“Back in my day, we didn’t have voice commands and AI search engines… We had to click on things, and type in words, with our hands! It was painful, backbreaking. Millions of people ended up with carpal tunnel. Yes, they were tough times – but we were tougher.”

TIPS & TRICKS

Is SEO Going Away? What’s Next for Marketing Products and Services Online?

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For two decades, Google has been far and away the go-to source for finding products, services, and information on the web, largely due to their “traffic directing” that finds relevant links to websites that can help the user. As such, their SEO (short for Search Engine Optimization) guidelines are closely watched by digital marketers, all for the purpose of ranking highly on page 1 when a potential customer types something in the search bar.
But the times, they are a changin’.

Arguably, the first really significant change came in 2000, when Google started selling the top few slots as “paid search results.” This did two things: 1) It made it easier for marketers to get their website to the top of the listings now. 2) It made it so that Page 1 of the search results had 3 fewer slots for organic results.

No big deal. We adapted. But with Google’s imminent inclusion of their AI model “Bard,” the search page is about to change drastically once again.

Changes to the Internet Search Results Page

Google is shifting from a purely link-based result and moving towards a more conversational approach that feels less like “Ask Jeeves” and more like “Chat GPT.” This has a lot of implications for digital marketers, but the first is immediately apparent:

There will now be even less real estate on a search results page for links.

The AI-powered answers that Google is moving towards pull from multiple sources online and present the user with information in an attempt to directly answer their query. This large block of text is prioritized at the top of the results, and does not necessarily drive users to your site the way the old system does.

This means a few things for ecommerce:

1) The Wild West is about to be over.

Web 2.0 was an exciting, freewheeling time where anyone could stake a claim on digital real estate, drive traffic, and rake in the rewards. As Google and other search engines shift away from trying to simply direct traffic and instead co-opt your content for repurposing as direct answers, we are heading into more of a “digital feudalism,” where the only way to gain exposure to your products or services is via searches on Amazon, Groupon, Etsy, etc.

Though Google’s SEO guidelines certainly prioritized certain kinds of content, the tech giant nevertheless used to act as a great equalizer. In the future, that is likely to no longer be the case.

2) AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) may soon overtake SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

For those marketers still vying for a share of the shrinking number of clicks from Google, this means stepping away from content aggregation and repurposing, and towards a more straightforward Q&A content library that is easy for AI to understand and pass on. This may include demonstrating expertise and real user experience with your services, products, or industry, and it may mean that new content stays “green” for less time.

3) There may be a way to thread the needle.

For all of our (justifiable) awe over the technology involved with machine learning applications and predictive text mechanisms (such as Chat GPT), the content that they create is, well, not very good.

It’s great for brainstorming or quickly gathering information, but it tends to spit out bland, generic, vague writing that sounds like an earnest yet deeply ignorant seventh-grader with good grammar. This problem only gets worse as AI-generated content floods the internet, and AI models start learning off of AI-generated content, rather than human-created, original material.

Technology moves fast, and it is possible that we’ll see exponential improvement in the output of this tech in the near future, but for the moment, don’t abandon traditional SEO just yet. Keep writing high-quality, relevant material on a consistent basis, optimizing your site’s performance, and building backlinks to high authority sites. Just be ready to change tactics as Google rolls out its new program in the coming months and years.

Need help navigating SEO or other digital marketing strategies? Fidelitas, the Believer-owned agency that powers this newsletter, is a great place to start.

Quick Hits

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• A shocking 95% of Americans report plans to look for a new job in 2024, according to a new survey.
• Amidst an ongoing legal battle, Google is on the hook to delete illegally acquired user data.
• Planet Fitness is the latest brand to have a Bud Light “hold my beer” moment and is ripe for backlash after canceling a Christian woman’s membership over its trans policy.
• UK Grocer Iceland is feeling the heat after removing the “cross” from its hot crossed buns.
• The Supreme Court heard arguments last week concerning the legality of abortion pills.

Guess the Prompt

Our “Embracing Technology” graphic was generated using AI prompts. Guess the prompt for your chance to win Sent To Win gear. Just reply to this email with your best guess.

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