How AI Is Changing Search Engines (AI Part 4)

Every few years, some new technology is released that changes the fabric of the way people use the internet. It's a lot like Taylor Swift — wait, wait… stick with me here — we can think about its history in distinct, definable eras.

When Google ushered in the algorithmic era, we left the thought of human-curated web directories behind. (Or so I hear from the dinosaurs around me… to be honest, this was even before my time, so it might as well be folklore.) 

Semantic search did away with strict keyword matching and looked deeper into user intent and needs, and shortly after, mobile and voice search became the dominant search medium, forcing search engines to adapt the content they provided to their users.

Today, we are seeing the same thing happen with AI technology. Search engines are at the forefront of learning to use this tech to their advantage, providing brief and effective snippets of information in microseconds. 

And now that players like Google and Bing have presented their versions of AI-assisted web search, we have a good idea of how search engines and internet content creators will be impacted. So, let's channel our inner 2021 Tay-Tay and be fearless as we explore this new iteration of the internet. 

How Search Engines Are Implementing Artificial Intelligence

Google and Bing are the two major players in the AI-assisted search movement, and there are two distinct features that they are enabling through AI programs: content summarization and dialogue-based interactions. 

Both will significantly impact how people use the internet, especially as these methods become normalized to generations who will only know search through these mechanisms. So let's break down each.

Content Summarization

Content summarization sounds relatively harmless, but it was a source of heavy anxiety for many people who focus on creating good content to earn traffic and revenue. What would happen if, instead of directing users to websites with good information, Google or Bing just had their AI scan the internet for answers and provide it themselves? Why would users bother clicking on a webpage for that information if their answers came up immediately after they searched?

It was a real speak now situation for a lot of web professionals.

For now, most people feel better about that potential catastrophe since its implementation is similar to how Google has been doing Featured Snippets for years.

Here is an example of Google's Gemini in action:

Bing's implementation of OpenAI's GPT-4 is very similar:

While Bing instead opts to put the AI-generated content on the right side of the screen, it serves the same purpose, other than potentially being less intrusive to the user and featuring standard results more clearly. 

Really, all these new features offer is a more cohesive summary to answer a question that someone might have. It is unlikely to affect those queries where people are doing meaningful research… unless they start to use the new dialogue windows. 

Dialogue-Based Interactions

If you have used ChatGPT, you are already familiar with dialogue-based AI applications. The idea is that you are asking the AI questions naturally and conversationally. This approach allows the AI to use the previous queries and responses as context to provide more accurate and useful generations. 

So far, this easy access and usability have built up AI technology's reputation.

Applied to search engines, it functions essentially the same. Take Bing's GPT-4 interface as an example:

Here is what a conversation would look like:

Generally, access to these windows means that, for users willing to adopt the tech, there may be no need for them to visit the sites being referenced. We have yet to determine on a large scale what the general public's use will look like, but we do know that it has at least some potential to interrupt the current status quo. 

How Will This Affect SEO?

We can predict how AI implementation will affect SEO in three primary ways: impacts on click-through rates, the need to optimize for the AI Overview, and the development of new content strategies.

It Will Likely Impact Click-Through Rates

The universal woe and worry of current SEOs and web professionals is that click-through rates will drop into the red drastically because of AI-generated responses. However, these groups have panicked about this problem before. A few years ago, Google introduced Featured Snippets, the information you get above the organic search results. 

This is an example of a snippet that pulls information directly from a search result. Often, these don't pull from the top organic search result — instead, Google finds what it considers to be the most effective concise answer from any position to feature, but it generally happens from results within the Top 10. 

And, as it turned out, their concerns were valid. Featured Snippets "stole" a lot of clicks away from organic search results.

(I use the term "stole" here very loosely because snippets are generally very useful for the end-user to get the information they need, which is the whole point of search engines existing.)

The concern is that with AI-generated "snippets" dominating the top of every search query, there will be even less incentive for users to click through to top organic results since such comprehensive answers are being provided. 

Consider the differences between AI-generated answers from Google and a typical Featured Snippet:

‍
There is a wealth of information being provided by Gemini in this example — information that the user would have previously needed to click into a website to get. Google still provides links to the sources it used to reference the information, but the big question is: will the user even need them?

Unfortunately, for now, we don't really know. Although snippets already exist, optimizing your content for search and improving your position on search engine results pages is still a huge benefit. Plus, people have been nervous about the decline of the internet "as we know it" since it was invented in 1989 — but it hasn't gone anywhere yet.

Google still provides links to the sources it used to reference the information, but the big question is: will the user even need them?

It Will Require Us to Actively Optimize for the “AI Overview”

Google originally branded this new iteration of their platform the "Search Generative Experience'' or SGE, if you don't want to sound pretentious all the time. (Or are abbreviations actually more pretentious? I'll have to look into that.)

But on official launch, they gave it a new name: AI Overview.

Either way, there is already a push happening among web professionals to start tailoring content to be used and referenced by Gemini and GPT. So, it's worth taking a look at the differences between optimizing for a Featured Snippet (the closest thing we've had so far to AI Overview) and AI Overview itself. 

One interesting difference between the two is that AI Overview creates unique verbiage for the user. It is also tailored precisely to their question rather than scouring the internet for a quote that best answers the user's question. It can draw from multiple information points rather than a single paragraph or sentence. 

Whether that is good or bad depends on how you like to play the SEO game. This would be terrible news if you were a fan of intentionally crafting one or two-sentence answers to high-volume questions for Google to pick up in a snippet. 

But if you would instead like to focus on creating quality, rich content that isn't necessarily structured for a snippet, you are basically in Disneyland. (Minus the overpriced snacks and sea of strollers.)

The upside to AI Overview is that you technically have more opportunities to win the top-of-page position… the downside is that it's also no longer exclusive. You will more than likely be one of a few who are featured in that space. It generally might be more beneficial since it doesn't fall into the hierarchical nature of SERP pages, but that really depends on where the user behavior ends up landing once it rolls out to the public.

As of now, Featured Snippets are not gone — but they will likely not hold as much power as they once did since they are no longer at the tip-top of the results page. In time, Google might find that featuring multimedia-rich snippets is more valuable than AI Overview for users and intent. 

In that case, we could be in a hybrid situation where summary snippets implode worse than the Titan. However, multimedia snippets like videos, images, graphs, etc., are still winning the top honors.

It Will Change Our Content Strategies

Now that AI is actively seeking out detailed information and regurgitating it back to its audience, web content writers are much more incentivized to answer specific questions and queries more comprehensively, rather than creating short and concise answers for snippets or optimization. 

This assumes, of course, that AI Overview windows continue to be a desirable spot to land.

After all, SEO is essentially wrestling match to the top position on the SERP page — and the top spot is now technically the new AI Overview feature. So, while the answer to "how much does liposuction cost" might have been a paragraph in a comprehensive page about liposuction before, it is possible that the new best practice might be to write a full-length piece of content on that topic alone, navigating the intricacies of pricing among patients, conditions, insurances, tandem procedures, desired results, methods and other minutiae that would otherwise have been left out.

If you can get Google to reference a full-length blog you've written on the topic, it won't even matter that you are competing against some titan like WebMD. You'll get featured right alongside them. Take a look at this example for "what is breast augmentation recovery like." 

As you can see, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons is listed on the reference list alongside a major health network and private plastic surgery practice. It's very likely one of those bigger organizations would have taken the Featured Snippet for themselves. 

In fact, we know that they certainly would have because... well, they did: here is the snippet that is featured right below:

Featured Snippets are a feast-and-famine type of system, but AI Overview offers your practice a chance to compete alongside the hard-to-topple titans, as long as your content is written to provide clear and thorough context to the AI at work. 

This also means we will see an even greater push toward natural language since these models are literally called "natural language models" and are very concerned with providing information in an easily accessible and familiar way.

We will move away from "How do I rank #1 for this keyword" and move toward "How can I dominate as much of the SERP as possible?"

As long as you are writing as you speak in a slightly more professional manner, you should have no trouble nailing the natural language preference that is growing in popularity.

(Remember, though, writing as you speak references how you speak professionally, not to a lover or after a few cold ones on vacation.) 

Medical Aesthetic Professionals Have Some Breathing Room 

Because of its sensitive and dangerous nature, Google has said that YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) content will be introduced to the AI Overview feature much more slowly than other industries. This means we get to watch the rollout and development a bit before we need to dive right in — and it's probably best we take that time before making any drastic changes. 

Unfortunately, Bing will not be taking the same precautions. But, to be completely blunt, it might not matter that much since, as of 2023, Google has 93.12% of the search engine market share, while Bing only has 2.77%. 

The breathing room is nice, but remember to start thinking about your strategy for this new phase of the internet quickly — don’t wait til the last minute at midnight. As always, the biggest winners will be the earliest adopters, and the beta phase that it is in now is a great chance to make some early investments in your content and SEO strategies.

Embrace the New Changes

By their very essence, AI and SEO are evermore changing — whether we want to embrace it or not. 

We know change isn't easy, and every time a new update changes search and web functions, people who rely on it get nervous. But the good news is that it is all navigable if you eliminate the reservations and welcome the changes with open arms. 

Now, there are some things you or your agency shouldn't be doing during this new AI-internet age, but some essential musts also need to be tackled. Part 5 breaks it all down for you piece by piece so you aren't lost in the dark.