In the last couple of years, the major search engines have begun offering an AI overview of the answers to search queries. As a result, the structure of these queries has shifted dramatically, as has the way people interact with their search results. Instead of two- to three-word bursts of predictable keywords, many users now phrase their queries as more conversational questions.
And often the answer they receive comes in the form of the AI overview at the top of the search results. No clicks required.
This shift in user behavior has forced website owners to shift their strategy to be relevant to search engines and rank well in search results. The field of AI SEO is proving to be as distinct from the SEO of even three years ago as the early SEO strategies were different from the era of banner ads and pop-ups.
No clicking necessary: How search engines became a one-stop shop
Gone are the days when users just browsed the top 10 or 20 Google results that appeared in response to their queries. Today, the search engine’s AI generates a few paragraphs intended to satisfy the user’s search for information. And while this summary can be incorrect (sometimes laughably so), in more than half of the cases, the user is satisfied and doesn’t click a link among the search results.
So if users are not following links to webpages on Google over half the time, what is the goal of SEO?
Savvy businesses are pivoting away from trying to draw clicks from users on search engines. Instead, they are creating content structured to appeal to the search engine’s AI, in an effort to have their information – and their name – incorporated into the AI overview.
The clearer and authoritative your content and the simpler the structure of your site is, the more likely that AI will anoint your page as a reliable source from which to draw its conclusions for searchers.
Sentences are back in style: How queries have changed
The old search style tended to encourage a closely cropped list of keywords. Extraneous terms (“How Do I,” “Where Should I”) could send Google down an unwanted rabbit trail.
The more conversational nature of the AI overview, on the other hand, has encouraged users to treat a search as an interaction. They often begin with a question, consisting of a subject, verb and modifiers. If it isn’t a complete sentence, it’s pretty close.
This doesn’t mean that keywords are a thing of the past. Generative AI is good at identifying keywords within this sentence structure (much better than the original search algorithms).
For this reason, business owners still need to stay on top of their keyword research. Once more, the focus needs to be on making your content accessible and attractive for the AI’s gleaning.
Quality engagement: Conversions are better with traffic from AI search
The good news in all this is that when users choose a site to visit from their conversations with AI, they are often close to the decision point.
When fed good data, AI is also often quite adept at sending the right customers to the right vendors. That means your web traffic from AI search is of a higher quality and that, odds are, searchers will want what you’re offering.
Don’t worry; search isn’t dead. It is evolving, and if your business can learn to ride the leading edge of this evolution, the rewards of traffic and leads can be significant.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
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