How Google’s Algorithm Delivers Information in 2026 (3 Pillars that aren’t changing)

Petar Petrović

6 January 2026

93% of people search for something on Google before purchasing.

If you’re running a business, your priority is to show up whenever a prospect is searching for a solution to their problem. With the addition of AI and privacy laws changing every 6 months, the way Google’s algorithm delivers information is evolving.

But…

There are 3 foundational overarching principles that Google AI’s goes by that the majority neglect. Over the last 6 months, I’ve audited hundreds of websites and Google ads accounts, 95% of businesses are missing the principles that I’m about to go over

When you neglect these principles, it results in:

Wasted money on ad spend
Negative cash flow cycles
Phone is dead silent
Competitors eat up market share

Luckily, you’ve stumbled upon this article.

By the time you read this, you’ll know how Google serves information and, more importantly, the reasoning behind it. This will help you lower your acquisition costs and help you build a moat around your business.

The bar is so low that if you start to implement what I talk about in this article, you will have an unfair advantage over rival businesses in your industry.

To understand how Google works, you need to understand how Google generates revenue

Alright, we need to start here and reverse engineer how and why Google delivers information the way that it does.

Google is a business that serves two entities:

People searching for answers to their problems (Consumer)
Businesses that use Google's data to showcase their solutions (Business)

Google’s primary source of revenue comes from ad spend from businesses like yours. Therefore, the Google algorithm has to keep people on its platform because it needs to keep serving ads, so it can generate infinite amounts of revenue for its shareholders.

For Google to keep people on its platform, it has to deliver the best information to the person searching and clicking.

If Google fails to do so, that person will go elsewhere, and Google will lose traffic. This means it loses a person to whom it shows its ads. If Google loses people to show ads to, revenue goes down because businesses pull budgets from Google.

This results in shareholders becoming aggravated and despondent.

Therefore, for Google to keep users on its platform, it’s going to prioritise showing results from businesses that:

Showcase authority and thought leadership
Match the searchers’ intent with their landing page
Create helpful content that is useful to the person searching

Let’s look at the 3 pillars that Google is prioritising moving into 2026:

Backlinks - The way Google sees you as an authority

Backlinks are external links from websites that link to your page.

This is the key metric that Google uses to determine authority, trustworthiness and expertise. You could argue that if you only focused on quality backlinks, the other two points would be covered.

The best backlinks are from websites in the same or similar industries. If you can get a few big businesses in your niche to link to your page, you’re laughing.

How do I get backlinks?

The easiest way to get them is to create unique content that solves a problem or educates your audience.

This type of content works well

Analytical pieces that gather data or information
Creating tools or calculators that help inform your audience or make their lives easier
Expertly curated how-tos
Ultimate guides
Infographics

Search Intent

Remember how Google delivers information to keep people on Google.

The way it achieves that is by matching the intent of the searcher.

There are 4 main types of search intent that you need to be aware of:

Informational - People are looking for information; they’re educating themselves, reading frameworks, tools and tips.
Navigational - These are branded searches. For instance, if someone types in “Nike air max”.
Commercial - Searches in relation to a product or service
Transactional - Looking to take action

Search intent helps inform your content and the information that’s going to be delivered on the page.

Picture this...

You’re searching for a Japanese landscape designer to redo your outdoor area.

You type in “Japanese landscape design Melbourne” and click on the two top results, pages A & B.

On page A:

The headline matches your search “ Japanese Garden Design Melbourne”
A strong hero section that displays a Japanese-themed finished project
Some value points
Information on the process
Frequently asked-questions
Information about the business and the owner
Information on what happens after you make a booking
An easy way to contact the business and make a booking

On page B

The headline is general and vague: “Landscape Design”
The image is of a Mediterranean garden
No FAQ
No value points
No info regarding process
No phone number or email present
Little to no information about the business
A pissy little contact form at the bottom of the page that you can barely see

Which page converts?

Page A obviously...

Page B is what 99.9% of businesses are doing.

Guess what Google does to Page B? It penalises them by giving them worse traffic and making them pay higher per click if they're running a search ad. Yes, you read that right. It actually gives that business worse traffic and makes them pay more for it.
Google is brutal.

Helpful Content (NLP)

Closely linked to search intent is Helpful Content.

The basic premise is self-explanatory - Create content that actually benefits the searcher.

Write for a human, not a robot. If you post AI-generated drivel trying to stuff keywords, Google’s algorithm will flag it and bury you.

But here is where the top 1% of businesses separate themselves. It’s not just about what you say (the keywords); it’s about how you structure it

Think of it like a raffle:

The Wall of Text: If you write one giant, vague paragraph about landscaping, you get 1 raffle ticket.
The Chunked Masterpiece: If you break that content into specific, headed sections, you get a ticket for every section.

You want as many tickets in the draw as possible.

Example: Japanese Landscape Design

Let's go back to our "Japanese landscape design Melbourne" example.

Most businesses would write a generic paragraph: "We do Japanese gardens using traditional plants like maples and stones. We can also do tea gardens and help with design principles to make your yard look good."

That hardly works anymore.

Instead, use Natural Language Processing (NLP) keywords and organise them into specific "chunks" with descriptive headings.

Here is what a winning page structure looks like:

Heading 1: Plant Selection for Melbourne Climate
- Content: Discussing specific Japanese maple & cherry blossom trees that thrive in Victorian weather.
Heading 2: Hardscaping & Stone Work
- Content: Explaining the use of natural stone & dry rock gardens to create flow.
Heading 3: Traditional Layouts
- Content: Breaking down the difference between Tea gardens & promenade gardens.

By structuring your content this way, you accomplish two things:

For the User: It’s easy to scan and highly relevant - your website receives priority
For the Algorithm: You are feeding it clear, distinct "chunks" of information that it can easily pull and serve to users via reasoning chains.

Win-win. Algorithms get what they want, end users get what they want.

What about AI Mode & Generative search engines?

I’m glad you asked.

The 3 fundamentals I covered earlier are paramount.

First, a reality check: Google’s goal hasn’t changed. They still want to keep users on their platform. But the way they deliver answers has shifted from a library (fetching a book) to a detective (solving a case).

Based on the latest data on "Relevance Engineering" (shoutout to Mike King for the deep dive data ), here is exactly how the new AI search works and how you can exploit it.

1. Query Fan-Out

In the old days, if a customer searched for "Japanese landscape design Melbourne," Google looked for pages with those exact words.

Now, Google’s AI is paranoid. It doesn't trust that the user knows what they want. So, it secretly runs 9+ different variations of that search in the background. It’s called "Query Fan-Out," but think of it as a detective asking follow-up questions.

While the user types one thing, Google is simultaneously searching for:

"Best Japanese garden plants for Melbourne climate"
"Cost of Japanese landscaping Victoria"
"Japanese garden maintenance requirements"
"Reviews of [Your Business Name]"

Do this one thing to stay relevant and address the query fan out:

Do not just answer the main question. Answer the implicit questions. If you only rank for the headline, you’re invisible. If you answer the fan-out queries, you dominate the AI result.

Tip

Do this by adding an FAQ to every page.

2. Vectors & Omnipresence

This is the killer. Google now builds a "profile" (vector embedding) of your business based on everything the internet says about you, not just what you say about yourself.

If your website says you’re "Melbourne's Best Landscaper," but your reviews are empty, your LinkedIn is dead, and no other local sites mention you, Google’s AI detects a "cognitive dissonance."

It will ignore you.

It’s no longer enough to have a good website. You need consistency across the web.

As I like to say, you need to be omnipresent.

Final Thoughts

Google will reward you if you deliver quality to the person searching for information. Be hyper-specific with your landing pages and write useful content. Add an FAQ to every page to get into as many raffle tickets for query fan out,

This will help match intent, build trust with your prospects and as a result generate quality backlinks to your site.