SEO Tips for 2026: What Matters for Rankings and AI Answers

We first published this article in 2020. Since then, search has changed more than in the decade before: Google shows AI Overviews above the results, chat assistants answer questions with cited sources, and metrics such as Core Web Vitals have become standard. Some tips from the first version are now obsolete, such as Alexa Rank (retired in 2022) or fixed word counts. Others still hold. This is the revised version, which also includes our earlier piece on website sitemaps.

Start with structure: the sitemap as a blueprint

Before you think about keywords, the site needs a clear structure. This is not the XML file yet, but the planned page hierarchy: which pages exist, what each one is for and how they connect. It is the blueprint of the house. Build without one and you end up knocking down walls later.

Five steps get you to a sitemap you can rely on:

1. Audit what exists. For a relaunch: which pages bring visitors and leads, which earn links, which are outdated? Google Search Console and your analytics data hold the answers.
2. Define goals. What should visitors find, and what should they do? Enquire, buy, download, apply.
3. Map audiences and journeys. One clear path for each important visitor group, without duplicate pages for the same need.
4. Choose an architecture. Keep it shallow: important content should be a few clicks from the home page.
5. Define relationships between pages. Which page links to which? This gives you navigation, internal links and, later, the URL structure.

Wireframes and visual design come after that. Your CMS or static site generator then produces the technical XML sitemap from this structure automatically.

Keywords: one topic per page

1. Research your customers' language. Keyword tools show search volume, but the best clues often come from sales calls, support tickets and the questions Google lists under "People also ask".

2. Assign each main topic to exactly one page. When several pages compete for the same query, Google cannot tell which one is relevant. Merge them.

3. Put the main keyword where it counts: in the title tag, the H1, the URL, the first paragraph and at least one subheading. Written naturally, not stuffed.

4. Cover the topic, not just the term. Related terms and sub-questions belong on the same page. Search engines and language models understand topics, not isolated words.

Content that fully answers the question

5. Write the best answer, not the longest. A page works when the visitor does not have to go back to the results.

6. Show experience. Google's quality guidelines summarise this as E-E-A-T: experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust. In practice that means real examples, a named author, traceable sources and clear company details.

7. Update important pages. A new date alone changes nothing. Check the facts, replace outdated advice and note the update date.

8. Use images with a purpose. Diagrams, screenshots and tables help when they explain something. Use descriptive file names and alt text that describes the content, which also improves accessibility.

Technical basics: crawlable, fast, unambiguous

9. Avoid duplicate content. Where the same content is reachable under several URLs (filters, tracking parameters, http and https), set the preferred URL with a canonical tag.

10. Maintain the XML sitemap. Include only indexable, canonical URLs and change lastmod only when the content actually changes. Google's documentation says it ignores priority and changefreq.

11. Watch the Core Web Vitals. The largest element should render within 2.5 seconds (LCP), interactions should respond within 200 milliseconds (INP), and the layout should not jump (CLS below 0.1).

12. Ship content in the HTML. Google can usually process client-side rendered pages, but many other crawlers, including a number of AI crawlers, do not execute JavaScript. Static generation or server rendering is the safe choice.

13. Design for every device. Google indexes the mobile version first. Content hidden on smartphones is effectively hidden from search as well.

Links: organise internally, earn externally

14. Link internally with descriptive anchor text. "More on accessible forms" tells users and search engines more than "click here".

15. Link out to good sources. If you cite laws, studies or documentation, link to them. It helps readers and makes your claims verifiable.

16. Fix broken links. A regular crawl with an SEO tool finds 404s and redirect chains. After a relaunch, 301 redirects from every old URL are mandatory.

17. Earn backlinks instead of buying them. Original data, useful tools, expert articles and partnerships bring links that last. You only need Google's disavow tool after a manual action or for clearly bought links from the past, not as routine maintenance.

Local SEO

18. Keep your Google Business Profile current. Formerly Google My Business, the profile rewards accurate categories, opening hours, photos and replies to reviews.

19. Keep name, address and phone number identical everywhere. On your site, in your profile and in business directories. Structured data of type LocalBusiness or Organization helps attribute these details unambiguously.

Visible in AI Overviews and assistants

20. Write in a way that can be cited. AI Overviews in Google Search and assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity or Copilot summarise content and link to sources. Google states that no special optimisation is required: the same fundamentals apply as for regular search. In practice a few habits still help:

• Answer the core question early, in one clear sentence.
• State verifiable facts with a source and date.
• Use tables and lists where content can be compared.
• Keep details about your organisation consistent everywhere.
• Check in robots.txt which crawlers you allow.

There are no guarantees: you cannot control which sources an AI answer uses. Our article on Generative Engine Optimization goes deeper.

Where to start

Fix whatever holds you back most. If the structure is unclear, link building will not help. If important pages are not indexed, new copy will not help. Check Search Console for indexing problems first, then the structure, then your ten most important pages. If you would like support with that, see our SEO and GEO services.