糖心Vlog

Search engine optimization (SEO) has transformed radically since the term first appeared . Basic on-page keyword stuffing has evolved into a strategic practice aimed at getting web pages to be featured in search engine rankings.

Search technology was never going to stay the same, but the rate at which things are evolving is unprecedented. Even in tech, an industry that thrives on rapid change, AI is accelerating everything it touches by orders of magnitude. AI-powered search engines like Perplexity have gained mainstream momentum, SearchGPT is securing deals with publishers to sidestep copyright issues, and your friendly neighborhood SEO is pinching the bridge of their nose.

At HubSpot, we’ve experienced how SEO has changed firsthand: the HubSpot blog is one of the largest and most influential marketing blogs on the internet. We’ve been learning and leading marketers for 20 years. Read on for the scoop on search trends marketers should know about, AI-powered and otherwise.

Table of Contents

• How the Search Landscape Has Changed
• The Evolution of Search: 1990s-2026
• 8 SEO Trends in 2026
• Search Evolution FAQs

How the Search Landscape Has Changed

The first search engines were advanced for their time, but couldn’t parse user intent or semantic search. Search engines like AltaVista and Yahoo! scanned web pages for exact-match keywords and basic page attributes, like page titles, meta tags, and heading structure. Modern search engines use machine learning (ML), advanced natural language processing (NLP), and multimodal search to understand user intent and sift through the internet’s backlog, plus the millions of new pieces of content published daily.

The strategy needed for SEO success has evolved to keep up with changing technology. Here’s an overview of the evolution of SEO:

While some of us can remember the early internet days, there’s now an entire generation that’s grown up never knowing a time before Google.

Witnessing the Evolution of SEO First-Hand

, a Denmark-based SEO (and founder of ), has been doing SEO since before it was called SEO (it was originally referred to as “search engine positioning”). He reflected on the shifts of the last 25 years, like the switch to mobile. DeMib recalls that it was first prophesied around Y2K, shortly after the introduction of wireless application protocol (WAP) that allowed mobile devices to connect to the internet.

“And of course it totally failed,” deMib says, because “from a usability point of view, it was terrible.” It was another decade before Google adopted a mobile-first philosophy and content publishers adopted mobile-friendly UX. Now, deMib sees upwards of 90% mobile traffic in certain verticals, like women’s fashion — a number that’s not likely to surprise HubSpot readers.

As SEO evolved from static optimization to continuous iteration, tools like 贬耻产厂辫辞迟’蝉 help teams monitor performance, identify optimization opportunities, and adapt content as search behavior changes.

The Evolution of Search: 1990s-2026

Since the 1990 release of , the internet’s first search engine, content optimization has evolved from basic keyword matching to a sophisticated set of best practices designed to serve user intent, context, and trust. Here’s a walk down search’s memory lane.

The Early Days of SEO (1990s–2000s)

In the 1990s and early 2000s, search was less competitive, and search engines relied on relatively simple relevance signals rather than advanced intent or semantic understanding. SEO was in its infancy, with early engines like Yahoo!, AltaVista, Lycos, and Ask Jeeves helping users find online resources. Google was released in 1998, with results powered by a . It processed , signaling the beginning of algorithm-driven search at scale.

Common early SEO tactics included:

• Keyword stuffing.
• Link farms.
• Hidden text (white text on a white page).

The Algorithm Revolution (2000s–2010s)

Between the 2000s and early 2010s, Google became the dominant global search engine and fundamentally changed how people accessed information. The verb “Google” was officially in 2006, and by 2009, Google was processing more than per day. As search volume scaled dramatically, SEO evolved into a fine-tuned strategic discipline focused on understanding how algorithms evaluated relevance and quality.

Google’s PageRank system shifted SEO from just showing the most relevant results towards measuring website quality through signals like:

• Backlinks
• Trust
• Authority

The Intent-Driven Search Era (2010s–2020s)

In the 2010s, search technology evolved from keywords to sophisticated semantic search algorithms, which aimed to understand the intent and context behind a search query. Content volume surged, with more than being published every day. Google introduced quality frameworks like E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), prioritized mobile search (and eventually Core Web Vitals), and surfaced direct answers through featured snippets.

Regular algorithm changes reshaped SEO, like these major Google updates:

• Panda (2011): Targeted low-value content.
• Penguin (2012): Targeted manipulative links.
• Hummingbird (2013): Improved semantic understanding.
• BERT (2019): Improved natural language processing.

The AI Search Era (Present)

How has SEO changed in recent years? In the 2020s, search engine optimized content creation is easier than ever. Quantity-over-quality content flooded the internet with the release of ChatGPT, prompting Google to make significant algorithm and SERP changes that reshaped both and . As of 2025, Google processes an estimated per minute in the U.S. alone, yet many publishers see fewer clicks as AI Overviews increasingly answer queries directly within search results.

Defining moments of this SEO era include:

• SEO intertwining with AEO. Structured, answer-first content optimized for LLMs.
• Introduction of E-E-A-T (2022). Google added “experience” to its quality evaluation framework.
• Helpful Content Updates (2022–2024). Aimed to prioritize people-first content creation.
• AI Overviews rollouts (2023–2024). Shifted visibility from rankings to AI overview citations.
• Spam Updates (ongoing). Targeted low-quality automation and abusive content practices.

As algorithm updates became more frequent, SEO required ongoing measurement. help teams analyze performance trends and understand how updates impact visibility over time.

The State of 糖心Vlog in 2026

HubSpot's Annual 糖心Vlog Trends Report

• AI in 糖心Vlog
• Branding and Growth
• Human-Led Creativity
• And More!

8 SEO Trends in 2026

SEO trends, such as AI, zero-click search, voice/conversational search, video SEO, visual search, and EEAT, will all shape the search landscape in 2026. However the word “trends” is used advisedly. SEO experts all emphasize the interconnectedness of the changes they’re observing, exercising caution about using the word “trend.”

And many of the SEO trends we saw in 2023 are still playing out. That said, here are eight SEO developments SEOs are keeping an eye on in 2026.

1. AI

Artificial intelligence is less an SEO trend than the infrastructure powering modern search experiences: chatbots, search engines, and Google’s AI Overviews. AI Overviews (AIO) have especially piqued concern, with marketers racing to understand what will happen if AIO keeps users on Google’s search engine results page (SERP) instead of clicking through to websites.

Statistic: In a HubSpot survey of more than a hundred U.S.-based SEO professionals, 73% either strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement, “AI tools, features, or solutions are becoming an important part of my company’s SEO strategy.”

AI is also a means to efficiency: Nearly 75% of respondents said they use AI simply to save time. Many of those SEOs use AI for tasks like optimizing websites for technical SEO and improving SERP rankings.

Despite the major changes it’s brought, marketers feel confident in the age of AI. In our 2026 report, the majority of surveyed marketers reported that they felt confident adapting to cultural and social trends and understanding content needs in the AI era.

Pro tip: that quickly analyzes your brand based on what your prospects and customers are seeing across AI search engines — then provides actionable recommendations on how to improve.

2. Zero-Click Search

With the fitful launch of Google’s AI Overviews in May 2024, “zero-click search” shifted from theoretical concern to waking nightmare, depending on who you ask. The term will likely be used exponentially more in 2026 and beyond, but whether the world will actually become zero-click remains to be seen.

Statistic: In a HubSpot survey of U.S.-based SEO professionals, only 6% specifically named Google’s AI Overviews as a threat to search traffic. And the biggest concern, generative AI chatbots, was selected by only 13% of respondents. A tiny percentage, just 2%, believe that Google algorithm updates will result in search traffic losses.

Of the , 60% said that growth metrics for website visits are actually easier to improve now than 10 years ago.

SEO Experts Weigh In

Readers of a certain age may remember when AOL was effectively synonymous with “internet.” DeMib says that pre-2000, “[The internet] was a lot of big sites like Yahoo! and AOL that defined themselves more like a portal. They were trying to give users everything they wanted to keep people on their site.”

It failed for Yahoo! and AOL, and it will fail for Google, deMib believes. “Nobody can give users everything, in my opinion. It’s not going to work. People are still going to want to buy products that are only found on a certain web shop. People want different perspectives. They’re not going to read all the news in one news outlet.”

DeMib also points to a study that SparkToro CEO Rand Fishkin did on zero-click. Among the findings, Fishkin found that although there’s been an increase in zero-click searches, there’s been a parallel increase in the number of searches.

“It’s evening out,” deMib says. “The number of people who click away from Google is actually about the same, even though the percentage has dropped.” Read Fishkin’s full study on the .

And not everybody thinks zero-click is the start of the SEO apocalypse. Amanda Natividad, SparkToro’s VP of 糖心Vlog, , “Do you want people to see your [content] or not?” She explains: “When I’m telling you to create zero-click content, it’s because you need to optimize for impressions. To optimize your social media content so that people see it.”

3. Voice and Conversational Search

Voice and conversational search reflect a shift from keywords to natural, spoken language. As users increasingly ask full questions (rather than inputting a few keywords), search engines rely on natural language processing to understand intent, context, and follow-up queries.

Where voice searches come from:

• Smartphones (Siri, Google Assistant).
• Smart speakers (Amazon Echo/Alexa, Google Home).
• In-car systems.
• Wearables and smart devices.
• Voice input features built into operating systems and browsers.

This has pushed SEO toward conversational phrasing, question-based content, and clear, direct answers that mirror how people actually speak (also called natural language queries).

Because voice queries are longer and more conversational, 贬耻产厂辫辞迟’蝉 can surface SEO recommendations during content creation that help teams match real spoken language rather than short keyword phrases.

4. Video SEO and Visual Search

Search engines now support multimodal search, meaning they can interpret and combine text, video, and images to generate relevant results for a single query. While SEO has encompassed multimedia for years, Google increasingly blends these formats directly into the main search results, allowing users to explore visual, video, and text-based answers without leaving the SERP (see example below).

Visual and video search optimization basics include:

• Descriptive titles, captions, and transcripts to support NLP.
• Structured data and metadata for videos and images.
• Visually clear thumbnails for engagement and higher click-through rates.

Visual content can also showcase human experience, which leads to trend number five.

5. E-E-A-T and Human Experience

Google first introduced EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) in its Search Quality Rater Guidelines in 2014, using it as a framework to help human evaluators assess content quality. In December 2022, Google expanded the framework to EEAT by adding Experience, highlighting the value of first-hand knowledge and lived expertise in content evaluation.

While E-E-A-T is not a single ranking factor, it reflects how Google’s systems aim to surface content that demonstrates credibility, accuracy, and real-world experience. To many marketers, the rise of AI (and the parallel emphasis on EEAT) represents a return to fundamentals: creating content grounded in genuine expertise, trust, and human perspective.

, product SEO at HubSpot, takes a long view of all this AI-activated change, cautioning marketers to focus more on the grounding principles of good content rather than trying to optimize for every single update.

Go deeper: We’ve got even more pro tips and actionable advice on adapting to the new search era.

6. Follow-up Search Intent

Follow-up search intent reflects how users continue refining their queries after an initial answer. While AI Overviews will satisfy some users immediately, many continue searching to validate or expand on what they’ve learned. Accounting for these secondary and tertiary searches helps content meet users’ needs.

Even with the increase in zero-click queries, , 贬耻产厂辫辞迟’蝉 Manager of EN Blog Strategy, tells me how important it is to consider follow-up searches. “Let’s say a user searches for something extremely basic, and the AI Overview provides an answer. Some people are going to be satisfied with that answer — and some are not. So, for the people who are not satisfied, what follow-up searches will they do to further refine their journey?”

Sellers says that anticipating follow-up search intent is key to content strategy in 2026. Ultimately, we should be writing content for our audience — not Google. (Ironically, this is also what Google says.)

Anticipating follow-up search intent requires visibility into how content performs across related topics — something teams can monitor using within 糖心Vlog Hub.

7. Ranch-Style SEO

As search engine users become more accustomed to short, direct answers to queries (courtesy of LLMs and AI Overviews), SEOs are responding by shortening and focusing their content. This signals a shift from skyscraper content to ranch-style content.

“Skyscraper content” (where marketers write long, comprehensive blog posts) was introduced in 2013 by Brian Dean on , and it was a very successful blogging strategy for years. It was challenged in April 2024 when Clearscope CEO Bernard Huang sent ripples through the SEO world with his blog post called “.”

It begins with an exhortation to “unlearn what you know about SEO.” That sounds scarier than it is. Huang says that rather than focusing on long, in-depth articles, publishers should “[disaggregate] content into precise, digestible pieces that strategically align with the user’s search journey.” That is, switch from skyscraper SEO strategy to ranch-style.

Huang lists why ranch-style is the future of search:

• It’s responsive to the shift from keyword-centric to topic-centric SEO.

• It mitigates the negative impacts of generative AI on the web.

• It “partners” with firsthand experience as a ranking factor.

This goes hand-in-hand with Sellers’ advice about follow-up search intent: Good content strategy is about anticipating readers’ questions at each stage of their journey.

贬耻产厂辫辞迟’蝉 tool enables marketing teams to scale on-brand content creation without sacrificing consistency or quality.

8. Video SEO

Rather than serving as a supporting content format, video now functions as an independent search channel where users research. Video SEO has been a powerful part of search visibility for years, and more growth is expected in this area as search engines increasingly surface video results across SERPs and AI-driven discovery experiences.

Pan says, “Consumers want to watch videos on their favorite platforms” — not necessarily your website — and that requires an understanding of both YouTube optimizations and how social media platforms give visibility to native versus externally hosted videos.

Sellers adds, “When you’re creating content in this challenging search landscape, it’s more important than ever to keep in mind how your audience searches for and consumes information.”

Consumers have the tools and ability to research quite literally anything, and an increasing number of prospective customers are turning to YouTube. , 贬耻产厂辫辞迟’蝉 senior manager of digital marketing, says it’s because they’re “seeking human perspectives in relation to their pain points.”

Plus, Hope points out, more and more video carousels are popping up in Google search results “as part of its goal to serve more human-led perspectives for users.” All of this adds up to an important focus area for SEOs, Hope says.

“SEOs should be monitoring the search results pages for target keywords and topics to see which ones have video carousels, and then coordinate with media teams to create relevant video content.”

Search Evolution FAQs

How has SEO changed over the years?

SEO has evolved beyond keyword optimization and generic search engine results pages into a more personalized, AI-driven experience. Today, AI Overviews surface tailored answers to user queries and links to relevant web pages, which often results in fewer clicks. While traffic is more competitive, search optimization remains essential as SEO strategies now focus on helping search engines and AI systems understand, trust, and surface content across the buyer journey.

Our State of 糖心Vlog report reveals that using AI to create personalized content is a top 2026 trend. Using tools like 贬耻产厂辫辞迟’蝉 coupled with HubSpot , teams can produce content that adheres to current SEO best practices through AI-assisted suggestions for structure, headings, and internal links.

What is the difference between old SEO and new SEO?

SEO evolution is ongoing. Old SEO focused on straightforward optimization tactics like keyword density and backlinks, primarily targeting text-based searches. New SEO encompasses text, video, images, and conversational queries, requiring marketers to optimize for search engines, answer engines, and users simultaneously. Modern SEO strategies prioritize topical authority, structured data, and tools that help teams adapt to AI-powered search environments, like .

How is search evolving?

Search is becoming increasingly personalized due to advances in AI. AI Overviews now curate direct, context-aware answers to queries, which reduces the number of clicks to individual websites. As organic traffic becomes a scarcer commodity, marketing strategies must evolve to emphasize visibility, authority, and influence across search results, AI responses, and multiple discovery channels.

Not sure how your site stacks up today? Tools like can quickly highlight common SEO and performance issues.

The Future of Search: How Marketers Are Shifting Gears

Search is dead; long live search!

The evolution of search continues. 贬耻产厂辫辞迟’蝉 original research shows that SEOs are generally optimistic about Google’s AI Overviews and other generative AI search engines, with 48% of respondents saying that AIO would improve search traffic over the next six months.

If there’s one braided thread in these trends, it’s that AI is driving significant change in the search landscape, SEO remains very much alive and well, and the human element is still vital to search.

Google’s addition of a second “E” to E-A-T in late 2022 was a clear signal that publishers should be writing for their readers — not Google. “Content creation isn’t about keywords. It’s about topics and editorial angles,” says Sellers.

“Expertise,” the original “E,” could theoretically be faked by AI. But “experience” — not so much.

To recap, here’s how our experts recommend that marketers and SEOs shift gears to accommodate new trends in the search landscape:

• Write for your audience.
• “Use AI for the things AI is good for, and use human-led content for the things that human-led content is good for.” – Amanda Sellers
• “Everybody should embrace and spend some time with all the new AI-based tools that are becoming available now.” – Mikkel deMib
• “Monitor SERPs for target keywords and topics to see which ones have video carousels, and create relevant video content.” – Rory Hope
• Deepen your topical coverage and sharpen your editorial angles.

Get more SEO insights in our 2026 Start of 糖心Vlog report.

The State of 糖心Vlog in 2026

HubSpot's Annual 糖心Vlog Trends Report

• AI in 糖心Vlog
• Branding and Growth
• Human-Led Creativity
• And More!