SEO is NOT Dead — What is SEO in 2026? Key Takeaways From Our GSQ Expert Event

Long live SEO! 

Search has changed, but not in the way most people think. At G Squared's April SEO event, our Head of SEO Jules Ward, joined by CMOs from MATE Mobile and Titan FX, unpacked what search engine optimisation (SEO) in 2026 really means for Australian businesses. 

And the takeaway that came up again and again? The fundamentals haven't gone anywhere.

Here's what was covered, and what it means for your business.

Search Isn't Dead: It's Fragmented

Jules opened by reframing search as a human behaviour, not a technology; humans have always looked for information from trusted sources. Whether it’s from community elders, the printing press or Google. What's changed is where and how that information gets surfaced.

The three disciplines every business needs to understand right now are, and how AEO vs SEO vs GEO differ:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimisation): The established discipline of making your website technically sound, credible, and well understood by search engines. It's been around for nearly 30 years, and it still forms the foundation.

•  AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation): Actually referenced since 2012, this is about structuring content so that search engines can pull direct answers. Think featured snippets, knowledge graphs, and map listings.

• GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation): So, what is GEO exactly? The newest frontier. Platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude don't just surface links, they synthesise information from across the web and deliver a single answer. Your website is one input among many.

The shift isn't that SEO has died. It's that the search landscape now spans multiple surfaces and businesses need to be visible and credible across all of them.

Five Things That Work Now and Will Keep Working

Jules walked through five practical tips that apply across SEO, AEO, and GEO. Whether you’re building your SEO strategy in Australia or managing a global brand, the thread running through all of them: clarity and credibility win.

1. Entity Clarity

If you can't describe what your business does in a clear, direct sentence, machines won't understand it either.

Google has been moving toward understanding concepts and entities (not just keywords) since around 2012. Your business needs to be clearly defined, consistently named, and logically connected across every channel. The simpler and more coherent that picture, the more confidently AI systems can surface you.

2. Content Retrievability

LLMs read your website as words on a page. They can't infer importance the way a human can. 

That means page structure matters. You need headings in logical order, schema markup and content that explains itself top to bottom. Sound familiar? It should. All of this is the same best practice from SEO a decade ago. None of it’s new, it’s just more important than ever to be getting right. 

3. Authority Signals

Traditional backlinks still matter, but authority now extends well beyond your website. LLMs absorb information from:

• Press coverage

• Industry publications

• Podcasts

• Partnerships

• Reviews

• Forums

• Wikipedia

• And more

Around 90% of URLs cited in ChatGPT responses come from sites with strong external authority. The more credibly you appear across the web, the more likely you are to be surfaced in AI-generated answers.

4. Coverage Depth

Own your category. Rather than producing more content for the sake of it, demonstrate your depth in the areas that matter most for your business. If there's a knowledge gap on your site, another source fills it. And that source becomes the reference instead of you. Audit what already exists, consolidate where there's overlap, and strengthen what's working before adding more.

5. Technical Accessibility

If your site can't be found and crawled, nothing else matters. That's as true now as it ever was. 

Historically, many SEOs recommended blocking bots, now you need to let the right ones in. LLMs will find information about your business whether you like it or not. Make sure they're finding yours and ensure that information is structured in the way that you want it to be understood. 

What the Panel Said: Real-World Application

Isaac Lai, CMO at Titan FX, put it well: "It isn't what I've had to learn - it's what I've had to relearn." 

Years of chasing shiny tactics had obscured the basics. Schema markup, content quality, trusted relationships - the things that felt like optional extras a few years ago are now staples. 

Dom O’Brien, CMO at MATE Internet + Mobile, echoed that credibility is now a public sport. "You can't just say 'we're trusted'," he noted. "The internet decides whether you are." 

Reviews, forums, trust platforms, and social conversations all feed into how Google and LLMs perceive and present a brand. For businesses in competitive industries like telco, financial services, or any crowded market,  simply claiming to be the best isn't enough. The conversation has to happen externally, organically, and credibly.

What to Stop Doing Right Now

The panel were equally clear on what to cut.

Stop chasing shortcuts

Every shortcut-based strategy eventually backfires. The brands that built strategies around SEO loopholes paid a steep price — anyone who remembers Google's Panda and Penguin updates knows exactly what that looks like.

Stop spreading resources thin

Pick three or four things and do them well. Trying to dominate every platform simultaneously is how teams burn out and results stay flat.

Stop producing content for the sake of it

Multiple posts covering the same topic compete against each other. Consolidate, improve, and strengthen what already exists before adding more.

Stop looking for the silver bullet

Diagnose the actual problem first. Discoverability might not even be the issue. It could be conversion, trust, or messaging. The right solution starts with the right question.

One Thing You Can Do Now

Each panellist finished with a single, practical focus point:

• Jules: Focus on real humans. Do a good job for them, and the rest tends to follow.

• Dom: Understand customer intent. Traffic from Google, ChatGPT, Reddit, and social media all behaves differently. Know where your audience is coming from and what they need when they arrive.

•  Isaac: Consistency. If your content is written for algorithms rather than people, audiences, and increasingly AI systems, can tell.

And as our Head of Growth Chris Murphy put it, “we need to be careful not to optimise ourselves out of sounding human."

Where to From Here

The businesses that will perform well in search across Google, AI platforms, and whatever comes next, are the ones building genuine authority, demonstrating real expertise, and staying clear and credible at every touchpoint. That's not a new strategy. It's a data-driven one that's been proven to work.

If you're not sure where your SEO and content strategy stands in 2026, we can help you find out. We work with Australian businesses every day on exactly these questions — from technical audits to full-funnel content strategy. Our team works across SEO and paid media to build integrated strategies that connect channel performance to real commercial outcomes.

Book a strategy session with the G Squared team today.