Friends of Search 2024 takeaways: AI & the future of SEO

The talks I attended

There were a lot of presentations at Friends of Search 2024. I wasn't able to attend all of them, but I was able to attend a lot. I was with Aleyda Solis who talked about AI in SEO, with Arnoldo Cabrera who showed Ikea's SEO strategy and with Linda Hogenes, for example, who shared how Coolblue applied E-E-A-T principles early on. I also attended another deep-dive talk by Michiel Schoonhoven on how to AI-proof your team.

One of the talks that stayed with me the most was Kevin Indig's. This presentation was about patterns shared by the best and most successful companies.

AI: the biggest change in search since Google

AI is revolutionizing search engines. Similar to Google's rise. AltaVista and Yahoo used to revolve mostly around single keywords, leading to a lack of context and thus less relevant results.

Today, this works completely differently and Google is steering itself as a search engine with AI. Here, user intentions and queries are interpreted and taken into account when determining search results. But that's just the beginning. I have seen countless examples of opportunities within crawls of websites to keyword analysis and competitive research with AI.

Zero click world

With the ongoing evolution of AI and the rise of chatbots and other advanced technologies, the Zero Click World is upon us. A new challenge for online marketers and SEO professionals. In this world, users are increasingly finding answers directly on the search results page. Without having to click through to a specific website anymore. Traditional SEO strategies must therefore be adapted.

For example, it is no longer just important to strive for high rankings in search results. But also to look ahead to the growing influence of featured snippets, knowledge panels and other SERP features. This means marketers must focus on optimizing content for maximum visibility and authority within the search results themselves. To stay relevant in this rapidly changing digital environment.

The end of SEO?

The Zero Click World is gaining ground and technological developments such as AI and chatbots are rapidly changing the search experience. This raises the question of whether we are nearing the end of SEO in its current form. Some experts contend that traditional SEO tasks may merge into other professions, such as content marketing, UX design and data management.

Rather than a stand-alone specialty, SEO could evolve into an integral part of these disciplines. This would integrate SEO principles into all aspects of digital marketing and the user experience. For better or worse, we're going to see it!

What the best do best

It's becoming increasingly challenging to increase traffic to your Web site. Especially at a time when Google makes up to 10 updates a year. An important factor here is the quality of the content. This is highly dependent on the competition. Remarkably, this is precisely where the top players among others make a big difference. Indeed, pages with high-quality content are rewarded by Google. Even if the number of indexable pages decreases, this can result in an increase in traffic.

In addition, the best companies pay attention to their website design, avoid stock photos and similar elements that Google looks at critically, and add interactive widgets or quizzes to better serve users. Instead of opting for standard landing pages, they think outside the box.

AI Proof Marketing Team in 5 Steps

Setting up an AI-proof marketing team can be accomplished in five steps. First, assembling a task force is important. Which includes representatives from each team. Next, it is helpful to develop an AI policy that establishes guidelines and protocols for the use of AI data and communication to customers.

Investment in AI training and education follows to prepare the team to integrate AI into their work processes. A thorough AI impact audit helps identify potential automated tasks and understand what changes are needed with a focus on key aspects such as E-A-T. Finally, selecting AI tools is key, usually starting with the big players and not spending too much time on smaller tools. The most important take-away? Get into this consistently. Reserve time for it every Friday, for example!

Next level link building

Link building is one of the most important ranking factors and is seen by many as a kind of tool. But actually they are recommendations. In this regard, it may be wise these days to use the homepage for link building. After all, branding and brand identity are the best ranking factors out there.But beware: if you as a company do not perform well, you cannot expect to rank high in Google either. . Or as Alexandra Tachalova beautifully described it, "If you have a shit company dont expect good results in search rankings".