TLDR: While our existing processes for writing SEO-optimized content have already seen significant success in helping our clients appear in both traditional and AI-powered search features, we are continuing to study this emerging technology and adopting new tactics to help our clients’ websites become reliable sources for not just human users, but also for search engines’ AI algorithms.
In our last couple of articles, we’ve talked about the nature and the impacts of the rollout of AI search platforms. And, if there’s one throughline for what’s happening in AI search right now, it’s this: we’re all trying to figure this out together.
Given the newness of the major search players’ AI systems (Google AI Overview and Bing Copilot), the broader SEO community is still trying to determine how AI search features impact traffic for individual sites, rankings in organic search results, and other important aspects of the overall SEO mission.
But even as we try to determine exactly what the future of search will look like, you can be confident that the team at M&R is doing all we can to ensure that our clients’ sites don’t suffer undue traffic loss due to the AI rollout.
We’re Already Having Success With AI
A lot of the guidance on optimizing content for AI search that SEO experts around the world are offering is the same as the guidance we’ve been using to shape our SEO strategies for a few years now:
- Writing engaging, human-focused content
- Identifying and answering website user’s questions
- Providing readers with succinct, easily accessible content that they find useful
- Developing deep, broad content that cements our clients’ roles as authorities in their fields
- Designing all of our websites with a mobile-first design philosophy
Already, a number of M&R clients are beginning to see their websites, landing pages, and blog articles show up as links in AI Overviews (AIOs). We’re seeing particular success with a specific type of content that’s been a specialty of ours for some time now: articles that laser-focus on providing a quality, in-depth, accessible answer to a single question.
Writing for AI Means Writing for Traditional SEO and Vice-Versa
All in all, experts generally expect searches to rely more and more on AI as time goes on. We still don’t know what that may look like:
- It may mean a continuation of the AIO model, where AI-generated content encourages zero-click searches.
- It may look more like the old SERPs we’re used to, only with a background search algorithm that integrates AI algorithms into processing the actual results.
- Or, it may be something completely different that we’re not expecting.
At the moment, though, the same strategies we’re using to help our clients appear in traditional and local searches can also help them show up in AI Overviews. That’s likely to continue, as Google will likely gradually begin integrating AI more inseparably into its platform.
That’s just another way of saying that—at this time—the efforts we’re making to improve our clients’ organic search performance are also boosting their AI performance, and vice versa. As the two search platforms become more integrated, optimizing for both may become more seamless.
Evaluating AI Performance
If we don’t assess the effects our work is having on your business, we’re only doing part of the job. At the moment, Google’s AI platform is brand new, and new assessment, tracking, and evaluation tools are being released to the market on a daily basis. We’re continuing to explore different tools for tracking AI performance. We’re already leveraging a number of free tools that are helping us identify trends in the overall AI search landscape.
We Love This Stuff
Regardless of whether you love AI or hate it, it’s hard not to be fascinated by it. A technology that’s been predicted for decades – first in science fiction, then by computing theorists, and finally by actual developers – is coming to fruition right before our very eyes. Even if we weren’t in the business of helping companies get their websites to the top of the search results, this is a trend we’d be tracking.
The copywriters, digital experts, and other SEO gurus in our office are fully invested in staying abreast of developments in this sphere. We devote time each month to reading up on the latest news, we track the performance of our clients’ content in both traditional and AI search, and we’ve never met a mystery in the world of search that we weren’t just dying to get to the bottom of.
At the moment, we’re focusing our efforts on creating more of the kind of single-topic, highly accessible informational content that’s been performing well in AI searches so far. As the technology develops and the way it works changes, we’ll adapt and try to ensure that our clients’ websites stay highly visible and well-represented in searches.
AI? Bring It On.
We’re not just ready for the AI revolution; we’re excited to be doing what we do at this moment in history. When you have questions about what the shift to AI will mean for your business, how to continue to show up in searches your audience is making, or anything else related to AI search and your business, give us a call at 478-621-4491. Our friendly Sales team members can help show you how M&R’s SEO services can keep you top-of-search and front-of-mind for your audience.
More About AI Search:
Detailed Marketing Deets
Want some profound insight into all things marketing? Check out our Definitive Guide Series for detailed information, tips, and advice regarding: