A report by technology advisory and research firm Strata released on Monday shows that AI chatbots and virtual agents will cause search engine traffic to drop by 25% over the next two-year period. Gartner.
Gartner predicted that search engines would place a greater emphasis on authenticity and quality due to the competition from competing technologies. Gartner explained that search engine algorithms will have to give more weight to the quality and utility of content, to balance out the volume of AI-generated content.
It continued that content creators would have to put greater emphasis on watermarking, and other methods to authenticate high value content. This trend is being driven by governments around the globe, which will impact how search engines will display such content.
Gartner Vice-President Analyst Alan Antin stated in a press release that companies will have to produce unique content useful to their customers and potential customers.
He added that “Content must continue to display search quality-rater components such as expertise and experience, authority, and trustworthiness.”
Rethinking marketing channels
Antin explained organic and paid search as vital channels for tech marketing to achieve awareness and demand generation goals. “Generative AI answers are replacing traditional search engine queries,” Antin said.
He added that this will force companies to rethink marketing channels as gen AI becomes embedded in all aspects of enterprise.
Gartner predicted that the search volume would drop. This prediction will have a major impact on marketers.
“If this prediction turns out to be accurate — and it’s important to remember this is just a prediction, not a guarantee — companies will be forced to reassess which platforms and channels they invest in, and how much,” said Danny Goodwin, managing editor of Search Engine LandA digital marketing and advertising technologies publication.
“For a long time, organic and paid search — namely Google — have been a fairly reliable source of traffic,” he told the E-Commerce Times. Google delivers searchers likely to convert on your site, make a purchase or perform a certain task.
AI search engines will require marketers to adjust their strategies for other platforms than just Google and the Web. Goodwin speculated, “It could mean learning to optimize for large-language models such as ChatGPT.” “It might mean investing heavily in video or SEO for TikTok, YouTube or TikTok.”
Amazon SEO, he said, could be more critical for retailers. Also, it means optimizing social media platforms like Meta and LinkedIn.
He added that companies should assess their target audiences and optimize everything so they can be found and present everywhere.
Diversified approaches are needed
Greg Sterling, cofounder of Near MediaThe website, which provides news, analysis, and commentary, also agreed that the drop in volume would have an impact on online marketing strategies. “Companies are going to be forced into acting differently and diversifying their channels. But they should do that anyway,” he said in an interview with the E-Commerce Times.
He said that Gartner’s figures were “aggressive,” but the assumptions they are based on are accurate.
Joe Karasin – CMO, founder and CEO of Karasin PPCA marketing agency in Lapeer that specializes on Google Ads
“This issue has been known for a long time, and businesses have responded by increasing their investment in alternative platforms,” said he to the E-Commerce Times. “E-commerce companies are investing heavily into TikTok. It has become the de facto search engine for younger consumers, especially. Reddit has also become a more valuable channel for brands, as the trend on search to add ‘Reddit’ at the end of a query has taken off. “
Mark N. Vena added that to adapt to a changing landscape in search, marketers will need to adopt a diversified approach, allocating their resources to alternative platforms, such as content marketing, social media and influencer collaborations. SmartTech Research San Jose, Calif.
According to him, the E-Commerce Times, “Emphasizing customer experience may become paramount and lead to increased investments in site optimization and personalized content.”
Antin added that “a great experience for users will be crucial.” “If you cannot provide that great user experience, you will be losing customers,” he told E-Commerce Times.
Fighting AI Content Deluge
Vena speculated as well that a renewed emphasis on data-driven decisions could be made to effectively target audiences across multiple channels. He said that this shift could be the beginning of a more nuanced and holistic marketing approach, using a combination of digital and conventional channels to navigate an ever-changing landscape and maintain brand awareness and engagement.
He said that, as search volumes drop, they are likely to intensify the efforts of the search engines to identify quality web content. He explained that to address this problem, search engines may improve their algorithms in order to distinguish between high-quality, authentic content and AI generated spam.
“Collaborating and investing in cutting edge technologies can help search engines stay ahead of the curve, and maintain the integrity and quality of search results even as AI-generated content proliferates,” he added.
Sterling quipped: “Google’s algorithms can detect low quality content whether created by humans or AI.” In reality, the situation is going to be much more complex. “They will need to use additional or different signals in order to detect cynically-produced AI content.”
Goodwin said that “many people are complaining about the poor quality of Google searches.” Google has responded to criticism by launching major algorithm updates. For example, in 2011, after months of complaints that content farms were ranking highly in Google search results, Google launched a Panda algorithm update that targeted that issue.
Fighting AI with AI
Search engines could improve their results by cracking down on “parasitic” SEO, maintained Aaron MastersonPresident of ABM Initiative in Austin, Texas, is. Parasite SEO content refers to a strategy in which someone creates content for established websites with high authority, hoping to benefit from their reputation and improve the ranking of their website.
He told the E-Commerce Times that “stopping parasitic SEO” would allow blogs and niche websites who work hard to create great content, to rank properly on page one of the search results.
Will Duffield of the Policy Analysts at the OECD stated that the main way the search establishment can counter its AI rivals is to embrace AI itself. Cato InstituteThink tank based in Washington, D.C.
“We’ve already seen it with Bing,” said he to the E-Commerce Times. Google’s AI products will most likely be integrated into the main search engine in due course. Google’s answer box is a good example. “If you can’t win, join the crowd.”
He said that if certain searches are best answered with a chatbot, rather than by linking to content elsewhere, then there’s really no reason to avoid using chatbot tools.
People often Google things that don’t fit into a ranking list of websites. He added that they just needed an answer. “This will, to some extent, obscure any losses that traditional search may have suffered because the user’s querying of traditional search along with AI search is likely to occur at the exact same time.
