What Google (and AI search) rewards in 2026

We first wrote this post in 2024. Since then, a few specifics have changed. Google swapped one of its Core Web Vitals, retired its Mobile-Friendly Test, and started answering many searches itself with AI Overviews. People also started asking ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity the questions they used to type into Google.

The fundamentals have held up, though. Here's what's still true, what changed, and what we'd do this quarter.

What hasn't changed: helpful content from people who know

Google's guidance still comes back to E-E-A-T: experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust. Pages written by people who have actually done the thing, for readers who need it done, keep beating pages written to hit a keyword.

In practice:

• Show your experience. Put a real author on every post, with a bio that explains why they know this. Use examples from your own work, not generic ones.
• Answer the question the searcher actually has. If the page would still make sense with your company name swapped for a competitor's, it's too generic.
• Cut the fluff. Thin pages, repetitive pages, and pages that exist only to rank make the whole site look worse. Fewer, better pages beat many weak ones.

That last point is personal. When we audited our own old blog ahead of our site relaunch, we found placeholder posts that had been live for years. They're gone now.

What changed: Core Web Vitals now means INP

Core Web Vitals are still Google's page-experience signals, but the set changed in March 2024. Interaction to Next Paint (INP) replaced First Input Delay. INP measures how quickly the page responds to every tap and click, not just the first, so heavy JavaScript and bloated plugins now show up in the score.

The three to watch:

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): how fast the main content shows up. Aim for 2.5 seconds or less.
• INP (Interaction to Next Paint): how fast the page reacts. Aim for 200 ms or less.
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): how much the layout jumps while loading. Aim for 0.1 or less.

Check your real-user numbers in Search Console or PageSpeed Insights. Lab scores on your own fast laptop don't count.

What usually fixes them: images exported at the size they're displayed, with explicit width and height; self-hosted fonts; less third-party script; and a hero image that's never lazy-loaded. We rebuilt our own site as static-first for exactly these reasons.

What changed: mobile-first is simply "the index"

Google finished moving to mobile-first indexing, so your mobile page is your page as far as ranking goes. It also retired the standalone Mobile-Friendly Test at the end of 2023. Use Lighthouse in Chrome and the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console instead. If something is hidden or broken on mobile, assume Google doesn't see it either.

What's new: AI Overviews and answer engines

For many queries, Google now shows an AI-written summary above the classic results. Separately, a growing share of buyers ask AI assistants for recommendations before they ever search. Both tend to pull from, and cite, pages that are:

• Clearly structured: real questions as headings, with short, direct answers underneath.
• Factual and specific: actual prices, timelines, and constraints, rather than marketing adjectives.
• Consistent: the same name, services and facts across your site, your Google Business Profile, and anywhere else you're listed.

Write to be quoted, not just to rank. Structured data helps machines understand the page: Organization on every page, Service on service pages, BlogPosting on articles, and FAQPage where you have genuine FAQs. Don't invent reviews or ratings to fill in schema. That's a manual-action risk.

Local search: Google Business Profile

What used to be Google My Business is now Google Business Profile. For local businesses it's still the biggest local lever:

• Keep your name, address and phone number identical everywhere: on the profile, in your site footer, in your structured data, and in directories.
• Only list a real location where you meet customers or staff work. If you don't have a storefront, set it up as a service-area business.
• Ask happy customers for reviews, and reply to all of them, including the bad ones.

Why this is still worth the effort

We said it in 2024 with more jokes: search compounds and ads are rented. Stop paying for ads and the traffic stops. A page that earns its ranking keeps working for years. And nearly everything that helps you rank, like fast pages, clear writing and a site that makes sense on a phone, also helps the visitors you already have.

What we'd do this quarter

1. Verify Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools and submit your sitemap.
2. Check real-user Core Web Vitals and fix the worst template first, usually the home page or a product page.
3. Prune or merge thin pages. Redirect them to the strongest related page rather than letting them 404.
4. Rewrite your key service pages with question headings and direct answers.
5. Add basic structured data and make sure your business details match everywhere.
6. Watch for impressions without clicks. Those are the pages whose titles need work.

If you'd like a second opinion on your site's speed or structure, we do website and e-commerce rebuilds and speed overhauls. Get in touch.