The Impact of AI On Search Marketing
- Jade Faulconbridge
- Feb 22, 2024
- 4 min read
The world of organic and paid search has changed dramatically in the past couple of years, making it harder for marketers to know how or where to spend their efforts. We all know about the rise of AI and the search engines are employing this into their algorithms. Google’s calling it SGE, or search generative experience, and Bing has launches Co-Pilot, which it's monetising and integrating into most of its other products. For the purpose of this blog we’ll simplify these and use the term "AI search".
Whilst most of us have likely enjoyed using AI to assist with some content creation tasks, the uptake and integration into everyday roles has yet to be taken seriously. Yes there are companies who are using it (sometimes as an excuse to cut headcount), but we’re still at the very beginning of this journey and the wonders of what it can do have yet to be seen. It’s coming quickly though, so don’t blink too often.
So what's happening?
A reduction in SERP "real estate"
It used to be that there were two ways to show up on page 1: paid or organic. Now there’s AI. That means there’s less opportunity for your site to be shown on page 1 or above the fold. This is going to be one of the biggest mindset shifts for SEOs everywhere - not to build and create just for organic, but also for AI results
Interestingly, a recent study by Insight shows that Google’s AI search only uses page 1 for content 57% of the time, giving other pages 43% of air time. It sounds and looks like there’s a desire to bring in more information from places that don’t necessarily have good ranking, however, how this will play out is still to be seen as initial views are that the links are somewhat irrelevant.
Are we moving into a world where organic slowly fades away?
Cost increases
Some people are tempted to counter the reduction in organic results by paying to stay at the top. The likelihood the search engines will reduce their paid revenue streams are slim so you can (almost) guarantee that you can pay to be seen first. There is a catch though, and that’s the cost. Costs have been increasing for a while, but if demand increases those costs are only going to go one way. Whilst it might have been “free” to send 1,000 people to your website a couple of years ago, that’s going to cost you thousands of pounds in today’s world.
In real terms, I recently spoke with a business who were paying £6 for keyword rankings 18 months ago and are now paying over £30. This is a big increase!
So what can you do?
Don’t fret about traffic One of the biggest mistakes or distractions we see happening is a continued focus on traffic. It’s going to be harder to keep the same amount of traffic without either drastically increasing your paid budgets or nailing the AI algorithm. Add into the mix the new digital markets act requirements for cookie management tools and it seems hard to justify this as a headline metric. This needs to be communicated throughout your organisation too, as once reports start showing a month on month drop there’s likely to be a request to bring it back up. Instead, we recommend that you look at moving some of that energy into conversion rate optimisation and user experience. Improving how people use your website, how you display the information to visitors and how you ultimately convert them.
Up skill your SEOs in AI There’s a new competitor on the scene and it needs to be taken seriously. Whilst AI search is still being tested, the impact will be significant. Your SEOs need to be keeping on top of these changes as what will be the right way in 3 months will differ to what you should be doing in 6 months. It’s a very fluid area and knowing how to adapt and strengthen all elements of your SEO tactics will be key to success.
Expand your channels Search isn’t the only way to market so look at your overall strategy and work out how it is complimenting or working together with your other channels. There won’t be a right or wrong answer for your business depending on your audience and budget, but whatever you do, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
What else is happening?
Ask any 5 people to find something on the internet and watch how they do it, you’ll likely see 5 different ways. And this will change drastically if they’re all different ages. Here’s some of our final observations:
Image search has been threatening to become popular since Tineye was launched way back when, however, Google has stepped this up a notch with the recent ads promoting the feature on Android phones. Keep watching this one as it won’t be long before the first page isn’t only about text search.
Voice search remains popular, and its integration is widely available. Whether you’re asking your Firestick to open YouTube, Alexa to find a recipe, or Siri to show you directions, there are lots of different ways to use it. It’s quick, simple and if you get the commands right can save you time - do you consider this in your strategy?
Social search has been around for a long time. YouTube remains the second largest search engine in the world but TikTok is now seen as a credible source of information for a younger demographic. Whilst we can all argue the “credible” tag here it’s not putting off younger users who want to consume information in short video formats and from people who look and sound like them.
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