Google’s latest content algorithm now demands high-quality, accessible, authoritative content and it’s getting increasingly difficult to perform as a leader in any space or industry. Delivering content that ranks, drives awareness and leads to conversions has always been a real challenge but now more so than ever. Optimised content clusters and data-driven content strategies are essential but since AI is reshaping search, the landscape is even more complex.
How is AI search impacting data?
Marketeers have long used organic traffic as a metric for success but as users gain information from AI search results, they are clicking less often on SERPs listings. As AI search evolves, many businesses have seen their organic traffic fall.
Moreover, user behaviour is changing. Users are entering URLs in browsers and visiting sites direct. They’re getting answers from ChatGPT and validating their answers in Google. They’re searching in YouTube for the answers they need.
So how do businesses get ahead of the curve and rank in AI search results? With the advent of AI content creation tools, it would be logical to assume that AI content would drive AI search results. Win, win. But we are seeing that this isn’t the case.
Is AI generated content ranked by AI search?
AI generated content does not rank in AI search. Google AI is now recognising AI generated content and since its algorithms prioritise quality, authoritative content, it is not ranking AI generated content in its results.
Interestingly, Google’s own AI generated content isn’t ranking either. Patrick Stox of Ahrefs carried out an experiment and his discovery was interesting:
”Google believes AI Mode content is good enough to show to users in what will likely be the default search mode in the future. But the content itself doesn’t seem good enough to compete in the normal Google search results.”
You can read more about his testing and evaluation in his Ahrefs blog.
“AI Overviews were just the start — Google is already preparing for a world where all search is AI search.” The Verge