Chris Siebeneck, VP of Strategic Partnerships at SEO Werkz, changing the world one campaign at a time, with high-quality and transparent SEO
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How will new advances in artificial intelligence blend with search engines? Recently, Microsoft launched a beta version of Bing that's powered by advanced AI. And Google isn't far behind in bringing generative AI features to search.
As a business leader, you may be wondering, "How will AI search impact my website?" And with recent advances in AI content generation, "Will I be penalized for using AI-written content?"
Let's dive deeper into how AI could change search and content creation.
AI In Search
With the new AI-powered version of Bing, when you ask a question, it gives you the answer. This is different from how we've traditionally used search engines, where you get a bunch of results and you get to judge the different links that are offered to you and select the best one.
As I see it, the problem with the AI version of Bing is that you have to trust that it's giving you the right answer. You don't gather the information yourself and make that decision. Currently, AI is not always correct, but it's learning and getting smarter.
I think most of us, as human beings, like to trust our own judgments on our searches and the answers that we're getting. For example, I choose to use Google. I have made that decision based on multiple searches on Bing and Google; I have found that I like Google's results better. So I'm making a human decision that its results are more accurate and that they are the ones I want. With the new AI version of Bing, you don't get to choose what information you're given or which sites it's pulled from, so you don't get to determine their trustworthiness for yourself. The AI is deciding for you.
While Bing's AI version does list the websites it pulls its answers from, it doesn't give you multiple sites to choose from to answer your question. And, importantly, it doesn't seem to be driving traffic to any of the websites. It is just giving you an answer with a few links to where it got the answer. This will likely change the way that websites are designed because most sites are making money off of the traffic they get from search engines. And if you are not getting traffic, then how are you going to make money?
I think we will see ads show up around the AI search answers, and then it will be a pay-to-play platform. We already have ads, of course, but if ads are the only option, those who pay will own the traffic.
AI-Generated Content
That brings us to the next concern: Should you use AI to help write content for your website? The answer really relates back to what search engines are looking for—how helpful your words are. Focusing on useful, high-quality content will always be rewarded.
If you are using AI to help you write content that will be a great answer to a question, then I say go for it. (And Google itself seems to have no problem with this.) But if you are using AI just to add words to your website and babble about nothing in particular, then it likely won't help your rankings. Helpful content that is based on your experience, your expertise, being an authority on the subject and being trustworthy will always do better in search results than content that is written just to get words on the page.
Content is difficult to create—it takes time and energy. You could use AI to help you begin an article. For example, you could start with AI-generated content and then change it as needed and add your own opinions to make it more unique. I always find editing easier than writing.
Final Thoughts
Right now, search results give us a multitude of different links. We get to click on different links to get different information and use our own judgment to decide what is important and what best answers our questions. Bing's new AI-powered search engine gives us answers that its programming has deemed as best for us, delivered in a neat package—but the answers may not always be correct, and we don't get to decide for ourselves where we get our information. This could have major implications for the future of search and website development.
I don't believe that AI will create a huge shift in content creation yet, though. Fact-based, helpful content that wins now will continue to win.
The best course of action right now is to make sure your website is providing the answers to questions that people are asking. If you don't do this, you likely won't show up in the search results. So get your expertise out there for search engines and people to see.
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