What Does SEO Look Like After 2024?
The Changing Landscape of Search
I’ve been working in marketing since 2015, and search as a channel is even older. SEO has always been a challenging yet crucial aspect of digital marketing. Recently, however, things have started to change rapidly with the advent of AI technologies like ChatGPT.
When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, many thought it would replace traditional search engines like Google. While that hasn’t happened yet, it did prompt companies, including Google, to integrate large language models into their products.
The Impact of AI Overviews
Google’s response to this AI wave was to introduce AI overviews in search engine results pages (SERPs). Since June, I’ve noticed more people, including my friends and family, receiving these AI-generated summaries at the top of their search results. This has significant implications for both paid and organic search.
On mobile devices, these AI overviews take up a substantial amount of screen real estate.
This raises questions about the effectiveness of the first position in both paid and organic search results. If AI overviews dominate the SERPs, the visibility and click-through rates for traditional search results could decline.
What This Means for SEO
As marketers, we need to think critically about the future of SEO. The increasing prominence of AI overviews could mean that search, as we know it, will become less of a priority. This is particularly concerning for those of us who have built our careers around SEO. However, it’s also an opportunity to diversify our marketing strategies.
Omni-channel marketing remains crucial. Relying on a single channel is risky, especially when innovations and algorithm changes can disrupt the status quo. Instead of focusing solely on traditional search, we should explore other avenues like video search. Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are increasingly being used as search engines in their own right.
Preparing for the Future
To stay ahead of these changes, I recommend setting up a meeting with your marketing team to discuss the potential impact of AI overviews on your SEO strategy. Consider how you can adapt and diversify your efforts to maintain visibility and traffic. This might involve investing more in video content and optimizing for video search.
The future of SEO is uncertain, but it’s clear that AI overviews are transforming the search landscape. As marketers, we must adapt to these changes and explore new strategies to ensure our content remains visible and effective. If you have any thoughts or experiences with AI overviews, I’d love to hear from you. Connect with me on LinkedIn and share your insights.
Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for more discussions on the evolving world of digital marketing.
This post was adapted from a podcast episode I recorded on The People of Digital Marketing. Want to listen to the full episode? See below.
