@tjrobertson52

A lot of people don't realise how quickly SEO and the way people find businesses online is about to change. Just yesterday, Logan Killpatrick from Google AI Studio tweeted that AI mode will be the default mode in Google soon. So let's talk about what this means, how it's going to change SEO, and what you can do about it if you're a business owner.

So if you don't know, Google's AI mode is like ChatGPT, right? In Google Search? Currently this is a separate tab on Google that you have to click to, but Google has made several statements making it clear that their plan is to have this be the default mode, replacing the traditional search results.

When you do a search in AI mode, Google will do what's called the query fan out. They'll take your search and they'll make 12 more specific searches, and then search the web, and then they'll typically crawl at least 100 websites and return the information they found relevant to your search query. This is somewhat similar to what ChatGPT would do.

However, the results from Google and ChatGPT are very different, and they're both different than the traditional search results.

Now, if you're someone like a publisher who relies on this traffic to make money, maybe you have ads on your website. This is just bad news all around. But if you're a business selling an actual product or service, people are gonna be using these algorithms even more than they used to to get recommendations on which business to hire.

So this actually presents a huge opportunity to get more leads through Google. A lot of SEOs are saying that nothing is changing because Google still uses their own search results before returning an answer. However, like I said before, Google is looking at at least 100 pages, way more than a human would ever look at.

And that does significantly change the strategy.

In traditional SEO, the entire game is ranking in the top three very short, broad competitive terms like dentist near me. In AI mode, the searches are way more specific and personalised, and Google's looking at hundreds of pages. So the game shifts to understanding all the pages Google likes to look at and making sure your brand is showing up and being recommended in as many of them as possible.

A lot of website owners have already felt this shift begin to happen with AI overviews and a few people using AI mode. But it's nothing compared to what's about to happen. The big shift will come when Google makes AI mode the default experience.

They're already starting to experiment with something called Web Guide, which is where AI type results show up in the traditional search results. And now we've had several people from Google confirming that AI mode will be the default soon.

So if you own a business or a website, I highly recommend starting to track where AI mode is looking before recommending you or your competitors. You can do this with software like profound or Peak AI, and then make sure your business is mentioned and recommended in as many of them as possible. Get yourself in the directories and listicles that AI mode is looking at and start producing content on the social platforms and publications that AI mode looks at.

While the things you're doing for traditional SEO should still continue to help, this is a huge focus that we have right now for our clients. Things are changing. There will be big opportunities.

Make sure you're ready.