AI search engines: What you need to know about AI and SEO
Old-school marketers remember the ripples and waves of Google Panda. AI search will have a similar impact.
Microsoft Bing: the AI copilot to the web
Good news, everyone. Microsoft has reinvented search.
We can, of course, assume that this is a desperate attempt to remain relevant. Despite constantly asking us to install Microsoft Edge (and, by association, use Bing), Google still holds 83% of the search engine market.
But while Microsoft may have beaten Google to the punch in the realm of AI search, Google is soon to follow; Google announced its AI-powered search at this year’s Google I/O.
Let’s look at how Microsoft’s AI copilot works:
It’s not dissimilar to ChatGPT; it’s the same type of language model. But there are a few things of note:
- Bing’s AI is still pulling from the top search results, but it’s also using some meta-information: ratings.
- Bing’s AI is only returning information from the top two search results. So, landscaper #3 has already fallen off the top results.
Next, let’s ask Bing what the “best CMS” is:
Interestingly, this creates an extremely opinionated article about the best CMS. If we scroll down, we can see that this information is still based on search results:
And, of course, the information given is fairly vacuous. But it’s enough for practically anyone trying to run this type of search.
Defeating the cliff of AI relevancy
Those two examples were intentional. Many SEO professionals work with businesses tethered to a geographic location (such as a pet salon in Jacksonville or a plumber in San Diego). Other SEO professionals work with SaaS products or B2B solutions either nationally or globally.
AI-generated search doesn’t make SEO entirely irrelevant. But from now on, organizations may have significantly reduced chances of being seen if they aren’t in the first two results, let alone the first page.
Most importantly, note that the returned results for “best CMS” were TechRadar, Hostinger, and WPBeginner. Publications will become far more important to those who want to extend their brand.
We can acknowledge that most of us are marketing for enterprise B2B companies. Our CEOs, CTOs, and other C-suite stakeholders aren’t asking Bing which software product they should invest in.
But they still could be getting started there.
The way we interact with search is changing
There’s something bracingly accelerating about AI. But AI is only revealing already extant inadequacies and shifts.
Increasingly, individual users have already been moving away from search engines and toward social media. Earlier this year, a Frontier survey discovered that 80% of users preferred to search via social media than the web.
And you’ll also note that the way people are searching has changed. Today, people are far more inclined to type “What’s a great bakery near me?” rather than “bakeries Virginia.”
Let’s be honest. Most of us don’t want to spend the rest of our lives appending “+Reddit” to our search engine queries. Search results have been terrible for a long time. AI might not be the best answer to this problem, but at minimum, it is an answer.
For the good of the many, the sacrifice of the few
Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. It’s not just a meme; it’s soon to be the reality for many professionals.
To optimize for search, you will need to be very good at optimizing for search. To surface content, you must also be good at other things, such as public relations and community building.
At the heart of every search engine (AI or not) is the user and their needs. And most users don’t need three thousand comparison pages on the best content management system: they need one answer that encompasses everything.
Digital content as a persistent asset
Rather than publishing constant influxes of new media, organizations must start thinking of their content as an asset. Consider content a suite of living, valuable documents continuously curated and pruned.
Each piece of content must be extraordinarily valuable, with its value being measured both short-term and long-term. Rather than fine-tuning it for keyword placement, it should be fine-tuned for its value to the broader community. Rather than optimizing it for keywords, it should be QA and UX tested.
And there is nothing more important than robust analytics.
As we move into the AI realm, there will be no shortage of mindless (and even enjoyable) content. There’s no longer an advantage to content for content’s sake. Instead, everything must be purposeful, intentional, and strategic.
