Eric Siu outlines five SEO shifts for 2026: ChatGPT apps emerging as a discovery channel, link building through real publisher relationships, search expanding across YouTube and Amazon, and free features as a growth tactic. Generosity and platform diversification are now essential.
So what are the most important differences distinguishing old SEO from new SEO? Number 1, ChatGPT apps could be the new version of SEO. Nobody knows how big this will get, but the upside is huge. If there's relevant traffic in your niche, you want to build a ChatGPT app. Takeaway number 2, Chatkit could change how marketing and product teams work together. Imagine your marketers building mini workflows that plug directly into your product. Chatkit makes that possible. And lets the people who know your customers best help decide what to build next. And number three, there's a new way to think about link wheels. Black hat SEO used to mean spammy links between fake websites. Now it's the same idea, but with real trustworthy sites. So you want to build relationships with real publishers. Number four, search isn't just on Google anymore. SEO is now everywhere. That's why we call it search everywhere optimization. YouTube, Amazon, Reddit, Pinterest, App Store. Each platform is a discovery engine. YouTube is still one of the most undervalued search tools today. In fact, it's the number two search engine. In the world. And number 5, generosity. Yes, generosity is the new growth hack. As AI lowers the cost of building software, give away more for free. Features, not discounts. That's what builds trust. At Carrot and ClickFlow, free tools help turn users into loyal fans, working even better than ads. Follow for more marketing and AI strategies that actually drive ROI.
