Welcome to another insightful week with The SEOs Diners Club newsletter. Leveraging over a decade of SEO expertise, I aim to distill the week's most critical developments into a concise read that will take less than seven minutes. Let's dive into the insights that matter.

Can Artificial Intelligence Replace SEO Specialists?

Exploring the impact of AI on the SEO world, the necessity for experts to re-evaluate their strategies, and the opportunities this transformation offers.

The expansion and integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into SEO workflows and processes, particularly amidst layoffs in the tech industry, raises a question: Is AI gearing up to take over all our jobs?

In January, as Google shifted its investments and focus towards AI development, it laid off hundreds of employees. The tech giant is not alone; brands like UPS and Duolingo are making similar moves. This situation prompts us to ponder the future of our jobs in the SEO field.

How AI Is Transforming the SEO Space

Before the widespread adoption of AI, SEO tasks were largely manual and time-consuming. For instance, optimizing a landing page could take anywhere from thirty minutes to several hours, depending on your experience and skill level. Thanks to AI, SEO professionals can perform their tasks faster and more efficiently.

AI can help us become more efficient in several ways, but it's also essential to acknowledge AI's limitations. Integrating AI appropriately with a humanized approach creates a win-win situation.

Enhancing Tool Efficiency

AI has improved some of our tools, making tasks like keyword research, competitor analysis, and content optimization more efficient and effective. AI algorithms can process large amounts of data faster than humans, providing insights that can inform our SEO strategies.

Content Creation and Optimization

One of the most significant benefits I've seen is AI's ability to brainstorm content topics and create content drafts. However, human oversight is vital to ensure content remains high-quality, accurate, and relevant to users.

Changing Perceptions of SEO

With AI and Google’s Generative Search Experiences (SGE), SEO could potentially undergo one of the most significant changes in the industry. As search engines increasingly use AI to improve their algorithms, SEO specialists must adapt their strategies accordingly.

Human Insight and Creativity

Despite advancements in AI, human insight and creativity remain critically important. AI tools can provide data and insights but cannot replace humans' ability to interpret and apply this information.

Ethical Considerations and Best Practices

It's necessary to use AI tools responsibly and by search engine guidelines. SEO specialists play a crucial role in ensuring the ethical use of AI and adhering to best practices to avoid penalties.

AI will become an invaluable tool for SEO specialists, but it won't replace the need for human expertise, creativity, and strategic thinking. SEO specialists will shift towards managing and interpreting AI-generated data and insights, spending less time on manual and repetitive tasks that machines can now handle with human oversight.

SEO specialists who adopt a human-centered approach to leveraging AI capabilities will gain a competitive edge in the industry and have a brighter future.

If you've read this far, I have a somewhat unsettling piece of news for you; according to Sam Altman, a founder of OpenAI, AI could soon perform up to 95% of marketing and agency work.

If Sam Altman's prediction that AI will cause 95% of our marketing jobs to disappear is correct (setting aside when this might happen), what steps would you start taking today to ensure you're part of the remaining 5–10% of jobs that will endure?

The actions don't have to be grand; perhaps meeting with a few colleagues monthly or attending prompt engineering courses could be small steps. If there's something you haven't started today, how could you carry it over to tomorrow?

Google's Crawling Priorities and Insights from Gary Illyes

Google analyst Gary Illyes's shares on crawling strategies underscore the importance of producing quality content.

In a LinkedIn post, Gary Illyes, an analyst at Google, stated that his mission this year is to figure out how to crawl the web even less.

This statement followed a Reddit discussion suggesting that Google had crawled less in previous years. Although Illyes clarified that Google is crawling about the same amount, he emphasized the importance of more innovative programming and focusing on URLs that deserve to be crawled.

The ongoing discussion among SEO professionals about the "crawl budget" concept relates to these statements. The crawl budget assumes that search engines have a limited number of pages they can crawl daily. However, Google's Search Relations team debunked this misconception in a podcast, explaining that Google's crawling priorities are determined based on various factors.

According to Illyes, while Google has not defined "search demand," it could imply the demand for search queries from Google's perspective. If there's a decrease in searches for a particular topic, Google might have less reason to crawl related websites.

Focusing on quality, Google has stated that a fixed "crawl budget" is essentially a myth. Instead, the search engine's crawling decisions are dynamic and driven by content quality. Illyes mentioned, "Programming is very dynamic. As soon as we get signals from indexing that content quality has increased across many URLs, we increase the demand."

By aiming to reduce the amount of crawling and bytes transmitted over the wire, Illyes is moving towards a more sustainable and practical web. Open to suggestions from the community, Illyes invites interesting internet drafts or standards from organizations like the IETF to contribute to this effort.

Why Is This Important for SEO?

Illyes's statement on reducing crawling reinforces the importance of focusing on quality and relevance. SEO is about technical optimizations and creating valuable, user-centric content that meets user demand.

Understanding the dynamic nature of Google's crawling decisions allows us to make more informed choices when optimizing our websites and allocating resources.

How Can This Information Help You?

With insights from Illyes, there are several actionable steps you can take:

• Prioritize quality: Focus on creating high-quality, relevant, engaging content that satisfies user intent and aligns with current search demand.

• Keep content fresh: Regularly update and refresh your content to continue providing value to your audience.

• Monitor search demand trends: Align your content strategy with evolving trends and topics to ensure your website remains relevant and worth crawling.

• Implement technical best practices: Provide a clean, well-structured architecture and a robust internal linking strategy to facilitate effective crawling and indexing. Don't forget the key points you've learned from Illyes's statements and insights provided by Google's Search Relations team as you refine your SEO strategies. Armed with these insights, you'll be equipped to succeed even as Google reduces its crawling frequency.

Reshape Your SEO Strategies with Perplexity AI

New research highlights the significant traffic optimization opportunities Perplexity AI offers for SEO, especially for e-commerce sites.

A study by BrightEdge shows an increase in traffic flow to Perplexity and highlights where opportunities for traffic optimization lie, especially for e-commerce sites.

We can undoubtedly say that a new era has begun in the SEO world. Perplexity, a platform founded by researchers and engineers from OpenAI, Facebook, Quora, Microsoft, and Databricks, defines itself as an Answer Engine.

It is supported by some of Silicon Valley's most influential investors and engineers and stands out as one of the new wave of AI search engines.

Perplexity has its own PageRank system-ranked index. This platform, a combination of a search engine and a chatbot, serves as an interface to receive queries for the chatbot part and maintains the chatbot's functionality, such as performing tasks like writing an article in the AI part.

What sets Perplexity apart from its competitors is its generous attribution to websites. According to the BrightEdge study, Perplexity's referral traffic has seen a 40% increase since January, indicating that users are interested in trying something different from the usual ten blue links.

The research using BrightEdge’s Generative Parser shows that users have no problem with an AI search engine. The lesson is that the search marketing industry has reverted to what it was twenty years ago when Google first emerged. People like me, SEO specialists, and others were trying to test what activities were beneficial and which were not.

BrightEdge's report emphasizes the tectonic changes that AI-first search engines like Perplexity and ChatGPT have made in how brands market and sell their products, which depend on organic search strategies. However, the novelty of these AI-focused platforms makes it challenging to keep up and adapt.

BrightEdge sees Perplexity as an opportunity for search marketers due to its ad-free model and organic search traffic. The research indicates a significant overlap between Perplexity's search results and Google's SGE results, particularly in health-related search queries, because only a limited number of sites can generate content on health and medical topics.

BrightEdge highlights the following opportunities related to Perplexity:

• Perplexity's search growth rate is increasing by 39% monthly.

• Perplexity's search results reference an average of 5.28 websites.

• Perplexity references more in Travel and Restaurant queries compared to Google SGE.

• BrightEdge encourages search marketers to explore optimization opportunities for AI-focused search engines. Jim Yu, founder and chairman of BrightEdge, states, "Optimizing for emerging search platforms is critical because their impact will be seismic... AI-first engines continue to gain a stable foothold and carve out their niche, making it critical for the marketing community to master multiple search platforms."

Google Considers Charging for AI-Powered Search: A Major Change to Its Business Model

Google contemplates charging for new "premium" AI-powered search features, marking the most significant change in its search business.

Google is contemplating charging for new "premium" AI-powered features in its search division, marking the most significant change seen in its search business.

The plan to put one of its core products behind a paywall for the first time indicates that the company is still struggling with technology that threatens its advertising business. Even one and a half years after ChatGPT's launch, Google is in a dilemma about embracing the latest AI innovations while preserving its advertising business model.

According to three people familiar with Google's plans, Google is considering adding certain AI-powered search features to premium subscription services, which already offer access to the new Gemini AI assistant in Gmail and Docs. Engineers are developing the technology needed to deliver the service, but executives have yet to decide when or how to launch it.

Google's traditional search engine will remain free, and ads will continue to accompany search results, even for subscribers. However, charging would represent the first time Google asked people to pay for improvements to its core search product after years of offering free consumer services funded entirely by advertising.

Google generated $175 billion in revenue last year from search and related ads, more than half of its total sales. This puts the company in a dilemma about how to adopt the latest AI innovations while protecting its most profitable engine. When OpenAI launched ChatGPT, Google rushed to respond to the competitive threat posed by the popular chatbot capable of providing quick, full answers to questions, potentially making the traditional search engine's list of links and lucrative adjacent ads obsolete.

Google began testing an experimental AI-powered search service last year, offering users more detailed answers while providing links for more information and ads. However, adding any features from the "Search Generative Experience" experiment to its main search engine has been slow.

Microsoft, which has a broad partnership with OpenAI, launched an improved GPT-supported search and a chatbot called Copilot in its Bing search engine more than a year ago. However, the new AI features have had little impact on increasing Bing's market share, with Google continuing to dominate.

This year, Google added a new premium tier to its Google One consumer subscription service for users who want to use its most advanced Gemini chatbot. It also said Gemini to Workspace, its online productivity applications suite including Gmail and Docs.

It's unclear how Google will fully integrate AI-powered search into these paid services, whether they offer different pricing tiers, or when the AI-powered search offering will be ready. Google might decide to incorporate some aspects of its experimental AI-powered service into its primary, free search engine over time.

Google stated it is "not working on or considering" an ad-free search experience but will "continue to build new premium capabilities and services to enhance our subscription offerings in general."

Is Content Location Important for SEO?

SearchPilot presents 4 SEO A/B case studies proving that the placement of content on the page does matter to Google.

I recommend watching this video from SearchPilot, showcasing 4 A/B SEO case studies that prove how you display content does matter to Google.

The placement of your content on your pages can sometimes be as important as having the content at all. This video covers examples where the placement of your content on your page truly makes a difference to your organic traffic, with three winners and one loser.

Firstly, they found that removing content from tabs provided a 12% increase. Secondly, moving content to the top of the page led to a 14% increase. In the third case study, moving content further down the page resulted in a 10% decrease in traffic. Lastly, showing previously hidden mobile device content led to a 7% increase.

These case studies highlight the importance of how and where you present your content when developing your SEO strategy. Consider these strategic changes in how you present your content to users and search engines.

Countdown to SEO Vibes Istanbul 2024 Event!

The SEO Vibes Istanbul Event, organized by WhitePress and partnered by Worldef, SEOUP, and ContentUP, will take place in Istanbul on April 18, 2024.

An exciting event is approaching, at which we will gather to share the latest trends, strategies, and insights in SEO and digital marketing.

I am thrilled to meet you at the Istanbul leg of "SEO Vibes on Tour." At this special event, we will engage in in-depth conversations about the future of SEO, innovative marketing techniques, and content strategies with industry-leading experts.

I will also serve as a moderator at the event, leading a panel on the challenges, opportunities, and solutions we face in the international SEO landscape.

This will be an excellent opportunity to stay current with the latest industry developments, elevate your career to the next level, and network with like-minded professionals. I invite everyone who can to attend.

Recommended Tools & Services

• WhitePress: WhitePress is a content marketing platform that enables accessible article publishing across 90,571 websites in 30 languages, offering native copywriting and automated global publication services.

• Cannibalization Explorer Looker Studio Report is a tool for identifying keyword cannibalization and providing insights into how keywords perform across different pages.

• SurferSEO is a tool that helps you create and optimize content for SEO. It analyzes the top-ranking pages for your target keywords and gives you suggestions on how to improve your content. Surfer AI also has a feature that can generate ready-to-rank articles in minutes.

• Copilot Pro: Copilot Pro is available for $20/month for cloud-based GenAI models and $27/month with Microsoft 365. It is integrated with Microsoft 365 applications and provides access to GPT-4 Turbo and advanced AI rendering tools.

• AlsoAsked is a helpful tool that can boost your visibility in the “People Also Ask” section of Google's search engine results pages.

• Semrush Map Rank Tracker is a game-changing tool for local businesses looking to dominate their niche and attract more customers. I've been using the free version for a while now, and I'm impressed with its ease and effectiveness.

• ContentShake AI is an intelligent writing tool that combines AI with real-life competitor insights. It guides you from ideation to publishing directly to the blog, generates SEO-friendly articles, and helps you optimize them for organic traffic and engagement.

• Microsoft Clarity has recently introduced a feature called Copilot, which incorporates Generative AI through Large Language Models (LLMs) into the analytics tool. This integration aims to make data more accessible and understandable for users by leveraging the same technology created by OpenAI, which powers the new Bing or ChatGPT.

• InLinks is an SEO tool that uses a knowledge graph to optimize content for search engines. It automates internal linking and schema markup, simplifying SEO processes and content strategies.

Subscribe to my newsletter to stay informed about the latest in SEO and digital marketing. Next week, I'll continue to share the newest insights, tactics, and strategies for navigating the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape.

Support My Newsletter:

If you find my content valuable, consider buying me a coffee to support my work. Your contribution will help me continue sharing the latest SEO developments. Let's achieve more together!

Best,

Mert