The New Year carries a curious energy-half optimism, half dread. Gyms fill up. Calendars feel pristine. Somewhere in Mountain View, meanwhile, Google has quietly shifted the rules again. If you're stepping into 2026 with the same SEO playbook you used in 2022-or worse, 2018-this blog is your gentle yet firm nudge. SEO isn't dead. But the old version of SEO? That's actually been on life support for a while. Let's unpack what Google's AI updates really mean, what's shifted bene