how are people ranking for keywords in 2026?

Same as before, honestly, just with less room for thin pages. Pick narrower terms you can actually be the best answer for, write from real experience (screenshots, your own numbers, what went wrong), keep the topic cluster tight, and get a few mentions from sites in your niche. The bigger change is that a lot of informational queries now get answered in the AI overview, so expect fewer clicks per ranking and go after terms where people still want to click through.