With the rise of AI and the excitement of automation, the internet has been flooded with spam websites, blog posts, information, and texts with empty words.
Google has rolled out many core updates starting in March 2024, and continued this push throughout 2025.They followed with 3 major updates this year in March 2026, April 2026, and May 2026, which has led to a digital Armageddon.
Leading companies with millions of organic traffic per month have seen traffic decline down to a few thousands only, which would be equivalent to a local business instead of a global company. The decline is real. And I can't stress that enough. Everything that has been working to improve SEO visibility and ranking, does not work anymore and will actually hurt your business. Either if you have a team or you hire an agency and they continue to do what they have done before, it will actually hurt your business.
Are you still building too much backlinks? Are you still creating too many URLs? Are you using AI in your web texts?
Don't get me wrong, there are still a few things that are the groundwork, but a lot of what has been the regular playbook is actually going to backfire.
Not even enough, Google, and even AI is continuing to rotate what kind of platforms they favore and give authority. From what we have seen, that has been rotating every 3-4 months.
Things are changing so fast that the regular "drop a Reddit comment" that has been working for the past year will also not work with the strategies that have been out there. Reddit has cleaned up its website as it is the premiere choice for almost any Google answer on page one.
AI has been shaking marketing that has been working for the past 17 years to its core. Let me explain: at some point it was valuable for a marketing agency to get you in tier 1 placements while this is still valuable. It will not get you potential clients or users today. People trust AI almost blindly end it continues to play a role in in almost every day decision. If you continue with regular SEO tactics, such as link, building, keyword, ranking, putting out a lot of content, putting out content with no thoughts behind it, putting out content without any author, who has any experience or expertise E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), you will not rank in Google. Not in 2026 anymore. To be honest, I very much welcome these shift. iIt strips away any flooding and mass producing of either contents, URLs, or any kind of digital output to more precise and pinpoint placement. I know we are in the early days, but I urge brands to focus on AI citations - as this is not the same as ranking in Google's. Yes, there are overlapping practices, but the outcome is different, and therefore needs a different approach.
If your business wants to rank, there is not going to be one or two quick tricks. It's going to be a holistic approach.as this is not the same as ranking in Google's. Yes, there are overlapping practices, but the outcome is different, and therefore needs a different approach.
Reach out to us, don't be shy, book a call and we can see how we can help you anchor your business in the online world and bring you back into the game.