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Is it still possible to earn through SEO now in 2026, especially AI giving hard competition ?
Posted by on March 9, 2026 at 11:55 amOk, first of all i am not looking for get rich scheme. I am software developer with 10+ year of experience, worked on almost everything . To give you a little background, for last 6-7 years, i have been part of circle who are full time SEO people, earning 5k-40k/month .
For the last 1 year, i have been thinking about getting into this field, but couldn't get in due to persona reason. Whenever i would ask the friends, how should i start, they would start beating around bush or might say SEO field is not as profitable as usual . Sometimes i feel they are gate keeping their knowledge, i don't blame them. They are great friends.
Anyway, i have done little blogging in 2013-2015 . It was mostly writing short story on Google blogger, had regular 2000-3000 readers a month. For me, it was simply distributing my story . I had no idea i could place ad sense and earn money through them.
In my friend's circle mostly i have seen them working on tools and then trying to build authority and trying to organically getting into SERP . Tools like age calculator, dating sites, how to sites . Financial calculators .
Is it still good idea to start and earn may be by end of this year ?
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1 Reply
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HINT: Google search itself is driven by AI and machine learning systems. It just focuses more on page level and passage level signals than everything else because that’s it’s job – to give you a list of pages, not give you the information you’re asking for.
If you change your view of SEO to be an “expansion” rather than a “shift” it makes more sense. I call it “Discovery Optimization” and it scales and doesn’t keep you locked in and focused on something specific that doesn’t paint the whole picture.
AI is used to rank your pages in search. AI is used with AI agents to decide what info to share and to, in fact, generate it. AI is used to determine when and if your message is going to organically appear in someone’s timeline. AI is used to determine what articles you’re going to see in Google Discover or whatever feed you get your news from. It even determines (at least for some of the ads) which commercial you’re going to see on your YouTube, Tubi, or Netflix with Ads streaming services.
If you understand this you can treat AI is your partner, not some kind of competitor. And your strategy plays to help you surface in any of these (and many more) ways that AI is passing your message through these various channels.
Discovery Optimization is helping the AI be best able to help you. It’s your friend, if you are doing it right.
G.
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Yes … Just make sure u don’t use AI much
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Yes, you can still earn through SEO in 2026. The competition is tougher now with AI, but with the right niche, quality content, and technical approach, it’s definitely possible.
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Yes, but the bar is higher and the timelines are less predictable now. A lot of the easy wins from 5 to 10 years ago are gone, especially thin sites built around one tool or a bunch of low effort articles.
Where I still see things work is when the site actually solves a specific problem well. Tools can still rank, but usually when they are part of a small ecosystem. Example: the tool, a few solid pages explaining the use cases, comparisons, maybe some real data or examples. Not just the calculator sitting on a page.
AI content also changed the landscape. There is way more content competing for the same queries, so links, authority, and distribution matter more than before.
If you are a developer, that is actually a good angle. Programmatic pages, useful tools, data driven content, and fast sites still do well when the niche has real search demand. The main reality check is it rarely ramps in a few months anymore. Most projects that stick take longer to compound.
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I don’t think AI is that good with SEO
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Writing real, valuable content is among one of the most powerful SEO levers you can pull imo.
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