The Impact Of AI And Google's Algorithm Updates On SEO Pushes Us To Adopt New Strategies
Over the last 2 years, Google has made radical changes to its search algorithm that resulted in many
business
losing organic traffic. Google's zero-click strategy and recent AI based search are pushing everyone to adapt
their SEO strategies. Let's explore promising solutions for your customer acquisition process!
About Zero-Click Search And How Generative AI Changes Everything
Google zero-click is a search result feature that provides users with direct answers to their
queries without requiring them to click on any of the search results. This means that the information users are
seeking is displayed at the top of the search engine results page (SERP), often in the form of a featured
snippet, direct answer box, or knowledge panel. This can include information such as a person's age, a date, or
a quick answer to a simple question.
One of the first zero-click strategies that Google rolled out was the so-called "featured
snippets". Google answers a question directly in the SERP by trying to take a relevant extract from a website:
The goal of zero-click search results is to provide users with immediate answers to their
queries, reducing the need for them to navigate to a website to find the information they're looking for. This
can be beneficial for users who are looking for quick information, but it can also impact the amount of traffic
that websites receive from search engines.
According to a study by Semrush, in 2022, 25.6% of desktop searches and 17.3% of mobile
searches resulted in zero clicks.
In 2024, Google is gradually rolling out an "AI overview" feature. Google now leverages
generative AI in order to answer questions in the SERP. Google's featured snippets discourage users to click on
your website but still show your website below the answer. Generative AI is different: your website might have
been used by Google to train their own AI model, but they do not mention your website below their answer. Here
is an example:
About Google's Algorithm Changes These Last 2 Years
Over the last two years, Google has implemented several significant changes to its search
algorithm and policies to improve the quality of search results and combat spammy, low-quality content. These
updates have included changes to the core ranking systems, new spam policies, and updates to how Google assesses
content overall.
One of the most notable updates was the March 2024 Core Update, which aimed to reduce
low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%. This update involved changes to multiple core systems
and marked a shift in Google's approach to finding "helpful" results and ranking them. The March 2024 update
also introduced improved quality ranking and new and improved spam policies to keep the lowest-quality content
out of search results.
Source: Semrush
In addition to the March 2024 update, Google launched 4,725 changes to search in 2022 alone,
averaging 13 changes per day. These changes included updates to its ranking systems, user interface, and more.
This demonstrates Google's ongoing efforts to refine its search algorithms and policies to try to better serve
users.
As a result of these updates, Google's search results have undergone a dramatic upheaval. Some
website owners and search experts have reported a
general shift in Google results towards websites with big established brands and away from small and independent
sites. This has led to concerns about the impact of these changes on smaller businesses and content creators.
According to Semrush, several websites recently experienced significant drops in Google Search
traffic. New York Magazine's website lost 32%, GQ.com decreased by 26%, Urban Dictionary lost more than half its
Search traffic with an 18 million page view decrease, and OprahDaily.com saw a decline of nearly 58%.
You'll notice a significant increase in the use of a single
platform: Reddit. Semrush reports that Reddit experienced a 126% increase in traffic from Google Search.
What Are Some Promising Customer Acquisition Strategies?
Organic traffic is more and more limited, especially for small businesses, but other solutions
exist! Social media and PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising are excellent alternatives in a customer
acquisition strategy.
As users tend to be disappointed with Google results, they are
gradually switching to social media in order to get more genuine opinions. Social media platforms like Reddit,
X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram have billions of
active users,
providing a large potential audience for businesses to reach. On these platforms the marketing efforts can be
easily directed towards the most relevant audience, increasing the
likelihood of engagement and conversion. Moreover, social media facilitates organic growth and interaction with
customers, encouraging brand loyalty and advocacy.
Creating engagement on social media works even better if you leverage social listening
techniques. Monitoring specific keywords when they are mentioned on social media allows you to quickly jump into
the right conversations and find new leads, monitor your brand reputation, watch your competitors, stay up to
date on specific business related topics, and much more.
You can perform efficient real-time social listening on our KWatch platform: try it now!
PPC advertising, on the other hand, allows businesses to place ads on search engine results
pages (SERPs) and other websites, paying only when a user clicks on the ad. This model ensures that advertisers
pay for actual results, not just impressions. PPC platforms like Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising provide
comprehensive analytics, enabling businesses to track the performance of their campaigns and optimize them for
better results. Additionally, PPC allows for immediate visibility, as ads can start showing up in search results
as soon as the campaign is funded, making it an effective tool for businesses looking to quickly expand their
reach. Social media platforms also propose interesting PPC solutions. These platforms offer advanced targeting
options,
allowing companies to tailor their ads based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and location.
Are SEO And Organic Traffic Going To Die?
For the moment nothing shows that SEO and organic traffic are going to die, but they are
clearly
evolving. Despite the emergence of new technologies like generative AI and Google's recent algo changes,
SEO remains a critical component of digital marketing strategies.
While AI might change how search engines operate and the way users interact with search
results, it also provides opportunities for SEO professionals to adapt and improve their strategies. AI can help
in scaling content creation, analyzing user behavior, and optimizing content for better visibility and
engagement.
The emphasis on high-quality, original content remains paramount. Search engines, including
Google, are focusing on delivering the most helpful and relevant content to users. This means that
businesses need to focus on creating content that is not only optimized for search engines but also provides
value to the users. Most of the online content does not provide real value to the users today unfortunately, so
there is still some room for improvement.
The growing popularity of video content means that SEO strategies need to incorporate video
optimization. This includes using schema markup to highlight videos in search results and understanding the
various video hosting options and their impacts on traffic generation.
Last of all, the rise of zero-click searches, where users find the information they need
directly on the
search engine results page, highlights the importance of AEO. AEO refers to Answer Engine
Optimization. This is a specialized form of digital marketing where the objective is to optimize content so that
AI systems, such as search engines or AI assistants, will pick it up in response to user queries. Businesses
need to focus on providing concise,
accurate, and helpful information to capture these zero-click opportunities.
Conclusion
Google has made dramatic changes to its search engine technology over these last years, pushing for zero-click search. This has a strong impact on many businesses. In order to stay alive, organizations need to adapt their customer acquisition strategies.
If organic search does not work well for you anymore, social media engagement can be a good alternative. In that case I recommend that you come up with a social listening strtategy!
KWatch.io
