What actually works in AI search in 2026 and what’s expensive hype.
ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI answers are changing how customers find businesses like yours. Most advice about it is guesswork, and some of it is simply made up. This free report sets out what the published data actually shows: what is worth doing, what is not, and how to tell the difference.
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Read it in an afternoon. Save yourself from paying for things that do not work.
How AI search actually works now
There is not one “AI search.” There are four surfaces your customers now use, each built differently, each citing a mostly different set of pages.
Google AI Overviews
The AI summary box that now sits above the blue links, built from Google’s normal index. It hits your traffic hardest because it answers the question before anyone scrolls.
Google AI Mode
The chat-style version of Google. Made the default search experience worldwide in May 2026. Impressive on paper, but still a small slice of real behavior.
ChatGPT
The standalone assistant most people mean by “AI.” The giant of AI referrals, leaning heavily on Bing’s index and weighting your opening paragraphs.
Perplexity
A smaller answer engine with its own index and a loyal, high-intent audience. Worth staying visible in (it costs nothing), but not worth a big budget line.
One thing every surface shares: it can only recommend a page it can find, fetch, and read. That is where the real work is, and it is cheaper than what you are being sold.
Ten findings from the report
Each of these comes from a named, published study. The report gives the full context behind every one.
That is ten. The report has the rest, with the studies behind each one.
Proven vs. hype, side by side
What the evidence supports, and what is marketed hard but does not hold up. Every tactic in the full report carries an evidence grade.
Evidence supports it: do this
Marketed hard: the evidence says no
That is 10 rows. The full verdict tables (40-plus graded tactics, plus the fabricated stats dissected as step-by-step detective stories) are in the report.
Three things you can do this week, for free
Most of what is sold as “AI SEO” is slow, expensive, or unproven. These are not. Each is cheap, backed by real data, and doable by you or your web person in an afternoon.
Let the right AI crawlers through
Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt and confirm you have not accidentally blocked the bots that feed AI answers: Googlebot, GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Applebot. You cannot be cited if you cannot be fetched.
Put the answer first
Rewrite each important page so the first sentence under every heading is a complete, standalone answer, not “as mentioned above, it varies.” 44.2% of AI citations come from the first third of a page, and it reads better for humans too.
Effort: 2–4 hours, freeComplete your Google Business Profile and gather reviews
If you serve a local or regional market, fill out every GBP field and build a steady flow of real reviews. It is the closest thing to a sure bet in the whole report (Gemini pulls straight from Google Maps), and one study found brands with no active review profile were cited about 1% of the time versus 75% for those with a managed profile.
Effort: 1–2 hours, then ongoingFive more quick wins, plus a “skip these this week” list of what not to waste money on, are in the report’s checklist.
How this report was researched
What went in, what got cut along the way, and what survived the fact-check.
Five contested questions, where credible sources genuinely disagreed, were resolved with dedicated follow-up research rather than a convenient pick. Where sources still disagree, I say so, which is why several chapters give you a range instead of one tidy number.
Where the evidence is thin, the report says so instead of rounding up. Every chapter ends with its full source list, so you can check any number yourself.
What’s inside
Written in plain English. Every chapter ends with its sources.
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Who wrote this
WilkiLeads is a one-person web-design and SEO consultancy run by Eric Wilkinson. He builds and improves websites for small businesses in several countries, and helps them get found in ordinary search and, increasingly, in the AI answers this report is about. You deal with Eric directly: he would rather tell you a tactic is not proven than sell you a package around it.
If the report is useful and you want the next step, the most direct one is the Complete SEO Action Plan: a fixed-price €99 audit that turns these fundamentals into a specific, prioritized to-do list for your site: what is blocking you, what to fix first, what to ignore. No retainer, no lock-in, no guaranteed-ranking promises. You will know why those are not real.
See the €99 Complete SEO Action Plan → Or book a free call →Get the honest version of AI search in 2026.
The full 65-page report is free. Read it before you spend money on “AI SEO”.
Prefer to talk it through? Book a free 30-min call →
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Reviewed on Google
Before we started working with Eric and his Team, we were invisible. Google Page 7, zero organic search leads. Thats 6 Years ago. We are now fully working on our organic search content. We are ROCC Film, a film production company in Berlin. Search, if you like. You will find us. 😉 Besides that success, Eric is fun to work with … Read the full review on Google
Eric ran an SEO audit for my site and delivered well beyond what I had asked for. The analysis was thorough, clearly structured, and immediately actionable. He took the time to explain the reasoning behind each finding, and also offered that I can come back to him if I have further questions, I appreciate that. Communication … Read the full review on Google
Eric did outstanding SEO work for us on two projects, revamping our own company website and handling the SEO for a large car marketplace migration for one of our clients. … Read the full review on Google
Can highly recommend Eric's work. He did a complete overhaul of the backend of our Shopify website, improving our SEO, site speed, and overall performance. Professional, knowledgeable, and great to work with!
Eric is the best! He really helped us to improve our ranking on Google and to be more visible for AI. He's also very easygoing and chill. Highly recommend!
Having worked together on multiple projects over the years, I can confidently say they consistently deliver exceptional results. Honest, reliable, and straight to the point! A top partner!
Eric took the time to really understand our family-run Wolf Valley Guest Ranch and what makes us unique. He then worked his magic, helping us reach the right guests while building meaningful outreach. We truly appreciated his understanding, … Read the full review on Google
Eric was a huge help with my blog, PocketSquareGarden, significantly improving my SEO. He got straight to work, and within just one month, I saw clear improvements in search results and ad visibility. … Read the full review on Google
Eric built and optimized several websites for me. That's why I've happily recommended him to friends and acquaintances. … Read the full review on Google