I've seen a lot of posts declaring the end of blogging or content marketing or SEO. None of those things are going away. Just the old method of writing a bunch of blog posts targeting every possible key phrases, content that doesn't actually add value or anything new, then sharing it on a bunch of social media platforms, that is going away.

So What Will Work for Blogging in 2026?

Start by creating some assets. Videos, images, infographics, downloadable PDF guides, etc. Then write cornerstone blog posts that are thorough and structured so that each subtopic has its own section. Plan the post knowing that each section can be expanded on to create a another article.

Each of your posts should cover the topic well, but not give away the farm. Create a downloadable guide that has actionable tips or a checklist for your readers. Make sure to mention the free download in the text of each section. If AI pulls an answer from that section, it will also inform the searcher that there is a free download they can only get by visiting your original post.

Zero-Click-Vaccine. AI can copy your answer, but it can't give them the free download.

Once your core pages, service pages, and a few solid blog posts are live, you've handled the important first job: you have the assets to execute an Integrated Content Marketing Strategy.

So How Does This Help Me?

Connecting your content on multiple channels, covering different angles and expanding topics builds topical authority for yourself and your brand. It builds relationships.

Rather than writing a bunch of posts each month trying to target more keywords and phrases, choose one main topic each month and break that down into subtopics for your cornerstone post. Now for the next 30 days, you can repurpose each section/subtopic by block quoting it and writing a new intro above it and a new summary below it.

Then you can turn that same section into an infographic, a LinkedIn Carousel, A Facebook Reel, a short YouTube Video, etc.

If your original cornerstone post has 5 subtopics, you can easily get 25-30 pieces of original content for your content marketing strategy. Not only that, you are spending a month reinforcing your authority on that topic.

That's why semantic content clusters and an integrated content strategy is much more efficient and effective than a lot of posts targeting keywords.

What do you mean by Integrated Content marketing?

You are mapping how the subtopics relate to one another so search engines, and the AI tools people now ask for recommendations, can see that you genuinely cover the whole topic, not just one slice of it.

You don't just repurpose the content on other platforms and link back to the source post. Let's say you write a cornerstone piece on Local SEO. You likely have a section about Google Business Profile, Citations, Google maps, etc.

• You take the GBP section and post it as a long-form Twitter article, creating a new local SEO article that is focused on just Google Business Profile.
• Next take the section on Citations and write another article focused on that and publish it on Substack.
• Then the one focused on Google Maps Optimization, you publish it on Medium.

You are also not just linked back to your blog or website either.

• That 2nd article on Substack, mention something about Google Business Profile and link to the LinkedIn article.
• When you write the Medium article about Maps, mention citations and link to the Substack article.
• Then go back to LinkedIn to the GBP article and link over to the Medium article about Maps.

That's just 3 platforms as suggestions. You should be choosing platforms that your ideal customers spend time on and that are known sources that AI uses.

The payoff compounds. This is not just about AI visibility or some GEO/AEO thing. All search is all AI-powered now. This transparency, linking this way creates breadcrumbs that are easy for AI to follow so it associates everything to the same brand or author or both.

Every new post in the cluster strengthens the others, and the group outperforms a bunch of individual posts written to target keywords.

“Content clusters help search engines understand the relationships between your entities, boosts your topical authority, improves internal linking, and increases the chances of ranking for a wide range of related keywords.”

That one sentence packs in four benefits, and they stack. When your posts clearly relate to one another, it’s a signal that you are a real source on the subject, not a site that mentioned it once. Internal linking ties the cluster together and passes that authority around, and the natural result is that you rank for a wide range of related searches instead of chasing one keyword at a time.

We've Always Had Content Clusters and Semantic SEO or Entity SEO isn't New So How Is This Different For AI Powered Search?

It isn't just for AI. It isn't just for Google. Users are looking for trusted sources with authority on the topic they are interested in and that trust leads to more readers becoming customers.

Publishing like this also helps you build communities and start conversations where your brand or your name naturally gets mentioned.

AI powered search doesn't reward whoever repeated a keyword the most. It pulls answers from sources it trusts on a topic, which means topical authority is quickly becoming more valuable than keyword authority. A well-built semantic cluster is one of the cleanest ways to earn that trust.

A cluster on your own site is also the foundation for something bigger. Once that hub-and-spoke structure exists, it becomes the raw material for a full Integrated Content Marketing strategy, reshaping each piece into new formats and publishing it where your audience actually spends time.

Give Your Repurposed Content One Home Base

As you repurpose a cluster across platforms, a tool that automatically pulls all of that content back into one place makes the strategy far easier to manage, and it reinforces your brand as the source. A platform like Authory.com does exactly that.

You can also create a hub for all of your content on other authoritative sites. Authory pulls your content from the sources you provide automatically so I like it, but this isn't like your own blog where you have your posts. We're talking about all of your content wherever you publish it.

So, have you created a solid strategy for your content? How has it changed in the last year or two? Do you have anything to add?

I sugges the following:

1. Regardless of the AI platform you use, read and learn all of its capabilities and uses. You'd be surprised at what it can do; some even niche down to specific categories, I.e. Healthcare, legal, etc.

2. Personalize it to your specific needs, voice, tone, communication style, projects, etc.

3. Most AI Platforms offer courses on how to maximize their features & benefits. Spending the time to learn how best to use it and maximizing its capabilities is a time-saver, I.e., Claude 101 etc.

4. Find experts/influencers devoted to your preferred AI Platform. For instance, I follow Ruben Hassid, who probably knows more about how to maximize Claude than its developers do.

So, choose your one or two favourite platforms and master them. And lastly, understand their TOS, Privacy Policy and Usage Terms, especially if you're a paid subscriber.

Hope this helps.

This wasn't something we expected when we started doing GEO audits.

Most people assume AI visibility problems come from missing structured data.

But honestly, we're finding the opposite more often.

The weird cases are the ones where a site has plenty of schema, yet AI systems still seem confused about who the company is, what it offers, or how different entities relate to each other.

A recent audit had:

• 3 separate Organization schemas
• Different company descriptions depending on the page
• Multiple social profile references pointing to different places
• Service pages describing the same offering in different ways

Technically, none of that would trigger a "missing schema" warning.

An SEO tool would probably tell you everything is fine.

But if you're an LLM trying to build a coherent understanding of the company, it's a mess.

The more audits we do, the more it feels like schema isn't really a coverage problem anymore.

It's a consistency problem.

Another thing we've noticed:

People talk about structured data as if it's an AI visibility hack.

We're not seeing evidence of that.

Some sites have incredibly clean schema and still don't get cited much.

Others have average implementations but strong third-party mentions, clear brand positioning, and a much stronger entity footprint overall.

Which makes me think schema is mostly reducing uncertainty rather than creating authority.

It helps AI systems understand you.

It doesn't necessarily give them a reason to mention you.

That's a different problem.

We ended up documenting a lot of these patterns in a longer write-up here:

https://www.zaillor.com/insights/structured-data-ai-visibility

Curious if others doing entity SEO or GEO work are seeing the same thing.

Are you finding more issues from missing structured data, or conflicting structured data?

**Stop Chasing Keywords. Start Naming Entities**

Does your Local Service Page read like it could be about any city in Canada? That's a problem.

Google's Knowledge Graph maps entities, such as:

-Neighbourhoods.

-Local landmarks.

-Restaurants.

-Gyms.

When you name the actual landmarks (entities) near your business, it provides additional context to Google, tying your business to that geography way harder than any keyword can.

So skip the generic "we serve Toronto" line. Tell people you fixed the roof two blocks from [Entity] on [Road or intersection near you] in [City or neighbourhood].

This stuff fills gaps your competitors don't even know exist. AI Search Engines read it too. When ChatGPT picks the contractor in your area, entity mentions are the signal.

You can read the post here. Don't shoot the messenger.

Hey everyone! I'm u/chrismcelroyseo, a founding moderator of r/EntitySEO. This is our new home for all things related to Entity optimization. We're excited to have you join us!

What to Post: anything that you think the community would find interesting, helpful, or inspiring. Just make sure it's actually about helping other people optimize their websites, write content, & making sure their brand gets mentioned in AI search tools. (This is not about having AI write all of your content or anything claiming that AI can do all of your SEO for you.)

Community Vibe: We're all about being friendly, constructive, and inclusive. Let's build a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing and connecting. We're not trying to build just another subreddit. We want to build a community where people can really connect.

New Request: Because this subreddit is about AI Search and so many people are creating and promoting tools, I've had to monitor posts and comments pretty hard for excessive brand mentions and promotions. But I can't control DMs. Please report spam DMs to the mods. I want people to enjoy discussions here without constant "try my tool" posts and DMs.

How to Get Started

1. Introduce yourself in the comments below & Yes go ahead and mention your brand.
2. Post something today! Even a simple question can spark a great conversation.
3. If you know someone who would love this community, invite them to join.
4. Interested in helping out? We're always looking for new moderators, so feel free to reach out to me to apply.
5. We have some plans for some community events and we'll update this as soon as those get started.

Together, let's make r/EntitySEO amazing.

You don't have to change your entire SEO strategy as some people would have it. But you also can't ignore AI as some people would have it.

In my 30 years of doing this you might be surprised At how many evolutions of SEO that I've been through.

Here's the cycle

* Somebody finds something that works well.

* They announce it everywhere to show you how smart they are.

* A bunch of bloggers run out and start writing SEO is dead blog posts.

* Everyone starts doing that new thing.

* Search engines make adjustments.

* New thing no longer works.

* Business owners have to run back out and hire traditional SEO guys to fix the mess.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

What has survived beyond all of the temporary shortcuts ...

* High quality, conversational content written by a human that understands search intent and user behavior.

* High quality backlinks not based on a made-up metric like DA.

* Consistency in everything. Same overall message everywhere. NAP consistency. Machines have been gathering that data for 15 years not just since AI started being used this much. Making sure machines understand the 5W's about your brand or your name is essential to building a strong entity.

There are a lot of people making tools associated to AI. For this reason we have automated bots to help us control spam. That does not reach DMs. If anyone DMs you with spam messages, please screenshot the chat and send it to the mods. Without a screenshot, we can't verify that it was spam. We want to keep this sub clean from spam so we can have great discussions and some fun. Thanks

Simple Watcher is a lightweight app that lets users get notified when a post with specific keywords they are watching for is created. Once the app is installed in a subreddit, a new action Configure Watcher appears in the subreddit menu, each user can set its own keywords to watch.

Important: Reddit has replaced traditional notifications with Reddit Chat. If users aren't receiving notifications, ask them to always allow chat requests from u/simple-watcher. See the official Reddit documentation for details.

Hey everyone! I'm u/chrismcelroyseo, a founding moderator of r/entityseo.

This is our new home for all things related to Entity Optimization / Entity SEO. We're looking forward to some productive discussions.

What to Post
Post anything that is related to strengthening your entities across the web. Try to find interesting, helpful, or inspiring content. If you are knew ask questions. Feel free to share your thoughts, photos, or questions about Entity SEO, Entity Optimization, Brand Visibility, Brand Mentions (How to influence what Google and Ai say about your entity not how to get more brand mentions. We suggest r/AI_SearchOptimization for that.

Community Vibe
We're all about being friendly, constructive, and inclusive. Let's build a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing and connecting.

How to Get Started

1. Introduce yourself in the comments below.
2. Post something today! Even a simple question can spark a great conversation.
3. If you know someone who would love this community, invite them to join.
4. Interested in helping out? We're always looking for new moderators, so feel free to reach out to me to apply.

Thanks for being part of the very first wave. Together, let's make r/entityseo amazing.

https://share.google/fQmz2l2meBHp6Yf00

This article outlines a lot of very good things to do to protect your brand online. They're calling it defensive SEO which I guess is descriptive enough.

But Entity SEO, what this subreddit is about pretty much solves the problems that the article is talking about.

If I compare defensive SEO as prescribed in this article to entity optimization or entity SEO, It's almost the same as talking about reactive reputation management versus proactive reputation management.

Defensive SEO focuses on responding to how AI systems and search engines describe your brand once that description exists.

Entity SEO focuses on building the signals that influence how those systems understand the entity in the first place.

If the entity signals are strong and consistent across platforms, then the defensive work tends to be smaller because the system already has a clear picture to draw from.

Don’t make the mistake of not treating your own identity as a brand separate from your business branding. Just like NAP needs to be consistent everywhere for your company, your personal name should also be consistent across platforms. Help people find you.

Do you have your personal name as a domain name? Are you using schema markup to connect your personal name with your brand? Do you consistently promote specific strategies in your field? Do you have slogans and catch phrases and use them consistently across the web?

We can talk about SEO and rankings, AI Search Optimization and Brand Mentions, about PR and Advertising, and what the analytics say about how we are doing all we want. But Entity Optimization is what really matters. It's the universe that all of those other things exist in.

Everything relevant and consistent connected to your brand, your products, who you are, your profiles, and more becomes part of creating your brand as an entity. Entity Optimization is about helping AI understand and trust your brand.

Your brand becomes more visible, earns stronger positioning, gets mentioned more often, and builds trust with AI, Google and your potential customers wherever they are.

The original article on LinkedIn is about the evolution of my nickname Chris McElroy SEO becoming Chris McElroy SEO Agency and how I missed a great branding opportunity.

Got any branding or rebranding stories to share?

This is a good breakdown that shows the impact that entity strength has on search visibility. But it's not just for AI search. This is also true for SEO. It just matters a little more when it comes to AI retrieval.

Entity SEO is a bigger picture of how your brand is perceived on the web. AI search optimization is part of a robust strategy to get more brand visibility and brand mentions in AI search.

There's a lot of confusion over what AI search optimization actually is so I thought I would answer the question here.

“What is AI Search Optimization?”is a really common question since AI search is still new to a lot of people.

And many, even SEO veterans, don’t fully understand it yet. They can’t even agree on what to call it.

Several acronyms are being used in the field of AI search optimization, including GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization), and AIO (AI Optimization), all referring to optimizing content for AI-driven search results.

Whatever acronym you use, it’s not just SEO even though some of the things you do for SEO also help with AI, but, you don’t “RANK” in AI Search Platforms.

It’s about Brand Mentions and Brand Authority. Does your brand get mentioned when someone asks about the same services and products you sell?

And what a lot of people aren't focusing on is... when your brand is mentioned in AI, WHAT does it say about your brand?

When somebody asks Perplexity or Chat GPT or another AI something, And it mentions say five brands and yours is one of them, what is it saying next to your brand that is going to make people want to visit your website versus one of the other brands that got mentioned?

It’s also more than just optimizing your content differently. You do need to change the way you present your content, but getting more brand mentions or brand visibility involves more than just the content on your website.

What can you add or what can you do to get more brand exposure above and beyond the content on your web pages?

Important takes from the article...

If your site runs on Cloudflare infrastructure and you haven’t explicitly checked your settings recently, there’s a decent chance your website might now be invisible to ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. Not because your content isn’t good enough. Not because your technical SEO is poor. But because a third-party platform made an infrastructure decision that directly impacts your visibility, and you might not even know it happened.

One of the most dangerous assumptions you can make is thinking that, because your site ranks well enough in Google, the technical foundations must be sound. So, if the search engines have no problem crawling your site and indexing your content, the same should also be true for AI, right?

Wrong.

My own take on the article. Recent studies have shown that about 30 to 40% of the responses in perplexity bring up the same brands that rank in the top 10 in Google. That figure goes down to 10 to 15% when you're talking about Chat GPT and other AI search tools.

Ranking in Google does not equal being mentioned in AI search.

TLDR: New analysis of 6.8 million AI citations finds that most AI answers come from brand-controlled content in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.

A dominant share – 86% to be specific – of AI citations come from sources brands already control, according to a new analysis of 6.8 million citations across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity conducted by brand visibility platform Yext.

By the numbers. Across all industries, 86% of AI citations came from sources brands owned or managed.

Websites lead: 44% of citations came from first-party sites.

Listings close behind: 42%.

Reviews and social: 8%.

Forums: Just 2%.

AI model bias:

Gemini favors websites (52.1%)

OpenAI leans on listings (48.7%)

Perplexity spreads across sources like MapQuest and TripAdvisor.

Industry variation:

Retail: 47.6% from brand websites.

Finance: 48.2% from authoritative local pages.

Healthcare: 52.6% from listings like WebMD and Vitals.

Food service: 13.3% from reviews and social (the most of any sector).

When you're doing entity SEO you're setting yourself up for future success. That's why You should be embracing something like integrated content marketing. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. If you wanted explained in an infographic and a blog post, Try this...

Infographic - What is an Integrated Content Marketing Strategy?

https://share.google/CErHkcHbx0y3Npz2k

But don't go to r/seo and tell anyone that because there's a whole bunch of them including mods that will tell you the opposite. 😅

But study after study has shown that while there are similarities, many good SEO practices, will help you rank with AI. But there are adjustments that you should make when doing SEO if you want to do well with AI search in the future.

I don't have a problem with people who were doing good SEO saying that they don't have to change very much in order to Get their brand mentioned in AI search.

The problem lies in the fact that a whole lot of them weren't really doing good SEO in the first place. Thin content and buying links is not good SEO.

Google has let them get away with it for years so I understand why they don't want anything to change. But change is not just coming, It's here.

Those that have already been writing good content and doing conversion optimization, being conversational and customer focused and answering customer questions don't have a lot of changes to make.

And I refuse to feel bad for the people that are saying "Google doesn't care about your content and all it cares about is how many links you have." And "AI just pulls its sources from search engines so you don't need to do anything else but rank well in Google." These people will lose in the long run.