Budget SEO For Capacity, Not Output

Marketing leaders are still budgeting to grow clicks in 2026, even though AI Overviews cut organic traffic in half and AI Mode kills it almost entirely.

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Meanwhile, close to 60% of those who responded to my recent poll report their stakeholders don’t understand the value of brand mentions in LLMs.

The SEO budget conversation has to move from “Why isn’t SEO driving more clicks?/What can we do to drive more traffic?” to “What capabilities do we need to build authority in new discovery channels?”

In 2026, the best…