State of Search 2026 1. General Information Question Title * 1. What is your job title? SEO Specialist / Analyst SEO Manager / Lead Director of SEO / Head of Organic Search Digital Marketing Manager / Specialist Content Manager / Strategist In-House Marketer (Non-SEO specific) Agency Owner / Principal Consultant / Freelancer Other (Please specify) Question Title * 2. How many years of experience do you have in organic search/SEO? Less than 1 year 1-3 years 4-6 years 7-10 years 10+ years Question Title * 3. What industry do you primarily work in? E-commerce/Retail SaaS/Software Agency Media/Publishing Finance Healthcare Local Services Other 2. Core Strategy, AI Content, & Local SEO Question Title * 4. What are the key focus areas of your organic search strategy? (Select all that apply) Traditional content & keyword optimization Technical SEO (Core Web Vitals, site architecture) Link building & domain authority Local SEO Generative AI Search Optimization (e.g., AI overview snippets, follow-up queries) E-E-A-T factor optimization Multimodal Search (Image, Video, Voice) Question Title * 5. How important is content quality and depth in your organic search strategy? Not at all Neutral A little A lot Not at all Neutral A little A lot Question Title * 6. How important is Local Search Engine Optimization (Local SEO) to your overall strategy? Not at all Neutral A little A lot Not at all Neutral A little A lot Question Title * 7. How important is link building in your organic search strategy? Not at all Neutral A little A lot Not at all Neutral A little A lot Question Title * 8. Which link-building strategies do you prioritize most? (Select all that apply) Content-based outreach (e.g., guest posting) Digital PR & Brand Mentions Broken Link Building Internal Linking Optimization Schema/Structured Data (for visibility and entity resolution) Directory/Citation building (especially for Local SEO) Question Title * 9. How much do you rely on AI-generated or AI-optimized content? Not at all Lightly (less than 10%) Moderately (10-40%) Heavily (over 40%) Question Title * 10. What is the biggest technical SEO challenge you face in 2026? 3. Generative Search Optimization & Tools Question Title * 11. How actively are you optimizing content specifically for Generative AI Answers (e.g., AI overviews/GSE/Perplexity AI snippets)? Not at all A little A lot Not at all A little A lot Question Title * 12. Which tools do you use to monitor results? (Select all that apply) Google Search Console Semrush Ahrefs Moz Screaming Frog SEranking Seeders LLM tracker Other Question Title * 13. Which Large Language Models (LLMs) do you use for SEO tasks (e.g., content creation, keyword clustering, ideation)? (Select all that apply) GPT-5 Gemini Claude Llama Custom/Private LLMs None Question Title * 14. Has your website seen a substantial increase in AI search traffic in the past year? Yes No Question Title * 15. Do you attach as much value to traffic from AI search engines/tools, as you do to organic traffic from Google and other legacy search engines? AI traffic is less valuable AI traffic is just as valuable AI traffic is more valuable 4. Challenges & Trends Question Title * 16. What is the biggest challenge in organic search for 2026? Generative AI Search volatility Google Algorithm instability Budget constraints Talent acquisition/skill gap Competing with large brands Measuring ROI Other Question Title * 17. How do you see AI impacting organic search in the next 12 months? Question Title * 18. What do you think will be the most important organic search trend in 2026? E-E-A-T Generative AI Search Local/Proximity Search Multimodal Search Video SEO Automation/Scripting Programmatic SEO Other Question Title * 19. Which Generative AI search output metrics do you prioritize? (Select all that apply) Inclusion/ranking as a primary Generative Answer source Brand mentions from external websites Click-Through Rate (CTR) from the generated answer Visibility in the traditional '10 blue links' beneath the generated answer Impressions in Search Console (regardless of answer inclusion) 5. Budgets & Performance Question Title * 20. How is your organic search budget going to change in 2026? Increased significantly Increased slightly Stay the same Decreased slightly Decreased significantly Organic search (total) Organic search (total) Increased significantly Organic search (total) Increased slightly Organic search (total) Stay the same Organic search (total) Decreased slightly Organic search (total) Decreased significantly Technical SEO Technical SEO Increased significantly Technical SEO Increased slightly Technical SEO Stay the same Technical SEO Decreased slightly Technical SEO Decreased significantly Content SEO Content SEO Increased significantly Content SEO Increased slightly Content SEO Stay the same Content SEO Decreased slightly Content SEO Decreased significantly Link building Link building Increased significantly Link building Increased slightly Link building Stay the same Link building Decreased slightly Link building Decreased significantly Digital PR & Brand mention acquisition Digital PR & Brand mention acquisition Increased significantly Digital PR & Brand mention acquisition Increased slightly Digital PR & Brand mention acquisition Stay the same Digital PR & Brand mention acquisition Decreased slightly Digital PR & Brand mention acquisition Decreased significantly AI SEO (GEO) AI SEO (GEO) Increased significantly AI SEO (GEO) Increased slightly AI SEO (GEO) Stay the same AI SEO (GEO) Decreased slightly AI SEO (GEO) Decreased significantly Question Title * 21. How do you measure organic search success? (Select all that apply) Organic Traffic (Sessions/Users) Keyword Rankings Conversions/Revenue Local Pack/Maps Visibility Share of Voice/Generative Answer Inclusion Bounce Rate/Time on Site 6. Future Expectations & Contact Question Title * 22. What do you expect from Google’s core algorithm updates in 2026? Question Title * 23. What single change would you most like to see in the organic search ecosystem (including Google's Generative Search results)? Question Title * 24. Do you expect Google Search (in its legacy-search form) to still be the market leader in the search landscape at the end of 2026? Still the market leader Shared market leadership Not the market leader Question Title * 25. With all the new methods of search that are popping up, SEO is becoming a point of discussion at board-level in our company Yes No It already was Question Title * 26. 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