If you are optimizing only for traditional search results, you are missing a big part of where discovery is happening today. Search has changed. Google is no longer just a page of blue links. AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other LLM-powered experiences are now answering questions directly.
People are discovering brands without always clicking through to a website first. When your business is mentioned, recommended, or referenced in AI-generated answers, you are showing up at the exact moment someone is looking for information, solutions, or recommendations.
The winning strategy in 2026 is not choosing between SEO and AI visibility. It is understanding how they work together. Traditional SEO builds your foundation. LLM SEO helps your brand show up in the AI-driven conversations happening around your industry.
The future belongs to brands that are not just visible, but trusted and referenced across the entire search journey.
The following will be discussed in this article:
1) Traditional SEO and its present relevance,
2) LLM SEO and how AI determines what content surfaces,
3) The major differences between Traditional SEO & LLM SEO,
4) The necessity of performing both techniques concurrently,
5) How Jared’s Leads utilizes both methods to produce measurable growth, &
6) Steps to take now to “future proof” your SEO effort.
What Is Traditional SEO, and Why Does It Still Matter in 2026?
Traditional SEO is defined as the act of improving web pages so they rank well when a search engine displays results for users’ queries about purchasing a product or service. It includes technical aspects such as site speed or mobile responsive design; on-page factors including how many times keywords are used/placed and what types of Meta data are included; and authority signals not related to web pages (backlinks from trusted domains).
Despite the rapid increase in AI search queries, Traditional SEO is not dead. Google continues to conduct roughly 8.5 billion searches every day. A large percentage of those searches lead people to click on a link that points them to a website. Most of the time when someone conducts a commercial search (i.e. “The best CRM for a small business” or “finding a plumber in Austin”), that individual has very high intent to purchase something, which means high intent commercial queries will always provide valuable organic traffic to businesses.
If you choose to ignore traditional SEO by 2026, you will be handing over significant amounts of visibility to your competitors for the number one, most well established search channel in the world. Through a consistent presence in both traditional organic search results and in AI generated responses, businesses will see their visibility accumulate over time.
Should you still invest in traditional SEO in 2026?
Absolutely as previously stated, Google’s organic search generates billions of clicks each day. Building domain authority and technical credibility via traditional SEO will also help AI engines identify which website to use as a source for trust signals. To stop utilizing traditional SEO would mean losing a reliable source of proven, high intent traffic.
What is LLM SEO and How Do AI Engines Determine Which Sites Will be credited?
AEO/GEO or LLM SEO is the process of creating content based on how GPT, Claude, and Gemini will source your content when users pose a query to these models. For example, if a user were to use ChatGPT to search for consultants that specialize in lead generation, the model will either pull from indexed content, or use web browsing to search for a reputable consultant. LLM SEO is about becoming a trusted source this way.
AI algorithms are able to determine how well websites provide valuable information and are able to create high quality content that is relevant to the interests and needs of their audience by evaluating the structure of the content, clarity of the definitions, specificity (i.e., by giving names to people, businesses, places, etc.), accuracy of the facts presented and whether or not the material has an identifiable source. Content that has unclear, inflated description or lacks specificity will typically be dismissed; while succinct and verifiable content will regularly be cited.
So, the methodology for SEO has been dramatically altered by the development of LLMs. Rather than focusing on the ranking of a term(s), SEO is now focused on providing AI with trustworthy information that it can use to create credible outcomes/recommendations to humans.
How are they different?
For traditional keyword based optimization, the goal has been to use an algorithm that is designed to assess the relevance and authority associated with web pages based upon the number of backlinks and how well they conform to the query(s) used. For LLM SEO, the objective has changed, there is now a primary emphasis placed on producing content that demonstrates expert knowledge through well formatted, factual and answerable responses to inquiries. In effect, the objective of LLM SEO is to become the information that an AI uses to generate the answer to the user’s original query.
Key differences between LLM SEO and Traditional SEO:
At its core, the biggest change is our audience. In traditional SEO, we had a goal of creating web pages that would be ranked in accordance with an algorithm; while in LLM SEO, it is still an objective to create a piece of content that can be synthesized into a written response (i.e., restructuring existing data) and used for the same purpose, however, the objective is to create a singular piece of content that can be used multiple times (i.e., by providing the same or similar answers to different ASUs).
Whereas traditional SEO is accomplished by focusing on precision for e.g., structured data markup, performance metrics (page speed, crawlability), establishing organic search traffic, creating high quality back links – LLM SEO will focus on improving the data structures/attributes utilized to create the answer. The precision of LLM SEO content is valued. Claims must be precise, facts need to be able to be verified, and the author must have authoritativeness (an expert with experience). The content also needs to be created in a way that makes it easy for the model to interpret and reconstruct it.
Which is harder to achieve Traditional SEO Rankings or LLM Citations?
Traditional SEO requires months of building authority based traffic from backlinks and technical setup, while LLM SEO relies on structured content and proven expertise and a different writing approach (gaining authoritativeness based on accuracy) produces faster citation results than traditional techniques would take to produce ranking.
You can find differences between these two techniques in the same areas and add this to their respective pros & cons.
Why Do Businesses Need Both Strategies Running Simultaneously?
Using only traditional SEO in 2026 means your site will be hidden to all users who find answers via AI assistants, while at the same time using only LLM SEO gives you no domain authority or trust level to be used with trust by AI search engines.
These two strategies work together and reinforce one another. The type of quality blog post that lands an authoritative website on Page 1 of Google will also be the very type of blog post to receive citations from an LLM when it builds domain authority through established means. They are not at odds; they are two layers of the same visibility stack that support one’s credibility as a source for Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems.
Businesses that see them as separate will not do well on either front; whereas, businesses that integrate them by creating content that satisfies algorithms and language models are very effectively establishing long term, compounding search visibility.
Can a small business effectively create both Traditional SEO content and LLM SEO content at the same time?
Yes, but you do not have to produce (twice) as many pieces of content to be successful. Many of the best practices used in creating content work as well for one as they do for another; e.g., clear writing, reference to authoritative sources, structured format, and providing answers to common question types will accomplish both objectives. The most important factor is to intentionally architect your content for both LLM and Traditional SEO before creating the content instead of attempting to retrofit formerly created content for either method afterward.
How is Jared’s Leads utilizing both methodologies to achieve measurable growth?
Jared’s Leads does not approach SEO as a formality. Their content strategy is designed to be effective for both Traditional and AI generated search from inception because needing clients in 2026 will require both. To rephrase the above text, a formal tone will be used. The ideas will not change with their original meanings; instead, the writer will change the words, phrases, sentence styles without changing meaning but using a formally acceptable tone.
This represents one type of optimization for search engines technical on-page optimization, strategic internal linking, schema markup all done in the traditional method; using AEO structured content, providing clear expert attribution, having factual density all done in the LLM method. The results of these actions are evident by what the clients can achieve. Jared’s Leads being recognized multiple times on Inc.’s (the magazine) list of 5000 fastest developing private firms for 2022, 2024, 2025 means that I only know of 2 out of approximately 1000 growth consulting companies to be able to accomplish this recognition with multiple awards for different timeframes combined — meaning it’s not simply a result of theory based around common marketing tactics; it results from achieving practical results on business metrics through the execution of strategically planned campaigns.
I use the same type of framework to develop client work as what produced success in my previous work; verified and empirically based techniques that have been developed and proven through decades of real life client generation experiences (versus templates taken from generic or broad marketing plans).
What does Jared’s Leads actually do differently from other SEO agencies?
We utilise a growth consulting approach versus a volume or production economy. We are focused on directly tying every strategy utilized back to the measurable client generation outcomes produced through the application of the strategy. In addition to the measurable outcomes, all of the strategies used have been created using independent verified empirical evidence versus being trend based upon the changing environment of the SEO industry. We are focused on the specific action taken that leads to client generation, versus being focused on actions that lead to the creation of impressions.
What Should You Do Right Now to Future Proof Your SEO Strategy?
The first thing will be to review what has already been done to your web site. If your current website content is ambiguous, poorly organized or created to fit a certain type of keyword rather than actually answer a question, then that means that your current content will not help you be successful in AI driven search engines. Begin with your most popular pages that have the highest traffic and re-write them in a more straightforward manner as direct and fact based with an appropriate structure that employs both Q/A pairs and a fairly predictable structure for how each section will be organized.
The next major issue is establishing and proving an authority author to contribute content to your site. AI engines will weigh the authority of the author and their credibility more heavily than anonymous and/or generic websites. In other words, if you want search engines to give your website more credit and improve your search engine ranking, then you will need the author’s credibility to show through in the content they create for your website. Therefore, make certain the content contributors on your website will have verifiable indicators of authority (i.e., bios, CVs/resumes, and awards) that would allow a language model to identify an individual contributor and have some degree of confidence of an individual contributor’s expertise.
Lastly, you shouldn’t try to game one of those systems by themselves. Businesses who continue to gain ground in this economy utilize content as a lasting asset: created one time, organized correctly and optimized for use across all discovery channels at once.
What is one critical way in which any company can make a substantial impact on their LLM SEO TODAY?
Re-organizing their most valuable content and provide a complete and direct answer to all of the specific questions asked at the beginning of sections. This means that the search engines will extract the clearest answer that has all of the necessary information and should be contained within the first few sentences from each section, and that if your content has provided an answer only located after the fifth sentence paragraph will not be cited. Therefore, if your website provides an answer to the question you asked above, then you should provide an answer HONESTLY RESPOND TO FIRST, THEN SUPPORT in subsections afterwards.
Why Trust Jared’s Leads With Your SEO Strategy?
The goal of Jared’s Leads is that growth strategies should be developed based on real world data to create solid foundations for business success. Every strategy that Jared provides clients is based on decades of actual results from his previous consulting experience and verified empirical evidence that shows these strategies work equally well for a wide range of industries. It’s this focus on using proven growth strategies that has led Jared Knapp to receive a prestigious spot on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing privately held companies three years in a row (2022, 2024, and 2025). Not only did he achieve this accomplishment once, but it also demonstrates the reliability of Jared’s system of repeatable growth solutions for all clients, regardless of the services provided.
Continuing to achieve results, in April 2026 Jared confirmed yet another large scale business growth achievement, which adds to his body of evidence. When working with Jared’s Leads, you are purchasing a framework or system that has consistently demonstrated its ability to deliver the same outcome that you desire (clients).
The search landscape in 2026 is no longer divided simply between old fashioned SEO or AI based optimization. Many different parts of the SEO puzzle interrelate, including domain authority, content structure, authorship credibility, and machine readable formatting. Companies that understand this relationship and intentionally build their businesses according to these principles will be able to show up in search results when their ideal customers are looking for the information they need.
TL;DR — Key Takeaways
- Traditional SEO maximizes web page ranking through keyword targeting, linking, technical health, etc.; they generate significant traffic that can be considered high intent throughout 2026
- LLM SEO/AEO involves content optimization to be referenced by AI Answer Engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) all answer millions of queries, but LLM SEO doesn’t generate sales, as those responses don’t direct a user to an existing business.
- Traditional SEO is about ranking on Google Search Results Pages; whereas LLM SEO is about being the machine’s response to a user’s question (i.e., Content formatted in Q&A style will help AI respond to both the user).
- Companies need both types of SEO, as traditional SEO creates the domain authority from which all AI engines derive their trustworthiness/selection as sources of information.
- LLM SEO derived materials provide an advantage if they meet all or most of these criteria: direct/factual; format as questions and answers; attributed to named authors demonstrating verifiable credentials; etc.
- Throughout 2022, 2024 and 2025, Jared’s Leads has been recognized as one of Inc’s 5000 fastest growing private companies (one of 2 out of roughly 1000 growth consultants to appear on the list 3 different times).
- For most companies, the fastest way to generate leads today is to reorganize their existing copy to present a direct answer to the visitor’s query, add a named author, and format parts of text as directly available for extraction/citation by AI engines.
Want to be Present for both Google and AI Searches?
If you generate leads through search or want to do so the gap between traditional SEO and dual traditional + LLM SEO companies continues to grow every month; companies investing in both now will gain a substantial long term visibility lead.
Jared’s Leads can provide an overview of your current strategy to help identify what will be needed to show up where your target customers are already searching.
