Stop worrying about the future and start optimizing for it

Jake says: “It’s okay to not know exactly how generative AI and SGE are going to change the long-term future of search – because none of us really do. Google have already admitted that they are acting boldly and reimagining their core search product.

However, while we are stepping into the unknown, you should still be forward-thinking about the future of the data you use and how your search strategy will be impacted.”

What’s likely to be impacted by SGE initially?

“A common theme with organic search over the last 5-10 years is declining organic click-through rates. If you think about how SERPs have evolved since the early days of 10 blue links, there’s always been a decline in traffic going to sites through organic links – whether through increased paid spots or search engines catering to user intent as soon as they land on that SERP. Declining click-through rates and a decline in organic traffic aren’t anything new. SEO, as a discipline, has evolved and adapted from that.

This isn’t one of the ‘SEO is dead’ scenarios which seem to happen almost every month. We need to think about how we adapt, and how our strategy adapts as well. SEOs have a lot of very useful skills that provide benefits outside of SEO. When you’re working with clients, think about how you can adapt those skills to show benefits outside of search, as well as trying to get traffic from search itself.”

Is optimizing to appear in the number one AI-driven answer different to optimizing for the number one SERP result?

“To win in organic search right now, you’re not necessarily optimizing a page for a keyword; you’re optimizing the digital experience for users. Over the last 3-5 years, with Google algorithm updates, there has been this shift toward providing holistic optimization of your website. That can be through page experience and site speed, providing genuinely useful, in-depth content, making sure that the media in your content is tailored towards user intent – or even off-site signals like building out a positive brand perception through digital PR.

All of these holistic signals come together to improve search rankings, whether that be in the classic blue links or within generative AI results. Realistically, that’s what Google and other search engines have shown that they like to rank highly. It would be quite a significant shift if that were to change within generative AI results.”

If your brand does get featured within an AI-driven answer, how do you track that?

“This is another area in which we need to adapt. The data that we have used in the past to talk about SEO and benchmark performance is not going to be the same within these generative AI answers.

If someone types a question and someone else types the same question in a slightly different way, it might give a slightly different answer, which might be pulled from a different source. It’s going to be really hard to track performance within those results over time in the way that we’ve done it historically. Although it fluctuates, classic keyword rank tracking is a little bit more stable; it’s just 10 blue links, not generative AI content.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the SEO industry adapts to that – and I don’t have the answer. We won’t know until we start getting that data through third-party suppliers or even Google themselves. Google haven’t been open and honest about the kind of data we are going to get from SGE, so we’re stepping into the unknown there as well.

One of the USPs of these generative AI features within search is that it can be a conversation with the user. They can ask things that are bespoke to their need, so everyone is going to be getting slightly different answers. Tracking that is obviously going to be a big job because there are going to be so many variations. I do not envy the person whose job it is to try and come up with the right data there, but good luck to them.”

Do SEOs need to start having focus groups and direct conversations with users to understand the funnels that they take?

“It would be a really interesting concept to have people come together in a focus group, give them something that they need to do in search, and see the differences between the information that they get.

Obviously, that might not be a cost-effective way of doing things, but it will be interesting to see how the information that people get differs, and the brands that they see through those experiences within SGE.”

How do you compare your performance with AI and SGE to how you used to perform on a more traditional SERP?

“The value of position one with SGE is not going to be the same as the value of position one pre-SGE. If you’re still ranking position one on a ranking report, but you’re getting significantly less traffic, there is going to need to be a pre- and post-comparison there. The data is not like for like.

If you still rank one but your traffic has decreased, you could pull a CTR curve for your rankings and see just how much your click-through rate has decreased over time. That’s something that we’ve done for clients and businesses, even pre-SGE, when new SERP features get added for a keyword that is really important to them.

We would then be able to show them that their ranking may have remained stable, but the average click-through rate for a set of keywords might have dropped. Although things are looking good on paper, because of things that are outside of our control, the click-through rate has dropped. You can show them the data to back that up.”

Can SEOs be doing anything now to future-proof their site for appearing in AI-driven results?

“The whole strategy of being an authority on a topic, and providing information about a whole topic or entity, is still going to be important. Show Google that you know what you’re talking about and the information that you have is worth being shown in any type of result. The tactics that have come out of things like the helpful content update and EEAT are still going to be very important.

However, there is an additional step as well. You need to future-proof yourself for organic search success, which is always going to include making sure you have the content, making sure you’re doing great with your tech SEO and UX, you have the links, etc. Now, though, you also need to think about how your search strategy can change to take customers outside of a search interaction with your brand. Then, you can own that customer interaction through different channels.”

Can SEOs utilise GA4 for all of their analytics or do you favour other analytics packages for understanding the user journey?

“GA4 is what it is. I’m not a huge fan of it right now, but a lot of brands and sites are stuck with it because of their historical data and the ties that they have. I don’t think any analytics package is perfect. GA4 has its flaws and that’s fine; we’ll get by with what we have.

In terms of understanding that customer journey and future-proofing, you want to start gathering your zero-party or first-party data through whatever channel people come to your website. Then, you want to be taking more ownership of using that data so that you can have direct contact with your customers through your CRM.

If you’ve created a positive brand experience through your search strategy, and you can give your users some sort of value when they land on your site, they will want to give you their email address or whatever it be. You can cut out the middleman of organic search and invest in trying to foster that relationship directly with them instead.”

Are customers going to rely on chatbots and other forms of online communication, or will email still be key over the next few years?

“Chatbots are interesting because there could be a lot of potential there, if they can get the technology to provide a really authentic and genuine experience. From my experience with chatbots, I’ve typically not been able to do what I’ve wanted.

If a brand invests in something like chatbots, but it’s not done well, that can break the relationship between the user and the brand because you’re not providing a great experience there. However, as we’ve seen, it’s changing so quickly. There is a possibility that those AI-led chatbot experiences could be a lot more authentic pretty soon.

You need to think about what the customer prefers, and a lot of bigger brands have the different options that users are looking for. There are more and more brands operating through WhatsApp, including big companies. Even things like TV shows and radio stations now have the option to contact them through WhatsApp. Organisations and companies need to adapt to what a user wants rather than forcing them to use one form of communication or another.

If you have the infrastructure in place to offer all possible options, that’s great, but you should at least be offering the specific options your users want.”

If an SEO is struggling for time, what should they stop doing right now so they can spend more time doing what you suggest in 2024?

“As I said at the very beginning, stop worrying if you don’t know how AI is going to change your SEO strategy and what the future looks like. It’s okay. The industry doesn’t really know either. The more that you stop worrying about that, and take ownership of the fact that you don’t know, the more you will start to think about what it might look like and what you can do to try and future-proof yourself.

That gives you the power to then make decisions based on what you do know or the assumptions that you’ve made. Hopefully, that takes at least some of the worry off your plate.”

Jake Gauntley is Senior SEO Account Director at KINESSO, and you can find him over at JakeGauntley.com.