With the launch of Google's Search Generative Experience and Bing Copilot (previously Bing Chat), we saw the development of AI-powered search and a major change of the SERPs in 2023.
With the ability to comprehend text, code, audio, photos, and video, Google has unveiled Gemini, its largest and most sophisticated AI model to date. In 2024, we anticipate seeing its full potential unlocked on Google Search.
In the meantime, Google keeps emphasizing the value of experience and quality while utilizing AI models as a crucial part of ranking and reranking. This year, Google updated its algorithms in a number of ways related to page experience and content quality.
Google will welcome material created with AI as long as it is valuable and really relevant. However, don't anticipate that low-quality, AI-generated content will gain long-term SERP presence with ease.
These days, a competitive advantage is a topical, entity-first approach. It's essential to fortify your platform's technical base to enhance user experience and discovery.
In summary, all brands should prioritize future-proofing their digital presence for AI search by 2024.
Discover three essential elements for success as well as seven major developments that should impact your plan in 2024 by reading on.
7 trends that will influence your strategic roadmap in 2024
The top seven trends for 2024 are listed here.
1. SERP and visual optimization
Rich results in Google SGE and the SERPs will keep changing. Continuous SERP improvement is essential since we anticipate an increase in zero-click results as a result of SGE.
Do you want access to the AI-generated response (or screenshot)? Continue to release pages that load quickly and are jam-packed with original, important, and pertinent material. A few particular areas to give priority are:
- Experiential/informational videos.
- Web stories.
- Podcasts.
- Webinars.
- Visual optimization.
- FAQ/PAA.
2. Helpful content and content intelligence
In 2024, having a strong content strategy will be crucial.
- Find and fill relevant content gaps.
- Review content performance.
- Create personalized content based on user intent and touchpoints.
- Create and optimize various types of helpful content (e.g., topical and informational, localized, visual).
You want to exhibit strong E-E-A-T levels, post information that has been created or evaluated by subject matter experts, or show that you have practical experience.
Every search is the result of someone's need or desire. Your material should assist searchers in completing tasks or reaching objectives. The user's experience with your material is equally crucial as the information itself.
You should use buyer personas in your approach to accomplish this in a meaningful way. Every touch point should have material created with the buyer's journey in mind. Make sure the UX and content are in line with the plan by conducting a consumer survey.
The cornerstone of your content development process should be content intelligence, or the ability to predict the kind of material that will perform based on data.
Sure, a number of generative AI tools and plugins can produce material fast, but usually the content isn't clear:
- What content types will perform well.
- How to humanize content.
- How to forecast the effectiveness of a content strategy.
For content providers, developing a data-driven strategy to assess the efficacy of their work will become essential.
3. Engagement and experience
An key factor influencing how Google presents search results is user participation and interactions.
Google wants to promote authoritative material that appeals to searchers and is of a high caliber.
By enhancing the quality of your content and the user experience of your digital assets, you should aim to increase the quality and experience for searchers in 2024.
4. Personalized experience
According to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, search will change significantly during the next ten years. In order to have a more significant and lasting influence on users, search will become more tailored.
This could be the reason Google unveiled a tailored search experience on November 15th, along with a new Follow button, to provide users with more information about the topics they care about right in the search results.
Additionally, you ought to provide your clients with tailored experiences according to their identities, preferences, and points of origin.
To guarantee a customized experience, this entails a closer interface with your CRM (customer relationship management) and CDP (customer data platform) systems.
In order to succeed in 2024, clean data, audience segmentation, and data-driven campaigns to customize the experience are essential.
5. Multichannel approach
Seize every chance you can on SERP real estate, which will become more and more competitive due to a shortage of organic listing inventory. This entails maximizing the user experience across a range of platforms and content kinds:
- Videos.
- Images.
- FAQs.
- PAAs.
- News.
- Webinars.
Be everywhere. Be consistent.
6. Local Strategy needs to be more personalized, localized, and experiential.
- Local posts.
- Quality images.
- Videos.
- Web stories.
7. Brand mentions and social proof
As we all know, LLMs are educated to gather information from a range of sources.
Recognize the precise queries and subjects your clients are looking for information on, as well as the sources from which they will obtain it, and make sure our efforts are focused.
Look for strategies to obtain or be paid for brand mentions and citations from reputable publications and pertinent influencers (preferably with a sizable social media following).
3 priorities for staying ahead in changing times
It is essential to keep ahead of the curve and adapt to the changing times given all the changes that are occurring. "Don't slow down or you'll fall behind."
To keep you ahead of the game, consider these three key priorities.
1. Technical Infrastructure which Enables Integrated, Robust Experience
It is essential to keep ahead of the curve and adapt to the changing times given all the changes that are occurring. "Don't slow down or you'll fall behind."
To keep you ahead of the game, consider these three key priorities.
2. Embracing New Metrics
Traffic is probably going to decrease when AI provides answers in the search results. Naturally occurring listings will continue to become more dispersed and repositioned lower on the page as more information is displayed inside search results from Google properties.
Rankings and other traditional measurements won't have the same meaning as they have now.
There are emerging new measurements. Brands need to think about implementing these new success metrics, like:
- Rich snippet visibility.
- Pixel height and width.
- Impressions.
- Clicks.
- On-site engagement.
- Conversions.
3. AI-Enabled Worker and Organization Alignment
You can become more proficient and effective at developing content outlines, graphics, summaries, designs, and a host of other applications where artificial intelligence (AI) should be applied by understanding how to apply AI in your daily life.
Since the invention of AI, many people have been plagued by a common fear: "Will AI take my job? Do not fret! AI doesn't actually have intelligence with today's technology, and it won't replace you. But you really do need to adjust because AI can help you do your work more effectively, says Eric Enge.
Are you ready for 2024?
In 2024, astute businesses will:
- Channel integration makes it possible to make wise selections.
- As you develop an omnichannel strategy, link the customer journeys across all channel interactions.
- Take the appropriate measurements, such as AI and zero-click outcomes.
- Make training a top priority for the entire company.
There will be a need for some organizational and personal changes. As an illustration:
- Content strategists ought to develop from content writers.
- Developers ought to produce extraordinary user experiences.
- Business analysts ought to be part of analytics teams.
To sum up, Learn about artificial intelligence. Acquire the ability to employ extensive language models for forecasting, content creation, and user behavior analysis.
AI may be used in a variety of ways to raise both the standard of your work and your daily productivity.
AI-enabled employees and businesses will benefit. They will be worth more than people who haven't used AI tools and learned about them.
Make decisions on what to prioritize, why to prioritize it, and how to cross-functionally align companies by using the trends and tactics discussed in this article. Thanks 🙏 for reading my article.
