Brace for impact: How generative AI search could hurt lead generation for brands
Marketers beware: Generative AI could be on the verge of upending everything you've been doing when it comes to organic search.
Humans grow and adapt over time – from how they dress to the way they interact with one another. This adaptation extends to how we make use of technology to improve various aspects of our lives.
Artificial intelligence is one of these rapidly developing technologies that has been quickly adopted for its ability to greatly improve the accuracy with which individuals can find what they’re looking for online.
However, this technology has also created a number of ripples in how search engine optimization is effectively executed and has raised a number of questions regarding its long-term impact on digital marketing.
Here’s what brands need to know about AI and SEO and how they can adjust their strategies to make sure their website ranks in this new realm.
The growing role of AI in search algorithms
Over the past 20 years, search engines have seen tremendous improvements in both their scale and the accuracy they provide when serving up results to user queries.
In the past, search engine algorithms were heavily dependent on keyword matching in order to locate relevant results. Today, however, a combination of machine learning and AI-driven algorithms is able to dive much deeper into the meaning and context of user searches.
One of the main components of AI search algorithms is their ability to use natural language processing (NPL) to not only collect a bunch of random words and phrases for analysis, but also understand the nuances associated with the language being used. This gives algorithms the ability to interpret the intent behind a search and can match results much more effectively than just looking for matching keywords on a website.
Google has been one of the pioneers of AI technology. Back in 2015, the company introduced RankBrain, which was one of the first AI-driven solutions to impact search engine rankings. Other releases have been Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), which was released in 2019 and Multitask Unified Model (MUM) in 2022.
With each of these releases, Google has continued to promise much more advanced capabilities in search engine processing power. But as major changes happen in search engine algorithms to support this new technology, the variables that impact search engine rankings are starting to be affected.
With AI and SEO, the traditional factors that digital marketing specialists have relied on—like keyword relevancy and domain authority —still hold weight, but they’re no longer the only variables website owners should focus on.
3 ways to adapt to AI and SEO
As new search requirements and website ranking factors emerge in the face of new AI-driven technologies, there are some important strategies that businesses should focus on to help their websites rank better. Here are the top three:
1. Focus on quality content
One of the primary factors that Google uses to rank various websites is comparing their content to its E-E-A-T guidelines. These guidelines stipulate that content needs to have a certain level of experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness associated with it in order to rank well on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Providing content that’s well-researched, accurate, and written by individuals with unique knowledge in the subject matter is becoming more important for achieving strong rankings.
2. Incorporate technical SEO
Another important component of providing users with quick and accurate answers to their queries is accessing content quickly and easily. In order to support this, businesses should improve the speed and overall performance of their websites as well as make them mobile-friendly.
To simplify the process of search engine algorithms crawling a website, brands also should implement structured data markup—also known as schema markup—to their sites. This helps categorize the content on a site so that search engines better understand the purpose of the content and can help to serve more rich information snippets to search engine users.
3. Prioritize the user experience
What’s made search engines like Google so trusted when it comes to looking for information is their ability to constantly provide useful results. If users were fed results to websites that are irrelevant or have a poor user experience, this would cause them to quickly lose trust in the search engine.
A high bounce rate on a website can indicate that the engagement rate associated with on-page content isn’t doing well. Prioritizing the user’s experience with a website—including making modifications to the site’s navigation system and overall structure—is critical for higher SERP placement.
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AI predictions and the future of SEO
As more changes are introduced in AI-driven search engine algorithms, there are trends on the horizon that businesses should think about when updating their SEO initiatives.
The personalization of search
With the digitization of data in the forms of IP locations, search history, and other relevant information, search engines are becoming much more in tune with user interests and needs. As we move forward, AI algorithms will be able to develop an even deeper understanding of user habits and preferences to provide much more personalized results.
Rise of conversational AI
Voice assistants like Siri and Alexa have become useful for a variety of purposes, including searching for products and services online.
AI-powered voice recognition technology is what drives the performance of these devices and we can expect them to become even more advanced over time. This includes using more natural and conversational language, as well as offering more personalized services. This will necessitate a shift towards businesses optimizing for long-tail keywords and natural language queries.
The concept of zero-click searches
With AI, there’s a growing trend of search engines providing direct answers to queries on the results page, often through featured snippets or knowledge panels.
This can lead to a decrease in click-through rates to websites, as users may find the information they need without having to click on a link.
While zero-click searches may present a challenge for some websites, they also offer an opportunity to establish authority and gain visibility by having your content featured in these direct answers.
Getting seen in AI-driven search
AI technologies are already being widely adopted in nearly every industry, and businesses must get ready to adapt their SEO strategies to meet more modern expectations of search engines.
By following the guidelines above, you can take foundational steps in your digital marketing strategies to better position your website on SERPs and build a better online presence.
