You already know that optimizing your content for SEO is a must-do. But the how and why of creating, editing and updating that content is changing with generative AI and keeping in mind the user experience is critical as the SEO landscape continues to evolve.
AI
As platforms integrate it more deeply, generative AI and its potential for content are top of mind. For example, AI has transformed Google’s search algorithm by improving its understanding of user intent and context, offering personalized search results with more relevant content. Additionally, AI has enabled Google to better detect low-quality links and spam, resulting in a better user experience by preventing irrelevant and spammy content from ranking high on the search results.
Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is an AI-powered search tool that generates search results with concise answers, relevant visuals, and a conversational engagement model. Although SGE is still in its early stages, it is becoming increasingly important to optimize content for it by creating comprehensive, expert analysis with organized sections, lists, and bullets. SGE tends to reference niche or topically focused sites and primary sources of data or analysis.
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), which involves optimizing content for AI-powered answer engines, is becoming increasingly important as chatbots and AI technologies continue to change the way people search for information. To prepare for this shift, businesses should develop an AEO strategy that complements traditional SEO strategies, incorporating Q&A-style formats and conversational keywords, and using schema markup. Aligning both AEO and SEO strategies can help ensure the brand remains relevant and visible in the future of search.
UX
The importance of User Experience Optimization (UXO) in SEO has grown significantly. UXO is the practice of designing and optimizing a website for a seamless and user-friendly experience. It’s now crucial to consider user-experience-related factors such as mobile responsiveness, page speed, and navigation, in addition to traditional SEO strategies to increase engagement and achieve higher visibility in search engine results. SEO practitioners should focus on creating user-centric content, track user behavior metrics, and use the right techniques and tools to optimize websites.
Google’s algorithm prioritizes high-quality content, evaluating factors such as grammar, coherence, relevance, and readability. AI technologies and language models enable more accurate analysis of content quality. Google evaluates website and content quality based on the E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness) model. In December 2022, Google added an extra “E” for experience to the model, prioritizing content from certified, experienced authors. To demonstrate experience, content should be written by certified experts, cite authoritative sources, and include customer reviews and testimonials. Building a strong and consistent brand identity is also crucial for demonstrating strengths in E-E-A-T. This can be done through publishing high-quality content, having a strong social media presence, and consistently promoting brand values.
Establishing topical authority in SEO involves becoming a go-to source for information on a specific niche. It requires creating comprehensive, expert, and high-quality content, developing a deep catalog of related topics, implementing a site architecture that makes it easy for humans and bots to discover relevant content, and optimizing internal linking structures.
Diversifying content by using different formats, such as webinars, podcasts, and infographics, can also help reach a broader audience and improve SEO. For example, video content is also crucial for SEO, as short-form videos are supported on multiple platforms. Over 50% of people share videos more than any other content type. Create engaging and informative videos that resonate with your target audience, optimize titles, descriptions, and tags for search engines, and transcribe videos for accessibility. To further prepare your videos for SEO success, use keyword research tools, optimize your video for discoverability, and improve the user experience with transcripts and compelling thumbnails.
To maintain relevance and ranking in the SERPs, it’s essential to regularly update and refresh content due to the increasing content velocity and competition. The shelf-life of content is diminishing, and refreshing existing content can keep it relevant. Adopting an ongoing process of reviewing, optimizing, and updating existing content ensures it remains competitive, current, relevant and valuable to users. If a page drops in the SERP, a targeted analysis can be performed to refresh or optimize the content.
If you’re ready to take your SEO to the next level, “juxt” let us know and we’ll work with you to keep your content relevant in the world of AI and UX.
Written by TinaKay Oliver || Google Analytics & SEO Consultant