SEO Strategy | Digital Marketing and Websites
The 3-Second Recap:
- If you want people to find your website, then you ABSOLUTELY need SEO
- AI search changes how people get info, it does not change effective SEO strategy
- Effective SEO must have high quality content, and be ongoing
How Does AI Change SEO Strategy?
The answer: it depends. If you already have a strong SEO strategy in place, then honestly, AI really won’t change much for you. Unfortunately, the reality is that most agencies and businesses have poor and ineffective SEO strategy in place.
Let’s break this down in simple terms though.
In the past, when you searched for an answer, Google would provide a list of websites which presumably contained the answer, ranking them based on something Google called E-E-A-T.
E-E-A-T stands for:
- E-experience
- E-expertise
- A-authoritiveness
- T-trustworthiness
With this list of websites, you would then click through to their content, hopefully finding the answer you were looking for. If your website had effective SEO (focused on E-E-A-T), then your website would typically land on the first page, and near the top, making it more likely to be clicked on.
AI search, on the other hand, provides “generated answers”. What this means is that when people type in a question, AI search will return a curated answer. Remember, Google’s goal is to provide the most accurate information, the fastest. They don’t want you to have to click through a bunch of websites. Heck, YOU don’t want to have to click through a bunch of websites!
But, where does Google come up with their answer?? It scans the websites that meet E-E-A-T criteria the best, pulls the answer, and compiles it all together nice and neat for you. Remember, AI search still gets its input/information from what use to be traditional search. And if you notice, as you scan through the curated answer from Google, they include links to the websites that provided the information.
The curated answer is a simple summary. This is usually helpful enough for most simple searches. However, if you want more detail, then you can either click on the links within the answer, or you can scroll down past the AI section and find your more traditional listings. This is where having an effective SEO strategy comes into play.
How Can I Show Up in AI Search?
If you want your website to be linked in the curated AI answer, then your website must be providing clear, concise, and accurate content that answers the question in search. The industry term for this is “Generative Search Optimization”, or GEO. However, for those of us who have always understood effective SEO strategy, then this is just called “effective SEO”, lol.
Just like with SEO, there are agencies that will try to “game” the system for GEO. Spamming keywords throughout your website, using formats that are not user friendly but are supposedly “search” friendly, these are work arounds that might sound good, but don’t actually work. For SEO or GEO.
If you want to show up in AI search, if you want people to find your website, then stick to the proven techniques that Google itself recommends: E-E-A-T.
Does My SEO Strategy Suck?
Yes, probably it does. Unfortunately, most agencies charge a lot of money to “do SEO”, then don’t actually do SEO. They provide some basics. They spam your site with keywords. They create a bunch of repetitive and redundant content featuring different cities you want to rank in. They might even design a very nice looking site for you, with dozens of pages of information (the more pages, the more they can charge you). If they try extra hard (and charge you extra), they might even run Google Adwords ads for you for a month.
All of this might initially work to get some website visitors. They show you the “amazing” metrics before and after. Then you keep paying your monthly SEO fee, and they keep…well, they keep doing…nothing else. A couple of months down the road, website visitors are dropping. Sound familiar?
The Number 1 Way to Know You Are Getting Scammed in SEO
If your agency isn’t updating your site with NEW content at least every quarter, then you are getting scammed.
If your website and content is designed for “Google” and not for actual humans, then you are getting scammed.
If your content is not providing actual answers to actual questions, then you are getting scammed.
Want Better SEO, Contact The Institution
Our goal is to see businesses thrive, and we believe the best way for your business to succeed is to provide the best solutions and information for your customers. We are happy to provide a COMPLIMENTARY website audit for you that will look at design and SEO, and give you an honest assessment for your consideration.
We are also happy to build you an affordable, optimized for Google website, and manage your ongoing SEO. Actual ongoing SEO. Not the typical “set it and forget it” most agencies provide. Where we constantly analyze web traffic, search terms and trends, and Google best practices to shape your dynamic ongoing SEO strategy.
If you want to learn more, please reach out!
Institution Enterprises provides expert business development consultation and support, specializing in branding, web/digital development, SEO, and marketing.
SEO Strategy | Digital Marketing and Websites
