This is an excerpt from SEJ's e-book 'SEO Trends 2024', a collection of expert opinions on what to expect over the next 12 months.
One of the most shocking developments last year concerned the meaning of the word “helpful” from Google's perspective.
Google employees have traditionally been reluctant to say whether and how the algorithm takes into account site-wide signals. This year's helpful content updates were explicit. Google's algorithm generates site-wide signals that are considered in rankings. These signals are based on the usefulness of the site.
Google's documentation says:
“Content on a site that is determined to have a relatively high content, not just useless content, but overall useless content, is searchable, assuming there is content that would be better displayed elsewhere on the web. is less likely to degrade performance.
Therefore, removing useless content can improve the rankings of other content. ”
Google has struggled to find a way to communicate exactly what helpful content means, but it has answered questions about its helpful content system and may provide further guidance.
In the meantime, keep in mind that intent is becoming an increasingly important part of keyword research, as “useful” depends on a number of different circumstances.
As you can hear, the scope of “helpful” seems to extend beyond the direct impact or quality of the words on the page.
As your valuable content continues to expand, success may require you to evaluate the unique value of your site as a whole and how authoritatively it speaks on a wide range of topics.
If I had to summarize the insights from this article in three sentences, it would be:
- Google evaluates the overall value and usefulness of your site, so make sure your website has clear and unique value.
- Before you try to fight generative AI, work with it and understand how it works.
- “Expert knowledge” becomes an important differentiating factor. That is, insights and original data from named authors.
The entire site should be helpful
Adam Riemer, President of Adam Riemer Marketing LLC
Helpful content updates are more than just content.Must check The whole site is helpful Not only for each piece of content you publish, but also for your users.
That's what many marketers are getting wrong as we head into 2024.
Unlike past systems and algorithms, useful content considers the entire site. Having just one piece of useful content may not be enough. Are all other pages useful and easy to use?
Or do you have a bunch of legacy pages with a poor experience and thin content, like giant hero images, irrelevant shopping lists, and broken links?
Rather than taking the word “content” too literally, think about what makes your entire site useful. This should benefit all channels, not just his SEO.
Prove that alternative site versions have unique value
Dan Taylor, SALT.agency Partner and Head of Technical SEO
I believe that Google's focus on “useful, high-quality content” will start to expand further and that alternative versions will impact websites.
For international websites that have the same value proposition across multiple alternate site versions (for example, English in the US, Canada, and UK, but only currency and regional spelling differences change), hreflang and canonical tags are ignored. .
Many international website structures are set up to reflect offline business hierarchies or to “channel leads” to the appropriate SDR team.
The internet and hreflang don't always accurately reflect offline business, and the synergies achieved are often clunky and difficult to manage.
Provide a value proposition that gives Google a reason to invest resources in alternative versions of your site.
each enhances the unique value it provides. You may also need to discuss how to structure your website's international alternates and how to handle lead processing so that the right team gets the right leads.
Effective content comes from real people who show genuine insights
Mordy Oberstein, Head of Wix SEO Brand
You often need to pay more attention to how broader content trends affect SEO.
Our gospel is an algorithm, but that sometimes means we don't consider anything outside of the algorithm.
But you should. In retrospect, it's no coincidence that Google added the “E” for experience to his EEAT. I didn't pull it out of a hat. We're starting to see broader content trends that people are paying attention to. real person The difference between content and static branding.
Google's machine learning properties, such as RankBrain, allow Google to look at its very large datasets, observe trends in content consumption, and act on them.
Contextual content
One trend I want to stay ahead of, consistent with Google's emphasis on expertise and experience, is what I coined the term “situational content.”
Situational content attempts to predict different outcomes and suggest logical next steps, such as advice provided within the content. For example, if a piece of content offers advice on how to get your baby to sleep through the night, it will provide next steps if that advice doesn't work.
It depends, so if X doesn't work, you might want to try Y.
Contextual content creates an engaging form of content that I see more often. Do a few things for your readers.
- It addresses them and their needs directly.
- It's more conversational than standard content (which is exactly the emerging content trend).
- To predict different outcomes and situations, you really need to know what you're talking about.
The latter point corresponds directly to EEAT. Being able to anticipate and deal with secondary situations requires specialized knowledge and experience.
Best of all, contextual content shows users that it was written by a real person, not a large-scale language model (LLM).
These are the types of content that AI simply cannot create for a variety of reasons.
Above all, the ability to provide detailed advice while maintaining the conversational, authoritative, and professional tone inherent in contextual content.
For this reason, I'm watching Google significantly reward “situational content” over time.
Generative AI sets standards that content must exceed
Patrick Stox, Ahrefs Product Advisor and Technical SEO
Don't fake your experience. Add real value yourself or ask others for their input.
The hurdles for content creation are even higher.
For years, just rewriting the content was likely enough to rank a page, and many SEO experts and writers did just that.
But with generative AI making content creation easier than ever, we need to do more than ever before.
Find ways to add value.
I like to think of content like a product and take an iterative approach.
You can add specific sections, expand sections further, add key points, summarize better, tell a personal story, or add insights from your own knowledge. .
For product comparison pages, add prices, reviews, pros and cons, personal experiences with each product, unique photos, and a breakdown by different categories.
You also need to inject your own experience and expertise.
As it becomes easier to create general content, the ability to add new knowledge to a topic becomes more important.
If you don't have that knowledge, find someone who does and interview them. Review the content for errors or ask them to add insights or stories.
Generative AI will be an essential skill for SEO, but it won’t replace expert knowledge
Shelley Walsh, SEO Content Strategist, Search Engine Journal
The areas to focus on in early 2024 are generative AI and search generative experiences (SGE).
Instead of focusing on what SGE can take away (clicks), focus on what Google is trying to accomplish and remember that they need content and clicks just as much as we do.
Google is currently experimenting with an SGE Search Engine Results Page (SERP) panel that looks like enhanced featured snippets. And just like Featured Snippets, as an SEO expert, you can adapt and work with how your information is displayed in the SERPs.
Because we survived the featured snippet, we can evolve to work with generative AI, rather than against it.
First, understand that SGE is not a completely AI-generated information panel. SGE collects the best results in the SERPs and uses AI to create a combined summary of those results.
For SEOs, being included in the top results is more important than ever in order to be listed on SGE. It also means being a source of data and information and providing unique and valuable concepts and content.
This is a challenge in the world of post-generative AI.
Google is still experimenting with how to integrate SGE into SERPs.
The functionality and appearance of SGE may continue to change as Google finds the right balance between intent and clicks. It's important to remember that Google doesn't want to disrupt its business model.
The clues are already there to show us the way. Please consider updating the content to help you. Google aims for content that shows first-hand experience. Authors must demonstrate superior knowledge, expertise, and authority. I'm sure this sounds familiar. (Eating, anyone?)
There is a growing demand for thought leaders and seasoned professionals. Good content requires the ability to demonstrate thorough research and provide unique data.
The impact of generative AI tools on content creation
To get the most out of tools like ChatGPT and Gemini (formerly Bard), you need sophisticated prompts. Generative AI, as it is, is not easy to use for beginners.
It's like trying to make tea with a fire hose. At this point, it is too intelligent for us to handle and grasp.
To get the best results from your AI tools, train them to recognize their mistakes and knowledge gaps. Use a two-way interactive feedback loop. Feed the results back to the AI to layer and chain prompts to continue improving.
AI is a great assistant. Use it to support your daily productivity.
The creative potential of ChatGPT is exponential, but we are still far from fully exploiting that potential.
For example, create infographics, categorize data into tables, summarize ideas, create transcripts, find discrepancies in reports, scan large amounts of data, and more.
AI is the perfect complement to your knowledge and creativity, so treat it as such. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that AI will do his SEO job for you.
Expertise and experience are still required to operate the machine for best results.
An essential skill to develop in SEO is integrating generative AI across layers of the workflow to maximize efficiency. The development of AI is similar to the early days of computers in industry.
Initially, people tried to use it like a typewriter to the limit to achieve capabilities such as spreadsheets and graphic representation.
AI is a similar development process, so keep pushing the boundaries.
Remember, AI cannot replace ideas and creativity. As humans, driving machines remains an area where we can add value.
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Featured image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
