Episode 473 SEO With Warren Laine Naida How SEO is Impacted By AI

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Show Summary

Warren Laine_Naida talks about how SEO is impacted by AI.

Show Highlights:

1. AI is impacting search engines.

2. Google is in panic mode.

3. SEO is adapting to AI.

Show Notes

Hello. It’s Warren. Thanks for asking me to to join your podcast, Rob, for those of your listeners or viewers. Who? Who? Know me. Thank you for having me back, Rob. And it’s great to see everyone again or to talk to everyone again. I was recently talking with with Rob about SEO and accessibility, how we’re creating a sustainable website and. Really important aspect of accessibility. Is and we’re. We’re usually talking about people, but I think where we are now, we’ve got to be talking about machines as well. So anyone accessing or anything accessing our content, we have to keep that in mind. So we talked about this in the last podcast and I’m going to get back on this again. We’re writing for people, but we’re also writing for algorithms. We’re writing for machines, let’s call them AI for. Or better, you know better word. You know how intelligent they actually are. But let’s say algorithms, they’re deciding what we are going to be, what content we’re going to be seeing. So it’s really important if we’re talking about search. Engine optimization. If we’re talking about being found, we want to be found by human readers. But there is that filter between the people we want to reach and that is going to be the algorithm. So we need to keep that in mind. We’re not just writing for the featured snippets of Google. We’re not just writing so that we have, you know, great keyword visibility. This is part of it, but a very important part of SEO now. Is that accessibility to algorithms now? That’s why I’d like to talk about today the importance of SEO and AI. I think it’s a it’s it’s a big topic. It’s probably bigger than than I think a lot of us are are letting on, but it’s not. Really, anything new? When we talk about accessible SEO, we’re talking about simply writing good HTML, getting the headers and getting content structured. You know, thinking in a clear and obvious way, and for machines for algorithms. Exactly the same. Way, it’s really important that we are found by the algorithms that that we appear in AI citations and to do this we have to create our content. So that makes sense to the algorithms. I think that’s really, really the future. I like to say that SEO is more, you know it’s less search engine optimization and more, you know search evolution ongoing or search experience optimization. We’re really moving away from the traditional search machines. I really think Google is in panic mode. It’s trying a lot of different things at the moment and I I think it’s it’s shaking a lot of us off the Google coattails. There are other ways to be found. If you’re losing traction in Google, it’s not the end of the world. There’s Bing. There’s social media, there are now AI citations, there’s offline. There are ways of being found. Think about it. It was not very long ago at all that there weren’t search engines. How would it businesses get found? We did so it’s really this is just another iteration of being found. And and I mean, you know, technologies change organic SEO will change. There’s a big shift in how we search and I think an important part of of AI and SEO is adapting to that change in search behavior. So we’ve got AI. Tools. All right, this ChatGPT, this perplexity, there’s clothe, there’s Gemini, there’s copilot. Some of these include links out to our website. So we’ve got the ability with AI citations and new generation of featured snipe. But Google in in 100 countries, I’m sitting in Germany, so not in Germany, but in 100 countries. Google has the SGS GE the the search generative experience where you have AI overview copilot Bing has this. So we have Bing. In Germany, and they do have the AI results. So you know there is AI integrated traditional search. But what’s really really important, I think this is the the biggest impact on SEO and our content. Is that people are using AI tools for those classic information questions that we might use. Google and Bing now think about that. You know, I for one, and I’m sure I’m not alone are using a lot more often AI. So those sorts of questions, I don’t want brand results in Google. I don’t want products. I don’t want to have to work for my returns. Now This is why Google was always great. Google gave us. Everything we wanted, we didn’t have to play around with Yahoo. We didn’t have to second guess, Bing, we put in a question Google gave us the answer. They kind of broken this. I think this model is really broken for Google and it’s not really my go to search engine anymore, which might sound ludicrous, but really you got to start some. There, there was a lot of talk, you know, a lot of chatter lately on Twitter X, we had Barry smarts with a with. A Twitter poll. There and the results were that like at least half, OK, it was like 51% are using Google. Less often, they’re using other. Ways to find the answers to their questions. There was another very good report in the Harvard Business Review that showed again, and this was even more that the majority. The majority, I think was like 8088 eighty 7% of what we do on AI is actually not create memes and anything recreational. It’s getting answers to our questions, research, teaching, helping with our business. That is the majority, the bulk of why we use AI now, if that is true, then we can get found, which is what we want to do with SEO in AI. So that Google and Bing are not so important. SEO. For me, search engines are answering machines. They were always answering machines. Now if we use search engines for as answering machines, then why not the chat bots? And I think this is really, really important. This is where where we’re going and. You know, I said AI citations, they really are the new featured snippet. I mean, seeing your website link up there in the citation and perplexity or Gemini or copilot or whatever you’re using. This is great. This for me is far superior to a featured snippet. So I think you know this. Is something we can work toward. It helps improve our visibility. It definitely ramps up our SEO game. So what we’re thinking here, you know, I think we’re talking about is again writing for our for our audience, but who is our audience? We’ve got people, yes, but we’ve got the gatekeepers. We’ve got the algorithms who will decide what is seen in social media, in Google, in Bing, wherever it is. But. Now we’re also able to have the, you know, we have the opportunity that AI chat bots are a very relevant audience, and if we want to appear in the citations, we need to do the same work that we are doing for featured snippets. And it’s not anything new, we’re not. You do not need to reinvent the wheel. I think what’s really important is that you continue good SEO content, OK, you’re familiar with how to be how to appear in the featured snippets. Very, very much the same as getting into AI citations you are familiar with schema rich, snippet, friendly content, right? It’s exactly the same, right? AI and SEO, it is the. Same for me. All right, make it clear. Make it specific. Instead of doing your keyword research research questions in the AI chat bots and see the answers that are coming in. That is the new research keywords are far less interesting. For AI, getting specific answers to the questions is definitely what you should be thinking about. OK. Text is just as visible as images are you try this in perplexity for example, and you see images that relate directly to the content, so you can be found for images just in the same way that you can be found for your content. And what happens which is I I really like this. Is that very often. In the citations is your website. You know in the main feed and then on the right hand side there’s your infographic or there’s your image from your website, so you’re getting double whammy. All right, so I think you know, we could just go on and on 15 minutes really isn’t. Enough. This is a very important topic. I think some of the key takeaways, I mean it. You know, AI is going to complement your regular SEO work and I think this comes at a really important time where people are losing their minds. With Google, Google doesn’t even know what Google is doing anymore. So if you’re having difficulties being found, use AI to complement it. We have the search engines, we have social media bring in AI, alright, a lot of people are using AI for informative search. OK, I’ve got a question. Why is the sky blue? What’s the best food for my cat? What are the best exercise ideas for my aging dog? These are traditional Google and Bing searches. They’re happening in AI now. The search behavior is really shifting, OK. Social media is has made a big impact on on search and now AI is moving that direction. So your SEO strategy has to has to be optimized for the traditional search and the AI platform. All right, that’s. You can’t get out of that. AI Tools Excel app I’d find and you know providing those those quick direct answers. So make sure your content just like feature snippets. OK it it. It gives you the what the why the how to what people are asking for. OK. Google and Bing are not conversational, so if you know anything about local search, if you know anything about voice search, if you’re going in that direction, you’ve already been in that direction, you’re in the right direction. OK? AI offers a much more conversational. Experience than Google and Bing does. So AI is going to complement your SEO strategy, but it’s also going to help with your local search and your voice search. So I think this is really, really important. OK. Make sure that your content includes AI friendly structure and general content. Now I’m not going to go as far as to say it should include AI generated content, but it does beg the question that there could be a percentage of your content that. In specifically AI generated and that you cite it so. You know, I’m sure AI has an ego and it would love to see itself quoted. Does anyone remember the Google plus tag for authors that used to 15 years ago? Help us get seen? I think this is the next thing. So best practices for your AI optimized SEO content. OK, keep it clearly structured and this is the same as accessibility clear, structured, logical headings. Make sure you’ve got relevant specific details. Your content is easy to scan and digest. And make sure you’re using that hierarchical format your H1 through sixes AI content is is nothing more than good old fashioned HTML content. Nothing is ever going to get better than it used to. Because we started out really right and just continue there, AR is our friend getting into your SEO content. Follow me on Twitter, I’m there Warren Laine-Naida. I’d love to talk to you about this topic and. We’ll see you on perplexity.