Technical SEO professionals aren't worried that the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) will negatively impact their job security. This is one of her insights gleaned from the “State of Technical SEO Report 2024” published by digital marketing agency Aira and the Women in Tech SEO community.
- 64% said they were not worried at all.
- 36% said they were either “somewhat concerned” (30% internal, 33% agency) or “very concerned” (6% internal, 3% agency).
- “While such concerns are not without merit, it is important for business leaders to recognize that AI is not a comprehensive replacement for human employees. Subtle application is key, and high-quality AI has yet to be mastered,” said Roxanna Stingu, head of search and SEO at Alamy, in the report.
why do we care? All the overwhelming developments in generative AI over the past 18 months have caused concern and stress among SEOs. AI will undoubtedly eliminate some jobs, but it will also create new ones. AI is a great assistant, but it cannot replace the technical SEO, the work that humans do.
Google SGE is concerned. Although the majority were not concerned about job security, 70% of respondents were concerned about the impact of Google Search Generative Experience (SGE) on regular organic search results.
- “Exactly how concerned I am about things continuing to change. There is still so much uncertainty about how exactly this will play out, and I also want to see how everyday users react to this. We believe that many of the comments are from early adopters in the technology and SEO community, and we are not accurately representative of how the rest of the world uses this.” said Natasha Bartenshaw-DeVries, director of organic growth at Flywheel Digital. Report.
Internal and agency. Only 20% of in-house, agency, and freelancer respondents have not changed their SEO plans and roadmaps due to advances in AI. The rest of his 80% respondents are:
- 59% answered “somewhat”.
- 21% answered “very”.
AI and machine learning (ML) tools. 52% of survey respondents used AI and ML tools to generate metadata (titles, descriptions, etc.) on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Other ways SEOs have used the tool:
- 46% is used for content generation.
- Keyword research is 35%.
- 23% is used for page auditing.
Other discoveries. Google seems safe:
- 85% do not think ChatGPT as a standalone tool is a threat to Google.
- 70% don't think Bing will be able to take search market share from Google.
About data. The survey was conducted from January 15th to March 5th. There were 382 responses and his 56% of respondents were from the US and UK.
Report. The report also delves into the impact of SEO, tools, and more. You can read the full report here: The State of Technical SEO Report 2024
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