Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact on different sectors has been a hot subject of discussion for the last few years, and with great reason. It has constantly prompted curious minds to dig deeper and discover how it can be leveraged to assist humans in the most appropriate ways. AI has already charted its territory in several fields such as robotics, medicine, and customer services, among others. Now, it’s high time for search engine optimization (SEO) to benefit from this wonder.
Find out from the guide below how AI will influence the future of SEO and what digital marketers can do to integrate these latest technologies to stay on the top of their game.
Amplifying visual content for SEO will gain importance
As per Sam Mallikarjunan, the Head of Growth, HubSpot Labs, SEO will be significantly influenced by visual content in the near future. AI has turned search engines intelligent enough to understand how to evaluate visual content, particularly in cases of videos. Google not only favors YouTube videos, but the emergence of AI has made it possible for the search engine to showcase the most relevant videos. This transition will change the scenario for visual content creators. The way content writers had to evolve and learn to use target keywords, meta descriptions, and meta tags, visual artists will have to consider SEO when creating content like videos and images.
Optimize your website for mobile and voice search
If you are considering SEO for just web browsing on computers, rethink your approach. A Google study indicated that 40 percent of searches now take place on mobile. If marketers are not taking measures to reach their audience on mobile, they are missing out on a quarter of their potential customers. Whether your brand is prepared or not, search engines have created the pressure to make sites more mobile-friendly. A positive impact of this mobile shift is that it offers new opportunities for brands to market.
On the other hand, the rise of mobile usage has surged the demand for voice searches. Google Now, Siri, and Cortana have become our virtual assistants for all our demands. This, in essence, changes things for SEO. Rather than typing “best burger outlet in Mumbai”, an iPhone user will simply dictate to Siri to “call the nearest pizza outlet for me”. Voila! The call gets connected.
The AI-based search identifies that a user is seeking something specific and hence, waits for the user to complete the query. Now is the time to level up your SEO game with regard to voice searches, too, because that is the way things are going to transform.
Quality is the new ranking weapon
AI-powered search engines are equipped to identify and sidestep weak content with poor readability and high bounce rates. This means SEO marketers are required to put extra effort into curating valuable and relevant content that a user would notice. So, unlike earlier days when keyword density held more importance, things like content relevance, value, and context will take over as ranking factors.
Gone are the days when you could write a blog post surrounding one keyword you picked from your keyword research. Now, it’s about drafting a series of blog posts revolving around a concept related to that keyword. By doing so, you will prompt Google’s AI, RankBrain, to understand the niche you are in and slim down your competitive pool, so you will have a better chance of ranking and garnering traffic.
More focus on niche-specific keywords
Some keywords have a broad spectrum, which means they can be easily used for different niches. Search algorithms have a limited capability of categorizing the content as per the niche and oftentimes, the user ends up getting results that are not relevant to the query. Here is where AI comes into play. With deep understanding and content evaluation, search engine crawlers are not just going to analyze the keywords in the content but also examine the entire draft to ensure if the query and content match. This is going to be a major turning point.
To sum it up
Not long ago, AI was simply a sci-fi concept that would get brushed under the carpet. Today, AI-powered tools are getting as common as SEO tools, and leveraging them together will enable us to push the scenario of marketing into infinite reach. These developing technologies will push marketers to build elaborate strategies that involve different types of content, tools, and devices in the equation.