文字起こし 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:34.149 --> 00:00:38.950
Hello and welcome to BIA Advisory Services Leading and Local Insights podcast.
00:00:38.950 --> 00:00:43.910
My name is Celine Matthiessen and I'm the VP of Insights and Analysis here at BIA.
00:00:43.910 --> 00:00:52.390
Today we're talking about how AIs are shaping search and what that means for anyone who lives and dies by visibility, whether that's SEO media or marketing.
00:00:52.390 --> 00:01:00.150
The place where opinions are formed and shortlists are created is moving from search results page into AI-generated answers.
00:01:00.150 --> 00:01:03.910
For brands, the questions become less what's our ranking and more?
00:01:03.910 --> 00:01:07.750
Are we part of the answer mentioned, cited, recommended, or even sponsored?
00:01:07.750 --> 00:01:19.510
So to unpack what that means for SEO content and media strategy, I've invited my colleague Mike Boland, who's been deep in the future of search and AI driven discovery.
00:01:19.510 --> 00:01:20.950
I can't talk today.
00:01:20.950 --> 00:01:22.710
Uh to get us started, Mike.
00:01:22.710 --> 00:01:23.670
How are you today?
00:01:24.069 --> 00:01:24.789
Hi, Celine.
00:01:24.789 --> 00:01:25.750
Good to be with you.
00:01:26.469 --> 00:01:26.950
Great.
00:01:26.950 --> 00:01:34.069
So, Mike, when you look at how people search and research today compared to a few years ago, what feels fundamentally different to you?
00:01:34.710 --> 00:01:37.109
Yeah, I think that that's really where it starts.
00:01:37.109 --> 00:01:42.310
Uh, you mentioned a lot of things about how all of this impacts like the online visibility playbook.
00:01:42.310 --> 00:01:47.670
But I think like before getting to that, it's all a function of like how the user behavior is changing.
00:01:47.670 --> 00:02:05.030
And to answer that question, it seems that we're getting into more of a modality in in search that the industry has been driving towards like for a while and has really just like accelerated and gone into hyperdrive in the last like one or two years, which is natural language search.
00:02:05.030 --> 00:02:20.629
We've been talking about this for years, and I think it's the onset of AI engines and LLMs like ChatGPT and others that have one made this possible, and then two, have started to condition the behavior and users that this is now possible.
00:02:20.629 --> 00:02:25.030
So you see more and more people searching in more evolved ways.
00:02:25.030 --> 00:02:35.830
And and evolved is the key word because the sort of like the joke always in search, and especially in local search, has been that we we talk like cavemen when we when we search.
00:02:35.830 --> 00:02:38.390
It's like sushi near me, right?
00:02:38.390 --> 00:02:44.629
And and now we're using full sentences, we're we're getting into more granularity and we get into that and what that means.
00:02:44.629 --> 00:02:58.070
But I think that one data point that I think underscores a lot of this is that Sochi, um, a company that works on reputation management and a bunch of other things, a company you know, Celine, um, came out with their local visibility index recently.
00:02:58.070 --> 00:03:07.750
And as just one of many data points in this report, they reported that um search queries, traditional search queries on Google average four words in length, right?
00:03:07.750 --> 00:03:14.870
Can you guess the average word count of a typical AI query, whether it be Google AI mode or like ChatGPT?
00:03:14.870 --> 00:03:18.629
Like guess guess what the the length, the average length in words?
00:03:19.189 --> 00:03:21.750
In words, maybe double or triple that?
00:03:21.750 --> 00:03:22.550
I don't, yeah.
00:03:23.110 --> 00:03:26.629
So it's the according to their study of 23, which is almost six X.
00:03:26.629 --> 00:03:30.070
That's almost six X, the four words of search.
00:03:30.070 --> 00:03:31.670
So that that should quantify it.
00:03:31.670 --> 00:03:34.710
But yeah, that's playing out in a lot of interesting ways.
00:03:35.830 --> 00:03:38.710
So yeah, so is there anything you can add to that?
00:03:38.710 --> 00:03:45.270
Uh that's a great observation, high-level observation on um the shift from searching and clicking to asking and getting answers.
00:03:45.270 --> 00:03:50.310
Any anything else that you can that you can observe or that you've observed that we need to keep in mind?
00:03:50.550 --> 00:03:50.950
Yeah, yeah.
00:03:50.950 --> 00:03:53.110
Let's let's like color that with an example, right?
00:03:53.110 --> 00:04:01.189
Like the caveman search versus the new like natural language search, which makes a lot of sense because it's the way that we think naturally, it's the way humans think.
00:04:01.189 --> 00:04:04.469
Like it's just it's a return to just you know something that's more intuitive for us.
00:04:04.469 --> 00:04:08.550
So, anyway, let's take a local search example because that's our world, right?
00:04:08.550 --> 00:04:11.909
The the sort of you know, coffee near me.
00:04:11.909 --> 00:04:13.350
That's that's the traditional search.
00:04:13.350 --> 00:04:14.230
That's three words.
00:04:14.230 --> 00:04:20.230
Google, I mean, So she's average, they said before, but let's just take that typical search, coffee near me.
00:04:20.230 --> 00:04:32.949
The way that that might translate today in the way that users are being conditioned and the engines are being capable of processing, is something that's more along the lines of I'm driving down the 405 freeway in Los Angeles, heading towards Los Angeles.
00:04:32.949 --> 00:04:41.829
I'm looking for a place to get coffee that is less than one mile off the highway, and I prefer Pete's to Starbucks, and I want one that has a bathroom I could use.
00:04:41.829 --> 00:04:42.310
Right.
00:04:42.310 --> 00:04:45.750
It's like that's the new search, not the coffee near me.
00:04:45.750 --> 00:04:59.189
Um and I think that again, that has a lot of implications for you know the the art of SEO
Load full transcript
or what's becoming known as AIO, AI engine optimization, that's based on just those new ways that people um are searching.
00:04:59.829 --> 00:05:00.550
That's crazy.
00:05:00.550 --> 00:05:03.829
Yeah, um I could see I can see where that that makes a big difference.
00:05:03.829 --> 00:05:06.790
It's also very helpful because it's very personalized, right?
00:05:07.030 --> 00:05:07.269
Yeah.
00:05:07.509 --> 00:05:17.750
Um when so when you look at the tools that consumers are using, like ChatGPT or Google's AI overviews, uh, what do you think they change most about the way people research products or make decisions?
00:05:18.230 --> 00:05:20.389
So one, it's that natural language.
00:05:20.389 --> 00:05:25.350
Um, and I think that that again is just more natural um to the way we think.
00:05:25.350 --> 00:05:29.910
Um, and and that's sort of slowly, or actually I should say it's quickly assimilating.
00:05:29.910 --> 00:05:35.750
Um, you know, it's gonna take a while to untrain the world on the way they used to search, but that's happening faster and faster.
00:05:35.750 --> 00:05:57.509
So so it's that natural language, but also I think something interesting that's like another layer of advancement on top of that is something we talked about on our last podcast about um ChatGPT's ad program or developing ad program, which is that a lot of these AI engines, including Google AI mode and their overviews, sort of have a memory.
00:05:57.509 --> 00:06:10.389
So you can have a dialogue that remembers, like the engine remembers that, you know, the conversation you had three weeks ago, or just basic stuff like the fact that you have two kids, a dog, and a nut allergy, right?
00:06:10.389 --> 00:06:12.150
It'll incorporate those things.
00:06:12.150 --> 00:06:18.550
And I think on top of that, the thing that's interesting is the capability to make it more like a dialogue.
00:06:18.550 --> 00:06:22.949
Like if you picture the old search world, you're you're researching a product, right?
00:06:22.949 --> 00:06:28.230
And you you ask a question, and then you sort of have another question, maybe a follow-up question.
00:06:28.230 --> 00:06:30.310
You start a new search with that follow-up question.
00:06:30.310 --> 00:06:35.269
In this way, it's just these these questions and answers build on each other just like a human dialogue.
00:06:35.269 --> 00:06:36.949
So these multi-part questions.
00:06:36.949 --> 00:06:41.750
That's that's sort of a hallmark of Google's AI mode, and Chat GBT can do it.
00:06:41.750 --> 00:06:53.110
So it's sort of this more of a back and forth um that builds on itself as opposed to these isolated one-off queries that you might do 20 of them in the same process of researching like a new TV.
00:06:53.910 --> 00:06:56.710
So it solves the time consumption in queries, right?
00:06:56.710 --> 00:07:01.670
But like what other problems are AI solving um that search results never quite nailed?
00:07:01.670 --> 00:07:03.189
You know, because that's a good example.
00:07:03.189 --> 00:07:04.550
Is there other ones out there?
00:07:04.550 --> 00:07:10.470
Like what about like for visual or in the you said it conversations and the deep discovery?
00:07:10.870 --> 00:07:14.069
Um I I think the uh visual is actually a great example.
00:07:14.069 --> 00:07:21.670
So visual search is something that again is not new, like a lot of this isn't new, it's just really accelerating and um getting more capable, so it's getting a lot more attention.
00:07:21.670 --> 00:07:30.389
But visual search, such as Google Lens, has always been something where you hold up your phone and you take a picture of something, and it's great with like if you're on a nature hike, right?
00:07:30.389 --> 00:07:33.030
It's it's like plants and animals and pets.
00:07:33.030 --> 00:07:34.629
Like, what kind of dog is that?
00:07:34.629 --> 00:07:47.189
But I think that it's being incorporated in in ways on the desktop more where it's like shopping-related searches, and like I'm looking for something and you see visual results, and you're saying you can say something like, I like that, but does it come in blue?
00:07:47.189 --> 00:07:52.710
Like it's it's it's multimodal in that it's both text or voice input, but also visual.
00:07:52.710 --> 00:07:56.310
So I think that multimodal capability just opens up new dimension, right?
00:07:56.310 --> 00:07:57.350
In the way that we search.
00:07:57.350 --> 00:07:59.590
So we're not always describing things.
00:07:59.590 --> 00:08:08.069
And for certain types of searches, the ability to search with visuals as opposed to words makes sense, like um, you know, fashion, right?
00:08:08.069 --> 00:08:10.710
Fashion's a good example, or probably a lot of other examples.
00:08:10.710 --> 00:08:11.350
Yeah, totally.
00:08:12.629 --> 00:08:19.110
I mean, for local, I mean thinking auto is one of the top categories and spend for auto, um, um for local, sorry.
00:08:19.110 --> 00:08:20.310
Yeah, yeah.
00:08:20.310 --> 00:08:21.430
Okay, cool.
00:08:21.430 --> 00:08:21.910
Yeah.
00:08:21.910 --> 00:08:23.670
So do you think this just changes how people?
00:08:23.670 --> 00:08:28.069
I mean, we talked a lot about how people have changed their behavior um with search.
00:08:28.069 --> 00:08:35.110
Um, but does it also change how quickly they move from that uh discovery research to decision?
00:08:35.509 --> 00:08:36.230
Uh totally.
00:08:36.230 --> 00:08:40.309
I think that that that we talked about this last last week too, or at least alluded to it.
00:08:40.309 --> 00:08:50.470
The that that convoluted path to purchase that we've always looked at in in local search and local media, where like people are weaving in and out of different devices and screens.
00:08:50.470 --> 00:09:04.789
And you know, there are some ways that that could be compressed in AI search in in terms of like there's again, it's that conversational just back and forth, and you just arrive upon an answer sooner
with less steps and less you know things.
00:09:04.789 --> 00:09:17.669
But also the fact that there's less of a click stream where the old model, the Google search engine result page SERP model, was all about links and surfacing links, and then you go to that link and oh, that didn't have what I want.
00:09:17.669 --> 00:09:23.110
We start over, and you're now it's just it's all in that same UX, that same answer.
00:09:23.110 --> 00:09:24.230
It's all right there.
00:09:24.230 --> 00:09:25.750
And that's a good thing and a bad thing.
00:09:25.750 --> 00:09:35.909
We talked about last week how the performance-based, click-based model of online advertising that we've come to know and love is sort of eroding because there's less click-throughs, right?
00:09:35.909 --> 00:09:37.509
The answer is right there.
00:09:37.509 --> 00:09:40.070
So I think that there's a lot of implications for marketing.
00:09:40.070 --> 00:09:45.990
But to answer your question, yeah, I think it could make a more compressed purchase funnel in a lot of cases.
00:09:46.470 --> 00:09:53.110
Didn't we also talk that there'd be we were talking, I think we were brainstorming last time about new measurability for that too, for that behavior, right?
00:09:53.430 --> 00:09:53.669
Totally.
00:09:53.669 --> 00:09:55.430
Like how do you measure it when there's no click?
00:09:55.430 --> 00:09:56.549
That's an open question.
00:09:56.870 --> 00:09:58.470
Right, exactly.
00:09:58.470 --> 00:10:05.430
So when you talk about AI search and AI overviews, how do you define those in in practical terms for an SEO team?
00:10:05.430 --> 00:10:07.190
So getting into the SEO side of this.
00:10:07.509 --> 00:10:13.350
Yeah, let's transition into that, like what this all means for the point of marketers and SEO people, totally.
00:10:13.350 --> 00:10:18.629
So, as you can guess from everything we just talked about, the online visibility playbook has changed.
00:10:18.629 --> 00:10:25.590
So the the art of SEO has always been about reverse engineering the algorithms, Google's page rank algorithm.
00:10:25.590 --> 00:10:26.870
What are their ranking factors?
00:10:26.870 --> 00:10:27.830
How is that changing?
00:10:27.830 --> 00:10:29.350
It was always a moving target.
00:10:29.350 --> 00:10:31.990
Now, like that's still there, that hasn't gone away.
00:10:31.990 --> 00:10:38.389
But now there's also this like this sort of new entity out there that's providing answers, and that's all the stuff we're talking about.
00:10:38.389 --> 00:10:45.669
And similarly, it's going to be about reverse engineering the ways that it finds information, the way that it surfaces answers.
00:10:45.669 --> 00:10:51.750
And unfortunately for marketers, there's only some degree of overlap between the two.
00:10:51.750 --> 00:11:05.029
Like, there's been this sort of uh uh ongoing question of like, if I was on top of my SEO game, does that automatically put me on like a head start or higher footing in getting surfaced in AI engines?
00:11:05.029 --> 00:11:06.789
And the answer is like sort of.
00:11:06.789 --> 00:11:11.190
Um, I'll mention that SOShi study again, their local visibility index.
00:11:11.190 --> 00:11:15.909
They they basically measured a bunch of multi-location brands, right?
00:11:15.909 --> 00:11:25.909
And their search engine visibility and who was like performing best, and then their AI engine visibility, excuse me, and who was performing best.
00:11:25.909 --> 00:11:32.789
There was a 45% overlap in brands in the top 10 of each of those two respective lists.
00:11:32.789 --> 00:11:44.149
So that sort of quantifies that like those who are doing well at SEO, some of them are also doing the right things with AIO, as we're talking calling it AI optimization.
00:11:44.149 --> 00:11:51.830
So you sort of have to do the same things you were already doing with with search and SEO, but also this new set of rules.
00:11:51.830 --> 00:12:03.669
We can get into what those are, but that's just like an overview on like what these marketers are now faced with in having to sort of like serve two masters and appease the gods of Google and now also the LLM gods.
00:12:04.230 --> 00:12:10.710
Well, yeah, I mean, because like Google, you know, there's everybody, there's people have built careers off of good SEO, right?
00:12:10.710 --> 00:12:22.950
And it's not it's the keywords, it's the it's the content, you know, and all those things have rankings, it's reviews, it's new content, original, and AI, AI is that, but more, right?
00:12:22.950 --> 00:12:30.149
I mean, because they're it's you know, so what what you know what sources are they pulling from that's different?
00:12:30.230 --> 00:12:30.389
Yeah.
00:12:30.549 --> 00:12:31.029
Do you know?
00:12:31.029 --> 00:12:32.230
I mean totally, yeah, yeah.
00:12:32.310 --> 00:12:34.149
Let's let's get into a few of the different I don't.
00:12:34.310 --> 00:12:35.190
I I I kind of know.
00:12:35.190 --> 00:12:40.789
I think we talked about like I know that they're pulling from um, you know, more from video because it's easier.
00:12:40.789 --> 00:12:42.950
Um, that that's an easy one.
00:12:42.950 --> 00:12:54.230
Um, so because they because Google does the transcripts and they could they look at that, um, they don't actually watch the videos for those out there, but no, no, those those transcripts are gold mined for for L.
00:12:54.870 --> 00:12:55.990
Goldmine for training sources.
00:12:56.470 --> 00:12:58.950
And there's also, I think there was just a lawsuit too.
00:12:58.950 --> 00:13:08.950
There's a bunch of educators that are suing Google and YouTube because they scraped for educational purposes their YouTube videos and they're going after them to train their model.
00:13:08.950 --> 00:13:11.590
And I think we're gonna see a lot more of that, but that's how I know that.
00:13:11.590 --> 00:13:12.710
So I'm sorry, I digress.
00:13:12.950 --> 00:13:18.310
But no, no, let's let's go over, let's go over some
of those authoritative sources of AI engines.
00:13:18.310 --> 00:13:20.789
But before we do that, just a really quick, quick note.
00:13:20.789 --> 00:13:29.509
You mentioned that there are a lot of folks that have like built a career around being SEO experts and consulting brands on how to you know surface higher in Google.
00:13:29.509 --> 00:13:41.350
I think those folks are actually or the smart ones are actually gonna be elevated in this new world as opposed to like disrupted in a negative sense, because the all the brands out there now have so many more questions than they had before.
00:13:41.350 --> 00:13:49.029
And I think those SEO folks, the smart ones, are really jumping onto these new ranking factors and how they optimize and all that stuff like that.
00:13:49.029 --> 00:13:55.029
So, uh, and they're they're gonna be more needed than ever because there's more question marks and confusion than ever.
00:13:55.029 --> 00:14:01.430
But anyway, this is all a moving target, and it's all about reverse engineering and extrapolation, just like SEO was.
00:14:01.430 --> 00:14:07.830
So I'll go over a few of them that we sort of know so far, and then I just I preface it that way because this is a quickly moving target.
00:14:07.830 --> 00:14:15.590
But anyway, let's go back to the example we gave in like the longer, more nuanced local search query.
00:14:15.590 --> 00:14:20.950
The driving down the highway, looking for coffee, it's somewhere off, you know, within a mile off the highway.
00:14:20.950 --> 00:14:27.750
Just the granularity in those queries means that these AI engines have to like dig deeper, right?
00:14:27.750 --> 00:14:32.549
To answer that level of granularity than traditional search ever has.
00:14:32.549 --> 00:14:36.149
So, where do they find that long tail of granularity?
00:14:36.149 --> 00:14:37.110
A few places.
00:14:37.110 --> 00:14:38.149
One is reviews.
00:14:38.149 --> 00:14:39.990
Reviews are more important now than ever.
00:14:39.990 --> 00:14:46.389
Yelp reviews, because you have just like these endless scrolling pages of like people talking about these things.
00:14:46.389 --> 00:14:52.950
So that's where the LLMs are going to train themselves to get these answers and synthesize the answers to these questions.
00:14:52.950 --> 00:14:54.629
So reviews is more important than ever.
00:14:54.629 --> 00:15:03.990
So the implication for marketers is it's always been pretty important to work on your reputation management and manage your reviews and respond to them and cultivate them and all that good stuff.
00:15:03.990 --> 00:15:05.590
That's now more important than ever.
00:15:05.590 --> 00:15:11.509
Another one for a very similar reason of that long tail content with all that granularity is Reddit.
00:15:11.509 --> 00:15:18.470
Reddit is the new golden goose of LLM, you know, this AIO, this developing art of AIO.
00:15:18.470 --> 00:15:19.430
Be on Reddit.
00:15:19.430 --> 00:15:26.230
Make sure you're there, make
sure you have an account and cultivate your brand and mention your brand and monitor it and all that good stuff.
00:15:26.230 --> 00:15:35.029
Um, another one, again, based on the ways that people are searching because they're they're asking questions instead of just typing in keywords, is FAQs on your website.
00:15:35.029 --> 00:15:36.310
This is a low-hanging fruit one.
00:15:36.310 --> 00:15:40.230
It's harder to like get people to write good reviews and get people to talk about you on Reddit.
00:15:40.230 --> 00:15:44.149
Low-hanging fruit, just put an FAQ on your website.
00:15:44.149 --> 00:15:49.909
And that sort of helps um the engines like see, oh, there's a question and an answer.
00:15:49.909 --> 00:15:53.350
We can we can work with that because that's the same way people are searching.
00:15:53.350 --> 00:15:56.710
Um, and then another one I'll mention is citations or back.
00:15:56.710 --> 00:16:01.830
Citations used to be a very um you know prominent Google ranking factor.
00:16:01.830 --> 00:16:06.629
And then there were a number of years where all the SEOs and Google was saying, like, you know, that's not as important anymore.
00:16:06.629 --> 00:16:15.350
And what I mean by citations is like, make sure you're mentioned by the trade press or make sure you're on like the local chamber of commerce membership website.
00:16:15.350 --> 00:16:20.230
Like Google used to treat that as authority, and now they they sort of pull back from now.
00:16:20.230 --> 00:16:22.149
That's now more important than ever.
00:16:22.149 --> 00:16:33.430
Um, and and one like tactical takeaway I heard recently is like go back to issuing press releases, issue press releases, you know, on like free wire services like PR log or other or just on your website.
00:16:33.430 --> 00:16:35.350
Um, so that's another one.
00:16:35.350 --> 00:16:45.750
Um, press releases, and and then I'll I'll mention something that is actually that LMs are not paying attention to that that Google has more importantly.
00:16:45.750 --> 00:16:53.110
So go uh Celine, you know this in in the past I don't know, five years or so, Google's been paying much more attention to technical SEO.
00:16:53.110 --> 00:16:58.549
So there's on-page SEO, which is the words you're saying, the keywords, the FAQs, all that.
00:16:58.549 --> 00:17:03.909
And then technical SEO is the stuff in the background that's like, do you have the proper schema markup?
00:17:03.909 --> 00:17:09.990
And are you utilizing your canonical tags strategically and page meta descriptions and core web vitals?
00:17:09.990 --> 00:17:12.470
That's another one that's really accelerated in the last five years.
00:17:12.470 --> 00:17:14.230
How fast is your page load?
00:17:14.230 --> 00:17:16.789
Properly sized images that load fast.
00:17:16.789 --> 00:17:18.869
Um, LMs don't care about any of that.
00:17:18.869 --> 00:17:21.349
So technical SEO is out.
00:17:21.349 --> 00:17:26.470
And I shouldn't say out because Google's still
there, right operating as Google does.
00:17:26.470 --> 00:17:42.390
But for this half of the searches that are happening on not half, I don't know what the breakdown is, but for the portion happening on AI engines, technical SEO is out, but all those other things that I mentioned are reviews, Reddit, FAQ, citations, and and that list just keeps growing.
00:17:43.029 --> 00:17:43.589
That's crazy.
00:17:43.589 --> 00:17:59.109
Well, I mean, it kind of makes sense because the technical is really there to kind of check off the boxes to say that this is an actual, you know, live working, breathing, current, you know, business farming product, not content farm.
00:17:59.109 --> 00:18:00.950
That was to fight the content farms.
00:18:00.950 --> 00:18:04.390
And yeah, so that's very interesting.
00:18:04.390 --> 00:18:08.549
So speaking of like FAQs, uh, are there particular query types?
00:18:08.549 --> 00:18:25.990
We talked about one, you know, getting coffee and being driving query types or verticals, um, where you're seeing that AI style answers take over faster, like or you know, because of consumer behavior or just because of the nature of what um of AI and what um what it's being used for, populari, you know, popularity.
00:18:26.230 --> 00:18:30.789
Yeah, I think popularity is the the right word because it sort of mirrors everything that's out there.
00:18:30.789 --> 00:18:34.870
Like, you know, LLMs train themselves on what's they're only as good as what's out there.
00:18:34.870 --> 00:18:47.029
So if you look at the different types of content out there that are more prevalent than others, I think that sort of answers your question in terms of like what they're doing a better job answering, what people are asking more.
00:18:47.029 --> 00:18:53.829
So you can think like, you know, sports, news, stocks, politics, um, they're all going to be rich sources of information.
00:18:53.829 --> 00:19:03.509
And I think that's a self-fulfilling prophecy because the more people ask those questions, the more answers are surfaced, the better the engines get because they learn, obviously.
00:19:03.509 --> 00:19:05.109
So I think that that that's the case.
00:19:05.109 --> 00:19:11.190
And then on another level, I think that there's, you know, that's just more of like a passive reality, like that's just inherent.
00:19:11.190 --> 00:19:20.069
But I think there's also some ways that these engines are sort of trying to manufacture some competency and specialization in different verticals.
00:19:20.069 --> 00:19:23.829
And we talked about them on the last podcast, which is um healthcare.
00:19:23.829 --> 00:19:33.990
Um, OpenII sees healthcare as like an area that is so rich in terms of specialized knowledge, uh, but also a very high value vertical.
00:19:33.990 --> 00:19:35.430
Another one is legal.
00:19:35.430 --> 00:19:42.870
Um, I read the other day that um Anthropic is building a sort of variant of Claude that's all about the legal vertical.
00:19:42.870
--> 00:19:51.750
And that one makes a lot of sense because like you picture law firms, you know, half their staff has like all these paralegals running around and looking up stuff and all that, and then a lot of that can be automated.
00:19:51.750 --> 00:19:53.269
They see a huge opportunity there.
00:19:53.269 --> 00:20:04.470
So I think it's a combination of just like the inherent share of topics on on the broader web, like that's gonna sort of mirror what what's happening in these LLMs.
00:20:04.470 --> 00:20:13.109
But um on another level, there's some deliberate maneuvering by some of these AI giants to sort of cultivate some of these high value verticals.
00:20:13.430 --> 00:20:13.750
Right.
00:20:13.750 --> 00:20:14.950
So retail, of course.
00:20:14.950 --> 00:20:16.150
I mean, we're seeing that all over the place.
00:20:16.150 --> 00:20:16.789
Totally.
00:20:16.789 --> 00:20:17.349
That's a big one.
00:20:17.509 --> 00:20:18.630
Shopping, I think, yeah, absolutely.
00:20:19.029 --> 00:20:19.750
Shopping is huge.
00:20:19.750 --> 00:20:20.150
Yes.
00:20:20.150 --> 00:20:20.549
Yeah.
00:20:20.789 --> 00:20:26.950
And also these ones we're talking about, I think I mentioned this for for healthcare, but these are all high vol, these are all monetizable verticals.
00:20:26.950 --> 00:20:40.870
So they're they're they're like salivating, not just in the they're big, but they're also high value because the commercial intent on a on a shopping search is gonna be greater than like the type of research you're doing for like a research paper or you know, stuff like that.
00:20:40.870 --> 00:20:43.750
You're not necessarily gonna buy something, you're just looking for knowledge.
00:20:44.950 --> 00:20:45.190
Right.
00:20:45.190 --> 00:20:45.750
Yeah.
00:20:45.750 --> 00:20:59.750
So from an advertiser's point of view, uh what's just what is the strategic appeal of answer adjacent placements, you know, and should you know, do they offer anything like it anything?
00:20:59.750 --> 00:21:02.470
What's the value for them to kind of really invest in this?
00:21:03.029 --> 00:21:03.430
Yeah.
00:21:03.430 --> 00:21:15.589
So um there are some signs, some evidence that the traffic is actually converting better, like traffic that comes from an AI agent um as opposed to traditional search.
00:21:15.589 --> 00:21:17.829
Um, and it's sort of a double-edged sword.
00:21:17.829 --> 00:21:28.309
Like you've probably heard all of the publishers and brands and anyone with a website sort of lamenting over the last year or more about the fact that their traffic has gone down because of the AI answer.
00:21:28.309 --> 00:21:33.430
You know, like we talked about earlier, there's less clicks happening because the answer, the question's answered right there.
00:21:33.430 --> 00:21:41.509
And so um, they're getting less clicks, but there is some evidence that the clicks they're getting are higher intent and better in terms of converting better.
00:21:41.509 --> 00:21:45.509
So I think this study came from Adobe, Adobe Shopping.
00:21:45.509 --> 00:21:57.670
Um they they found that their AI traffic or AI traffic in the sites that they were monitoring converted 42% better um than non non-AI traffic.
00:21:57.670 --> 00:22:03.190
And interestingly, a year ago they did that same study and it was 38% worse.
00:22:03.190 --> 00:22:13.349
Oh so it's it's like a massive difference in, I guess, just like the the way that people are starting to utilize these engines for shopping and for things that are converting.
00:22:13.349 --> 00:22:25.430
So I guess that's good news to answer your question about like how should brands think about prioritize like putting themselves there, um and and like paying attention to the everything we just mentioned, the AIO playbook.
00:22:25.430 --> 00:22:32.710
Like, not only is it important, but to underscore that it's high stakes and it's a missed opportunity, maybe if you don't go after it.
00:22:33.029 --> 00:22:33.269
Right.
00:22:33.269 --> 00:22:33.750
I mean.
00:22:33.750 --> 00:22:35.829
your c competition could be right.
00:22:35.829 --> 00:22:38.390
So it's it's like yeah yeah.
00:22:38.390 --> 00:22:43.269
So you know we talked about um a couple changes.
00:22:43.269 --> 00:22:51.990
Is there anything else that a brand um or marketer should prioritize in the next six to twelve six to twelve months for SEO strategy against AI answers.
00:22:51.990 --> 00:22:53.910
Anything can you predict the future?
00:22:53.910 --> 00:23:00.230
Anything well I would say or make a gas a good educated based on all your knowledge and experience?
00:23:00.549 --> 00:23:02.470
Yeah I would answer it this way.
00:23:02.470 --> 00:23:06.549
The the stakes I just I think I just said high stakes, right?
00:23:06.549 --> 00:23:23.509
The the the degree to which all the stuff we're talking about, how how heavy it is, how much gravity it actually has is only going to grow because it is a direct function of the number of searches that people are doing on like they're turning to chat GPT instead of a Google traditional search.
00:23:23.509 --> 00:23:33.509
The more that happens the more market share that AI engines gain in terms of like query volume, the more important it's going to be to pay attention to all this stuff.
00:23:33.509 --> 00:23:35.509
And I think that's only going to grow.
00:23:35.509 --> 00:23:54.789
So I think like in terms of the how and something more concrete or tactical, I would say that marketing teams need to learn this stuff, become experts in AIO, play with it, learn by doing I think that um you know that should be just an extension of the things you're already doing and and don't ignore it.
00:23:54.789 --> 00:23:57.430
You know, don't let it uh catch up with you.
00:23:57.430 --> 00:24:00.630
I think that's very important because it's happening so fast.
00:24:00.870 --> 00:24:01.190
Right.
00:24:01.190 --> 00:24:01.509
Yeah.
00:24:01.509 --> 00:24:34.710
Well and talk to your SEO consultants too because they're on top of it apparently right they are yeah so well Mike thank you so much for being here today and sharing your thoughts and insights we always appreciate I you know I do we always appreciate your value and time with us right um so anything any other parting knowledge are we good um no no this was fun thank you thank you for having me and what I'll say is like to echo what I just said which is this is moving so fast like we could do another episode in two weeks on the same exact topic and probably have like a new list of you know ranking factors.
00:24:34.789 --> 00:24:37.670
So so this is going to be moving quickly and we're gonna stay on top of it.
00:24:37.910 --> 00:24:40.470
Yeah I think I you know I would love to have you back.
00:24:40.470 --> 00:24:46.150
I think we should you know circle back on this in a couple um in a couple weeks or a month or so and see what's changed.
00:24:46.150 --> 00:24:54.150
That would be a great follow-up to this and for everyone out there listening thank you for joining us and we might have another one coming soon.
00:24:54.150 --> 00:24:56.710
Um we hope you're enjoying our podcast this year.
00:24:56.710 --> 00:25:04.470
And if you have any topics or you want to see us talk more about this to suggest or you want to come on in as a guest, reach out to us at podcast@bia.com.
00:25:05.910 --> 00:25:10.230
We look forward to bringing you more insightful conversations on local media throughout the year ahead.
00:25:10.230 --> 00:25:10.710
Thanks