As a marketer, one of the most common questions I get asked is: “Are you worried SEO (or search engine traffic) is dying because of the rise of AI search tools/chatbots?” I’ll admit, when I saw ChatGPT AI chatbots taking flight, Google announcing more AI generated previews in its search engine, and the announcement of SearchGPT (ChatGPT’s new AI search engine that’s in development), I got a little nervous. If you’re like me and your business heavily relies on website traffic, it’s scary to hear rumors that organic search traffic is facing extinction.
I decided to do some research on my own. After doing so, I’ve realized that ChatGPT still has a ways to go to dethrone Google, and that AI search is often overhyped. While the search landscape is changing, it’s not going to be immediately overthrown.
Here are my takeaways:
1. ChatGPT Has Not Replaced Google (Yet)
While more people are starting to turn to ChatGPT and AI chatbots for answers, the majority of people are still using Google’s search engine. As of August 2024, in the last 30 days there were 260.2 million visits to ChatGPT while there were 82.1 billion visits to Google search. (Source: https://explodingtopics.com/blog/chatgpt-users)
So while ChatGPT is growing, it’s not going to replace Google immediately. ChatGPT did announce that they’re coming out with their own search engine, SearchGPT, which could make things more interesting. But there is still much development that will need to be done to have it even come close to competing with Google’s extensive search engine.
2. AI Is Still Not Always Accurate
Don’t get me wrong– it’s fun to ask Google’s and ChatGPT’s AI for answers. But recent research is showing there is a high amount of inaccurate information that’s being generated by both parties. According to a recent study, 52% of ChatGPT answers contain incorrect information. (Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.02312) Another study stated that ChatGPT agreed with incorrect statements up to 26% of the time. (Source: https://uwaterloo.ca/news/media/large-language-models-validate-misinformation-research-finds ). Users have also reported incorrect information coming from Google’s AI overviews. (Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/05/31/1093019/why-are-googles-ai-overviews-results-so-bad/ )
3. SEO Is Not Dead
Some argue that because more people are starting to use ChatGPT’s chatbots and Google’s AI-generated overviews, that SEO is dead. They think fewer people will want to go to websites for information and that organic traffic as a whole is going to take a huge hit. What they fail to realize is that chatbots and AI overviews generate their answers from content that’s on the web. The more high quality information you have on your website about your business, the more likely AI can pull from it and direct people to your site.
Here’s a recent search I did. You can see that Google’s AI overview is listing additional websites and information that people can click on for more information.
Additionally, as stated above, Google isn’t going anywhere and there are still billions of searches happening every day. People are still researching websites on search engines, and most businesses haven’t been reporting a huge dip in organic traffic. Even with our websites, we’ve actually seen an increase in organic traffic when comparing our numbers to last year.
Yes, search is changing and coming out with new AI technologies. But I don’t think it’s going to replace or reduce organic search yet. As it evolves we may need to adapt our SEO (search engine optimization) strategies, but I think there will always be opportunities to lead people to our websites on the web.
What Dealers Can Do Now
Although AI hasn’t taken over the world yet, there are a few things dealers can do now to start adapting to these new technologies.
- Diversify your online presence. Because people are searching for products and services in a variety of ways, it’s important that your flooring business has a strong presence on multiple channels. Ensure your business can not only be found on Google search results, but also on multiple social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, etc.), Google Maps, Bing Places etc. The more you can establish your online presence, the more it signals to Google and AI chatbots that they can use your business and content as a resource.
- Optimize your website content (the right way). Gone are the days where you would keyword stuff your website content with a bunch of keywords you wanted to rank for. Right now people are utilizing AI to generate a bunch of mediocre written content for their websites. The truth is, Google isn’t going to feature content that is just okay. They want to feature the best resources with the best information. In light of that, I recommend going against what the popular masses are doing: publish quality content instead of publishing a large quantity of content. Choose to create content that goes into depth on various subjects to show your business’ expertise and authority. Another tip is to type in keywords you’re thinking of building content around in Google, and see what types of articles/pages are being listed at the top of results. You’ll want to build something similar to what you’re seeing is being featured.
- Think outside the written content box. Google is starting to display more videos and images in their featured snippets and overviews. If I were you, I wouldn’t solely rely on written content. Rather, I’d also spent time creating videos, images, infographics, case studies, etc. that educate, engage, and entertain your audience.
Hopefully these suggestions help. If there’s one takeaway, it’s that search isn’t going anywhere today. I don’t know if this will be the case in five years, but for now just keep providing high-quality content and you should be fine.
