SEO & ChatGPT

[Jadus]

I ran across this article about neural networks and Chat GPT. It explains how it works. It's a long and heavy read but even if you just skim through it, you can get an idea.

 

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[whitworldwide]

I believe all organic SEO traffic will take a hit. No idea how much. Might be a tiny amount. Might be 75%, who knows.

I think informational content, like position 0 stuff, will take the biggest hammering. Anything that can be definitively answered, like, how high is Big Ben, or how may miles is the moon from the Earth. Recipes perhaps too

Opinion-based content likely won't get hit as hard. People don't want to know how good or bad things are based on what an AI bot spurts out. They want to see good data, hands-on testing and good old-skool opinion. And for local businesses, people want to review customers opinions, rather on what the best Italian restaurant is in AI's opinion.
Of course, SEO's who focused on info (display ad) type content are going to diversify into more commercial content, so that ramps up competition.

I also think there could be forced link attribution in whatever AI tools churn out too.

No matter what, there will potentially be a big shake-up. Just like there always is in life.

Adapt or die.

 

[circleme]

@whitworldwide I agree.

All sites that focus on answering basic questions will be hit hard in my opinion as well. i think that especially information searches will hardly get any more clicks on websites in the near future, because position 0/featured snippet. but where i am now convinced is that especially transactional searches will become more important than ever before. So things like "best toaster under 30$", "cheapest vacation in spain all-inclusive", etc. will become more important. Anything that is also very subjective will not be treated by an AI as a matter of principle. You can see that well with things like ChatGPT. The algo works purely on a "scientific" basis and always tries to remain as objective as possible - which I also find good and correct.

However, I still have a small spark of hope for the information keywords:

In the Google presentation a few weeks ago we did NOT see citations in the SERP result, but only the answer to the search query, without sources. Since this is not without copyright issues, I strongly expect that the final version of Bard will also include citations. If there are then - all pure assumption - e.g. three citations for a result and you find a way to be one of these three, there is enormous traffic potential imho - even for information searches (unless these are really incredibly trivial).

 

[ninjacopywriter]

I think there is no topic more talked about right now than ChatGPT or GPT-3. I have been "playing"/working with the "tool" all week. I think it is unnecessary to mention here that it amazed me in multiple ways and still does.

We know that some of the classic SEO tasks - especially the on-page side and content-related ones - could be "easily" automated. I don't want to start a fundamental discussion about AI content being good or bad. I just want to show that this is a task that is made much easier by GPT3. Even if we need to paraphrize it, we don't have to do in depth research etc. if the technology get's better and better.

The following topic does not let me go at all and I find it difficult to find counter-arguments here. Maybe you have something up your sleeve, I would love to hear it.

It is about the change of the SERP in the near future and with it the future relevance of SEO. From a purely objective point of view, it is much more comfortable for most people - who do not work scientifically - to get only one result (like ChatGPT currently provides), instead of several (as we currently perceive it in the SERP). In most cases, you don't want to click through zig results just to get an answer to your question. Position 0 has been playing an active role in this for quite some time (way before ChatGPT). So if you think that Google in the future will increasingly focus on position 0, which then equals an answer as we know it from ChatGPT, and may hardly play more SERP results (at most vlt. still sources), for what does anyone still need SEO?

This is exactly my question and I would be interested to know how you see it and what future plans you would take if you no longer see a future in SEO as a traffic driver?

Thanks

I have a question about this bc I've been a copywriter and freelance writer for a few years. I worked in crypto but oh well..that's loooong gone. Anyways, I was thinking of picking up new skills, SEO being one them as I am looking for jobs. So I would like to know if you have any suggestion to where should I start? Bc I might be wasting time trying to learn SEO if there are tools like for it

 

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[circleme]

So I would like to know if you have any suggestion to where should I start? Bc I might be wasting time trying to learn SEO

Hi ninja,

I had to think about your question for a while now and there might be a lot of people against my point of view, but here is how I see it:

Is it worth learning SEO in-depth in times like these? Honestly, I don't think so. No one really knows how SERPs are changing in the upcoming months or years, but they will definitely be completely different than we know them right now. How do I know? Well, look at Googles presentation or how M$ is implementing GPT3 for its search engine Bing. I don't think that SEO will be completely irrelevant in the near future, but informational keywords will get hit quite a bit imho. Those are often responsible for a shit ton of organic traffic to someones website/webshop/blog, etc. I personally do believe, that it is not worth learning in depth SEO for like months. What I still do think, is, that Technical SEO is still worth learning or general SEO basics, but don't go to deep. A lot of things might be irrelevant in the near future. But especially the technical-side of SEO is something you can use for other things as well. (basically, you need to learn the basic functionality of how the web works and how a website is build from an architectural point of view.

I honestly do believe that Outbound Marketing will be even more relevant in the upcoming years than it was before. If you still want to dive into the search engine marketing space, I would look out for SEA (Bing Ads, Google Ads, etc.). Reason why? Well, Google doesn't benefit from organic results (SEO) as much as from paid results (SEA/Google Ads) - at least from an financial point of view. They will certainly try to keep that an important role in the SERPs, even when things like Bard will come into places. Last time I've checked the Google income report, Search alone (the paid part of the search engine) is responsible for like 60% of the total revenue from Alphabet, which is quite something. And even if I should be wrong, you can still learn a shit ton from SEA which you can use for SEO in the future, if things don't change as I assume. There are quite some parallels, e.g.: keyword research, writing a high converting ad copy (which you should already know, but still), being relevant with your ad to the users search query, improving landing page content, etc.

tldr: I would focus more on SEA rather than on SEO, as it is more likely that this part of the SERP will stay strong in the near future, as it is responsible for a shit ton of revenue for companies like Google.

Hope that helped.

 

[circleme]

And one more thing:

Today I've read an article about a woman who does quite well with affiliate-marketing and SEO. I'm not interested in affiliate-marketing, but in SEO as there is always something I can learn. She has started with paid ads and swapped to an organic traffic strategy at some point. Nowadays she generates almost only traffic through organic search (SEO traffic). So even if that sounds amazing, there is one sentence in the whole article that made me "cringe" quite a bit:

"SEO has been essential to my business since I stopped doing paid advertising last year. My entire business is essentially in Google’s hands."

Her 60k$/month relies on one traffic source alone. That's completely horrible and once again highlights the importance of the need for control, even in traffic generation. (The C in CENTS) So what I'm trying to say is, that it's also important to diversify your knowledge regarding different traffic channels. Don't stick to just one, play around with a lot. I for example don't like Social Media or Social Media marketing. I seriously hat it, if I'm completely honest. But that doesn't matter. If my target audience is mainly on social media, I have to learn it and be present there. There was a study from McKinsey a while ago which also recommends anyone to stop thinking about being a specialist in only one field. Concentrate on many skills. You don't have to be an expert on each, most of the time.

Here is the source btw: How L.E. McArthur's Portfolio of Niche Sites Earns $60k/Month Through Affiliate Marketing If that isn't allowed, please delete it.

 

[ninjacopywriter]

Hi ninja,

I had to think about your question for a while now and there might be a lot of people against my point of view, but here is how I see it:

Is it worth learning SEO in-depth in times like these? Honestly, I don't think so. No one really knows how SERPs are changing in the upcoming months or years, but they will definitely be completely different than we know them right now. How do I know? Well, look at Googles presentation or how M$ is implementing GPT3 for its search engine Bing. I don't think that SEO will be completely irrelevant in the near future, but informational keywords will get hit quite a bit imho. Those are often responsible for a shit ton of organic traffic to someones website/webshop/blog, etc. I personally do believe, that it is not worth learning in depth SEO for like months. What I still do think, is, that Technical SEO is still worth learning or general SEO basics, but don't go to deep. A lot of things might be irrelevant in the near future. But especially the technical-side of SEO is something you can use for other things as well. (basically, you need to learn the basic functionality of how the web works and how a website is build from an architectural point of view.

I honestly do believe that Outbound Marketing will be even more relevant in the upcoming years than it was before. If you still want to dive into the search engine marketing space, I would look out for SEA (Bing Ads, Google Ads, etc.). Reason why? Well, Google doesn't benefit from organic results (SEO) as much as from paid results (SEA/Google Ads) - at least from an financial point of view. They will certainly try to keep that an important role in the SERPs, even when things like Bard will come into places. Last time I've checked the Google income report, Search alone (the paid part of the search engine) is responsible for like 60% of the total revenue from Alphabet, which is quite something. And even if I should be wrong, you can still learn a shit ton from SEA which you can use for SEO in the future, if things don't change as I assume. There are quite some parallels, e.g.: keyword research, writing a high converting ad copy (which you should already know, but still), being relevant with your ad to the users search query, improving landing page content, etc.

tldr: I would focus more on SEA rather than on SEO, as it is more likely that this part of the SERP will stay strong in the near future, as it is responsible for a shit ton of revenue for companies like Google.

Hope that helped.

WOW thank you sooo much for taking the time to reply back and all the time you took to think about the answer.

I am looking to apply for content writer jobs for now...and they all ask SEO, that's why I asked..bc I am used to writing more inbound.

Also, Ive been thinking about it..how things will change A LOT with AI..and I am SO happy you mentioned outbound marketing...bc i was trying to think which careers would be AI proof and the one that came to my mind was hmm maybe sales hhaahhhaah

 

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[ninjacopywriter]

And one more thing:

Today I've read an article about a woman who does quite well with affiliate-marketing and SEO. I'm not interested in affiliate-marketing, but in SEO as there is always something I can learn. She has started with paid ads and swapped to an organic traffic strategy at some point. Nowadays she generates almost only traffic through organic search (SEO traffic). So even if that sounds amazing, there is one sentence in the whole article that made me "cringe" quite a bit:

"SEO has been essential to my business since I stopped doing paid advertising last year. My entire business is essentially in Google’s hands."

Her 60k$/month relies on one traffic source alone. That's completely horrible and once again highlights the importance of the need for control, even in traffic generation. (The C in CENTS) So what I'm trying to say is, that it's also important to diversify your knowledge regarding different traffic channels. Don't stick to just one, play around with a lot. I for example don't like Social Media or Social Media marketing. I seriously hat it, if I'm completely honest. But that doesn't matter. If my target audience is mainly on social media, I have to learn it and be present there. There was a study from McKinsey a while ago which also recommends anyone to stop thinking about being a specialist in only one field. Concentrate on many skills. You don't have to be an expert on each, most of the time.

Here is the source btw: How L.E. McArthur's Portfolio of Niche Sites Earns $60k/Month Through Affiliate Marketing If that isn't allowed, please delete it.

sorry i missed that second part and just read it now..wow THANK YOU SO MUCH..and I like the level of detail that you got into..even sharing this sentence...and yes, definitely NOT a good idea to be in the hands of Google..especially if things change...wow..that is freaking scary bro...

Thank you for taking the time to reply back to me and give me all the explanation.

To make a long story short this is what happened with my life so far...
actually i will share in a separate thread