The improvement in Google AI capabilities calls for an imminent change in your SEO strategy. This article summarizes essential trends and hands-on tips that will make a big difference in SERP visibility in the future.
The New SERPs
SERPs are presently dominated by rich results, images, videos, social references, and snapshots provided by AI. There’s a growth in the prevalence of zero-click outcomes due to an increase in users finding what they need directly in the search result listings.
These factors will continue to grow aggressively with the full-scale release of the SGE since it incorporates more content against the primary SERPs.
According to a recent study by Moz.com, out of 100 SGE SERPs, 41% displayed no links from the top 10 organic results, and 46% featured only partial links from the top 10 results.
This indicates that SGE is attracting long-tail keyword content with its characteristics of higher relevance at lower volume, using AI for better contextual understanding and, thereby, serving better the needs of niche content.
Having content rich in topical entities is now a competitive advantage for any brand. Google has phased out FAQ and How-To listings from search results and no longer provides visibility reports on them in the Search Console.
Yet, FAQ content still plays a significant role in showcasing SGE content. PAA (People Also Ask) has emerged as the primary rich result on SERPs, even taking over the top spot from the once-great featured snippet.
These changes mark the changing face of user queries and, more importantly, the need to answer specific, long-tail questions in your content. In the future, understanding and adapting to these dynamic changes in SERPs will be critical to attaining organic growth.
Start Preparing for the SGE result
The complete rollout of SGE is bound to change the way users interact with search engines.
SGE amplifies the need for informative responses supported by credible sources, requiring a shift in strategy and success metrics in return. As Dixon Jones, CEO at Inlinks, says, “SERPs are going to become more and more unique, to such an extent that no two searches will ever return the same results”.
Keep your presence consistent in search results, improve your product, understand your target audience, and make sure your content effectively meets their needs.
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The Focus on Long-tail and Mid-tail Searches
The decline in traffic is anticipated to be more pronounced for broad, high-volume searches (head terms), whereas traffic stemming from precise, niche, and long-tail queries—demanding specialized and comprehensive content—is expected to be less affected.
This is why marketers and content creators have to inject more focused and niche content into their strategies, considering the increasing preference of users for specific and personalized information.
Personalized, topical, and hyper-local content helps acquire rich snippets and prominence on SERPs.
The future of search is going to be hyper-local and niche with SGE’s enhanced ability to understand context and provide personalized results. The introduction of context windows is bound to give results that are more relevant and meet the needs and preferences of a particular user.
These changes show the increasing importance of creating relevant content that also resonant with specific audience segments, and signals the need for hyper-local and community-focused content.
Fact-checking and Use of Authority Sources
Factual verification is imperative when using large language models and generative AI. The increasing reliance on AI to generate content underscores the critical need for facts to be from reliable and authoritative sources.
Building trust and authority in your industry requires establishing credibility and verifying the validity of information. Adding citations and mentions from authoritative sources goes a long way in fact-checking. Collect reviews and ensure that your website has quality links and citations.
Effective SEO Strategy For The Age of AI-Powered Search
As the digital terrain transforms with technologies such as SGE, it is imperative to align your SEO and content strategies accordingly.
To gain a competitive edge, the initial step involves comprehending the predominant elements in SGE results and determining primary focus areas based on that understanding.
Bill Hunt, President of Back Azimuth Consulting, advises brands to prioritize building a website for user experience rather than pursuing accolades. The future paradigm centers around possessing real estate on SERPs as opposed to achieving ranks through various touchpoints.
Concentrate on these important areas to fortify the resilience of your SERPs in 2025.
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Diversified Approach Across Channels
Tailoring your content according to various customer touchpoints has become more crucial than ever. Use a range of content types and formats to elevate engagement, improve visibility in SERPs, and implement a comprehensive strategy. This involves the integration of:
- Interactive Elements: Promote user interaction through video and web story consumption, aiming to boost pages per visit. Use compelling video content to capture user interest, and tools like VidIQ can assist in measuring video keyword effectiveness.
- Images and Infographics: Visual elements play a significant role in improving the attractiveness and comprehensibility of your content.
- Visual Storytelling Formats: Experiment with visual storytelling formats to amplify engagement and user experience.
Brands are advised by Patrick Reinhart, VP of Services and Thought Leadership at Conductor, to consider their entire digital presence beyond just their .com. Questions such as optimizing your YouTube channel, having a Wikipedia page, and active social media engagement should be addressed.
Given that Google continues to evolve and experiment with new experiences in trying to appeal to younger generations, these unique closed environments will grow in importance. Brands should, therefore, have a presence on all of them.
Relevance of Content
Make sure that your content is relevant to the search query and, also, follow E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). Aim to create content that can inspire valuable discussions.
Here’s how you could create great content that would lead to robust SERPs:
- Performance Audit: Assess whether your content is aligned with business goals and earning rich snippets. Weave business objectives, content performance, and audience journey into your content strategy.
- Optimizing Chat Experience: Foresee and address not only your users’ current inquiries but also those they may not have realized they need answers to. Predict their informational needs and provide timely responses.
- Helpful Content: Use advanced content strategies using tools that provide data intelligence, scoring, creation, and measurement capabilities to produce high-quality, pertinent content.
- Transitioning from SERPs to CHERPs: Prepare for interactive and visual Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and Chat Experience Results Pages (CHERPs).
- In-Depth, Expert Content: Establish authority on your topic by creating detailed, long-form content that resonates with the right audience at the appropriate stage of the funnel.
- Authorship: Emphasize the expertise of the content author to enhance credibility.
- Topical and Entity Gaps: Identify and address gaps in your content, focusing on topical relevance and specific entities.
Improved Customer Experience
Improving the overall site experience at each level and throughout the user journey, which includes multiple channels, is essential for increasing conversions. Prioritize user experience and pay close attention to the technical details of your domain, including indexing, crawling, speed, and interactivity.
The faster your website is, the better SGE can crawl your content and create AI-powered snapshots. Run regular tests to improve the user experience of your website.
Focus on security, mobile responsiveness, page speed, and Core Web Vitals. Make sure your website is accessible, and follow the best practices for UI and UX.
Complete Schema Markup for Discovery and Clarity
Use schema markup to enhance the appearance of your content. While markup your content, go deep by covering all types of assets such as images, videos, menus, and so on.
Jones also recommends continuing to markup everything using schema. Remember, however, that the search engines may use the data differently. Your “clicks” from search may decrease, but the “sales” attributed from the search may actually go up as the search engines and SGE walk them further down the purchase funnel.
Engagement and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Run tests using tools such as VWO or Crazy Egg, and implement enhancements for better engagement and conversion rate of the website. Conversions can be tracked in terms of calls, leads, transactions, and form submissions on different metrics.
What To Measure in SERP Performance
How would you measure success against the background of such significant changes. With SGE, you will see a significant reduction in both traffic and CTR.
With SGE reducing the organic results on the SERP, the conventional website listings will receive less visibility. Users will also be more likely to find the information they need directly on the SERP, without having to click through to individual websites.
The added complexity from AI-generated responses complicates keyword rank tracking and measurement. Adaptation is key; the need to rely on different KPIs to measure success remains constant.
Visibility KPIs
Data on SGE visibility is not available in the Google Search Console. Since traditional keyword rankings are no longer reliable, it is time to focus on other visibility metrics like share of search, impressions, and the visibility of rich results as an alternative to determine how visible your content is to searchers.
Ray Greiselhuber, from Demand Sphere also recommended adding new metrics like Visual Rank, Pixel Depth, Pixel Height, Fold Depth, and Fold Opportunities to measure the visual KPIs.
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Conversion Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
While there might be a decline in overall traffic targeting information at the top of the funnel, you can anticipate a rise in more targeted and qualified visitors with a heightened intent to convert. Consequently, there should be an enhancement in your conversion rates.
Important success metrics will revolve around conversion indicators such as calls, driving directions, transactions, form fills, and any other soft- and hard-conversion KPIs tailored to the business.
Engagement KPIs
With an increasing amount of content directly accessible in search results, there’s a decline in the number of searchers clicking on links to visit websites. As traffic decreases, it becomes imperative for businesses to actively engage every visitor to their site.
Engagement metrics such as bounce rate, session duration, time spent on site, scrolls and clicks on your page, and the average number of pages visited per session can no longer be overlooked. These metrics are essential in evaluating and improving user engagement.
Future-proofing SEO for 2025’s dynamic SERPs
With the imminent emergence of AI-powered innovations like SGE, it’s anticipated that 2025 will usher in substantial transformations in SERPs and organic search visibility.
By prioritizing optimization for engagement, conversions, and the overall user experience—beyond solely relying on traditional keyword rankings—you can position your brand to flourish amidst the evolving landscape of search.
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