The essential
- The rise of AI. How the advances announced at Google I/O 2024 are trying to redefine search.
- Blue links…and now AI? Adapting to AI-powered search engines. Traditional SEO tactics are becoming less effective and now focus on brand-centric content.
- AI and content strategy. Insights from Marketing Experts: Original, value-driven content is crucial for AI recognition and successful marketing.
Announcement by Google of a new AI Features for Search last week at Google I/O 2024 serves as a wake-up call for SEO and marketing professionals. They highlight the shift away from traditional keyword-centric strategies to focus on brand storytelling and AI adaptation. Additionally, as Google continues to innovate with its Gemini AI models, marketers are being asked to rethink their approaches in an evolving search landscape.
“This is a rude awakening for all SEOs,” said Mary Owusu, CEO of OwnMyNiche.com And LEADABLE. “SEO as we know it has been too easy to manipulate. The idea of ranking for keyword-rich content is gone. SEOs must become brand storytellers. In the past, “doing SEO” meant creating keyword-rich content, primarily in a written format, to rank on Google. In the world of AI, “doing SEO” will mean creating brand-centric content in different formats, regardless of the platforms the brand’s customer uses. »
At Google I/O, Google announced a host of AI features with significant implications for search. Marketers weighed in with CMSWire on what search strategies the industry should pay attention to as consumer adoption of AI expands.
Google’s announcements at Google I/O have always generated developer buzz, but this year’s I/O introduced a variety of Gemini AI Models to meet different AI modeling needs. Developers using Google Cloud services have more features to explore, with several key features impacting Google Search. Marketers should pay close attention to how these features highlight current AI trends.
What research tactics are emerging with the arrival of AI?
Much of Google I/O 2024 was focused on upcoming features scheduled for release by summer, such as Gem 2, the next generation of its little Gemma language model. These features extend tokenization and parameterization.
There are many features that are promising for Gemini. People already use Gemini and its competitors, like Claude and OpenAI, to search for information. Due to the buzz and growing usage among consumers and professionals, AI is increasingly being treated like a search engine, cementing its status as a “recommendation engine.” People use quick queries to solve their personal workflows and find information, much like traditional search engines helped find information online.
However, queries must incorporate the latest rapid engineering techniques to make the right AI model recommendations. Search engines typically rely on links to rank results in SERPs – a concept well-known to business owners, marketers, and developers. AI models match their tokenized prompts based on the trained data. Users must therefore craft their queries precisely to fit the underlying AI engine.
New features such as multi-step reasoning And AI Insights provide more control to users over their queries. Marketers need to think about how these features will be adopted into users’ information-seeking behavior because they summarize the patterns involved, reducing the need for extensive iterations to explain what users are looking for.
(Editor’s note: we’re not entirely impressed by the arrival of AI in Google search; at least for now):
What is the big gain with @GoogleGenerative AI search results from ? This seems like a glorified excerpt. Not seeing the big differentiator from basic search results. pic.twitter.com/ByaVghomGW
– Dom Nicastro (@DomNicastro) May 20, 2024
Related article: Google I/O 2024: AI to redefine the future of search
Attribution challenges and a new world for research
Marketers shared their thoughts with us via LinkedIn after hearing Google’s announcements, along with other news like arrival of ChatGPT4o.
Rand Fishkin, co-founder of SparkToronotes how AI complicates the growing reality of research: the complication of attribution.
“The rise of generative AI responses, the preference for native content in social feeds, and the shift from a world where users are willing to click and visit websites to one where they don’t are not all connected.” Fishkin claims the solution to this. that’s what his company calls it “Clickless Marketing“.
Creators, entrepreneurs, marketers, and influencers need to stop posting links that lead directly to action or overinvesting in SEO-targeted content to drive traffic to unattributable, hard-to-measure investments in brand marketing and messaging. the Web, he added.
If Google isn’t sending traffic to sites, don’t try to rank, Fishkin recommended. Instead, work to influence the AI’s generative response, which snippets appear, which Reddit posts people still click on, brand mentions, and lexical associations between search terms and the names of your products.
“Weirdly, digital marketing in the 2020s looks more like traditional marketing from the 20th century,” Fishkin said. “No marketer in 1965 expected that drivers would see a highway billboard for vacuum cleaners and immediately change their route to stop by the store and buy one. Instead, they relied on the impact of advertising to influence future demand and brand preference Similarly, in 2024, Google’s ad results shift from an opportunity to change the driver’s route to an opportunity to influence. future demand and brand preference.
Related article: Will the search be generative AI or blue links? In fact, it’s both
Embrace AI search and original content
Marketing Specialist Jeff “Mr. Marketology” Beale believes marketers need to embrace AI-powered search and adapt their strategies to take advantage of new AI capabilities. “That means understanding how users search with AI tools and creating content that matches those search patterns,” he said. “Search engines have already integrated artificial intelligence into their algorithms, so it is important to be in control of market developments. »
Alison Ver Halen, content marketing and SEO strategist and president of Audiovisual writing servicesindicated that content should explain its purpose so that AI incorporating intent content will likely refer to it.
“One of the most important (but also most overlooked) aspects of SEO is that Google prioritizes original content,” she explains. “One of my big problems with “generative” AI is that it doesn’t “generate” anything. It grabs existing content from the web and reuses it. If you just place a prompt in ChatGPT and then copy and paste what it gives you onto your website, you won’t win any points with Google – or with the people who see you, you’re just saying the same thing. other said.”
In order to provide value, Ver Halen added, your content must answer the all-important question: “So what?” This means, she said, that in addition to providing information and updates, your content should provide your unique perspective on each topic you cover. What does this mean for your audience? How can they apply it in the real world?
“The answer is what is going to provide value, get Google’s attention, and convince the real people reading your content that you are the real deal,” Ver Halen said.
Ryan Levander, founder of an analytics company Rednavel Council, is also concerned with attribution, suggesting investigating current customer touchpoints. He notes that one of the earliest evolutions of search, including the first incarnation of Google’s AI, Generative Research Experience (GEM)has a significant impact on search and content strategy.
“I would say that the accuracy of marketing analytics is getting worse every year,” says Levander, “especially with the increase in users needing to click with SGE… You need to have a content strategy that matches the customer journey. ‘user. If you only create premium content (search for high volume keywords), then SGE usually affects you more with the drop in clicks. The same thing happened for featured snippets and rich results. »
Marketers need to make their content as valuable as possible so the user has a reason to click through to read your article, he said, adding: “Make sure your analytics are set up correctly so you can see the blogs that generate income.
