SEO is About to Change
Forever– and for the Better
Generative AI is Coming to Search Results: Why
That’s Good News for SEO Pros
Agenda
• SEO Overview / History Lesson
• What’s Next for the Industry
• 5 Predictions Why Google’s SGE Could
be a Good Thing for SEO pros
• Where to Start
2
Source: Hubspot
Source: BrightEdge
Source: Statcounter
SEO accounts for
$70 Billion
in annual marketing
investment from U.S.
companies.
Source: Borrell Associates
There are an estimated 5.6 billion Google
searches per day.
Websites rely on search for 68% of their traffic
on average.
Google owns 93% market share for search
engines, followed by Bing at 3%.
Crawling Rendering & Indexing Ranking in Search Results
How Search Engines Work & SEO’s Role in the Process
Source: searchengineland.com
SEO’s Role
Search engine bots crawl
the web for content
SEO’s Role SEO’s Role
Websites return content
upon request, and
search bots index URLS
Search engines return
web content believed to
be relevant to the query
Ensure important URLs can be
easily found across the web
Ensure content can be
rendered and is legible to a
search engine the same way
a user would read it, and the
content is indexable
Ensure web pages are relevant
for target queries and of high
enough content quality to rank
Search companies are constantly improving their products to ensure they’re
surfacing the most useful and relevant results. SEO methods have evolved to match.
2011 Panda
Purpose: To combat low
quality sites
2012 Venice
Purpose: To include
results based on a
searcher’s location
2012 Penguin
Purpose: To discourage
acquiring unnatural
backlinks
2012 Pirate
Purpose: To bar
copyright-infringing
content from SERPs
Source: Yoast.com
2013 Hummingbird
Purpose: To better understand
search queries
2013 Pigeon
Purpose: To improve
local search results
2014 HTTPS/SSL
Purpose: Encouraging site
owners to implement HTTPS
2015 Mobile
Purpose: Encouraging site
owners to think mobile-first
2015 Rankbrain
Purpose: To improve Google’s
understanding of the meaning
behind queries
2016 Possum
Purpose: To improve
localization of search results
2018 Medic
Purpose: To better match
reputable results to
searcher's intent
2018 Mobile Speed
Purpose: To include site
speed as a ranking factor for
mobile searches
2021 Page Experience
Purpose: To highlight pages that
offer great user experiences
2021 MUM
Purpose: To provide answers
to complex questions
2022 Helpful Content
Purpose: To bring more focus
on original, helpful, high
quality content
2019 BERT
Purpose: To further improve interpretation
of the user’s search query
AI-generated search results are the next major evolution of search products.
Google’s Search
Generative Experience
Bing Chat
● Search-native AI results
● Available via waitlist
● Based on Google’s history
developing “transformers”
● No rollout plan has been
announced yet.
● Available in open beta
● Chat-based AI results
● Cites websites used to
generate AI results
The SEO industry as a long history of trying
to “game the system…”
… and Google has a long history of patching
those loopholes (proactively).
Consider AI search results the next upcoming
“patch” for algorithm loophole-finders.
… especially if it’s written by
ChatGPT (topic for another talk).
Reminder: there’s no such
thing as “SEO content”
Content is for users– not
search engines.
We’re better than this! >>
Content written only for
SEO makes for a poor
search experience.
Source: The Verge
AI content considerations– from the horse’s mouth:
Spam Policies
“...using automation– including AI–
to generate content with the
primary purpose of manipulating
ranking in search results is a
violation of our spam policies”
- Google
Expertise & Experience
“[AI engines] do not have a true
understanding of the world, they
are prone to hallucinating, and
crucially they are incapable of
justifying their utterances….”
- Google Researchers
Uniqueness &
Helpfulness
Per Google, they will continue
“...maintaining a high bar for
information quality and the overall
helpfulness of content…”
Google’s Bard launch demo cited
incorrect info about the James Webb
Space Telescope
These AI products are still very
much in a testing phase :)
leading to a $100 billion decline in
Google’s market value*
Bing’s chat AI believed it was still 2022
and proceeded to argue about it with a
user who was testing the product
*source: NPR
But if SGE was to roll out in current state, it would drastically impact SEO
performance and methodologies.
Current Google Search Experience Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) Test
#2 in
Organic
Results
#2 in
Organic
Results
AI generated results–
could include:
● Paid or organic shopping
results
● Brand content (website,
social, PR)
● Local results
● Informational/NORA
query responses
13
5 Predictions Why SGE
will be a Good Thing for
SEO Pros
Business intel
& KPI
alignment
Understand
what users are
searching for
Give users
what they’re
searching for
Show proof
on other sites
that people
care about us
Make sure
search
engines
understand
the content
Are we
achieving
what we set
out to do?
How can we
improve to
scale?
Know Your Customer &
Their Needs
The basics will still apply: know your customer, what they search for, and the
impact of AI on those results.
1
Be in the Right Place
with the Right Stuff
Continuously Improve
AI search journey:
● Search once
● Ask follow-ups
● Read about products
● Visit a website to purchase
Website traffic from organic search will be more qualified than ever.
2
“Standard” search journey:
● Visit 4-5 different websites
● Compare different products,
prices, features
● Search 3-4 different queries
● Read reviews
● Make a purchase
SEO practitioners will be held more accountable for real results
(not vanity metrics).
3
#2 in
Organic
Results
Old SEO
Primary
KPIs:
New SEO
Primary
KPIs:
Keyword rankings Organic traffic
Organic
conversions /
transactions
Non-brand
impressions
Non-brand organic
traffic (& quality)
Est. non-brand
conversion value /
revenue
… to holistic, thought out approaches to
content, PR, web development, and UX.
SEO strategies will be forced to
evolve from task-oriented delivery…
4
SEO
PR Content
UX
Web
Development
SEO efforts will have to focus less on search engines, and more on users.
5
“...using automation– including
AI– to generate content with the
primary purpose of manipulating
ranking in search results is a
violation of our spam policies”
- Google
With the intro of AI, it’s now on content
creators to create a better web– and
work toward a shared goal with search
engines (vs against them) of
delivering quality results.
19
Summary & Where
to Start
SEO approaches that won’t work for SGE:
● “The only SEO checklist you’ll ever need”
● Rankings as a #1 KPI
● Optimizing only for keywords
● Target word count
● “SEO content”
SEO approaches that will work for SGE:
● Optimizing for users, not search engines
● Incorporating more bottom-line KPIs
● Optimizing for intent
● Appropriate topical coverage based on user needs
● Quality content
Tactical starting points
● Audit your content: is it quality? Written for users, or search engines?
● Assess informational vs mid or low-funnel non-brand traffic impact
○ What would happen to organic performance if you lost all
informational traffic?
● Start playing with the tools
○ Assess your top traffic-driving queries: what do AI results look like?
What role do they play in your customer’s journey?
The remaining unknowns:
● Measurement of engagement with AI results
● Breadth of queries that will be impacted, and to what extent
● When SGE will roll out
● Adoption of AI search results
Bonus Content: High-Level ChatGPT Use Cases for SEO
What ChatGPT Can Do What ChatGPT Can’t Do
ChatGPT is a tool, not a strategist. It is
incapable of justifying outputs with research
or expert opinion, prioritizing tactics, or
developing fully-baked content with
accuracy and precision.
● Optimize content for SEO purposes (natural keyword
utilization and alignment with search intent)
● Provide expert opinions, points-of-view, or
proprietary content that competitors can’t replicate.
● Inform content outputs with SEO research (i.e.,
search volume and competitiveness) without the
use of a premium version or an extension.
With human editing, ChatGPT can:
● Support the creation of new web page outlines
● Small-scale content creation (i.e., article titles)
● Support for technical or code-based tasks (i.e.,
structured data for web pages)
With very specific direction and human
fact-checking, ChatGPT can provide some
efficient support for specific content
creation, technical SEO, or analysis tasks.
24
Thank You!

Generative AI and SEO

  • 1.
    SEO is Aboutto Change Forever– and for the Better Generative AI is Coming to Search Results: Why That’s Good News for SEO Pros
  • 2.
    Agenda • SEO Overview/ History Lesson • What’s Next for the Industry • 5 Predictions Why Google’s SGE Could be a Good Thing for SEO pros • Where to Start 2
  • 3.
    Source: Hubspot Source: BrightEdge Source:Statcounter SEO accounts for $70 Billion in annual marketing investment from U.S. companies. Source: Borrell Associates There are an estimated 5.6 billion Google searches per day. Websites rely on search for 68% of their traffic on average. Google owns 93% market share for search engines, followed by Bing at 3%.
  • 4.
    Crawling Rendering &Indexing Ranking in Search Results How Search Engines Work & SEO’s Role in the Process Source: searchengineland.com SEO’s Role Search engine bots crawl the web for content SEO’s Role SEO’s Role Websites return content upon request, and search bots index URLS Search engines return web content believed to be relevant to the query Ensure important URLs can be easily found across the web Ensure content can be rendered and is legible to a search engine the same way a user would read it, and the content is indexable Ensure web pages are relevant for target queries and of high enough content quality to rank
  • 5.
    Search companies areconstantly improving their products to ensure they’re surfacing the most useful and relevant results. SEO methods have evolved to match. 2011 Panda Purpose: To combat low quality sites 2012 Venice Purpose: To include results based on a searcher’s location 2012 Penguin Purpose: To discourage acquiring unnatural backlinks 2012 Pirate Purpose: To bar copyright-infringing content from SERPs Source: Yoast.com 2013 Hummingbird Purpose: To better understand search queries 2013 Pigeon Purpose: To improve local search results 2014 HTTPS/SSL Purpose: Encouraging site owners to implement HTTPS 2015 Mobile Purpose: Encouraging site owners to think mobile-first 2015 Rankbrain Purpose: To improve Google’s understanding of the meaning behind queries 2016 Possum Purpose: To improve localization of search results 2018 Medic Purpose: To better match reputable results to searcher's intent 2018 Mobile Speed Purpose: To include site speed as a ranking factor for mobile searches 2021 Page Experience Purpose: To highlight pages that offer great user experiences 2021 MUM Purpose: To provide answers to complex questions 2022 Helpful Content Purpose: To bring more focus on original, helpful, high quality content 2019 BERT Purpose: To further improve interpretation of the user’s search query
  • 6.
    AI-generated search resultsare the next major evolution of search products. Google’s Search Generative Experience Bing Chat ● Search-native AI results ● Available via waitlist ● Based on Google’s history developing “transformers” ● No rollout plan has been announced yet. ● Available in open beta ● Chat-based AI results ● Cites websites used to generate AI results
  • 7.
    The SEO industryas a long history of trying to “game the system…” … and Google has a long history of patching those loopholes (proactively). Consider AI search results the next upcoming “patch” for algorithm loophole-finders.
  • 8.
    … especially ifit’s written by ChatGPT (topic for another talk). Reminder: there’s no such thing as “SEO content” Content is for users– not search engines.
  • 9.
    We’re better thanthis! >> Content written only for SEO makes for a poor search experience. Source: The Verge
  • 10.
    AI content considerations–from the horse’s mouth: Spam Policies “...using automation– including AI– to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies” - Google Expertise & Experience “[AI engines] do not have a true understanding of the world, they are prone to hallucinating, and crucially they are incapable of justifying their utterances….” - Google Researchers Uniqueness & Helpfulness Per Google, they will continue “...maintaining a high bar for information quality and the overall helpfulness of content…”
  • 11.
    Google’s Bard launchdemo cited incorrect info about the James Webb Space Telescope These AI products are still very much in a testing phase :) leading to a $100 billion decline in Google’s market value* Bing’s chat AI believed it was still 2022 and proceeded to argue about it with a user who was testing the product *source: NPR
  • 12.
    But if SGEwas to roll out in current state, it would drastically impact SEO performance and methodologies. Current Google Search Experience Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) Test #2 in Organic Results #2 in Organic Results AI generated results– could include: ● Paid or organic shopping results ● Brand content (website, social, PR) ● Local results ● Informational/NORA query responses
  • 13.
    13 5 Predictions WhySGE will be a Good Thing for SEO Pros
  • 14.
    Business intel & KPI alignment Understand whatusers are searching for Give users what they’re searching for Show proof on other sites that people care about us Make sure search engines understand the content Are we achieving what we set out to do? How can we improve to scale? Know Your Customer & Their Needs The basics will still apply: know your customer, what they search for, and the impact of AI on those results. 1 Be in the Right Place with the Right Stuff Continuously Improve
  • 15.
    AI search journey: ●Search once ● Ask follow-ups ● Read about products ● Visit a website to purchase Website traffic from organic search will be more qualified than ever. 2 “Standard” search journey: ● Visit 4-5 different websites ● Compare different products, prices, features ● Search 3-4 different queries ● Read reviews ● Make a purchase
  • 16.
    SEO practitioners willbe held more accountable for real results (not vanity metrics). 3 #2 in Organic Results Old SEO Primary KPIs: New SEO Primary KPIs: Keyword rankings Organic traffic Organic conversions / transactions Non-brand impressions Non-brand organic traffic (& quality) Est. non-brand conversion value / revenue
  • 17.
    … to holistic,thought out approaches to content, PR, web development, and UX. SEO strategies will be forced to evolve from task-oriented delivery… 4 SEO PR Content UX Web Development
  • 18.
    SEO efforts willhave to focus less on search engines, and more on users. 5 “...using automation– including AI– to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies” - Google With the intro of AI, it’s now on content creators to create a better web– and work toward a shared goal with search engines (vs against them) of delivering quality results.
  • 19.
  • 20.
    SEO approaches thatwon’t work for SGE: ● “The only SEO checklist you’ll ever need” ● Rankings as a #1 KPI ● Optimizing only for keywords ● Target word count ● “SEO content” SEO approaches that will work for SGE: ● Optimizing for users, not search engines ● Incorporating more bottom-line KPIs ● Optimizing for intent ● Appropriate topical coverage based on user needs ● Quality content
  • 21.
    Tactical starting points ●Audit your content: is it quality? Written for users, or search engines? ● Assess informational vs mid or low-funnel non-brand traffic impact ○ What would happen to organic performance if you lost all informational traffic? ● Start playing with the tools ○ Assess your top traffic-driving queries: what do AI results look like? What role do they play in your customer’s journey?
  • 22.
    The remaining unknowns: ●Measurement of engagement with AI results ● Breadth of queries that will be impacted, and to what extent ● When SGE will roll out ● Adoption of AI search results
  • 23.
    Bonus Content: High-LevelChatGPT Use Cases for SEO What ChatGPT Can Do What ChatGPT Can’t Do ChatGPT is a tool, not a strategist. It is incapable of justifying outputs with research or expert opinion, prioritizing tactics, or developing fully-baked content with accuracy and precision. ● Optimize content for SEO purposes (natural keyword utilization and alignment with search intent) ● Provide expert opinions, points-of-view, or proprietary content that competitors can’t replicate. ● Inform content outputs with SEO research (i.e., search volume and competitiveness) without the use of a premium version or an extension. With human editing, ChatGPT can: ● Support the creation of new web page outlines ● Small-scale content creation (i.e., article titles) ● Support for technical or code-based tasks (i.e., structured data for web pages) With very specific direction and human fact-checking, ChatGPT can provide some efficient support for specific content creation, technical SEO, or analysis tasks.
  • 24.