Interview and Intro by Isabel Valencia Martinez
Aleyda Solís is one of those people in SEO who’s both deeply technical and genuinely easy to learn from. She’s an international SEO consultant and the founder of Orainti, where she works with companies around the world to improve their organic growth, from technical foundations and site structure to content strategy and international expansion.
A lot of people also know her from SEOFOMO, her weekly newsletter that keeps marketers up to date on what’s happening in search without the fluff. Between her hands-on work with brands and her role as a speaker and educator in the SEO community, Aleyda has a really grounded perspective on what’s actually working right now.
On a more personal note, my first interaction with Aleyda was when I reached out to invite her to collaborate on our White Paper Future of Search: Impact of Expert Content in the Age of AI Search & GEO. She was immediately receptive, warm, thoughtful, and ready to help. That same openness is exactly what made this conversation such a pleasure. In this interview, we not only dig into what’s happening in search right now, but I also had the chance to exchange insights with her directly, something I’m genuinely grateful for.
1. You’ve been doing SEO since 2007 and seen every hype cycle. What’s something about today’s search landscape that would genuinely surprise “early-career Aleyda”?
How some of the spammy tactics that used to work in search back in 2007 still work in 2026 in AI search.
2. If you had to explain the current shift in search (Search Generative Experience, AI overviews, answer engines, LLMs …) in one metaphor, what would it be?
Search is turning from a library into a newsroom, moving from retrieval to synthesis.
3. Many SEOs feel that “classic SEO” is being squeezed by AI answers and zero-click results. Where do you see the biggest real opportunities, not just the fears?
- First, it’s critical to start moving beyond clicks/traffic as a reliable success metric with AI search (if your business model allows): inclusion in AI answers might influence decisions and conversions that are not reflected in traffic anymore.
- Second, the biggest opportunity is to become an authoritative brand that is easily and worthy to cite in your vertical, for that:
- It’s fundamental to establish an “on brand”, comprehensive topical authority, targeting the full customer journey for those topics that matter.
- Building positive third-party citations in authoritative sources has become as strategically important as earning relevant backlinks.
4. In an AI-driven SERP, brands face many possible optimization priorities. Which ones matter most for GEO, how would you rank them, and why?
See my answer above: it’s fundamental to establish an “on brand”, comprehensive topical authority, targeting the full customer journey for those topics that matter.
5. You’re an international SEO working across many languages and cultures. What’s the most common mistake companies make when they “copy-paste” SEO strategies from one market to another?
Just copying their international targeting approach (whether by targeting countries or languages, or doing it with ccTLDs vs subdirectories vs subdomains under gTLDs) rather than validating what’s actually the best for each market in their particular context based on their business model, products/services to offer internationally, business model, technical or business restrictions.
6. Looking at the people you consider really strong SEOs today: what do they all have in common beyond technical skills?
They have strategical understanding of the role of search in the business they optimize for, and excellent communication skills to drive change.
7. For someone mid-career in SEO who feels overwhelmed by AI and constant change: what would your next 90-days learning plan look like for them?
I would truly recommend them to check out Learning AI Search, which is a learning hub I’ve created with free and reliable resources to learn for free, and to subscribe to SEOFOMO to keep updated with meaningful SEO and AI search news, without smoke and fluff.
8. You create a lot of educational content (Crawling Mondays, LearningSEO.io, SEOFOMO). What’s a topic you wish more people asked you about, but they rarely do?
- How to establish a strategic approach to SEO that actually moves the needle
- The soft-skills critical to influence teams and drive change
- SEO as part of product management
9. Lastly, we can’t let you go without this … Can you share the top 3 predictions for 2026 in the world of Search (SEO, GEO, etc.)?
- Google will continue to be king.
- SEOs will stop using traffic as a reliable KPI, move from performance only to a blend of brand and performance goals and metrics to assess SEO success.
- SEO, GEO … organic search optimization will become about optimizing your presence everywhere.
QUICK TAKES
One SEO habit you’re proud you kept
Keep updated. That’s why I started SEOFOMO.
One myth about SEO in 2025 you’d love to kill
That AI search optimization is something entirely different and shouldn’t be owned by SEOs.
If SEO disappeared tomorrow, what would you do instead?
I would likely start a newsletter growth and digital PR related business.
One piece of advice for the Berlin SEO & Content Club community for the next 12 months
We’re still in the early days of AI search: be proactive and … test, test, test. And remember: there are always so many ways to achieve something, there’s rarely an absolute single approach to do something … so it’s fundamental that you identify the one that works best for your own goals and business context.