FOUR WAYS TO GET YOUR CONTENT SEEN IN THE AI SEO ERA

This isn’t meant to scare anybody in business, but … what happens if search stops driving traffic to your site?

Search engine optimization (SEO) has been the cornerstone of driving organic traffic to websites, but artificial intelligence (AI)-powered search engines have rapidly altered the search landscape, gradually reducing expected returns on good SEO practices.

Let’s dig into the details and uncover some new approaches that can help you continue growing and achieving success.

How has AI changed search and SEO?
The traditional approach of optimizing content with the right keywords, adhering to on-page and technical SEO guidelines, and creating useful content has been a reliable formula for success. However, AI-powered search engines such as Google’s AI Overviews (formerly SGE), Microsoft’s Bing AI, and ChatGPT-based search have accelerated the fact-finding process for most users by interpreting the meaning behind a search and not just the keywords themselves. These AI summaries now appear for 15% to 80% of all searches, depending on the type and industry of the search, further pushing traditional organic results down the page. While data is still limited, a recent study of 23 pages after AI Overviews was launched showed an 18% to 64% drop in organic traffic.

This AI search expansion has made it much more important to focus on the meaning behind searches, not just the keywords, since search engines are prioritizing content relevance and authority.

While there are no published guidelines on how to directly improve rank within AI search, we do know that engines are focusing on answers to specific questions, a positive user landing page experience, and quick snippets that are easily understood. This means that top AI Overviews content is coming largely from sites such as Reddit, Quora, and Wikipedia, all of which are set up to answer specific questions. YouTube has also been heavily featured in SGE e-commerce results, signaling that video is also an important way to provide answers if they are comprehensive and well structured.

What are brands doing to adjust to the AI-empowered changes to search and SEO?
Brands can insert themselves into AI search by leveraging AI tools to create content that will rank well on search engines. For example, Bankrate, an affiliate site focused on financial advice and products, leveraged AI to write more than 200 articles around a niche category in late 2023. This led to high rankings for most of the AI-created content. However, not all AI-created content is as successful or accepted, as CNET discovered when they announced they were using ChatGPT to help write full articles. When a number of articles came out with incorrect facts or sentence structures, the brand quickly backtracked because of backlash.

These examples do not mean traditional SEO practices are not important, especially as the AI search engines’ algorithms are tweaked based on brand and user feedback. A recent report shared that AI Overviews is now pulling at least one of the links from the first page of organic searches, which is a change from when Google first launched the experience.

All this points to the need for brands to adapt their approach to SEO to go beyond traditional protocol to ensure their websites—and content—gain traction.

Four strategies for optimizing your brand’s content in the AI era

1. Maintain SEO best practices. Even with all the changes in the landscape, adhering to traditional SEO best practices will help provide a stable foundation for websites and content:
   • Ensure proper implementation of all technical and on-page SEO elements, such as meta tags, header structure, and site speed.
   • Ensure schema markup and site structure are correctly implemented. This is increasingly important, as search engines lean heavily on both for categorization of content.
   • Focus on specific, highly relevant terms for each page or content piece that clearly align to the information shared.
   • Update blogs and content on a regular basis to align with identified priority SEO terms.
   • Structure content to improve chances of appearing in featured snippets, both in the traditional format and for AI search engines.
   • Prioritize mobile experiences by keeping site structures streamlined and not overloaded with content and coding.
2. Create clear and authoritative content. Creating articles and blogs that can establish authority is important for the AI search engines:
   • Focus on the questions searchers may ask and ensure topics are addressed comprehensively and succinctly. Having a unique perspective in a few articles that cover specific search topics is more impactful than multiple general blogs.
   • For blogs and technical content, include clear recommendations to make it easy for AI search engines to highlight an answer to a search. FAQs are one way to provide answers in a structured format.
   • Use bullet points or numbered lists for easy-to-digest information, and include a “Key Takeaways” or “Summary” section to highlight main points.
3. Wisely leverage AI for content creation. Tapping into AI tools to help determine the topics for drafting articles is smart but should never be the final step:
   • Use tools such as SEMRUSH and MOZ to identify trending topics and searches around relevant content areas.
   • Use AI content tools like Jasper, HubSpot AI, and ChatGPT to draft blogs and articles on identified content areas and terms. However, do not rely solely on these tools; the human touch is important for reviewing, editing, and enhancing the content.
   • Review blogs and articles to ensure they do not read as “AI-generated” content, as search engines have begun detecting AI-generated content and flagging and penalizing advertisers.
4. Expand beyond the written word. Focusing on optimizing the writing on your website for SEO is important, but there are other opportunities to increase exposure and drive traffic, which will improve site authority:
   • Add videos, infographics, and other content formats to articles and blogs to increase engagement opportunities.
   • Drive traffic to key pages and content by sharing through owned channels, such as organic social, email nurture, or newsletters.
   • Create opportunities to cross-link within and outside the website to increase perceived expertise on a topic by search engines.
   • Tap into paid to increase traffic to priority pages and content, especially paid search.

As the organic search landscape and AI evolve, the focus of content will continue to shift to unique, authoritative, and direct information that’s presented in quick, easy-to-digest ways.

Think outside the box on how to leverage available AI tools for content ideas and perspectives, but maintain a human touch within articles and blogs to be true to your brand’s voice and tone. The opportunity to be at the front of targeted searches and drive meaningful traffic to the site should be the focus when crafting content that is genuinely insightful and optimized to search practices.

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