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SEO in the Age of AI

Using AI Best Practices to Create Great Content

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Interacting with AI: Why Best Practices?

To compete in search environments built on AI algorithms with user-facing generative AI features, it’s important to know how to interact with AI in the following ways:

Optimizing for AI-powered search algorithms.
Building keyword and search strategies that take generative AI search features into account.
Employing AI tools to help improve productivity.
Understanding where AI needs human guidance and what tasks should not be delegated to it.
Differentiating your brand and content from competitors where AI tools have lowered the cost and barriers to marketing at scale.

September 2024

Source: Search Engine Journal

Best Practices for relating and defining our stance on and relationship to AI and generative AI will position us for success.

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Focus on Authority, Brand and Trust

Gartner predicts that traditional search volume will drop by 25% by 2026, with organic search traffic expected to decrease by over 50% as consumers increasingly embrace AI-powered search.

We must change our SEO strategy based on the kinds of information users can no acquire without clicking on websites. New AI tools enable us to perform advanced tasks quickly and use AI models to understand how to improve information architecture.

Comprehensive Keyword Research: Cover traditional search terms, long-tail keywords, and conversational queries, including contextual phrases for AI optimization.
Unified Content Strategy: Create high-quality, relevant content that performs well on both traditional search engines and AI platforms, aligning with E-E-A-T principles.
Data-Driven Strategies: Leverage insights from SEO and GEO data to continually refine and enhance your optimization efforts.

September 2024

Source: Search Engine Journal

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SEO Impact of Generative AI Search Features

Gartner predicts that traditional search volume will drop by 25% by 2026, with organic search traffic expected to decrease by over 50% as consumers increasingly embrace AI-powered search.

Basic queries and answers may not perform well in an SEO strategy in the future. Earning space on the SERPs in the future could be about:

predicting needs and follow ups better than AI can, or
providing this kind of content in ways that AI can’t by leaning into direct personal experience.

September 2024

Source: Search Engine Journal

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What SEO Professionals Need to Understand

How to optimize to show up in AI results.

How to provide better information than AI where and when it counts.

How to incorporate AI into SEO workflows where it provides productivity benefits, but remaining conscious of risk.

How to build genuine trust with audiences and build communities without relying on traffic referral platforms.

Basic queries and answers may not perform well in an SEO strategy in the future. Earning space on the SERPs in the future could be about:

predicting needs and follow ups better than AI can, or
providing this kind of content in ways that AI can’t by leaning into direct personal experience.

September 2024

Source: Search Engine Journal

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How to Make Content Stand Out

Make Your Content Stand Out:

AI-Optimized Content: Leverage AI tools to refine your keyword research and generate People Also Ask questions based on search intent. Create content that directly addresses specific user queries.
Compelling Titles and Meta Descriptions: Create engaging, keyword-rich titles and meta descriptions with a clear call to action. Try experimenting with different CTAs to see their impact on click-through rates.
Visual and Interactive Content: Use high-quality images, videos, and interactive elements to capture your user’s attention and increase engagement.
Featured Snippets: Find keywords that you rank well for but don’t own the featured snippet result type. Create featured snippet copy that stands out from the competition.

September 2024

Source: Search Engine Journal

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How to Differentiate Content From Competition

AI-Driven Content Creation: Use AI for content creation but ensure it’s combined with unique human insights. AI can assist with data analysis and identifying trends, but the human touch is crucial for adding value and impact.
Value Proposition: Highlight what makes your service or content unique from the competition.
Unique Perspectives or Case Studies: Share original insights, in-depth research, or case studies that offer value not found elsewhere. This also helps establish your site as an authoritative source.
Rewrite and Update Content: Think about important trends and developments that may make your content outdated. Rewrite and update it to retain and increase its value over time.

September 2024

Source: Search Engine Journal

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How to Adjust Our SEO Strategy

Comprehensive Keyword Research:

Cover traditional search terms, long-tail keywords, and conversational queries, including contextual phrases for AI optimization.

Unified Content Strategy:

Create high-quality, relevant content that performs well on both traditional search engines and AI platforms, aligning with E-E-A-T principles.

Data-Driven Strategies:

Leverage insights from SEO and GEO data to continually refine and enhance your optimization efforts.

We must change our SEO strategy based on the kinds of information users can acquire without clicking on websites. New AI tools enable us to perform advanced tasks quickly and use AI models to understand how to improve information architecture.

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Self-Assessment: Content and Quality Questions

Evaluating your own content against these questions can help you gauge if the content you're making is helpful and reliable. Beyond asking yourself these questions, consider having others you trust but who are unaffiliated with your site provide an honest assessment.

Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?
Does the content provide a substantial, complete, or comprehensive description of the topic?
Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond the obvious?
If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources, and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
Does the main heading or page title provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content?
Does the main heading or page title avoid exaggerating or being shocking in nature?
Is this the sort of page you'd want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
Would you expect to see this content in or referenced by a printed magazine, encyclopedia, or book?
Does the content provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
Does the content have any spelling or stylistic issues?
Is the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don't get as much attention or care?

August 2024

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Self-Assessment: Expertise Questions

Does the content present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site's About page?
If someone researched the site producing the content, would they come away with an impression that it is well-trusted or widely-recognized as an authority on its topic?
Is this content written or reviewed by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?
Does the content have any easily-verified factual errors?

August 2024

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Focus on People-First Content

People-first content means content that's created primarily for people, and not to manipulate search engine rankings. How can you evaluate if you're creating people-first content? Answering yes to the questions below means you're probably on the right track with a people-first approach:

Do you have an existing or intended audience for your business or site that would find the content useful if they came directly to you?
Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge (for example, expertise that comes from having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place)?
Does your site have a primary purpose or focus?
After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they've learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?
Will someone reading your content leave feeling like they've had a satisfying experience?

August 2024

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Avoid Creating Search Engine-First Content

Avoid creating search engine-first content. Focus on creating people-first content to be successful with Google Search, rather than search engine-first content made primarily to gain search engine rankings. Answering yes to some or all of the questions below is a warning sign that you should reevaluate how you're creating content:

Is the content primarily made to attract visits from search engines?
Are you producing lots of content on many different topics in hopes that some of it might perform well in search results?
Are you using extensive automation to produce content on many topics?
Are you mainly summarizing what others have to say without adding much value?
Are you writing about things simply because they seem trending and not because you'd write about them otherwise for your existing audience?
Does your content leave readers feeling like they need to search again to get better information from other sources?
Are you writing to a particular word count because you've heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (No, they don't.)
Did you decide to enter some niche topic area without any real expertise, but instead mainly because you thought you'd get search traffic?
Does your content promise to answer a question that actually has no answer, such as suggesting there's a release date for a product, movie, or TV show when one isn't confirmed?
Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?
Are you adding a lot of new content or removing a lot of older content primarily because you believe it will help your search rankings overall by somehow making your site seem "fresh?" (No, it won't)

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Get to Know E-E-A-T & the Quality Rater Guidelines

Google's automated systems are designed to use many different factors to rank great content. After identifying relevant content, our systems aim to prioritize those that seem most helpful. To do this, they identify a mix of factors that can help determine which content demonstrates aspects of experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, or what we call E-E-A-T.

Of these aspects, trust is most important. The others contribute to trust, but content doesn't necessarily have to demonstrate all of them. For example, some content might be helpful based on the experience it demonstrates, while other content might be helpful because of the expertise it shares.

While E-E-A-T itself isn't a specific ranking factor, using a mix of factors that can identify content with good E-E-A-T is useful. For example, our systems give even more weight to content that aligns with strong E-E-A-T for topics that could significantly impact the health, financial stability, or safety of people, or the welfare or well-being of society. We call these "Your Money or Your Life" topics, or YMYL for short.

Search quality raters are people who give us insights on if our algorithms seem to be providing good results, a way to help confirm our changes are working well. In particular, raters are trained to understand if content has strong E-E-A-T. The criteria they use to do this is outlined in our search quality rater guidelines.

August 2024 - Google Developers