how?It's important to know what can be automated - what can, what can’t?It's time to move past algorithm-chasing and correlations - for every industry?Does every SEO have do learn to work with large volumes of data and assess scale?
May 10, 2024 • 20min
How to use SEO Data to improve processes & prevent future damage - with Marco Giordano
David and Marco discuss how to use SEO Data to improve processes and prevent future damage.Marco says: “Use SEO data to improve processes and prevent future damage."What SEO data are we talking about here?“Mostly Search Console data, analytics, and crawl data from a crawler like Screaming Frog. If possible, you should be integrating non-SEO data as well.Non-SEO data is any data that is not purely SEO: customer data, sales data, etc. It could be content information, like the author of a given article, which can still provide a lot of value for SEO.”
May 9, 2024 • 16min
Google algorithms are all about signal input - with Kaspar Szymanski
David and Kaspar discuss why Google algorithms are all about signal input.Talking points include:What is signal input?How can SEOs control signal input?Google seems to issue more and more penalties all the time. Should SEOs be worried?Does Bing Search matter?Does any other search engine matter?Once the latest hype fades, what does really count in SEO?What is hype and what is something that matters - and how do you tell the difference?Performance or Backlinks - what's more important?
May 8, 2024 • 16min
Stop focusing on links and link numbers and instead, focus on strategy - Lau Miguez
Lau Miguez shares with David Bain that in 2024 you should stop focusing on links and link numbers and instead, focus on strategy.Discussion points include:Why shouldn’t you focus on links and link numbers?What do you mean by focus on strategy?What does your strategy look like?How does the strategy that you recommend result in more, better quality links?What links are more effective nowadays?How do you measure the impact of your activities?
