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The SEO landscape is always changing (they like to keep us on our toes!), and what worked for you in 2025 might not produce the same results next time or be enough to keep your business visible in 2026.
SEO is always a work in progress, never a done job. Those that succeed are the ones who update, review and refine as they go along. Search engines are smarter than ever before and can see right through content that cuts the corner. The focus now is all about prioritising helpful, high-quality content over outdated SEO tricks, so the detail really matters.
If you want to attract more clients next year, you need an SEO and content marketing strategy that focuses on visibility, authority, and engagement. You need to build this activity into your regular schedule and make it a habit.
This guide will walk you through the top SEO strategies for 2026, helping your business to rank higher and get found by the right clients. Get ready for lift off 🚀
Longer, well-researched content will keep visitors engaged and help you to rank higher. By covering your topic in a lot of detail and breaking it up into easily digestible sections with clear headings, you’re making it nice and easy for Google to review and rank your content.
Google uses its own framework to rank content on the web, it’s called E-E-A-T which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. It uses these 4 pillars to evaluate the overall quality of your content.
If you’re looking to improve your SEO organically then you need to have the E-E-A-T framework in mind when you’re creating content of any kind. It’s specifically designed for organic rankings (it’s slightly different for ads), and it assesses the accuracy, reliability and credibility of the content.
We want Google to see your content as a credible source that’s sharing genuinely valuable information. Structuring your content around the E-E-A-T framework will ensure you hit the target on both of these 🎯
Ideally you should aim for blog posts of around 1,500-2,500 words that answer common client questions. Bring your advice to life with real-life examples, include helpful statistics and links to reputable sources, and share case studies and testimonials to demonstrate results with real clients.
You don’t always have to start from scratch either. Updating old content with fresh facts and new sections can give an older article or blog post new visibility and reach. Reworking older content is also a massive timesaver when things get busy and you start talking yourself out of that monthly blog! (It’s ok, we’ve all been there 😉)
Example: Sarah, a marketing consultant, revamped an old blog post with new insights and saw her organic traffic double in three months.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock lately, you’ll have noticed that online search is changing. Google now provides an AI search overview at the top of the page, giving you a handy snapshot of the key answers to your search query along with links to the sources.
From a user experience point of view AI search is a 👍 making it even faster for us to find exactly what we’re looking for, but from a business point of view it’s a bit of a 👎 as there’s less chance the reader will scroll below the overview to see your article or website. You want your content to be good enough to feature in that AI overview.
AI search results are usually made up of short snippets taken from multiple sources, so you need to consider breaking your long-form content out into even more sections, with really clear sub-headings that can easily be found and hooked out by Google.
Adding a short summary of your content detailing what it covers can also help you get picked up in the AI search results. This is sometimes called TL,DR which stands for Too Long, Didn’t Read 🤓
More people are also searching using voice assistants like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant as it’s quicker than typing out the query (and who doesn’t love a time shortcut 🙌), it also works really well when you’re out and about. Voice searches are more conversational than typed out questions, so the structure and tone of your content needs to reflect that to get picked up in these search results.
The trick here is to write as you speak! Try to use natural, question-based keywords like “How can I get more clients in 2026?” rather than shortened phrases that you wouldn’t use in a conversation like “client growth strategy 2026”.
To optimise your content for Google’s featured snippets be specific with your questions and offer clear and concise answers. My top tips 👉 using lists or tables helps to pull key info out within the content and including an FAQ section can help signpost Google to this key info quicker.
Example: Tom, a business coach, optimized his blog for voice search. Now, when someone asks, “How do I find more coaching clients?” Google pulls his blog as the answer.
People consume information differently, some prefer videos, infographics, or podcasts over reading long blog posts, which is why video content has grown in popularity so much. Adding video content alongside your existing written content can boost your chances of being featured in those coveted Google snippets!
Video content is dominating search results, Google often prioritises YouTube videos over traditional web pages, so embracing this type of content could really help increase your visibility.
Adding videos onto your website pages and blog posts can gain you some brownie points with Google (it rewards pages with rich media). It can also increase dwell time, encouraging visitors to stay on that page longer to watch the full video, which in turn also gives your overall SEO a boost! Win-win I say 🤩
As with written content, your subject matter needs to be interesting and valuable. Keep videos short and engaging for maximum impact and optimise your video by using relevant keywords in the video title and description. Never host videos directly on your website as it slows down page loading which is not good for search. Instead host them on a separate platform like Vimeo or even better YouTube as Google owns that, so you’ll get more visibility.
Remember to use alt text and captions for images and videos to improve accessibility and SEO. Consider providing a transcript and adding captions, giving your content even more chance of being seen by the search engine. Finally create eye-catching thumbnails and promote your videos on social media (more than once!).
Example: Emma, a personal stylist, added short explainer videos to her existing blog posts. Within months, her site’s engagement time increased, and her rankings improved.
Local SEO is key if your client base is purely focused in your local area, and to make sure you show up in those local results you need to be adding specific location names directly within your content and onto your website. My top tip 👉 add location keywords to headings as well as in body copy to double your chances of ranking for that area, just don’t go crazy adding it into every other sentence 😜
Google is focusing more on hyper-local search results, which is great news for smaller businesses who often struggle to rank against the bigger brands. By adding in the geographical detail, service-based businesses can maximise on visibility in local searches and be seen on Google maps. It’s effectively free local advertising, just your time and effort required upfront to optimise the content effectively so it’s a no-brainer 😉
Use location-based keywords in your website content (e.g. “best wedding planner in Manchester” instead of just “best wedding planner”). Think about doing this in key places on your site like page titles, headings, footer info, blogs etc.
Optimize your Google Business Profile and keep it updated. Refresh the key content every quarter, add new photos and feature boxes that link visitors back to your website. Don’t forget to keep requesting those all-important reviews too, a steady stream over time can make a big difference to your trust factor with Google.
Get listed in as many local directories as you can, there are lots of free listings online and whilst they may be full of competitors, they do provide solid backlinks from a reputable source which further improves your credibility with Google. Make sure your business name, address and phone number are consistent across all listings as tiny mismatches can really hurt local rankings.
Look for niche-specific listings too like industry magazines and think about asking suppliers or collaborators if you could be listed on their website and offer the same in return. The more high quality backlinks you have, the better!
Example: James, a financial advisor, optimized his website with local keywords and Google reviews. Within six months, he ranked #1 for “best financial advisor in Bristol.”
Earlier in this blog I talked about the E-E-A-T framework that Google uses to assess the credibility of content. Whilst not a direct ranking factor, how you score in these 4 areas definitely has an influence on your ranking and visibility.
Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust) framework rewards content from credible experts. It’s looking for information that offers true value to the reader, and businesses that consistently share valuable insights are more likely to build trust with clients quicker than those who don’t. Be generous with your knowledge, sharing is caring after all!
Let’s quickly cover what each of the 4 pillars in this framework are looking for:
Experience demonstrating you have first-hand, practical experience of the content topic gets you brownie points here, do this by referring to common challenges and sharing case studies.
Expertise this one is about showing your skill level in what you do, so be comprehensive with your detail and back up the knowledge with certifications, published works and press coverage.
Authority is about the reputation of you or your brand, so Google will be looking for mentions from other sources, high quality backlinks, awards you have won and industry collaborations.
Trust focuses on the accuracy and honesty of your content so keep your facts up to date, reference sources of data clearly, ensure contact and privacy policy info is easily accessible.
The good news is there are lots of ways to achieve this, so you can start with what’s doable for where your business is now. Aligning your content with this framework will build trust with your audience and make you more credible to the search engines.
You can publish case studies and share client testimonials to demonstrate real-life results and share the data-driven insights learned from those results over the longer term to showcase your level of expertise.
Prioritise getting backlinks from websites that already have a strong following and high authority. Consider guest blogging, supplier partnerships or media features that drive more traffic back to your own content and show Google you’re connected to other respected businesses.
Engage in online communities and forums, offering advice, sharing knowledge and building up that trust factor. Alongside your own content, your activity elsewhere can also be used to evaluate your credibility, and Google really values this type of real-world authority.
Example: Sophie, a digital marketing expert, started writing for a well-known industry blog. Within months, her website traffic doubled thanks to high-authority backlinks.
SEO is always evolving, that’s never going to change. In 2026 it’s all about quality, relevance and trust, for me these have always been the basics of any SEO strategy!
SEO success isn’t about gaming the system; it’s about doing the basics really well and doing them consistently if you want to make a measurable difference to your results. Stay focused on creating content that genuinely helps your audience, and your business will thrive in 2026 and beyond! 🚀
Need a little kickstart from an expert to get going? That’s exactly what I’m here for!
