Yesterday I wrote that “how-to” content, particularly in written form, is over. People will rely on an AI amalgam of what’s already available.
For businesses who have relied on blogging to attract people to their sites, that’s not the only bad news.
❌ SEO is over, too.
We’ve been told to optimise our sites for years now, so that Google and Bing can find and rank us.
But that won’t hold.
Hubspot – a behemoth in the content marketing game – has seen its search drop 80% in less than a year, including 4.9 million fewer searches in December.
While there are apparently lots of reasons behind this, I believe much of it is behavioural.
👉 People’s curiosity is sated, most of the time, by the AI result. There’s no incentive to click any further. That’s “zero-click” search.
I Googled “SEO is doomed with AI”, by the way, and you’ll be comforted to know it's AI says this won’t be the case.
“No, SEO is not "doomed" with the rise of AI; instead, AI is more likely to significantly evolve SEO practices, making it a more sophisticated and data-driven approach, but not rendering it obsolete; the key is to adapt and leverage AI tools effectively to improve your SEO strategy.”
Blah.
There seems no recognition of human behaviour in that answer.
Now, please, I stand to be educated on this because it’s well beyond my knowledge of how SEO and AI work.
But I found this comment by marketing entrepreneur Adriana Tica instructive:
“AI may threaten SEO but search will still be here. The safest way to future-proof yourself/your business is to make it so that people search for you directly, not for your service. ‘Jane McAwesome/Company McAwesome’, not ‘cheap ghostwriting services’.”
So, what now?
If you can tell I’m thinking about what I do in this evolving context, and how, you’re right.
And you may have even spotted some changes I’ve been making? 👀
1️⃣ The first is writing fewer “how to” pieces and more (hopefully) thought provoking ones. Good or bad, you’re hearing from me and what’s in my brain, never generic AI content.
2️⃣ And second, more video. Typed words tend to get separated from their author, so I’m trying to bind myself more firmly by expressing my ideas in digital form.
How are you preparing for the impacts AI is having on customer and staff behaviour? Are you making changes like I am?
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