Summary
Google has recently announced a change in how the search engine shows results, where AI answers are being pushed before website links. Ensuring that your website's content can be easily found and accessible with AI is crucial to entice users.
What is Google’s update?
Google has recently rolled out its biggest update to the search bar in over twenty-five years. Searching now responds with an AI response before showing links to other websites. The AI also will ask the user a question, encouraging them to continue the conversation. Google also now allows users to create “information agents” to track ongoing news about a topic. This shift in searching will result in users taking the AI information and clicking on less website links. Web navigation on Google has officially changed away from websites, and now focuses on quick answers from AI, using other websites.
How this will affect websites.
Websites are going to receive less user traffic, while the content of the website may be used in AI answers. Ensuring good SEO (see our blog here), is crucial to ensure your website’s information ends up in these AI results. If potential clients are less likely to be clicking on your website, they should still be able to find out details about your business. The internet has shifted to quick convenience and instant gratification, where a website taking too long to load can discourage users. Users now have a box showing up before they can click on your website telling them the information they were looking for. In some Google searches, it will list businesses in the area and provide the link to the businesses website.
How to ensure visibility.
Businesses can get engagement through AI answers, in which it will list details about the business. The important thing to do is ensure that your website loads quickly and has informative relevant information. AI can’t use information it cannot access or understand the purpose of. An important thing is to update the website regularly with content like a blog or a social media feed. This helps put your website higher up in search results and AI results. AI is continuously evolving and changing, it’s difficult to predict where it’s heading. This change was announced one week before it was implemented in the search engine, giving very little notice. Technology will always change for better or for worse.
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