What Actually Working in White Hat SEO in 2026?

Luke Ronchi

Luke Ronchi

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Hi everyone,

I have been testing different seo strategies over the last few months and I have noticed that some tactics seem to be working better than others.

From my experience topical authority content updates and strong internal linking are having a bigger impact than before. At the same time some traditional link building methods do not seem as effective as they used to be.

I'd love to hear what others are seeing.

A few questions:
  1. What been your biggest seo win so far in 2026?
  2. Are you focusing more on topical authority or backlinks?
  3. How much AI content are you using if any?
  4. Have recent Google updates helped or hurt your sites?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences.
 
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Good content and how easy to access your content it is all about seo
 
Luke Ronchi said:
Hi everyone,

I have been testing different seo strategies over the last few months and I have noticed that some tactics seem to be working better than others.

From my experience topical authority content updates and strong internal linking are having a bigger impact than before. At the same time some traditional link building methods do not seem as effective as they used to be.

I'd love to hear what others are seeing.

A few questions:
  1. What been your biggest seo win so far in 2026?
  2. Are you focusing more on topical authority or backlinks?
  3. How much AI content are you using if any?
  4. Have recent Google updates helped or hurt your sites?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences.
Click to expand...
One of my biggest wins recently has been improving internal linking and expanding topic clusters, it seems to help pages get indexed faster and rank more consistently
 
for me topical authority and strong internal linking have been the biggest wins in 2026 I am focusing more on covering topics deeply rather than chasing lots of backlinks AI helps with drafts but human editing and adding real value still seem important for good rankings
 
Topical depth and internal linking are definitely the current priority for sustainable growth. Backlinks still matter, but they need to be more relevant than ever. Focus on user utility above all else. :)
 
Brand mentions & additional relevant links based on the sites are performing well in recent times, even after the updates. The sites with high quality content & strong internal linking were also doing well.
 
Luke Ronchi said:
Hi everyone,

I have been testing different seo strategies over the last few months and I have noticed that some tactics seem to be working better than others.

From my experience topical authority content updates and strong internal linking are having a bigger impact than before. At the same time some traditional link building methods do not seem as effective as they used to be.

I'd love to hear what others are seeing.

A few questions:
  1. What been your obsessed seo win so far in 2026?
  2. Are you focusing more on topical authority or backlinks?
  3. How much AI content are you using if any?
  4. Have recent Google updates helped or hurt your sites?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences.
Click to expand...
Great discussion. In my experience, while everyone is obsessed with automation, the 'authority' factor remains the biggest winner. Google seems to be rewarding sites that show real expertise rather than just high link volume. Focusing on deep, researched content has definitely been my best 'white hat' move this year. Would love to hear what everyone else is seeing in terms of results!
 
biggest win for me has been updating existing content and improving internal linking. in many cases, that moved rankings faster than publishing new articles. i'm focusing more on topical authority now, but backlinks still matter in competitive niches. usually it's content that gets you in the game and links that help win. ai is useful for drafting and scaling, but pages perform best when they're heavily edited and aligned with search intent.
recent updates have generally favored sites with stronger topical coverage and cleaner content structures.
 
Topical authority and internal linking are my biggest wins in 2026 backlinks still help but less than before i use ai for outlines only human written final draft
 
You can use multiple parameters to assess ranking signals.

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Luke Ronchi said:
Hi everyone,

I have been testing different seo strategies over the last few months and I have noticed that some tactics seem to be working better than others.

From my experience topical authority content updates and strong internal linking are having a bigger impact than before. At the same time some traditional link building methods do not seem as effective as they used to be.

I'd love to hear what others are seeing.

A few questions:
  1. What been your biggest seo win so far in 2026?
  2. Are you focusing more on topical authority or backlinks?
  3. How much AI content are you using if any?
  4. Have recent Google updates helped or hurt your sites?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences.
Click to expand...

For me the biggest win so far has been improving old content instead of only publishing new pages. Updating topical clusters, adding better internal links, and cleaning up thin pages has worked better than just chasing more backlinks.
 
hbar19 said:
Good content and how easy to access your content it is all about seo
Click to expand...
I completely agree great content is useless if users ca not easily find read and navigate it.
 
Apart from Topical authority and internal links. Opinions and Data backed contents are the big win in SEO in 2026. Because user behavious is changing and AI can easily provide generic info about any topic.
 
Luke Ronchi said:
Hi everyone,

I have been testing different seo strategies over the last few months and I have noticed that some tactics seem to be working better than others.

From my experience topical authority content updates and strong internal linking are having a bigger impact than before. At the same time some traditional link building methods do not seem as effective as they used to be.

I'd love to hear what others are seeing.

A few questions:
  1. What been your biggest seo win so far in 2026?
  2. Are you focusing more on topical authority or backlinks?
  3. How much AI content are you using if any?
  4. Have recent Google updates helped or hurt your sites?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences.
Click to expand...
From what I have seen, topical authority and content quality are having a bigger impact than ever. Sites that consistently cover a topic in depth seem to be performing better than relying heavily on backlinks alone. AI can definitely help with research and drafting, but content still needs human editing and real value to stand out. Recent google updates apppear to be rewarding that focus on expertise, relevance, and a strong user experience rather than shortcuts.
 
I am still new to seo, but I have noticed that publishing useful content consistently seems to help more than chasing every new tactic.
 
That's a solid observation. consistent, helpful content builds topical authority over time and creates more ranking opportunities. Comman make constantly switching strategies instead of giving proven SEO fundamentals enough time to work.
 
Quality contents that loved by AI..
Brand mentions in the best possible way in excellent human made contents.
 
As for me, focusing on update my existing content helps the page move up. I read a post earlier, mentioning that simply by revising the structure of the post helps a lot. It doesn't involves any content rewriting. It simply concerns adding a content, moving the answers to the front part, add FAQ schema and reduce a long paragraph to short ones for Mobile readability. It helps to move the page by 5. This case impressed me a lot.
 
Content to be friendly to AI & SERP. SEO & GEO both landscape wide.
 
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