SEO is not dead in 2026, but the tactics that carried it for a decade are fading. Keyword-stuffed pages and thin content aimed at simple questions now lose to AI answers that respond directly. What still works is intent-matched depth, genuine authority, clean technical foundations, and local signals, all of which now double as the groundwork for getting cited in AI search. SEO changed jobs: it earns the clicks that remain and feeds the AI engines that increasingly answer first.