Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 3 weeks, it’s highly likely you will have heard of Chat GPT, BARD and Microsoft all respectively entering the AI race to launch tools which will revolutionise how people live their lives, find the things they need, educate themselves and even conduct their work.
Â
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) advances, it is impacting various industries, including us at Atomic as a Digital Marketing Agency, and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Agency. AI technology has the potential to revolutionise the way search engines work and how they deliver results to users. This article will explore the ways in which AI is set to change SEO, and what SEO professionals can do to adapt.
Â
Improved search results
One of the significant ways AI is set to change SEO is by improving the quality of search results. With AI, search engines can better understand user intent, providing more relevant and personalised results. Search algorithms can analyse user-behaviour, search history, and other data to understand what the user is looking for and deliver more targeted results. SEO professionals need to focus on creating high-quality content that satisfies user intent and improves user experience.
Â
Despite the above, we as a Digital Agency firmly believe the way people will use search engines will paradigmatically shift. We are confident Chatbots like ChatGPT, whether conducted through typing or search will become the predominant method people gather information and facts. Search engines on the other hand will remain commonplace for finding, comparing and reaching out to businesses.Â
Â
Natural language processing
AI is helping search engines understand natural language more accurately. With the advent of voice search and virtual assistants, SEO professionals need to optimise for long-tail, conversational queries across their web-pages and the content they produce. Keyword stuffing will become even less effective and keyword density requirements are likely to reduce as AI gets more and more clever; SEO professionals need to adapt and focus on creating content that answers user questions in a natural, conversational manner.
Â
Voice search optimisation
AI-powered virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are changing how users search for information. Voice searches are more conversational and longer than typed searches, meaning that SEO professionals need to adapt to optimise their content for these types of queries. Voice search queries often have a local intent, meaning that SEO professionals need to ensure that their content is optimised for local search.
Â
Image and video search
AI is helping search engines understand visual content more effectively, leading to improved image and video search results. Image and video search will become more critical for SEO, and SEO professionals need to focus on optimizing their visual content. Image and video search optimization can be done by adding metadata, captions, alt text, and transcripts to improve the search engine’s understanding of the content.
Â
Predictive analytics
AI can help predict user behaviour and search patterns, allowing for more targeted and effective SEO strategies. SEO professionals can use predictive analytics to understand the trends and patterns in user behaviour, allowing them to create content that satisfies user intent.
BACKLINKS
Â
WHAT SHOULD SEOS START DOING TO OPTIMISE FOR AI-ENHANCED SEARCH LIKE GOOGLE’S BARD?
Focus on user intent – AI is designed to understand user intent better, so your website needs to focus on creating high-quality content that satisfies user intent. You can achieve this by understanding what your target audience is looking for and creating content that meets their needs.
Use natural language – AI is getting better at understanding natural language, so it’s essential to optimise your content for conversational queries. You can achieve this by using long-tail keywords and creating content that answers questions in a natural, conversational tone.
Optimise for voice search  – With the increasing use of voice assistants, optimising your website for voice search is critical. Voice search queries are often longer and more conversational, so your content needs to answer questions in a conversational tone. Also, ensure that your website is optimised for local search, as voice searches are often location-specific.
Optimise for visual search  – AI is getting better at understanding visual content, so optimising your website for visual search is becoming more critical. You can achieve this by adding metadata, captions, alt text, and transcripts to your visual content to help the search engine understand what the content is about.
Improve website speed and mobile responsiveness – AI considers website speed and mobile responsiveness to be important factors in ranking websites. You can improve your website speed by reducing image size, minifying code, and using a content delivery network. Also, ensure that your website is mobile-friendly and optimised for mobile devices.
Utilise schema markup – Schema markup helps search engines understand the content on your website better. By using schema markup, you can provide additional information about your content, such as product information, reviews, and ratings.
Conclusion
AI is set to change SEO in significant ways, and SEO professionals need to adapt to stay ahead of the curve. SEO professionals need to focus on creating high-quality content that satisfies user intent, optimising for natural language, voice search, and visual content, and using predictive analytics to understand user behaviour. With AI changing the SEO landscape, SEO professionals need to remain flexible and adaptable to stay ahead of the competition.
