BIG BET #5: SEARCH
Taking the 'E' out of SEO
One day, in the (pretty far away) future, we can imagine a world where someone has to ask: “What does the phrase ‘just Google it’ mean?” Exactly where they will begin their search for an answer, well, we don’t know just yet. The point is that modern search journeys are increasingly starting outside of search engines. In fact, we’re thinking it might make sense to rebrand the ‘E’ in SEO to stand for 'Everywhere' instead of 'Engine.'
With its contextual awareness, understanding of natural language, and knack for delivering personalized results, Gen AI will dramatically upend how people search.
The search for alternatives to search engines is driven by Gen Z, who are distrustful of Big Search and intolerant of the optimized clutter that tops their results. More than half of this digitally native crowd now start their searches on TikTok (with Reddit also picking up speed) because they view these platforms as authentic sources for human-to-human answers. (A popular hack is to add the word ‘Reddit’ to the end of any Google search.) Reddit, seeing they have market share to gain here, recently launched a series of updates to make search faster and easier. Feeling the winds of change, Google launched “Perspectives,” a function that delivers results from people on forums and social media sites. Last, do not sleep on YouTube as a search vehicle, with 68% of users hitting up the platform to help make purchase decisions.
“Although we'll continue to optimize for the main search engines, we need to expand to any large platform that has a search function.”
Kris Wong
Senior Director, SEO, Tinuiti
And when it comes to straight product searches, Amazon is the place where half of all people kick off their shopping journeys. In the market for an Apple Watch? Crocs? Air fryer? The browsing begins (and often ends) on Amazon. We expect to see the big players in Search – Google and Bing – lean harder into Retail Media network inventory so their solutions stay competitive in a space that is trying to leave them behind.
The biggest disruption of all, though, will stem from the proliferation of GenAI in everyday devices like phones and speakers. Let’s be honest here: The search experience hasn’t fundamentally changed since Titanic topped the movie charts and the Backstreet Boys were blasting from CD players. Namely, type words into a box and get a bunch of results to wade through – some relevant, some not so much. With its contextual awareness, understanding of natural language, and knack for delivering personalized results, GenAI will dramatically upend how people search. And while the adoption of voice search has been bumpy, GenAI will grease up the wheels to overcome any remaining friction.
TL;DR: Goodbye, keyword. Hello, conversation.
We don’t anticipate any industry coming out unscathed. Your brand should be preparing itself for Search Everywhere Optimization.
OK, SO NOW WHAT?
- It’s paramount that brands begin optimizing for the main search engines through the lens of Gen AI, whose “eyes'' don't see visual elements and SEO techniques manufactured for machine and human users. Comprehensive and contextually rich text is crucial for accurate information extraction and understanding. When crafting your future content strategy, the question you’ll need to be asking is: "Will the AI know my brand or product is the answer?"
- On the flip side, with more people looking for visual (read: video) answers to their queries, marketers need to be thinking ahead about how their brands show up in all these disparate video-driven discovery engines on social and beyond vs. a text link to a webpage just for Google and Bing.
- With retailers becoming their own miniature Googles (but many lacking the quality and capability of Google), brand's product discovery pages must have strong titles, bullets, lots of details, stellar photos, and on-point categorization, since each retailer’s classification system is unique.