Yeah, for positive. When Reddit began dominating visibility, first in Google after which in LLMs, I noticed many individuals saying, “We should be posting there.” That at all times makes me cringe a bit, as a result of most of these efforts are inclined to go poorly. I’ve been a Redditor for 19 years, and I’ve seen how that often performs out.
With purchasers, we at all times begin by figuring out the place their viewers already spends time. There’s no level launching a Discord in case your prospects aren’t there. However if you get it proper, group advertising and marketing turns into an engine for every little thing else, aligning with the place search is headed.
Traditionally, search has been drifting away from webmaster-controlled areas for years. PageRank was one shift, and AI is one other. Now, it is extra about what the broader web is saying about you, similar to your sentiment, visibility, and status, than about your website.
Communities assist form that narrative. In case your product is sweet, a group usually kinds anyway. Nonetheless, investing in, rising, and managing it offers you affect. It’s a sensible hedge, as a result of even when search disappeared tomorrow, a powerful group would nonetheless be extremely beneficial.
10. Are there any search abilities or instruments SEOs ought to begin studying now to get forward in 2026?
Right here are some things to give attention to:
Learn the way massive language fashions work
SEOs usually give attention to ways, often as a consequence of strain from managers or stakeholders. That’s comprehensible, however figuring out how a language mannequin works, how pretraining occurs, how textual content is generated, and what influences it affords a aggressive benefit.
While you perceive the expertise, you’ll be able to mix your LLM and advertising and marketing data to develop your personal methods, moderately than counting on recycled recommendation.
It additionally supplies safety; understanding the system helps you keep away from ways that will appear efficient within the brief time period however are dangerous in the long run. Most purchasers need sustainable success, not brief spikes adopted by penalties.
Observe thought leaders
Observe thought leaders like Daybreak Anderson and Britney Muller. Each have been central to the search engine optimization world after which transitioned into fields like info retrieval and machine studying. That technical perspective is extremely beneficial and can turn into extra vital sooner or later.
