Key Takeaways
> Is SEO under threat of being replaced by AI?
> How would AI search engines implement SEO, if they do implement it?
> Read about the AI search engine’s impact on SEO in the blog below.
The year 2024 has been called the Era of AI, with AI entering all domains and creating tools for various tasks that could be done better with the use of AI!
OpenAI launched its very own search engine, SearchGPT, to be used alongside its AI, ChatGPT.
This has raised some concerns about the future of SEO, like
- Will the search engines be rendered useless with AI search engines?
- What would that mean for SEO, or search engine optimization?
- Will these AIs value organic searches, or will they switch to paid ads?
AI search engines will have better algorithms that will do better crawling and indexing! Beating them with SEO is going to be tougher compared to the current SEO practices used now.
If you are an SEO professional, a tech enthusiast, or a digital marketer, this blog will prepare you for what’s to come in terms of SEO and AI!
A few facts
> AI is expected to add USD 25.6 trillion to the world economy.
> 60% of the current jobs will have AI augmentation to make the lives of the workforce easier.
> 73% of companies in the USA are already using AI in some form in their business.
> More than 80% of world’s Fortune 500 companies have already adopted ChatGPT!
> While 46% of American companies have saved USD 25k to USD 70k using ChatGPT.
What are the AI Search Engines?
You know search engines, right?
Google, for example, is taking care of more than 90% of digital interactions all across the globe.
They have to manage the crawling and indexing of all the pages so that when the relevant keyword is searched, the results can be displayed.
To make this process fair, Google ranks websites and displays them accordingly! This process got the Search Engine Marketing (SEO + PPC) established!
But what if all this process gets replaced by an AI that is ready to handle so much computational pressure and data-basing requirements?
AI uses technologies like,
- Machine learning, or ML, to learn from the given data.
- Computer vision to use learnt knowledge and predict or prevent any mishaps.
- NLP, or the natural language processing, is used to understand human messages and their intent.
- And more to become more and more human-friendly!
If they start using it for search engines, then this search engine will use,
- NLP to decode search queries.
- ML to learn from the search data (text, voice and visual).
- Predictive Analysis to cater personalized UX or user experience.
- Computer Vision to use this knowledge and allow autonomous systems to run smoothly!
Thus enriching the whole search experience for the users and allowing brands to make their offerings more immersive and engaging.
Generative AI and SEO: The Evolution from Search Keywords to Intent
The evolution of search engines has been a remarkable change in our century.
There used to be a time when the search engines simply relied upon the search keywords, or more keyword density would mean a higher rank on the search engine result pages, or SERPs!
This later evolved into a better and all-inclusive ranking system that took many other things into account, like,
- Images and videos
- User Experience
- Backlinks
- Topical Authority
- Domain Authority and more enriched the search results!
But AI search engines are a class in themselves! They can easily understand the what, why, how, and when behind any search and define a powerful search intent.
This makes the UX quite refined but would make the lives of digital marketers difficult!
AI search engines: Examples
Here are a few examples of AI search engines that are available as of now!
- Google uses RankBrain AI to understand search queries and deliver appropriate results.
RankBrain is great at new queries that have never been asked before!
- Bing uses AI to improve its image searching capabilities.
- Yandex, a Russian search engine, uses Korolyov AI that excels at understanding the search queries’ contexts.
- OpenAI just launched SearchGPT, a search engine for its AI, ChatGPT!
As you can see, you are already using some form of AI in your search results.
AI and SEO: The Impact on Search Engines
AI search engines are starting to have a significant impact on SEO!
It is changing how digital marketers will optimize their content for better search result ranking.
The best part is that now search intent is more important than manipulation of search engine algorithms.
AI search engines can,
- Prioritize quality and content relevance.
- Understand the web page’s context and then align it with relevancy as per the search query.
Below are a few ways this impact is showing its face,
- Content Relevance and Quality Emphasis
- Reduced importance of Keyword stuffing
- Cruciality of Structured Websites (Easy to Understand for an AI)
- AI’s influence on Voice searches and thus its impact on SEO
- Boosted visual search capabilities via AI
Let’s further understand its meaning,
Content Quality over Keywords
The world of SEO was ruled by keywords even in the 21st century!
AI doesn’t focus on keyword density; rather, it focusses on the web page’s content—its relevance and context.
Thus, they are able to judge whether any web page will properly address a search query or not.
Thus, SEO professionals will now focus on creating top quality content that is easy to understand and provides a complete picture of the topics. And the content that answers the search query the best will now rank!
Machine Learning in SEO: The Role
Machine learning is en essential component of AI and helps in learning from the data to make necessary improvements to the AI. This helps make AI better every time it is used!
SEO professionals will have to adapt accordingly as well.
With it, SEO professionals can understand search patterns and trends. This will help digital marketers run their marketing campaigns better.
AI and SEO: Challenges & Opportunities
AI search engines present challenges and opportunities for SEO!
They are as follows,
Challenges
- Traditional SEO strategies were disrupted.
- AI and ML understandings are needed.
Opportunities
- New optimization possibilities for websites.
- Better Search results
- More targeted SEO strategies
- User centric SEO
We can further understand it below,
The Shift: Traditional SEO to AI-Driven SEO
For starters, the SEO had to switch from keywords to search intent.
SEO efforts will now be forced to understand the web pages and search queries rather than manipulating the search engines.
Plus, SEO experts will now be required to understand the workings of AI and ML. They will also need to use AI tools to optimize web pages now!
AI Tools for SEO Campaigns
AI tools will have to be used for SEO campaigns because they will help understand the search intent.
They can easily analyze trends and patterns via ML and help make websites much more personalized for users.
Also, some SEO tasks can be automated with the use of AI tools, freeing up time for SEO professionals to optimize their web pages better!
Ethical Considerations & User Privacy in AI Search Engines
There will always be some ethical and user privacy concerns when using the AI.
Since AI collects data to learn, it can infringe on users’ rights to data privacy! Thus, data collection would have to be negotiated between users and AI search engines.
Maybe a free & data-collected version and a paid & data-not-collected version can be launched by these AI search engines.
Plus, since AI is built by humans who might have some biases, it can have biases in its programming as well.
Thus, AI search engines will have to be constantly checked and rectified for any ethical or user privacy concerns!
The Future of SEO in AI Search Engines
The future of SEO is promising in the realm of AI search engines!
AI’s focus is to make the user experience better, so they personalize the results. This is great news for users and a welcome change in the SEO community.
AI can further help in figuring out the possible budgets needed for each marketing channel. This will boost the quality & efficiency of the digital marketing campaigns.
SEO professionals will now have to learn more about AI and its impact on their digital marketing strategies, be it the scalability of SEO, SEO decision-making, or real-time data analysis.
Conclusion: The convergence of AI and SEO Expertise
AI will not render SEO useless in the future. It will only enhance SEO capabilities and boost the user experience.
Now, digital marketers will be required to attain expertise in both AI tools and SEO to implement SEO in line with the AI search engine’s mission.
This will help SEO professionals stay updated and always in motion, which will result in better and more informed SEO practices.
But the ethical concerns raised by AI cannot be ignored and will have to be taken seriously so that the AI integration is not hampered!
Wildnet Technologies has been catering SEO services to our clients for 17+ years.
Recently, we have started using AI in our digital marketing efforts, and to our clients’ delight, the resultant marketing campaigns have gotten better!
We also excel in AI solutions via our software consulting services.
If you would like to learn more,
> Leveraging AI for Digital Marketing in 2024
> Top 10 free AI to Human Text Convertors of 2024
> Wildnet’s Digital Yum (our thought leadership’s POV on the latest tech and trends)
Contact us now at info@wildnettechnologies.com and get your SEO campaigns AI-ready!
FAQs
How is AI going to affect content SEO strategies in 2024?
AI is going to make SEO campaigns more user-centric and thus deliver a better user experience.
Can SEO be replaced by AI?
At least in the near future, SEO cannot be replaced by AI.
Is SEO dead due to AI?
Traditional SEO is dead, for sure!
But the new age of SEO, which is ready to adapt and scale whenever needed, is apt for AI integration and implementation.
How will AI search affect SEO?
AI search will divert attention from keyword stuffing to actually enriching the web pages enough to transform them into gifts for the visitors.
This will boost the UX and, thus, result in a greater DA!
What is the future of SEO in 2030?
Let 2030 come, and then we will see!
Right now, SEO must be used to improve and personalizing the UX of any web page. This will ensure the relevance of SEO.
This relevance can help in upgrading SEO whenever needed!