The digital landscape is always on the move, but this recent development with Artificial Intelligence (AI) muscling its way into Google Search is causing a bit of a stir in the marketing community. What used to be all about getting your keywords spot on and building up those links is changing rapidly, and SEOs need to get their heads around it sharpish. On thing that is for certain, it’s crucial to stay one step ahead, and businesses of all shapes and sizes need to understand what this AI-powered evolution means for them.
The Rise of AI in Search: A Bit of Background
Google’s been using AI for a good while now, most notably with RankBrain, which helps it understand the gist of what people are searching for. But these latest advancements are a whole different kettle of fish. We’re seeing AI powering features like:
- BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers): This clever bit of kit helps Google properly understand natural language, including all those little words like “of” and “to” and the context in a search query. This means just stuffing in exact keywords isn’t going to cut the mustard anymore.
- MUM (Multitask Unified Model): Taking things up a notch, MUM can understand information in all sorts of formats – text, pictures, videos, even sounds – and in loads of different languages. Imagine someone asking a complicated question that needs info from various sources – MUM’s designed to handle that in seconds.
- Generative AI in Search: Google’s having a go with generative AI to give more complete and summed-up answers right there on the search results page. This could mean users won’t need to click through loads of websites for the basics.
- AI-Powered Visual Search: Google Lens and searching with pictures are getting proper powerful, letting people search using what they see. This opens up new avenues for businesses to get noticed.
How do we Adapt?
With AI becoming more and more important in Google Search, SEO strategies need a bit of a rethink. Here’s how SEOs need to get with the programme:
- Focus on What People Actually Mean, Not Just Keywords: With AI getting better at understanding natural language, it’s all about optimising your content for what people are really trying to find. What problem are they trying to sort out? What information are they after? Creating content that properly answers these questions will be more valuable than just throwing in keywords. For example, instead of just going for “best coffee machine,” think about what the user wants: are they after a cheap and cheerful one, a fancy one for latte art, or a tough one for a business?
- Create Top-Notch, Thorough Content: AI is designed to spot and reward proper quality, in-depth content. Short, flimsy stuff that barely scratches the surface isn’t likely to rank well in an AI-driven world. Focus on making proper authoritative resources that answer people’s questions properly and offer something unique. Think about creating main pillar pages and linking related content together to show you know your stuff.
- Get Savvy with Multimedia: With MUM being able to understand different types of content, optimising your pictures, videos, and even audio for search is becoming more and more important. Make sure your visuals have clear file names, “alt text” descriptions, and are relevant to your content. Videos and audio should have transcripts and clear descriptions.
- Optimise for Voice Search and How People Actually Talk: As more and more people use their voices to search, optimising for natural language queries is key. Think about how people actually speak when they ask questions and tailor your content accordingly. This often means using longer, more natural-sounding phrases and answering specific questions directly.
- E- E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness): Google’s focus on showing you know your stuff, being a reliable source, and building trust remains crucial in the age of AI. Make sure your website and content show you’re an expert in your field, build authority with good quality links from other websites, and build trust through being clear and secure.
- Understand and Get to Grips with SERP Features: With generative AI potentially leading to more direct answers in those boxes at the top of the search results, SEOs need to understand how to optimise for them. This might involve structuring your data properly for those “featured snippets,” optimising for those information boxes on the side, and adapting your strategies for different types of search results.
- Keep an Eye on the Data and Keep Learning: The AI world is always changing, so keeping a close eye on how your website’s performing and changing your strategies based on what the data tells you is more important than ever. Pay attention to where you’re ranking, how much traffic you’re getting, and how people are behaving on your site to see what’s working and what’s not.
Still unsure of how to map out your content strategy in this AI age? Get in touch with us today and let us help you achieve the magical ‘postion zero’ in the Google rankings.
