#5: SERPs are looking different these days
Oct 7, 2024
AI and the Future of SEO
Hey friend!
Say hello to a new section of our newsletter: Expert Insights.
Besides rounding up news headlines focused on SEO and AI, we’ll now also be spotlighting recent commentary from industry veterans and experts. Think essays, interviews, tweets, and other content to help keep you in the loop on the ever-changing SEO world.
Without further ado, let’s jump in!
–Thenuka
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What’s new in AI and content?
🛍️ Google’s giving its e-commerce search results a new look
Google’s been tweaking its e-commerce search results since 2022—and now, they’re looking more like Amazon’s category pages than ever before. Think product grids, filters, and detailed product information displayed before traditional organic results. You can refine your results using sidebar filters, much like you can on Amazon.
What this means for you: Google is essentially transforming its search pages into de facto category pages, prioritizing detailed product pages over traditional category pages. For those in the e-commerce space, these changes reinforce the importance of optimizing product pages. Anyone running affiliate sites should also watch out: this change could mean a dip in traffic, with Google’s product focus reducing visibility for comparison and review content.
🔍 Bing’s generative search experience is leveling up
Microsoft is expanding Bing’s generative search capabilities to deliver more detailed responses to informational queries. Updates include a revamped search results page, with a layout that places an AI summary in the center and citations directly below. Meanwhile, traditional search results appear to the right. You can test the new experience yourself by typing “Bing generative search” in Bing.
What this means for you: This development is yet another sign of how SERPs are changing as a result of AI. No major changes on the SEO front, as you should still aim to create high-quality, authoritative content that generative AI can easily interpret. In other words, make sure your content is structured well and demonstrates expertise and relevance.
🫨 Google’s August 2024 core update continues to shake up rankings
Remember Google’s most recent core update from August? It may be October, but ranking volatility has continued since the update finished rolling out on September 3rd. Tools like Semrush, MozCast, and SimilarWeb all report ongoing fluctuations, with many webmasters experiencing big shifts in their traffic and rankings.
What this means for you: You’re not alone if your site has seen drastic shifts in rankings and traffic over the past few weeks. Digital marketing leader Emina Demiri-Watson offers recommendations for recovery, starting with digging into Google Analytics and Search Console data to see where your drops are most pronounced.
Expert Insights
📈 Eli Schwartz: “Programmatic SEO is the right solution when there's scale.”
Search expert (and one of daydream’s investors!) Eli Schwartz recently spoke with Lenny Rachitsky about how AI and large language models (LLMs) have reshaped, rather than replaced, SEO. According to Eli, mid-funnel SEO strategies should take priority as AI takes over top-of-funnel search. He also explains what kinds of businesses are best suited for programmatic SEO, and dispels myths like the notion that all businesses need SEO.
☠️ Kyle Roof: “If you’re bad at SEO, AI’s gonna help you do bad SEO faster.”
Jordan Koene interviews Kyle Roof of PageOptimizer Pro about the impact of AI on SEO. Spoiler alert: SEO isn’t dead, no matter how many times people make that claim, and even with the advent of AI. Kyle notes that Google’s algorithm hasn’t actually changed much since 2015. In fact, based on his tests, all the core factors identified more than a decade ago continue to be relevant: “The stuff you needed to be doing in 2021 and 2022 is still the same in 2023 and 2024 in spite of the quote, unquote, AI boom.”
Playbooks & Guides
🛒 How to scale your online marketplace with pSEO
Marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, and Etsy dominate not just because of their convenience but because of programmatic SEO. By generating broad category and subcategory pages from individual product listings, these platforms effectively capture hundreds, even thousands, of long-tail keywords. Even better, this marketplace pSEO strategy enhances the user experience by making it easier for shoppers to find the specific items they’re looking for. Learn how to level up your marketplace with pSEO in our latest playbook.
Company News
☄️ Announcing v2.0 (Comet) from daydream
We’re excited to announce the launch of daydream’s v2.0 (Comet) AI architecture! In practical terms, this release means significant improvements to the speed, quality, and efficiency of our programmatic SEO platform. There’s a lot to digest here—so we explain how our system works and what these updates mean for our users in more detail on our site.