The Old-School SEO Strategies that Still Deliver Results Today

The fundamentals of SEO—quality content, technical excellence, and earned authority—continue to drive B2B growth in 2026. Organic search generates 44.6% of all B2B revenue, delivering a 702% average ROI for SaaS companies. What's changed is the competitive environment: Google AI Overviews now appear for 30% of desktop queries, and brands cited within these AI responses earn 35% more organic clicks than those that aren't. Whitehat SEO's approach combines proven optimisation techniques with strategic AI visibility to help B2B companies capture both traditional rankings and emerging answer engine opportunities.

The fundamentals that continue delivering results

The algorithm now measures comprehensiveness differently. An 800-word post can outrank a 3,000-word competitor when it fully addresses user intent. Google's helpful content system distinguishes between articles that thoroughly answer questions versus those merely hitting word counts.

Core on-page practices remain unchanged: descriptive URLs with relevant keywords, unique title tags under 60 characters, meta descriptions that drive clicks, and heading structures that prioritise user readability. Internal linking continues to build topical authority, with content grouped into clusters driving approximately 30% more organic traffic than standalone pages.

Link building effectiveness persists. According to industry research, 92.3% of top-100 ranking websites have at least one backlink, and digital PR has emerged as the dominant white-hat strategy. The shift is toward relevance over raw authority—a link from a domain rating 30 niche publication often outperforms a generic DR 80 site.

Technical SEO requirements have intensified

Core Web Vitals remain critical, though current data suggests only 40-54% of websites meet all three thresholds. The benchmarks haven't changed—Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds, and Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1—but their impact on competitive queries has grown, accounting for an estimated 10-15% of ranking signals.

Mobile optimisation is non-negotiable. Over 63% of Google's organic traffic originates from mobile devices, and Google judges all sites through a mobile lens first. The gap between mobile and desktop conversion rates (2.2% vs 4.3%) creates opportunity for sites that invest in mobile experience.

Google's John Mueller emphasised in late 2025 that consistency remains the most significant technical SEO factor. Links, canonicals, structured data, navigation, and content must all align. This guidance has remained constant for a decade because inconsistent websites remain one of the most common technical failures Whitehat identifies during website audits.

How AI Overviews have transformed the click equation

Google AI Overviews have created a two-tier search result system. Research from Seer Interactive analysing over 25 million impressions found that queries triggering AI Overviews show organic click-through rates of just 0.61%—down from 1.76% in mid-2024. That's a 61% decline.

But here's what matters for B2B marketers: being cited within an AI Overview yields 35% higher organic CTR than appearing below without a citation. The path to citation isn't mysterious—97% of AI Overview citations come from the top 20 organic results, with 82% pulled from deep, specialised pages rather than homepages.

Content structured for extraction—clear headings, bullet points, tables, and FAQ sections—appears more frequently in AI responses. Schema markup has become essential for AI visibility. Research shows GPT-4 accuracy improves dramatically when structured data is present, and Microsoft confirmed in early 2025 that their large language models use schema markup to understand web content.

The priority schema types for B2B: Article (for E-E-A-T signals), FAQPage (for direct Q&A pairs), HowTo (for step-by-step guidance), and Organisation/Person (for entity recognition).

Answer Engine Optimisation complements—not replaces—traditional SEO

The relationship between traditional SEO and Answer Engine Optimisation is symbiotic, not competitive. Whilst the foundational work of building authority, creating quality content, and establishing topical expertise feeds both systems, AI platforms have their own citation preferences.

AI referral traffic remains small—approximately 1% of overall web traffic—but it's growing rapidly (527% year-over-year) with significantly higher engagement. Visitors from AI platforms convert 4.4 times better than organic search visitors, spending 9-10 minutes per session on referred sites.

Whitehat's Answer Engine Optimisation services apply a framework that includes:

• Answer-first formatting: Lead with a 40-60 word direct answer, then expand with depth
• Conversational query targeting: AI queries average 23 words versus 4 for traditional search
• Entity consistency: Reinforce consistent facts and positioning across owned and earned media
• Structured data implementation: JSON-LD for Article, FAQ, HowTo, and Organisation schemas
• Fresh content signals: Pages updated within 30 days receive significantly more AI citations

Brands adopting comprehensive AEO frameworks have seen up to 40% higher visibility in generative AI search results. The key insight: you cannot optimise for AI without first being excellent at traditional SEO.

E-E-A-T requirements have tightened significantly

Google's 2025 algorithm updates made Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness requirements more stringent, particularly for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) topics. Trust remains the foundational element—without it, according to Google's quality rater guidelines, the other components are worthless.

Demonstrating Experience now requires tangible evidence: original photos, case studies, "What We Tested" sections, and first-person accounts. Google can detect authentic real-world engagement and rewards it.

Expertise demands in-depth content written or reviewed by qualified authors with verifiable credentials. For B2B content, author authority signals have become critical—every piece should include visible bylines linked to dedicated author pages, professional profiles, and documentation of qualifications.

Authoritativeness comes through earned backlinks from reputable sources, topical depth, and consistent industry recognition. This is where community involvement—like Whitehat's leadership of the world's largest HubSpot User Group—provides genuine competitive advantage.

The implication for B2B companies: invest in building genuine authority rather than superficial E-E-A-T signals. The December 2025 update specifically penalised sites lacking these authentic markers whilst rewarding demonstrated practitioner expertise.

Tactics that no longer work (and what to do instead)

Several practices from recent years have become counterproductive or trigger penalties:

The March 2024 core update specifically targeted low-quality AI content, aiming to reduce unhelpful content by 40%. Sites publishing AI-generated content without substantive human oversight faced manual actions and algorithmic penalties. Best practice: treat AI as an assistant, not a replacement for expertise—research indicates 93% of successful SEO practitioners review AI content before publishing.

Content freshness has also risen in importance, now representing approximately 6% of ranking weight. Pages updated at least once per year gain an average of 4.6 positions versus stale content. But simply changing publish dates without substantive changes can lower trust scores.

B2B-specific considerations for 2026

B2B buyers conduct an average of 12 searches before engaging with a brand, with 27% of the buying journey spent independently researching online. The typical B2B buying cycle spans nearly a year with 10-11 stakeholders involved—making sustained SEO visibility essential.

The content that resonates differs from B2C: case studies are considered most valuable by 73% of B2B buyers, followed by video content. B2B buyers consume 3-7 pieces of content before speaking with a salesperson. Companies publishing 16+ blog posts monthly generate 3.5 times more traffic than those posting four or fewer.

For multi-location B2B businesses, local SEO remains powerful: 70% of online searches result in a visit when a business has a complete Google Business Profile. Each location requires a unique landing page with consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone), embedded maps, LocalBusiness schema, and location-specific content—not duplicated boilerplate.

For companies using HubSpot, the platform includes robust built-in SEO capabilities: automatic SSL, global CDN, image compression, and real-time optimisation recommendations. Whitehat's HubSpot onboarding services help B2B companies leverage these features alongside strategic SEO planning to maximise organic visibility.

Your 90-day action plan

The path forward requires balancing continuity with adaptation. Fundamentals—technical excellence, quality content, topical authority, ethical link building—remain the foundation. Layer onto this: structured content for AI extraction, consistent entity information across platforms, and visibility metrics beyond traffic.

Days 1-30: Foundation fixes

• Audit and fix technical issues: canonical tags, security headers, mobile performance
• Implement schema markup on key pages (Article, Organisation, FAQPage)
• Optimise "striking distance" pages ranking positions 4-10
• Establish baseline tracking in Google Search Console and Analytics

Days 31-60: Content enhancement

• Add answer-first formatting to top 10 pages
• Create comprehensive FAQ sections with natural language queries
• Develop content clusters around core service areas
• Update author pages with credentials and expertise signals

Days 61-90: Authority building

• Launch digital PR campaign targeting relevant industry publications
• Audit and improve review presence on platforms AI engines trust
• Create original research or data that can't be replicated
• Track AI visibility: monitor brand mentions in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews

The bottom line

Traditional SEO isn't obsolete—it's foundational. The strategies that worked in 2015 still matter in 2026: helpful content, technical excellence, earned authority, and user-focused optimisation. What's changed is the competitive environment and measurement framework.

Success now requires visibility within AI-generated responses alongside traditional rankings, demanding content structured for extraction and brands with genuine expertise. For B2B companies, the economics remain compelling: organic search drives nearly half of revenue and delivers superior ROI compared to paid channels.

The agencies that help clients navigate both traditional SEO and emerging answer engine optimisation—without abandoning fundamentals for hype—will deliver the most value. The old school still works; it just requires new tactics to reach the same goals.

Ready to future-proof your SEO?

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Frequently asked questions

References and sources

1. Seer Interactive: AIO Impact on Google CTR – September 2025 Update
2. Search Engine Land: Google AI Overviews drive 61% drop in organic CTR
3. Ahrefs: 43 B2B SEO Statistics for 2025
4. First Page Sage: 2025 B2B SEO Statistics
5. seoClarity: Impact of Google's AI Overviews – SEO Research Study
6. SeoProfy: 71 B2B SEO Statistics for 2025-2026