Will Google Search's AI Mode Have Game-changing Effects for SEO?

I haven't yet deep-dived into the technical parts of SEO effects of Google's new Search AI Mode. It seems to me, on the surface, that Google Search's new AI mode could dramatically change the SEO game. Having full contextual understanding of blog posts means that it would be pointless to try to game the system for more search engine traffic. The AI crawler would understand what you are writing and ignore the tricks used move your site up the ranks of search engine results. This is because Google Search would simply provide an answer to the user's question rather than direct them to ten search results to find the answer.

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AI in Search: Going beyond information to intelligence

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What Effects Could Google Search AI Mode Have?

Preference for Authoritative Material

This is just speculation. We won't know for certain what effects this could have until there has been enough time to generate useful data. However, it is clear that it will become more important to be authoritative on certain topics. If you want advice on fixing your car, for example, you would be better off consulting a practicing mechanic than some guy who does a quick Google search. I think we will have to become authoritative sources on specific topics so that the AI could consider our work as relevant. Reputation will matter. This way the AI could answer those questions with confidence that the source material is good.

Preference for Communities

Another effect is that Google Search's AI mode could also consider the community of the individual content creator. Going back to the example of the mechanic, if the comments and replies on a post relate to the problems of a specific year and model of car, then the Search AI would have more niche information to summarize. Therefore, interaction and community could play a bigger role in providing source material to answer questions.

Less SEO Traffic

For the blogger, this effectively means less click-through traffic, which means less ad revenue. If you are a brand, let's say Pete's Superfluff as an example, then you have the advantage of knowing all about your brand in the superfluff market, meaning that the Search AI will default to your knowledge relating to the Pete's Superfluff brand, thereby driving traffic to your site. On the flip side, if Pete's Superfluff is known to have problems and a support community for customers crops up, then that will surface as an authoritative source of the problems with your brand of superfluff. The Search AI mode has full contextual awareness of what the user is asking and figures out who has the best answers.

How Can We Optimize for Google Search's AI Mode?

Get Into the Weeds of Your Subject

I'm sure people might figure out ways to game the system like they have done for SEO. However, the most direct way to optimize is to be comprehensive about what you are writing. If being an authoritative source is what gets you the traffic, then it follows that you need to be thorough and clear about your subject.

Think Ahead for Possible Questions

I think it also means that you need to think about and anticipate what questions your audience might have so that you can answer those questions in advance, which means that the Search AI Mode can answer those questions and link to your post.

Structure Your Posts

It's going to be more important to break up your writing with headings and subheadings. If your post requires it, then provide images, charts, tables, or data. The goal is to provide structure for the AI to find and link the relevant parts. Structuring your post gives the AI context about your writing.

How Can Hive Benefit From AI Search?

I think it is difficult to become authoritative completely on your own as a Hive blogger. I think interaction with others will help build that authority on a topic, particularly if your readers ask questions that you can answer. I think @taskmaster4450 has been correct all along in his analysis that Hive will feed AI. But we have to start thinking about what use Search AI has for our content. The most obvious answer is that Search AI will be looking for reliable answers to provide to its users. We shouldn't make the AI guess. We need to be clear about what questions we are answering.

Hive Communities As a Resource

More importantly, I think that Hive Communities will become more important to feeding Search AI in the way that Subreddits are used to train Google's AI. If all the posts in the community are focused on a topic, then it stands to reason that the AI will consider that community a good source of knowledge, assuming there is interaction.

The Impact of Anonymity on Hive

It's difficult to speculate what benefit it has for us on Hive. We don't earn from web traffic. So what benefits could we derive from being good sources for AI knowledge? This is particularly confounding as many users on Hive have a tendency to want to remain anonymous. Being an authority on a topic could bring work opportunities and possibly even sponsorships, but only if your identity is out in the open.

What Can Hive Users Do To Improve AI Search Results?

Use Hive Communities

One thing we can do, especially if we have a particular interest in a topic, is to maximize our use of Hive Communities related to that interest. Google Search is also aware of tags, so tags can be used to categorize your posts within the community. And AI Search is multimodal, meaning that text, images and video are also included in search results.

Interact With Each Other

Interaction is also important. When you are writing a blog post, you may not think of all the questions that the Internet could have on a subject. So it's beneficial to ask questions in the comments for the author or other readers to answer.

Ask Questions

We can also change our approach to Hive Communities. We mostly use Hive Communities as niches for blogging. But we can also use Hive Communities to ask questions the way that Redditors do. To reiterate, AI Search will be looking for answers to questions that their users might have. If you provide answers, particularly within an authoritative Hive Community, your post may be referenced in the results.

Curation

Search AI also takes upvotes into account. However, I don't know how effective that could be on Hive given the use of autovotes. I suppose it puts some responsibility on the initial curators to upvote good content only.

Moderation

I hate to say it, but the downvoters and use of Hive Community moderation may have a role to play in maintaining, or at least communicating low-quality posts to the AI. Downvotes are a contentious topic on Hive. But downvotes have managed to drive out most of the abuse on Hive. And Hive Community moderators may have to occasionally mute posts that clearly don't belong. I don't like censorship. But I think that a Hive Community has some discretion to mute bad actors given that we all have the freedom to post outside of a Hive Community on our own Hive blogs.

How Can Individual Hive Users Benefit?

If you have no problem with your identity being publicly known, you could add links to your other social media platforms and maybe even some contact information. This could result in IRL opportunities. It's conceivable that you may be able to do this while also remaining anonymous, but I don't have experience with this to tell you how to do it. I suppose recognition without financial or professional reward could also be sufficient benefit.

Not Everybody Needs to Optimize for Google Search AI

Having gone through all this work, I recognize that there is a purely social aspect to being on Hive. You may not care to have your posts surface on search results. Perhaps you have no interest in your Community or personal posts being authoritative on any subject. I think this is reasonable.

In writing this, I was thinking about how we can make Hive more relevant to the rest of the Internet. I have read discussions about how to bring in more users. I think that starts by having content that people can find and want to interact with. If we want more users on Hive, they need to first know we exist.

I think this is an opportunity for Hivers with skills and knowledge to contribute to our discoverability. If we can provide useful, authoritative answers to the questions people are asking, we have a chance to interest them in becoming part of this blockchain.

Feedback

Tell me what you think. Am I missing something? Do you agree? Disagree?