SEO in the AI Era
Search Engine Optimization is continuously evolving, not disappearing. The introduction of AI in everyday life is demanding a smarter, more holistic approach to SEO, due to how both users and search engines are interpreting content. Use this as a reason to audit your existing content strategy!
Aligning your Content Strategy for AI Overviews + AI Assistants
AI overviews and other summary results on SERPs are increasing becoming the source of “truth” when it comes to answering questions and finding what you are looking for. AI overviews are appearing in over 13% of search results, up 100% since January of this year! This makes getting your content in these AI overviews and summary results, like “People Also Ask”, crucial to getting discovered. Beyond the SERPs, people are relying an AI chatbots to find answers without exerting too much effort.
Let’s dive into how to ensure your site is getting in front of the right people.
A long-time SEO basic, ensure your pages are crawlable and indexable + submit your sitemap to Google Search Console AND Bing Webmaster tools. Read more about foundational SEO here.
Familiarize yourself with how your audience is actually searching for your products, services, and expertise. From there prioritize long-tail and conversational queries/search terms.
Create a content strategy that resonates with your audience and create comprehensive, authoritative content that gives concise answers/information.
Prioritize Long-Tail + Conversational Queries
Long-tail keywords have been important for some time to ensure that you are reaching the right audience, but they are becoming even more so important when it comes to getting exposure to your site. Along the same lines of long-tail terms, AI-powered answer tools (that are now popping up everywhere) are drawn to specific, natural language queries (ie. conversational prompts), so working relevant queries into your content strategy will be beneficial in discovery.
There are lots of tools available when it comes to generating a list of relevant keywords for your content strategy, but first and foremost you need to think about how your target audience is actually searching for your products and services. Customer feedback and conversations with your sales team can be a great starting point, but beyond that there are several tools available when it comes to generating this keyword list. Some that we use internally are SEMrush and the chrome plugin Keywords Everywhere. Long-tail keywords will naturally have less search volume tied to them, but if it places you in front of the right customer, that is much more important.
Once you have a working list, it is a good idea to run those searches on Google and/or Bing to see what other content is being populated for those results and if it is relevant to your business. You can also assess if there is something missing from those results. Once you have a good working list of terms you can categorize the intent behind those searches and then plan your content.
Keyword intents are categorized the following way:
Informational - The user is looking for answers to a specific question
Commercial - The user is in the comparison stage and looking for additional information to help make a decision
Navigational - The user knows what they are looking for, but need help finding it
Transactional - The user is ready to complete a purchase or reach out
Structure Content for AI-Readability + Clarity
We always recommend writing your content for your target audience, so luckily structuring your content for AI-readability and clarity also aligns with how people interpret content! Once you have your keywords and understand the intent behind those keywords you can format your content accordingly. We never recommend losing your brand voice just to follow best-practices, but there are ways that you can ensure your message is clear and discoverable.
Some helpful tips that help AI and users digest easily digest your content:
Including a TLDR; or summary section at the beginning of the content. This helps users understand if they are in the right place and what they will be getting from this resource.
Making sure you have clear headlines (htags) that are utilizing proper hierarchy (ie. start with h1 and move on to h2 and beyond in an organized fashion).
Ensure you are writing at your audiences’ reading level. This is not to insult anyone’s intelligence, but online reading levels are generally lower than IRL reading levels. Here is a free tool that can help you assess the reading level of your content.
Make sure your title tags, meta description, and URL are reflective of the content on the page.
As with any marketing tactic, it is important to measure your performance and assess how your efforts are performing for you. We strive to keep our clients updated on what they can be doing to stay ahead of the curve. If you would like support updating your SEO strategy, feel free to reach out.