People are searching with AI now. What does this mean for you?

You’re seeing, and I’m seeing it too. Whether you like it or not, Google Search results aren’t what they used to be a decade ago. And more and more people are looking to ChatGPT for their answers. What does this mean for you? Do you have to do special SEO for AI?

TL;DR, let’s be real:

• Searching via Google is getting frustrating for a lot of users. (Researchers are actually studying this, and you can see more summarised in this article by Danny Goodwin on Search Engine Land: 42% of people say Google Search is becoming less useful.)
• Technology is changing so fast. Don’t blame yourself if you can’t catch up. (I bet there are people with pre-existing tech knowledge who are struggling to keep up.)
• You shouldn’t feel bad about not understanding how AI works. Even the experts like myself need to keep learning.
• Also, you shouldn’t feel pressured into an area of technology if you’re not okay with it! 😊 (I’ll touch on how I’m intentionally being less reliant on AI and algorithms.)

Now let’s talk about it a little more in-depth!

What does this all mean?

Was any previous work you invested in SEO for Google worth it?

Yes, if you focused on creating useful content, and made your website user-friendly and engaging to use.

Here’s what that means in practical terms:

• Creating useful content means that you’ve made content that answers people’s questions, or satisfies their search for a particular product. It doesn’t mean you should aim to fluff up your word count, or stuff as many keywords in a page as you can.
• Making your website user-friendly means that your navigation is clear, you don’t have pop-ups getting in people’s way, and your page is easy to read on any device.
• And as for making your website engaging? It means that on information pages, you use images and graphs to help explain the topic. On product pages, you have all the bullet points, details, and images you need to help your customer make a buying decision.
• And for any kind of page, it loads fast, and you’ve made it clear what your visitor should do next.

Do you need to do anything special to appear in Google’s AI summaries?

It’s not too different from traditional SEO. Anything you did to assist Google robots to read your website will help AI crawlers too. Focus on E-E-A-T. Build presence and authority by earning citations.

• Helping Google robots to read your website? By this, SEO experts mean inserting robot-friendly code in your website. This can include, but isn’t limited to: meta descriptions (suggests what the page is about), and alt text (describes an image for visually impaired people). And make sure your page sections and headings follow a logical hierarchy. (E.g. You use heading tags, H1, H2, H3, in their proper hierarchical order.)
• E-E-A-T. What’s that? Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust. If you can demonstrate you are who you say you are, this will improve your visibility in search results. Yes, the ranking systems have gotten clever, and they know to associate mentions of your name and brand with reviews, citations, and any other content that establishes who you are.

Do you need to do anything special to appear in ChatGPT’s answers?

Yep! In addition to the above, here’s what you can do to assist your visibility in ChatGPT’s responses:

• In addition to optimising for and indexing on Google, ensure you can be found on Bing as well. Your web designer or developer might have submitted your website to Google’s search engine crawler as a curtesy. But if you haven’t heard mention of a Bing submission, don’t assume this has been done as well.
• Earn positive mentions on websites like Reddit or Trustpilot.
• Understand that AI models “read” and process content differently than humans. They really love structured information, such as bullet points. So write your content with this in mind.

Practical things you can do to stay on top of SEO for AI

• Be proactive in seeking out speaking, guest-presenting, or guest blogging: The best place to gain these opportunities is through your network. No shortcuts here. The more genuine the connections you make, the further this will take your brand visibility.
• Do what you can to earn good reviews: Provide a good service, go above and beyond expectations, and if it feels right, ask customers to leave a review.
• Routinely audit and refresh your best content: You don’t have to do anything too drastic, just ask yourself things like:
  • Can this information can be organised with more structure?
  • Can I present this data in a more visually engaging way?
  • Is this data or information old, can it be refreshed?

And what if you’re not having a bar of this AI stuff?

What if you don’t want to go down this path?

Genuinely,
You don’t have to.

Honestly,
I’m not.

Which may seem weird for someone who’s supposed to be on the cutting edge of technology. But yeah, I don’t like it. (And my reasons for this? We can save for another day!) So I am free to choose not to embrace AI. 😊

So I’m cutting my own path by embracing other forms of reaching people. This includes:

• In-person networking.
• Virtual networking. (Like the virtual community I’m growing for non-mainstream folks.)
• Focusing on my email list.
• Embracing older methods of creation and communication. (Yes, even if they’re slower.)
• Writing more articles like the one you’re reading now!

Innovation doesn’t have to mean chasing the latest fad! It can also mean using existing tools in a new way!

Clippy might seem like an early precursor to AI assistants. However, although he may have wanted to help you write a letter, he wouldn’t do it for you.

Want to know how that turns out? You’ll have to subscribe to my newsletter to see. 😉

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