SEO trends and a process to improve your Google rankings

Overnight, one MONA client website lost more than 34% of its organic traffic, not from a Google penalty or bad backlinks, but because it was still doing SEO the old way. Meanwhile, competitors had already adapted to the new, AI-assisted SEO trends. SEO is changing fast, and if you still focus only on keywords, links or content without understanding how AI reads, understands and evaluates, your website will slowly fall behind.

SEO in 2026 is no longer what it used to be. On-page optimization and regular posting are not enough; you need a structured SEO strategy that adapts to AI and to how people now search. In this article, MONA Media shares the 2026 SEO trends and a modern SEO process that helps your website adapt to AI, rank higher and deliver real results. Let's get into it.

Why optimize your website for SEO?

According to Backlinko, position #1 on Google takes an average of 27,6% of clicks, and the top three results draw more than half of all traffic.

That means if your website is not near the top, you are missing most of your potential customers. SEO is not just about getting your site “ranks at the top”, it is a way for your business to show up exactly when customers need you, build brand credibility and grow revenue naturally and sustainably. Here are the reasons to invest seriously in SEO for your website today.

Improve rankings on search engines and AI platforms

One of the biggest benefits of SEO is that your website gets seen more easily, not only on Google but on AI-integrated search platforms. When customers search for the products or services you offer, appearing first raises the chance they visit and remember your brand.

The better your SEO, the higher your ranking and the greater your chance of appearing in search results or AI suggestions. This is a key strategy for getting ahead of competitors and reaching potential customers faster in the digital age.

Example: The higher your website ranks on search engines (SERP) the more likely potential customers are to see and click on it. So this is the “key” to a higher ranking without paying for it.

Increase website traffic

Increasing website traffic is one of the goals businesses want from SEO. More traffic means more visibility and higher rankings. You may not know that the #1 position on Google receives nearly 32% more clicks and moving up just one position in the search results can raise CTR (click-through rate) by as much as 30,8%.

Focus on a good experience for visitors

SEO optimization on your website improves the user experience on your site, so visitors tend to stay longer, which helps reduce bounce rate cho website.

Example: By speeding up page load, your website lowers bounce rate and encourages visitors to spend more time on the site. The slower the load, the higher the bounce rate and the lower the site's conversion rate.

≫ Read more articles to improve page load speed:

• How to check your website speed and raise your conversion rate
• 10 effective ways to speed up a WordPress website
• 15 ways to reduce your website's size and speed it up effectively

Many of you ask Huy whether SEO still has a place now that AI is here. It does, but the rules have changed, and 2026 will weed out weak businesses, not just weak websites. Watch this video to see the full SEO picture and how to stay one step ahead of your competitors.

Top 10 latest SEO trends for 2026 you need to know

Here are the latest SEO trends for 2026 that MONA wants to share with readers. Let's look at them in detail below:

Optimize SEO for SGE

According to the quarterly report 3/2025 from Google, features such as AI Mode and AI Overviews are not only expanding search volume but changing how users approach and decide on purchases. AI now does more than summarize information; it has become a commercial touchpoint where users can search, compare and decide to buy within the same search experience.

This means that if a business still focuses on ranking on Google the way it used to, with backlinks, on-page audits and page speed, it is falling into the “Google Trap”: optimizing for one platform where customers no longer make their decisions alone.

To adapt to Search Generative Experience (SGE), 2026 SEO trends call for a completely new mindset, specifically:

• Treat AI as a real sales channel, not only a source of traffic.
• Optimize content, product data and brand so AI can understand, extract and show them in generated answers.
• Use AI-native analytics tools to track user journeys and behavior inside the AI environment.

AI SEO is no longer about “getting your site to the top”, but about getting your brand into the answers AI chooses to show customers.

We don't just talk. The MONA team has proven the real-world results of an overall SEO strategy combined with AI SEO through projects we have delivered.

A typical example is our SEO case study for Kim Khí Tiến Thành, one of MONA's standout SEO projects. Tiến Thành's website not only reached the top of Google but also appears in AI Overview and is mentioned by AI tools when users search keywords in the metal hardware industry.

As a result, the business gained wider reach and quality leads from AI recommendations, and left a strong impression on customers from the first contact. Read the details to find out more.

Optimize SEO for every platform, the new SEO trend

In the past the buying journey was seen as a linear funnel: customers search, consider, then decide. In 2026 that has changed. Users no longer search only on Google; they search across TikTok, YouTube, ChatGPT and Facebook at the same time. 

Each platform plays its own role in decision-making, and if your brand does not show up at the right moment, you lose the chance to be remembered.

• On the TikTok, users are drawn by emotion and novelty, so content needs to be short, visual and create an instant “wow”.
• On the YouTube, people look for trust and expertise; they want a “reason to believe”, not just information.
• The ChatGPT hay AI Search, what matters is clear, semantic content with trustworthy citations so AI picks it to display.
• A website, on the other hand, is Facebook, Threads hay Instagram is where users verify information through the community, read real reviews or ask a group for opinions.

So instead of “posting everywhere”, businesses need to optimize SEO for each platform, appearing in the right context, at the right time and with the right emotion customers are looking for. That is how you hold your brand position under new search behavior.

Personalize content by context

The old way of doing SEO, writing one article and trying to “rank top for everyone”, no longer works. Google and AI tools now show different results to each user, depending on their location, behavior and search history.

So you need to personalize content instead of writing one generic article. Split your content into versions for different readers: people just learning, people comparing options and people ready to decide, so your content reaches the right person, with the right need, at the right time.

Optimize SEO for Voice Search 

Today customers can just hold up their phone and say: “Find me a chair like this but cheaper,” and get a list of options. That is Voice Search, a fast-growing trend as AI understands human language more naturally.

To get your content “heard” and read out by AI, you need to optimize your SEO cho Voice Search as naturally as possible:

• Write in question-and-answer form, the way real customers ask.
• Use friendly, easy language instead of overly academic writing.
• Add structured data and product schema so AI can understand and display it accurately.

The goal is no longer just to “rank top” but to be the only answer when a customer asks. That is how SEO really works in the era of voice search.

Brand citations: the new backlinks in modern SEO

In the past, SEO meant building as many backlinks as possible to reach the top of Google. AI no longer judges websites that way. The number of links is no longer the deciding factor; what matters is whether your brand is mentioned, shared and trusted.

AI does not “skim” dozens of search result pages like a person. It pulls together information from brands that appear often and reliably across reputable sources. If your brand is rarely cited, has few reviews and is almost absent from major platforms, then to AI you barely exist.

Instead of focusing only on backlinks, focus on building brand credibility:

• Write PR articles, guest posts or share your expertise on reputable sites.
• Track how AI mentions your brand with tools like Ubersuggest.
• Manage reviews and comments on social media, because AI reads and weighs them.

In this new era, “brand citations” are the new backlinks, the thing that gets a business seen, trusted and chosen by AI first.

Some deals are lost not because of a high price, but because customers aren't yet convinced enough to trust you. In this video, Hùng shares plainly how to handle quotes, negotiation and closing sales properly in the service industry. Watch the video now.

Passage Indexing

Passage Indexing is one of Google's newest features, built to show users exactly what they are looking for at the top of search results. It is regarded as one of the Google SEO trends of 2026 that SEO specialists should pay attention to.

Passage Indexing gives certain types of content a chance to rank for more keywords. Because Passage Indexing is automatic, there is no specific schema markup for it, and it can be applied on a website to support passages for specific queries.

MUM: Multitask Unified Model

MUM – (short for Multitask Unified Model – Multitask Unified Model) is a new technology for Google Search, first introduced in May 2021. MUM model works with artificial intelligence, the ability to understand and process natural language, and answers complex search queries with multimodal data.

In particular, MUM can understand as many as 75 languages at once and process information from different media formats to answer questions. Beyond text, MUM also understands images, video and audio. That is why we list this multitask model among the top web SEO trends of 2026 you should care about.

Focus on analyzing customers' search intent

Search Intent is a popular Google SEO trend used to describe the purpose of an online search. That is why businesses should analyze users' search intent. Put simply, when someone researches in a search engine, they have a question and want an answer right away. Analyzing search intent helps a business understand both the need and the customer's state of mind.

Helpful content

However Google SEO trends add or change, helpful content still plays a vital role. Content must bring value to the person searching, aiming right at what they are looking for. With helpful content, a website gains benefits such as:

• Attract readers and keep users on the page
• Raise rankings in search engines and increase traffic
• Encourage quality links from other websites

-> See the articles below to optimize your website content to SEO standards and raise rankings:

• A detailed 10-step process for outlining SEO content
• Tips for writing good content that increases conversion rate
• What is SEO content? Steps for professional SEO content

Optimize Local SEO

SEO Local is an increasingly important Google SEO trend, as the number of people searching on mobile devices is soaring. Specifically,, 60% of searches are made on mobile devices, and nearly half of those have local intent. That is why investing in Local SEO is important for businesses today.

Local SEO includes verifying ownership of your directory listings, creating location-specific pages for your website and creating pages for your business (also called store pages) on Google Maps.

Example: If you offer SEO services, Local SEO makes sure that when people in the area search for “công ty SEO TPHCM” (SEO companies in Ho Chi Minh City) of good quality, your website will be shown.

Optimize for Featured Snippets

One SEO trend you need to know is Featured Snippet – a helpful excerpt that answers a user's query at the top of search rankings. It contains content quoted from a passage in your article, which can include the title, an image/video and a link back to your page. When you search and see a featured snippet, it appears at the top of the first results.

Visual Search trend

Visual Search – Image search is really useful for many consumers and is rated one of the most popular top Google SEO trends of 2026. In practice, you can simply open Google Lens and scan anything around you, and you will be surprised how accurate the results are. So optimizing for image search now is a condition for staying competitive, and it improves the user experience too.

Statistics show that every day Google Lens can identify more than 1 billion objects and the number keeps growing. In detail, ways to optimize for Visual Search include:

• Image SEO
• Design a website interface that works on many mobile devices.
• A website with plenty of valuable content.

>>> FIND OUT MORE: Professional website Responsive – Mobile web design – the practical web trend of the tech era.

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals includes 3 important metrics that affect a website's page load speed. They also affect your ranking on Google Search. The three metrics are:

• Largest contentful paint: Page rendering speed.
• First input delay: How quickly the website responds to user interaction.
• Cumulative Layout Shift: Stability of the page layout.

Core Web Vitals is only one of the criteria Google uses to evaluate user experience on a website.

Long-Form Content

Long-Form Content is a Google SEO trend, usually in the form of written or video content. Video and podcast content is getting more and more attention. Long-form video usually has a structure (opening, middle and ending) and runs longer than 10 minutes. Long-form content is popular through videos and podcasts because it is easy to understand and easy to reach.

Prioritize mobile SEO

A 2026 SEO trend you need to watch is mobile SEO. Most days, people spend a lot of time online, on social networks and watching YouTube on mobile devices. So focusing on mobile SEO is essential because it is tied to your customers.

Above all, shopping on mobile keeps growing and shows no sign of slowing. SEO Mobile improves convenience and speed when customers use their phones on the page. So mobile optimization is truly necessary, and the sooner a business does it, the more potential customers it can reach.

Google keeps updating to improve user experience. Watch the video “SEO from zero for beginners”, where Huy shares the latest AI SEO trends and how to use AI to optimize your website for quality leads and real conversions.

An effective SEO process to raise your Google rankings

To get the best results from SEO on Google, besides following SEO trends, how to do SEO the best approach is to prepare a structured plan and follow the correct process. Here are 7 steps in the SEO process that help raise your Google ranking, for your reference.

Step 1: Analyze your website by collecting and preparing information

To audit your site, collect information in several ways, including from the related teams (SEO, CONTENT, IT). Once the information is ready, the business will have the following:

• The list of keywords to target and the product/service links that go with them.
• The target volume of Organic Traffic you want to achieve.
• The budget needed once the project is completed.

Step 2: Analyze competitors

You can analyze competitors through Google's search bar by typing keywords related to your field. The top 10 results will appear, and what you need to do is open those articles to learn what your competitors provide. From there you can use them to research your keywords in more depth.

>> Read now: 7 steps to analyze business competitors – FIND OUT MORE

Step 3: Research and analyze keywords

After reviewing the state of your website, research keywords to determine the right keywords or phrases for a successful SEO process. You can use tools such as Google Keywords Planner, KeywordTool.io or Google Trends to evaluate and choose a keyword group that works well for you. Then create a list of keywords related to the website's products or services.

-> See also: A detailed A-Z guide to effective keyword research

 Step 4: Onsite optimization

Step 5: Onpage optimization for the website

A professional On-page optimization for a website covers optimizing the elements displayed on the site to attract more traffic. On-page optimization also increases your chances of reaching customers and helps raise your website's rank in Google Search.

You can assess your website's condition as in step 1 and then do on-page SEO on these factors: Optimize Title tags, URLs, Heading tags, Alt tags and so on.

Step 6: Build and optimize Offpage

You should SEO Offpage for your website once on-page optimization is done, so it can link to other websites and more people get to know it. Then you need to “build links” to create connections between other websites and yours.

To build a good SEO strategy you can apply these principles:

• The more links your website has, the better for the site.
• Link with websites in the same field that have high credibility and trust.
• Use a variety of titles and keywords so links reach your site as naturally as possible.

-> Read more:

• What is link building? An effective link-building strategy for websites
• What is a backlink? What role does a backlink play in SEO?
• How to check for bad backlinks and remove them from your website

Step 7: Track results and refine your direction

This is the final and most important step in the SEO process. Tracking results helps your SEO project achieve the best outcome. It also shows you where the gaps are so you can adjust your direction. It will also help your website keep and raise its ranking on Google effectively.

SEO is a long journey, especially as AI grows fast, algorithms keep changing and search behavior keeps shifting. For SEO to deliver real results, businesses need to follow trends and build a strategy suited to each stage. If you are struggling to keep up with the pace of change, the MONA team is ready to work alongside you.

Instead of optimizing with traditional SEO thinking, MONA builds a full-scope SEO combined with SEO AI strategy based on new search behavior and on how AI reads, evaluates and cites content, while expanding brand presence across many search platforms. The goal is not only rankings but helping your website adapt to the AI era and creating sustainable growth for your business.

Contact MONA today to build an SEO strategy that suits your next stage of growth.

The article above on MONA Media has covered the latest SEO trends of 2026, as well as the SEO process for raising your Google rankings in the clearest and most specific way we can. We hope this information helps you optimize your SEO and reach the top positions. Good luck.

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• A detailed guide to the steps of building an SEO-friendly website
• Learn about reputable and popular SEO training courses in the SEO community