Focus on building topical authority in 2026 - Brandon leibowitz

Brandon Leibowitz talks about the importance of focusing on building topical authority in 2026 by creating in-depth content hubs that answer your audience’s questions better than anyone else. Talking points include: What are in-depth content hubs? How do you find your audience’s questions? What metrics do you use to ensure that you are answering the right questions? How do you know what type of content to use? What platform to use? How do you know that these are the right questions? How can you ensure that you are answering these questions better than anyone else?

One of the key challenges at the moment is to identify which tasks should be done by AI and which tasks should be done by a human. This is something that Ahmed Bhula explores.Ahmed says: “Use AI as part of your SEO workflow, and involve the human element at every point.”How do you decide what AI should do and what humans should do?“Where there's administrative work – researching keywords, repetitive tasks, and auditing websites – there's always only one answer, and AI can do a really good job if you train those models for that.On the other hand, when there's actual content, using AI for content is just repeating the same things that are already on the internet, and there's no human creativity behind that. From my experience, search engines don't like it.”

Valentina Stragliotto explores the idea that it’s also key to demonstrate expertise and trustworthiness through high-quality content.Valentina says: “Focus on EEAT and high-quality content.Also, use traditional SEO, as we always have.”Is EEAT just as relevant for newer, AI search engines as it is for more traditional search engines?“We have been talking a lot about GEO as opposed to SEO. After reading a few studies about it, I think that what we have been using for SEO is also applicable for GEO and optimization for these LLM systems.I've been looking at the actions we have to take to optimize for LLM systems. Obviously, there is a big focus on domain authority and branding, which is something that has always been suggested. There have also been quite a few studies showing that there are particular actions related to EEAT and showing trustworthiness and expertise in your content, as opposed to being keyword-focussed and other things that we usually use.Before GEO came into the world, we used to focus on EEAT because we wanted search engines to rank our content and, within the ranking factors, what we had to write for the users and demonstrate was our expertise. This is something that you also have to do for GEO.You have to add statistics, you have to show expertise, you have to cite sources, and you have to make the content fluent, because the new way of searching is with a full-on question rather than a query keyword.Obviously, there is the whole element of structured data, which is also very important because you want the bots to read your content more easily. Again, this has also been important over the last few years because of featured snippets and all the structured content that was appearing on search engines.That’s why I say that this is a very similar trend; we’re just talking about it in a different way.”

Isa Lavahun explains that you can enhance the perceived authority of your content through real, human expertise.Isa says: “Authority should be built on earned expertise.What I mean by that is real experience and credible voices that can’t be easily replicated or automated. In the age of AI, the most humanised content is what’s going to give you competitive edge”How does a person earn that expertise?“As marketers, we all use experts. We use people who are either the face of the brand, founders, product leads, or sector specific specialists – from scientists to nutritionists.Credible experts are always going to be better equipped to help answer the search queries people are looking for. This goes beyond standard EEAT practice because, when AI can produce technically sound content on any topic, expert-attributed content becomes your primary differentiator. Not just expert-reviewed or expert-informed, but expert-led and authored. They need to be front and centre of your content strategy.”

You’ve selected your content distribution opportunities based upon AI and where your audience resides, but your content should be written based upon real, authentic human experience, according to Greg Gifford.Greg says: “Don’t get distracted by all of the AI content on the web.A lot of people are choosing to use AI to write all of their content, but AI is just predicting words based on the content that is already out there. As more of it floods the web, AI is training itself on AI. It's like copying the same VCR tape over and over again, and the quality continues to get worse.The way that businesses and marketers need to combat that is with real, authentic human experience. AI systems and models cannot replicate that.Write your content with humans. Skip the stupid informational stuff. Share authentic experiences and reasons why humans vibe with your company. That's how you're going to win in the future.”

Nick Musica shares that the technical, on-page, and off-page. The expressions of those SEO building blocks have evolved over the years, but they remain the fundamental building blocks. Talking points include: What do you mean by “The expressions of those SEO building blocks have evolved over the years” What are the fundamental SEO building blocks of on-page? What are the fundamental SEO building blocks of off-page? Why do they remain the fundamental building blocks?

When you are creating content, you need to be thinking multimodally, advises Irina Papuc.Irina says: “Think multimodally.A consistent trend that we've seen growing over time is the inclusion of different types of media in search results. AI can already parse images and videos really well, and it can also explain what's depicted in detail.By thinking multimodally, you will increasingly capitalise on this, as AI chunks related concepts across formats into a tailored presentation for the user.”Does multimodal just include video, audio, images, and text?“It also includes things like infographics and diagrams, and it’s about the way you think through what kinds of content and visuals to use, like avoiding stock images and filler, and no longer publishing walls of text.In general, provided that you do things according to best practice and ethics (which includes citing your source), you can definitely use AI-generated content. Google has explicitly said in its best practices that AI-generated content, whether it's visual or written, is okay to use on your site or elsewhere.That's not an issue, but you need to be properly citing whatever you put out there so that you don't accidentally deceive your audience.”

Katherine Nwanorue shares that the content medium you select should be based upon the content medium that your target AI platform prefers.Katherine says: “Multimodal content isn't new, but AI is going to make it non-negotiable.”How would you describe multimodal content?“Basically, it is content that exists across several mediums. We have audio, video, text, and images.For as long as I can remember, SEOs and marketers have always prioritised repurposing content across several mediums: you create a blog post, and then you transform that into video, and into infographics as well. That is multimodal content.”

One of the ways that you can teach AI about what you offer is to enhance your image offering. This is what Desmond Boateng advises.Desmond says: “Use visual commerce, which means using contextual images for e-commerce.Also, for any business that works with products, instead of using plain product photos, use contextual photos with different settings based on AI.”Is there a type of image that you would recommend?“I recommend using context-rich visuals.Think about lifestyle photos and AI-generated product imagery that make the online shopping experience more engaging and trustworthy. That could be 3D renders or lifestyle photos, or it could be using AI to create video based on those high-quality images.

Myriam Jessier highlights the importance of ensuring that machines truly see the precise nature of your products.Myriam says: “Everyone is slowly coming to realise that SEO is changing in many different ways.My tip is to make sure that your brand and your products are machine-readable, because we're dealing with multimodal search now. That means I can take out my phone, take a picture of your product and say, ‘Is this vegan?’ - and I will get the answer right away.SEO is entering the outside world, beyond the web.”