The Google interface as we know it today will be obsolete within three years.
This prediction may seem crazy, but I remember when Google.com finally overtook Yahoo.com in 2004. For eight years, no one thought it would happen, but it did.
why?
Simply put, Yahoo had the best user experience on the web for a decade, and Google had an even better user experience.
Now, think about this. Suppose you have different questions about the world.
- Need to put on a jacket and go out today?
- Where is the best sushi restaurant near here?
- Give us your Wordle tip of the day.
And what if there was a butler in the world who was brilliant in every field and who would not only answer any question accurately, but give the best possible answer, kind, friendly and thoughtful?
- “It's a little chilly, so please wear a light jacket in the morning. I think you can take it off around noon.”
- “Sushi Kingdom is a 15-minute drive from here, and they have the most amazing fatty tuna from Japan.”
- “Think of a five-letter word that means 'tired.'”
Oh, the butler refuses to take money from you. It mainly wants to compete with your dog to be your best friend without all the licking.
If someone depended on you to call you every minute of every day, would you ever hit the Google search box again?
The real “zero click” is coming
Five years ago, when Google introduced featured snippets and universal search results, Rand Fishkin was one of the first to sound the alarm about the rise of “zero-click searches.”
At the time, we all denounced this as a land grab from Google. This had the effect of “locking” users into his Google site, causing them to click on more paid ads and visit more of his Google facilities.
But to be fair to Google, they were really trying to improve the user experience. They knew that the majority of people searching for something didn't want to trawl through list after list. They just want answers.
Any SEO expert knows this. Nearly 70% of searchers don't even click past the first three results.
In the future search environment, people will continue to use the Google interface we know today for things like research and exploration. However, his 70% of search users who did not click after his first three Google search results are expected to flock to AI for answers.
Is SEO dead?
For those of us who have been involved in SEO for a while, we've lost count of how often the mainstream media has declared “SEO is dead.”
My answer to this has always been: As long as there are people in the world and people are searching for things, SEO will never die.
Certainly, the definition of what a “search engine” is changes over time. At one point it was called the “Dewey Decimal System.” Next came “Archie,” “Yahoo,” and then “Google.”
What will it be called next? “Chat GPT?” “Gemini?” “Grok?” Or is it something else entirely?
Or will we see multiple large language models (LLMs), each trained in a different area of expertise?
Only time will tell what the exact situation will be, but one thing is for sure: the world needs more “SEO.”
What will SEO look like in an AI-driven world?
To answer the question of what SEO will look like in the future, we need to consider what search itself will look like.
As any SEO knows, most people today search for key terms. According to a recent Semrush study, 69.8% of searches use his 1-4 keywords in the Google search bar, such as “tomorrow's weather,” “restaurants near me,” and “NFL scores.”
This is a very awkward way to communicate, but we've all been conditioned to do it since the 1990s.
That is about to change.
Let us recall the deacon mentioned above. Why say “restaurant nearby” when you can have a conversation?
you: “Where shall we eat tonight?”
Butler: “What are you in the mood for?”
you: “I don't know. Maybe it's Italian. Do you know a good place to eat pasta around here?”
Butler: “Yes, Luigi's Pizzeria is about half a mile away and has great reviews.”
you: “What do the reviewers recommend?”
Butler: “A lot of them recommend rigatoni with bolognese sauce or grandma's slices.”
you: “I've never heard of this place. Have they been around for a very long time?”
Butler: “Yes, we recently moved to this location, but we've been open for 15 years.”
The search is moving toward a very long tail.
In other words, the search demand curve we all know and love will change. Fat heads won't go away, but the curve will flatten as people get used to asking more specific questions and getting more specific answers from AI.
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Are you ready for AI?
Not completely.
If you've tried generative AI, you've probably observed something by now. I'm good at solving math problems and translating. You can win any bar bet in trivia.
But if you think a little deeper, you realize how far from “intelligent” AI actually is.
My sister is one of the top veterinary pathologists in her field. Recently, I introduced her to one of her popular AI chatbots. She typed in her three advanced questions, only to find that the answers were not only wrong, but dangerously wrong in some cases.
The technology behind AI is revolutionary, but AI is not magically knowledgeable from the start. someone needs to teach it.
Currently, most LLMs are trained based on all the data they can find on the public internet, but to be honest, this mainly focuses on superficial content and key terminology. , has been shaped by a quarter century of Google and SEO.
What can brands do to prepare?
In Aesop's fable, “The Grasshopper and the Ant,” the grasshopper enjoys the warmth and food of summer, while the ant works hard to prepare for winter.
In recent years, some companies' first move when the economy took a turn for the worse was to lay off or offshore “cost center” employees, such as customer service and content teams.
These companies are focused on the coming AI revolution and are likely asking themselves, “How can I best leverage AI to save even more money and increase short-term profits?” There will be.
That's a grasshopper. They are facing a harsh winter.
The world's smartest companies, on the other hand, are those that never stop putting their customers' needs above all else. These companies are looking at the coming AI revolution and thinking, “How can I become a place where AI (and more importantly, my customers) come to learn?”
These are the ants, and it is they who will thrive in the world of AI.
If you want to be prepared, do these basic things:
Take online customer service seriously
Hire and retain the best customer service agents with empathy, expertise, and experience.
Build a knowledge base of all the questions your customers ask and craft detailed answers that reflect what the best customer service agents have to offer, both in terms of knowledge and delivery.
Create deep content that shows true thought leadership
Stop chasing stupid terminology. Go deep.
- As a brand, what do you need to bring to the world that no one else can?
- What is a sensitive question about your industry that only you can answer?
- What is an underserved niche in your industry?
Leverage experts from your company and industry to write authentic thought leadership, whether it's brand new or old knowledge, presented in a fresh and accessible way.
It accepts all forms of media that customers use, including social posts, podcasts, videos, TV, and radio broadcasts, and the AI has access to all of it with an appetite for learning.
Invite expert user-generated content
Find ways to bring together experts from your customers and internal staff to share their user-generated content (UGC) through discussion forums, comment sections, reviews, and more.
UGC has long been the “secret weapon” for businesses looking to rank well in long-tail search. This is more important than ever, especially now that every search has a long tail, and AI can separate the wheat from the chaff.
Emphasis on openness and transparency
If you've been doing SEO for a long time, you'll remember the days when search queries were often followed by the word “wiki.” Nowadays, queries are often followed by the word “reddit.”
why?
Simply put, Wikipedia and Reddit are both built on UGC, but where one has developed a reputation for encouraging open, honest, and in-depth conversations, the other does not.
Amazon's review section is another example of the power of transparency. When you ask people you know who buy products on Amazon what part of a product page they read first, many will always tell you about the reviews section. If users visit these sites to learn, so will the AI.
As a brand, you need to make your voice heard on these sites, not as a corporate gimmick, but as the voice of an expert participating in the discussion.
Prepare your brand for AI-powered search
There's really nothing new here, it's the same EEAT that Google has been preaching for years.
The difference is that AI comes so close to how the human brain works that the line between “optimizing for search” and “optimizing for the human brain” becomes indistinguishable.
Companies that optimize knowledge and empathy will control the industry narrative and ultimately help lead the AI revolution.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily those of Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.