Last week I attended the brightonSEO 2024 conference, one of the leading marketing conferences in the world.
It was packed with insights that every marketer, content creator, and SEO professional should be paying attention to.
Here are my five key takeaways from brightonSEO 2024.
Diversifying beyond Google
Google remains the dominant search engine, but relying solely on Google for organic traffic is not advised. With ongoing antitrust lawsuits and competitors like TikTok, Reddit and Perplexity (a free AI-powered search engine) gaining significant traction, brands need to spread their efforts across multiple platforms.
Google’s focus on monetisation is reducing organic visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs), and users are seeking more diverse, personalised experiences elsewhere.
For instance, TikTok’s search algorithm is driven by user engagement rather than brand authority. Quora and Reddit have also seen notable growth in traffic as people value user-generated content.
By scaling content for conversational queries and structuring it for large language models (LLMs), brands can ensure they’re present wherever their audience is searching, not just on Google.
Evergreen content is more important than ever
Evergreen content continues to be a powerful tool to protect yourself from the impacts of Google algorithm updates.
One speaker had analysed content from major brands and highlighted a handful of factors for maintaining effective evergreen content:
- Starting headlines with “What is…” and writing a simple and informative introduction, which could also start with “What is…”.
- Having 10 – 20 outbound links. While this might be a stretch in a short blog, outbound links to high-quality sources and relevant internal pages is important.
- Regularly refreshing content to ensure it stays relevant – 84% of analysed evergreen content had been updated within the past year, showing the importance of consistent maintenance.
There can often be a temptation to constantly create new content. While this is certainly valuable, so many websites have plenty of content that can start attracting more traffic with a quick refresh.
How to best utilise AI
AI is a powerful tool, but it’s only as effective as the human behind it.
One key message from brightonSEO was that AI, such as ChatGPT-4, is not a search engine. It can assist with tasks like research, content creation, and optimisation, but it doesn’t replace human intuition, creativity, and expertise.
The best approach is to treat AI as a logical engine, capable of handling digestible tasks, but you still need to guide it with solid research and clear objectives. Over-reliance on AI for web scraping or content creation without proper strategy can lead to subpar results.
One speaker shared examples of a business purposely adding spelling mistakes to AI created content to “humanise” it. The result was simply a subpar piece of content with spelling mistakes.
As the saying goes, “A fool with a tool is still a fool.” It’s essential to do your homework and treat AI like a knowledgeable colleague, rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.
This was a particularly interesting topic as we are soon going to publish our white paper that explores the impact of generative AI on the communications industry. We have carried out research with the University of Sussex and are close to finishing the analysis. Follow our LinkedIn page to stay updated.
Are we heading toward zero clicks from search?
One of the most alarming trends discussed at brightonSEO was the rise of zero-click searches, where users find their answers directly in the SERPs without clicking through to websites.
This is increasingly common with the integration of AI-powered snippets. Google’s strategy seems to focus more on driving traffic to its own services and ads, reducing the value of organic search. In fact, Google has just launched ads in its AI Overviews, pushing organic results further down the SERP.
Perplexity is taking a more underhand approach. One speaker showed that boxouts of watches it recommended in one search were affiliate links; that is, they were tracked URLs that the company had paid to place in the results. However, Perplexity did not flag these as sponsored links so unless you were very on the ball you would not know.
As a result, brands may need to rethink how they measure SEO success. While this doesn’t mean the end of organic search, it does signify a shift in how users interact with search engines and how businesses must adapt their content strategies.
Site speed optimisation and its role in sustainability
Site speed has always been a crucial ranking factor, but what’s less discussed is its impact on carbon footprints. Faster websites not only improve user experience and conversion rates but also consume less energy, contributing to a lower carbon footprint.
Real User Monitoring (RUM) software offers granular insights into user behaviour. By using RUM data, businesses can see how different factors, such as region or connection type, affect site speed.
As more brands prioritise sustainability, this aspect of site speed optimisation will only become more prominent.
Summary
There are plenty of factors impacting SEO, not least the emergence of AI and LLMs.
However, there are some basics to follow that should ensure your site continues to attract organic traffic and new business leads:
- Publish helpful content – understand what your audience wants to know and provide that in an easy-to-read article.
- Demonstrate E-E-A-T – this stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness and Google rewards sites that tick all of these boxes.
- Write for your users, not search engines – while you can get carried away trying to do every single SEO task, it comes down to producing insightful, unique and engaging content for your audience.
Magenta offers search engine optimisation along our other PR and comms services. If you’d like to discuss the state of SEO or how we can support your business, email me on greg@magentaassociates.co or contact our team.
