There was a time when search was a relatively straightforward process. Consumers had the choice of a small number of search engines, they typed their queries into the search bar, and the system looked for key words to match their request. Not anymore.
Search tools have and will continue to evolve significantly, and modern systems, powered by innovations like Google AI, Microsoft Co-Pilot and ChatGPT, have shifted away from key words and now incorporate social and conversational contexts. Consumers habits have changed too and today their search requests may be voice activated, a question addressed to a chatbot or a request for insights from an AI platform.
While things are moving quickly, these developments in the fragmenting search landscape are set to have a profound impact on brands and their SEO strategies.
So, what might be the future for traditional search engines? As search intent evolves, indicators suggest that their role may well be largely limited to consumers who know what they want and need help to connect with information or retailers. This type of search may play an important role in online shopping.
Consumers with less determined queries may favour emerging platforms. For example, they might access all the information they require about a topic via a bespoke 1000-word article created by a generative AI-based platform. Or listen to a one sentence response delivered to them by their phone’s AI-driven voice system. Or just see what results their favoured social media platform can deliver.
Re-inventing SEO
What are the implications of this shift for SEO? How will AI shape the future of search? One thing is clear: this transformation redefines how businesses must approach SEO. It demands strategies that are optimised to suit the fragmenting search landscape and match up with the ways that consumers search today.
For example, local SEO strategies that depend solely on directories or minimal local outreach will soon be less effective. They will be superseded by AI tools and assistants that deliver accurate, up-to-date, and comprehensive data.
One of the main impacts of this evolution of search is that brands will need to ensure they show up consistently and authoritatively across a range of publishers.
Getting AI-Search Ready
How then should brands address the changing world of search, and what impact should this have on their SEO strategies?
For many brands, the changing search landscape means that their SEO strategies need to focus on accuracy. Delivering correct addresses, business hours, and localised keywords might sound like basic tasks, yet these are pivotal in ensuring that brands are represented accurately in AI-driven searches. Uniformity is also key, and brands should do their best to keep information consistent across a range of platforms. Getting these fundamental requirements wrong can have a significant impact on consumer trust.
Social media channels, from Instagram to TikTok, are increasingly becoming an integral part in the patchwork blanket of brand discovery and engagement. Brands can optimise social search by managing their social media approaches in a single platform—in turn enabling faster access to insights, identifying trends more easily, and enhanced overall productivity.
Another important tip for brands is that they need to create content that is ready to be converted into voice and conversational queries. The key here is to anticipate the natural language users employ, second guessing not just the questions consumers will ask, but also the way in which they will frame their queries. Brand content may need to be re-organised too. Structured data, FAQ pages, and schema markup can make content more accessible to AI tools, ensuring brands stay relevant in conversational contexts.
Finally, businesses need to utilise a widespread network of publishers. By leveraging comprehensive publishing networks, businesses can maximise their presence on AI-driven platforms.
In short, your SEO strategy is now about Search “Everywhere” Optimisation and it’s more important than ever to make sure your data is in as many places as possible, as robust as possible, and always sending a consistent signal. People, and machines, are now gathering their information in more and more places so you need to be ready to meet them with that information wherever and whenever they look.
