Is SEO getting harder in 2026 and why?

[Dear-Fuel-2706]

I feel like nothing changed since last ten years

[blazonstudio]

I think it’s pretty much the same. The only difference is the amount of misinformation and folks being mislead to care about things that don’t really move the needle. So I’m sure a lot of people will think it’s gotten harder.. but only because they are worried about “ranking factors” and “signals” that don’t exist.

[Lucker_Noob]

Easier.

As Caitlin Johnstone said, all AI does is make people who can create things with their brain look even more awesome.

[the_ai_wizard]

Google search is getting major redesign. I experienced it yesterday and hated it

[PortlandWilliam]

Harder is impossible to say. Is it harder for your average low authority small business to rank above Reddit and Google’s other partners? Yes, definitely. Is it harder to rank for lawyers and other service business owners? Not especially. The rules of SEO are basically the same: organize your website for the web and build connections across it.

What’s harder is just the explosion of GEO and how everyone and their cat thinks they can do SEO now. The result is I spend most of my days in meetings with clients explaining why no, adding marktown or .txt files won’t automatically rank your personal injury firm in the top of New York’s search index.

[mbuckbee]

I don’t think it’s gotten _easier_ for anyone, and depending on what vertical you’re in it may have gotten substantially more difficult.

I do a lot of work in the technical/development SaaS space which I think undeniably has seen a massive amount of search evaporation from AI uptake by devs.

Stackoverflow is one example, but I think maybe the more compelling one is what has happened with Tailwind where the drop in organic search traffic to their docs really crashed their whole business model.

I’ve also seen real stats of a few devops heavy YouTube channels that were publishing how-to and troubleshooting content hit with large declines.

In the non dev tech areas (mostly cybersecurity), a lot of the standard b2b content playbook has also been disrupted as the search journey from low-intent and high traffic numbers have fallen from AI Overviews. The CTAs, pdf whitepapers, webinar signups, etc. that were used to move people further down the funnel from those low-intent/high-traffic pages have declined pushing the companies to boost spend on PPC/lead gen instead of investing in organic.

[AdamYamada]

Easier in that there are more tools to make content faster. This means a small team can produce great SEO results with the right mindset and proper strategy.

Harder in that you fight a lot more noise. Managers and clients looking for fast and cheap shortcuts.

[SplatsCJ]

The only thing hard is explaining to unaware clients or businesses that are able to utilized grants to offset SEO services.

Typically these clients will ask for the shiny new thing in marketing, aka AEO/GEO, and having to clarify & educate them that those are built on top of fundamental SEO is like talking to a brick wall.

Take a look at what LinkedIn snake oil posters are saying aft Google released their guide/publication on AI for SEO, people are still boldly claiming it works w/o any proofs.

[taylorkspencer]

The main thing that has made SEO harder in the last couple of years is AI Overviews have dramatically decreased the click-through rate in search by making so many more queries zero-click searches.

[noobipedia]

Even if its getting harder, I wonder if its worth it compared to the time & effort put.

[bagon-ligo]

I think people just overcomplicate it more.

Its still Basic SEO structure, plus quality informative content.

[tparkermarketing]

I’m glad it keeps changing, makes sure I still get paid 😂

[StormMedia]

I feel like it’s genuinely not hard with 95% of the sites I make. Provide good value content, the end.

[AvalonMelNL]

I feel like it’s harder because Google is trying to kill search.