SEO in the Age of AI - What has the Doctor ordered?! 8 ways to optimise your ranking
Want to keep the Doctor away? Eat a rock a day. Obviously.
Need to find a way to stick cheese to a pizza? Use glue...
What’s the best temperature to sleep? Try a balmy 600-670 degrees Fahrenheit. Mmm, calming.
Leo Varadkar (an Irish politician) is (in case you didn’t know) over 2716 feet tall, and more than 160 stories….You know, I thought he was.
The results of Google’s latest AI search summaries tests are... concerning…AI is taking over the world, right? Maybe not just yet.
Not only is AI found guilty of terrible advice, but there are also growing concerns regarding the frequency of ‘hallucinating’; AI fake news.
Is it likely to feature with these issues when finally released? I hope not, but it won’t take long for significant improvements to be made.
In principle, this has the potential to radically change how the world uses Google’s search function, which considering the extent of its usage, is fairly significant.
What does this mean for you as a business?
Essentially, your SEO visibility is going to decrease. The battle for higher ranking will become harder as blue links fall further down the page.
The cognitive load for users to scroll down below these summaries (provided the quality improves) will increase, while their need to crawl through the results will decrease.
To stand out, now is the time to optimise your online visibility so you can best compete for the hardest real estate to secure; your buyers' minds.
Here are 8 key ways to improve your SEO ranking, today:
Dive Deep into the Audience
Discover what your audience is looking for with a website like SEMrush, ideal for finding high-volume keywords aligned with user intent.
Use a keywords explorer such as Ahrefs, to get insights into the questions your audience is asking so you can tailor your content to answer these queries effectively.
Enhance Visibility with Data Tools
Validate your site’s structured data to ensure it’s correctly formatted and optimised for rich elements in search results. Google's Structured Data Testing Tool can be a helpful resource.
Build High-Quality Backlinks
Guest blogging on other reputable websites in your industry to build high-quality backlinks and drive traffic to your website.
Collaborate with influencers in your niche to create content to share with their audience, creating strong backlinks.
Focus on Creating Quality Content
Regularly update your website. Keep it clean, up-to-date, fresh and relevant. Go through your older posts to update them with current content, keywords and more.
Consistently produce quality content that provides value to address your audience’s needs whilst helping them reach their desires.
Grow Your Social Media Presence
Engage with your audience and key accounts. Regularly post. A greater reach will improve your SEO ranking indirectly.
Optimise for Mobile Search
Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool is to check if your website is optimised for mobile search.
Make your Website ‘Sticky’
Provide interactive elements to your website such as quizzes, surveys and infographics to keep visitors engaged and on your site for longer.
Capitalise on Voice Search Optimization
Find out what conversational questions people ask to better optimise voice search utilising AnswerThePublic.
ChatGPT: Surprised? You shouldn’t be. There are plenty of positives that AI can provide. Leverage AI, but use a discerning eye, like Gemini, Copilot and ChatGPT 4 and 4o to generate SEO-friendly content that answers complex questions in a conversational tone, perfect for voice search queries.
These are just some of the ways you can optimise your SEO to ensure your presence remains robust, adaptive and current in the rapidly changing environment that is our digital ecosystem.
AI summaries in Google Search may be just around the corner, but with a greater emphasis on the key elements to make your business stand out, you don’t need to feel threatened. Instead, you can be more confident in your ability to compete for a higher position.
Let's just hope you're not the one who gets blamed for suggesting a rock-based diet!
Thank you for reading!
