SEO strategy in 2026: Where discipline meets results

2026 is around the corner – and the SEO space has never been this noisy. Every day brings something new.

It’s easy to get stuck in panic mode, worrying you’re missing the next big thing, or to spend hours scrolling LinkedIn threads that lead nowhere. 

In both cases, you end up with nothing concrete – and with stakeholders still expecting clear impact.

As we head into 2026, the real challenge is building a strategy with discipline – one that cuts through the noise and balances:

• Short-term wins that prove impact and build trust.
• Long-term bets that future-proof visibility.
• The boring but essential, business-as-usual (BAU) tasks that keep your foundations strong.

Finding this balance isn’t easy, but it’s the only way to build a plan that works. 

Here’s how to master it – and keep your SEO strategy focused, grounded, and effective in 2026.

Why short-term wins matter

Short-term wins are critical because they:

• Prove progress.
• Earn trust.
• Buy time and budget for bigger bets.
• Keep people motivated. 

SEO has always been at least a six-month game, but it feels good when a positive trend shows up in your KPIs after just a few weeks.

One challenge with short-term projects is that many people struggle to classify them correctly. 

My rule of thumb is simple: short-term wins are things you can deliver yourself, without depending on other teams.

For example, if your CMS lets you insert code directly into pages, adding structured data markup to your most important pages fits that definition perfectly. 

There’s still debate about whether structured data affects AI tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity. Maybe it doesn’t. 

But it definitely matters for Google, which remains the Goliath of search, handling about 210 times more queries than ChatGPT. 

In our case, optimizing markup improved the average positions of some pages almost immediately.

Another example of a short-term bet is optimizing your main pages using a query fan-out technique. 

If each page already targets a clear topic and keyword, you can “fan out” by collecting the related questions people ask around that topic.

• Use tools like AnswerThePublic, AlsoAsked, and Semrush – or your own Google Search Console data with a simple regex like (who|what|where|when|why|how). 
• Shortlist the questions that fit the page and your personas.
• Turn them into FAQ sections. 

It’s a straightforward way to boost relevance fast.

This approach also aligns with Kevin Indig’s concept of efficiency-first validations, based on insights from his recent usability study of AI Overviews. 

Many users simply want a quick fact or short answer. 

By adding FAQs, TL;DR blocks, and schema, you make it easier for AI systems (and Google) to surface your content for exactly those lookups.

Still, short-term projects mainly help you cover the basics and earn quick wins. They rarely position you for the future. 

For lasting advantage, you need larger initiatives that take time, involve multiple teams, or require budget planning.

And here’s where many SEOs struggle. They judge projects by complexity instead of dependencies.

The case for long-term bets

A project might look simple on paper, but if it depends on another team, it’s no longer short-term.

Take JavaScript rendering issues, for example. 

As an SEO, you can spot them quickly in a Screaming Frog report, but unless the dev team adds them to the roadmap, nothing will move. 

And if that team has other priorities, your fix can sit for months.

That’s why I follow this rule: if an optimization project depends on another team, it’s not short-term. 

Dependencies work that way. Your priorities aren’t always theirs.

Long-term bets also include strategic plays that need significant planning and preparation. 

Think building a presence on Reddit, YouTube, or review sites – platforms that are becoming increasingly important for AI visibility. 

Breaking through takes months of consistent work, even with full organizational support.

• On Reddit, you need to earn karma before you can engage meaningfully. 
• On YouTube, you need a scalable way to produce high-quality video content.

Everyone is hyped about AI, but it’s not a magic wand. 

You can’t expect someone without experience to spin up a YouTube channel or build a Reddit presence just because they have an AI tool. 

These things only work when AI is in the hands of people with expertise – otherwise, you risk wasting time and money.

Long-term projects drive results for searches centered on trust and comparison. 

As usability research shows, users often skim AI-generated answers but validate them with trusted brands or cross-check perspectives on Reddit, YouTube, and vendor sites.

That’s why long-term bets like building brand authority, scaling video, and nurturing community presence matter. 

They won’t deliver quick wins, but over time, they put you where real purchase decisions happen.

Another often-overlooked factor is timing. 

Long-term bets must fit into your company’s budget and hiring cycle. 

If you need a new role or an expensive tool, you can’t raise your hand midyear and expect fast approval. 

I learned that the hard way when I requested a new role in December, after the planning cycle closed in November, and got approval in June – six months lost purely because of timing.

Long-term bets also carry another risk. When you focus too much on them, the basics can slip. 

A broken link or a title change on a key page can undo weeks of progress. 

If everyone is chasing shiny new things, it’s easy to forget the boring but essential work – like fixing broken links and adding alt text to new pages.

Don’t skip the BAU basics

Business-as-usual tasks won’t earn applause in the next all-hands meeting, but without them, everything else rests on shaky ground. 

The good news is these tasks are often easy to automate – and plenty of tools already exist to handle them.

For example, we use SEOTesting to:

• Generate a weekly report of all new and modified pages. 
• Review on-page optimization elements regularly and catch issues early. 
• Keep us from being blindsided if someone changes the title of an important page without notice. 

It’s not glamorous work, but it keeps the site healthy.

The motivation problem, though, is real. 

Nobody gets excited about link audits or on-page checks. 

As a manager, you need to keep your team engaged in these tasks. 

And if you’re working solo, you need to manage your own discipline. 

Ignoring BAU is like skipping the gym – you don’t notice the impact right away, but a year later, you’re wondering why nothing fits quite the same.

That doesn’t mean your strategy should revolve only around maintenance. 

You also need space for experiments – a way to test ideas and uncover what could become tomorrow’s long-term bets.

But how do you bring all these types of projects together without losing focus or sanity?

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Putting it all together

Building a sustainable SEO strategy isn’t about choosing between short-term wins, long-term bets, or BAU tasks. It’s about balancing all three. 

• Short-term projects prove progress and build buy-in. 
• Long-term bets secure your future. 
• BAU keeps the foundation solid so you’re not building on shaky ground.

A framework that works well is to split your time and focus:

• 60–70% on proven short-term tasks that deliver results now (e.g., content refreshes, FAQs, structured data).
• 20% on scaling and BAU – maintaining site health, reviewing new pages, fixing errors. This share grows after big releases or migrations.
• 10% on long-term bets that need planning, budget, and cross-team coordination (e.g., presence on Reddit, YouTube, review sites, large-scale technical fixes).
• 10% on learning – staying sharp on industry changes, but keeping it curated and focused.
• 10% on experiments – testing new ideas you can’t yet predict ROI for, but that could become tomorrow’s long-term bets. Experiments keep motivation high and ensure you’re not just maintaining but evolving.

Don’t treat the math as exact – the mix will shift with your business cycle. 

After a migration or rebrand, BAU naturally dominates. 

During quieter periods, you can double down on experiments or long-term plays. 

The key is to keep sight of your north-star projects and adjust each sprint without losing track of the bigger goals.

Finding balance also means knowing what belongs in each bucket. 

Not every project that looks quick will deliver fast results – and not every long-term bet needs to take a year. 

Here’s how to tell the difference.

• Dependencies: If you need other teams (dev, product, PR), it’s rarely short-term.
• Time to impact: If you can deliver independently and see results in weeks, it’s short-term. If it takes months or quarters to move the needle, it’s mid- or long-term.
• Experience level: If you or your team have done it before and know the playbook, it’s a safer short-term bet. If it’s new, complex, or untested, expect it to take longer.
• Business alignment: Tie SEO projects to company priorities. If your company is rebranding, migrating, or launching a marketplace, your SEO roadmap must align – otherwise, you’re optimizing in a vacuum.

Once you know how to classify your projects, the next challenge is keeping them on track. 

Even the best-planned SEO initiatives can fall apart without structure, communication, and accountability – that’s where strong project management comes in.

• Set SMART goals to keep projects focused and measurable.
• Use the 5 Whys method before green-lighting tasks – often the real issue is a process gap, not a pile of broken redirects.
• Apply prioritization frameworks like RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) or ICE scoring to rank competing initiatives.
• Keep visibility high with regular check-ins and clear scopes – project management in SEO is as much about communication as execution.

In short, balance isn’t static. Your mix will shift with cycles, resources, and company goals.

And that’s the point – every framework, formula, and prioritization method only works if you apply it with discipline.

SEO strategy is a discipline test

As 2026 approaches, building an SEO strategy is less about chasing the latest tool or tactic and more about discipline.

Discipline to:

• Deliver short-term wins consistently.
• Stay the course on long-term bets, even when results take months.
• Maintain BAU basics when everyone else is distracted by shiny new things.
• Continue learning, experimenting, and distinguishing what’s truly worth testing from what’s just noise.

The exact mix will shift with your company’s cycle, but the principle stays the same:

Balance takes focus, patience, and rigor. 

In 2026, that discipline will separate the teams that just talk strategy from those that actually move the needle.