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Ross Dunn
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Scott Vanack
Yeah, sure thing.
Ross Dunn
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Scott Vanack
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Ross Dunn
No hassle.
Scott Vanack
None. That is super convenient.
Ross Dunn
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Ross Dunn
Hello and welcome to SEO 101 on WMR FM episode number 489. This is Ross Dunn, CEO of Stepforth Web Marketing and my co host is my company Senior SEO Scott Vanack. Well, let's jump right into it. We're into our second episode of December. The third will be probably forthcoming the fourth may not this month. So just for all those who may not, who may be, you know, sitting on pins and needles waiting for our next one. And we appreciate you if you are, but I. I highly doubt it. But if you are, then just don't count on a fourth one this month due to our vacation and such. Anyway, let's jump into some non SEO news though I think anything Google Search Console is relevant. But anyway, go for it Scotty.
Scott Vanack
I had to put something so I found the one that was the least SEO of the SEO news. Yeah, so Google Search Console has a nice little update that doesn't really change much but it'll make your life a little bit easier when you're using it. So when you go into Search Console and you're looking at some of your performance reports previously, if you wanted to change the date range, you had to select a dropdown and add a filter. And it was like this process that was a little bit cumbersome. Well, they've made a new change, I think it rolled out Today, which is December 11th, and now you have the usual filter criteria with dropdowns that you could do. But now the date has been moved and there are buttons above that for 24 hours, 7 days, 28 days, 3 months, and then a dropdown for more options, which presumably that lets you. That lets you customize the date range you want to look at. So, you know, it's a very small change, but it's going to make life that much easier when you want to quickly see the last week or the month or whatever. So I'm all for it. So fun little change that I actually approve of.
Ross Dunn
All right. I wonder how many people they actually have on the team that works on it. It could easily be two people.
Scott Vanack
Yeah.
Ross Dunn
Because there certainly aren't a lot of changes that come through.
Scott Vanack
It's just too. Just two. Two folks just hanging out, drinking coffee and what can we tweak to make it better? And then they break something and then we report on the bugs after they.
Ross Dunn
Have a little slide down the Google Headquarters slide.
Scott Vanack
And yeah, I would get a slide in my office but I'm already in the basement, so it wouldn't work very well.
Ross Dunn
All right, well, jumping into the SEO news now. Google search ranking volatility continues post core update. It's a mouthful. Anyway, the last core Update completed on December 5th. Is this another update? Is it related to the core update? We don't really know, but there's a lot of chatter at Webmaster World which is nothing new, with users seeking a lot of or seeing a lot of rank movement. So it could very well be a new one or just an extension. Some tools are showing more volatility than during the first part of the actual core update. It's anyone's guess. And we've always got to throw this stuff out there at the beginning just to go, hey, there's movement.
Scott Vanack
Yeah, yeah, so we'll see. Wouldn't it be typical though if this was like a back to back core updates or something right before Christmas? It's like right out of Google's playbook.
Ross Dunn
Yep, exactly. Was it last year? I think it was last year when they Made this some pretty big changes and people lost a lot of money. It was Florida esque. I say that for anyone who doesn't know that the Florida update that happened I think was 2002 or three devastated businesses and it happened right in December and tons of companies who were all ready to make some money during the Christmas season lost all their rankings and it became a pretty big embarrassment for Google. Even they had the, even they, they were looking a little pretty, pretty bad. They were admitting that they did something stupid anyway. First time I think I'd seen anything even remotely close to that was last year. And I don't really think they care anymore. But that seems to be the overriding topic these days.
Scott Vanack
The original Florida update happened when they were still pretty new. I don't know what their market share was, but maybe 50%, I don't know, something like it was much lower. Now they just dominate and they've got all the money and they do whatever they want. They're, they're unstoppable.
Ross Dunn
Yeah, let me see here. Google Florida update, I never remember. Oh come off it. All I got is the. Oh yeah, 2003. 11-16-2003. That's right. O Anyway, big bad times. All right, so now SEO for Chat GPT search There have been four key observations from Clark Sang. I'm sorry, I don't know who you are Clark, but I'm sure this is some interesting stuff you have to share. So why don't you fire away there Scott.
Scott Vanack
Yeah, this is over at Search Engine Land. Clark kind of found four key observations that are a bit interesting and a couple of things that are worth noting here for sure. So let's just go through them all here. The first was that ChatGPT search results are different than both Google and Bing. Doesn't go completely unexpected. The only thing is there is some overlap. Rankings don't align and this is largely because even though Chat GPT pulls the index from Bing, they apply their own stuff, their own algorithms to that data to serve you stuff. So I said that all really badly. I'm. I'm not good with words I guess anyways, so yeah, they are different which is great. I mean if it was just a mirrored image like Yahoo is basically Bing and you know, we've seen this so many times it's just annoying. So it's good that they are unique. One thing, this is actually probably the most interesting part of all of this that I found is that Chat GPT tends to favor long form content over brand product pages and smaller content. So he had found that they did a sample search for long range E bikes, for instance, and there were no brands referenced. Even though their brand that they manage is number one organically in Google, it was not mentioned at all. And in fact they saw no brand mentions at all in what ChatGPT spat out. Despite that it was like it was mostly long form style articles. The content generally had anything they searched for. The content had the characteristics of lengthy text, all from high authority sites and not brand focused. So it just does not seem to trust promotional claims. And GPT relies more on long form authoritative media. So that was kind of cool. Long form stuff used to be awesome for organic SEO and now we know that it's great for ChatGPT. So keep those articles coming. Local SEO and Reviews and search. ChatGPT does not display ads. It simply ranks the top businesses based on factors like reviews and location. To rank well in local, you need to focus on numerous authentic, positive Google reviews. And that tends to be the key currently for reaching the top. So it's pretty simple, but not necessarily easy to acquire in practice. It's definitely more difficult than just hey, get a thousand reviews. But good reviews are key right now. And then this one was kind of a bit counterproductive, a bit counter to number two with the brand stuff. But he says emphasis on brand mentions. So ChatGPT does not drive website clicks as much as you might think. It's more about that people are looking for direct answers to their questions and not necessarily looking for a website for it. So you tend to get more focus on brand awareness than you do traffic to your site. So the goal with ChatGPT, according to Clark, is really about maximizing exposure and brand awareness more than it is about traffic generation. So, but yeah, the main thing there, main takeaway for me is long form content is very helpful. So. All right, simple takeaway.
Ross Dunn
Yeah, lots of little simple takeaways. That's good. So Google Search has. Is fixing. Sorry. Google Search fixes delayed indexing issues. What the heck kind of title is that? Google Search.
Scott Vanack
I didn't write it.
Ross Dunn
Yes, we're going to stop just copying things. This is really making things bad. All right, so on December 9th, Google Node, they were having delayed indexing issues which impacted a small number of sites. If you were a large publisher, you most likely noticed a delay in getting new content indexed. They had this issue on December 10th. This is where John Carcutt would have piped in with lots of information because he was dealing with a large publisher all the time. His. Yeah, always was interesting. To hear what was going on over there. And he would have liked this too. Google does try to handle broken canonicals now. I've heard this many times, but it's always worth mentioning Again, this is from a Search off the Record podcast with Alan Scott from the Google Search team and Martin Split and John Mueller. John and Martin have both been on the SEO 101 podcast. We're going to have to get them on again very soon. I think maybe in the new year. Anyway. In the video, Allan confirms that if the if they sense that the canonical tag on your site is incorrect, they will attempt to correct it, but also notes that their process is imperfect. Shocking quote. Are we ever going to have good rel equals canonical validation? I don't know. But in the meantime, the one we've got is imperfect and if you make mistakes, will catch some of them and we'll let some of them through, unquote. So yeah, don't rely on them. Oh, interesting.
Scott Vanack
I think we often, or people generally often think that Google is significantly smarter than it is. And it is in a lot of respects. But in some cases, you know, you people might be like, ah, the canonical tags are good enough. I'm sure it'll be fine. And don't have that attitude. It might be fine. It very well might not be true enough.
Ross Dunn
Okay, we're going to take a quick break. When we get back, we're going to talk a lot about AI. SEO101 will be back right after recess. Welcome back to SEO101 on WMR FM, hosted by myself, Ross Dunn, CEO of Step 4th Web Marketing, and my company, senior SEO Scott Vanac. Okay, so in AI news, we've got lots to share, some really interesting stuff today, which is nice. First, Google announces search updates powered by Gemini 2.0. Anyway, in this case, what does this mean? We're going to break it down into three main points. First, AI overviews are being expanded. It's reaching 1 billion users and will be enhanced to cover more complex and multimodal queries. What will this mean? Well, users will benefit from improved AI responses, enabling them to ask more sophisticated questions. Some of the capabilities in part two here is mainly the Gemini 2 flash model is said to outperform earlier models significantly, featuring faster response times and the ability to process various input and output types. Really what comes down to is it will include functionality for images, video, audio and integrated coding capabilities. And that was one of the things that I noticed highlighted when it within. Actually, we're going to get to that in a second. I Won't even get there. The third point here is future developments. Google is also introducing new interactive interaction prototypes like Project Mariner, which is the next section of this discussion aimed at improving user interaction with web browsers. So what the heck is Project Mariner? The DeepMind website describes it as, quote, a research prototype exploring the future of human agent interaction, starting with your browser, unquote, agent. You're going to hear that a lot in 2025. I think it's going to be ubiquitous by 2026, since these things kind of take time to really catch on to the general public. But I felt just from that there's, there's a, there's a good reason for us to dig a little more into Project Mariner. So here it is. And part of the reason I'm doing this is because of what I've got here is that I read recently an article or an interview with Sundar Pichai. He's the CEO of Google, and he said, quote, search itself will continue to change profoundly in 2025. I think we're going to be able to tackle more complex questions than ever before. And I think you'll be surprised, Even early in 2025, the kind of newer things search can do compared to what it is, where it is today, unquote. Now, a CEO doesn't say that stuff unless things are very close to being launched. So Project Mariner, it seems to be a big part of that coming change. Now, one of the the I, I used a. Ironically, I used AI to help summarize the very complicated explanations throughout Project Mariner when I went through the site. So let's look at some of the points here. It's an initiative by Google DeepMind that explores how we can interact with our web browsers using our advanced artificial intelligence. In simple terms, it's about creating a smarter, more intuitive assistant. I want you to note that word because we're talking about agents here that help users navigate and utilize the web more effectively. Here's how it could change the way regular people, that's us and the broader world use Internet browsers. Enhanced interaction. Instead of just typing queries into a search bar, users could interact with the browser using natural language. And this is what I highlighted. Asking questions or giving commands conversationally. Asking questions or giving commands conversationally. Now, this is kind of one of those holy grail things people like to ask questions of Google. And it's pretty good with their answers, but not great. Sometimes it just has to send you elsewhere or say, it can't do that. You need to read this Whatever. The ability for them to expand that into much more complex answers and complex questions is intriguing.
Scott Vanack
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Ross Dunn
I can't even imagine at this stage. There's just too many things that that could impact. Second, how can change how we use the Internet? Multimodal Understanding Project Mariner is designed to understand and process different types of information information simultaneously, such as text, images and sounds. This means the browser can provide richer more context aware responses. So want to bring attention to how it can process different types of information simultaneously, such as text, images and sounds. What is that going to mean? What? Where do we have text, image and sound all at once? I can't really imagine. I mean video and sound is certainly seems like a good fit. Maybe they could use image or sorry as videos as part of your search. Why not? It's. We're getting to the point where bandwidth is is high. Bandwidth is almost ubiquitous across at least the first world, so maybe that is possible. Number three is task automation. And this is what I think is one of the biggest growth, growth aspects of this. The AI could help automate routine tasks like filling out forms or finding relevant, relevant information quickly, making online activities more efficient. What I highlighted here was finding relevant information quickly. Now, an agent, I'm not going to be perfect with my explanation of this by any stretch of the imagination, but an agent, you could have your own agent, almost like an assistant that goes out and does stuff for you by using Project Mariner. Perhaps this is the first step in that equation where you could say, do this research for me, then go off and make dinner and come back and see the results. If it doesn't, immediately provide it to you, I don't know, I don't know what they're going to end up doing here. I would expect that if it required anything that labor intensive or that computationally intensive, you probably have to pay something minor like some sort of a API fee. But just the same, if that becomes possible and it's all built into your browser, that's huge. Number four, personalized experiences based on user behavior and preferences. The browser could tailor its suggestions, making the online experience more customized and user friendly. My highlight there was user behavior and preferences and how it could tailor its suggestions. So taking the next. Essentially it's taking search to the next level of, of personal. Personalized. You know, we're always talking about personalized search results based on your prior interactions. Well, this.
Scott Vanack
Wow.
Ross Dunn
I mean, the more they can make that effective, the faster and more forward they're going to get in front of their competitors. Not to really have any big ones yet, but with search, ChatGPT or search GPT getting so much press right now, a lot of them saying that, a lot of people saying that ChatGPT and all these are doing much better than Google's Gemini. I think they're feeling a little hurt right now since they were the ones that created the, what do they call them? The Transformers. And literally this is the system that allowed ChatGPT to even exist. And they, they put it out publicly, they made it open source. If I hadn't done that, it's true, chatgpt, all these guys would not even exist. And that's because of Google. So I'll give them that credit. But just the same, they are said to be so far behind. I got a feeling 2025 is when they're going to prove at least the best they can. They've had a good track record so far that they're way ahead and that this is going to be a massive year. I bet he's putting a lot of pressure on his team. Overall, Project Mariner aims to create a more seamless and enjoyable browsing experience, allowing people to engage with the Internet in a more natural and efficient way. What do you think, Scott? Think it's going to be as good as they say?
Scott Vanack
As good? Well, that's. I don't know about the answer to that. Maybe. You know, I do like the idea of the personalized experiences being more advanced. Like, even if we look at chat GPT, like, my wife has been using it a lot and it's also been. She keeps saying how smart and brilliant and how stupid it is at the same time because she'll ask it to do something and then she'll ask it to do that same thing again, but with a slightly different twist for a different project. Right. And it forgets everything else that she said before and it does it wrong and it says, no. Like, remember last time when you did it this way? Do it like that too. Like, oh, okay, I'll do it that way. And it. If the personalization gets to the point where it just. This is like good and bad. I kind of love and hate this. But if it just remembers everything you're asking and how you want it and how you want things delivered, you won't have to ask for clarification. It will just know you and know how you like stuff automatically. It's like when I ask for code samples for structured markup, I may say include all the script tags because it makes it easier for copy pasting. And then ChatGPT removes the script tags every time. It's like, we'll put the script tags back in. Like, okay, like it should be able to just remember a step like that and always do it. And I can't even begin to think of all the thousands of examples of little bits of personalization that it could use to save you time in the future. So you just, you get what you want without any question. So I don't know how fast it will be rolled out and be really good. I think the first, I don't know, it's probably going to be pretty bad at first, but I think it'll very quickly adapt to be awesome. And when I say quickly, like within.
Ross Dunn
A year, my geeky response to that issue your wife's having is that it could be. And this just occurred to me honestly, because I'm so stuck on using it. I usually use OpenAI mini 4o it, which is best for text. However, Perhaps using a more up to date algorithm or up to date AI will be better at that. I don't know. I think it's. It's a major issue because I do a lot of AI stuff and for writing, for whatever it may be, for even asking questions and digging in and yeah, it's got a terrible. It's short term memory. It's horrible.
Scott Vanack
It's just terrible.
Ross Dunn
I mean, I can have a thread where I'm asking really detailed questions and I love doing this when I'm doing some feature mining about a particular client's, let's say product and I'm like, okay, does it do this? Does it do this? Does this? And based on the answers I can put together an outline for an article that I could never have done before without reading a ton of the client's content. And this just saves time for me and, and costs them less. Well, yeah. I'm constantly uncertain if it's right and sometimes even ask it says no, I'm sorry, I got that wrong.
Scott Vanack
Yeah.
Ross Dunn
Oh my God.
Scott Vanack
All the time. All the time it does that to me.
Ross Dunn
Oh, it's, it's frustrating. I, I was just thinking idly that I wonder if. And I don't think this is the case, but it would be. It's just too simple. But we should almost have a separate section of RAM in our computer for, for AI only so it can remember everything it's thinking.
Scott Vanack
Nice.
Ross Dunn
But I'm sure it could all be done in the cloud. It's just they need to do it better.
Scott Vanack
I don't know how they are going to roll this out exactly, but you know, when I go to use AI, not always, but sometimes you log into Team GPT so you got to click on the website, you got to log in, you go to the page, you pick the folder for the project, you want all the thread to live in so it's not just all a jumbled mess in one spot, but the idea of you just open up Chrome, click, maybe click a button, maybe you don't have to click anything. You just say, oh, hey, can you bring up that? Whatever. And it just does it and it's there. I don't know. I love that idea. And I, again, I'm terrified about technology getting too advanced sometimes and always listening to me and serving me ads for things that I was thinking about that I didn't even say out loud. You know, stuff like that. And I feel like that's just going to make that stuff even. Like this is really going to be ad material too. I Think you know.
Ross Dunn
Yeah, I'm pretty interested to see what happens. And the beautiful thing about all this, of course we're still going to see as soon as all this is released. Is SEO dead? It's never dead as long as we need to make sure that information gets out there to this, these systems. And will that ever end? Never. Never, no, no. It changes. Oh, is it ever going to change? But it's not. Yeah, never dead. Okay, so next up here, how significant is the AI chatbot traffic in the business to business realm? This is an article on Search Engine Journal and it's a mini study by our friend Kevin Indig where he was following about where he found the following about how significant AI chatbots are in driving traffic to B2B 2B. So I know you threw this together, so I'll just let you jump in.
Scott Vanack
Yeah, so it's actually quite a lengthy article and I do recommend you go out and read it at Search Engine Journal. I've just taken some of the point form bullets that I found interesting, but it does dive a little bit deeper as well. So this one, this kind of bugged me. The first point though was that Chat GPT is the second fastest growing consumer product and at first I was like well what's the first growing? And he did have an example and I don't know if he didn't refer to it as the fastest growing, but he was referring to electricity and you know, from the first commercial power plant with 59 customers in 1882, 3.8 million households and a few years later had electricity. So I think he's referring to electricity growing, but so this is second to that. Presumably in this case he did do the study on. It was a very small study, but preserve it provided some Insights. It was six B2B companies and he found that referral traffic from AI chat bots has grown for them on average from about 250 visitors per month per month to 1300 visitors per month. So about five times since the first half of 2024. So I mean 1300 visitors per month isn't much for a lot of businesses, but it is a lot for others. But that's just the growth in the matter of a few months. So that's, that's quite significant. I mean you fast forward another year is going to be another five times adds up pretty fast. He had a breakdown as well of the chatbots that are delivering traffic. ChatGPT currently accounts for about 48%, perplexity is about 22%, Bing is 16%. Copilot is 9%, which is also Microsoft. Right. Did I get that wrong? Yeah. Okay. And then Gemini is at 5%. Although with what we just talked about, Gemini and Google, you know that's going to grow. It's going to grow a lot. Whether it's better or not, it doesn't matter. It's still going to grow. Despite its growth, AI chatbot referral traffic only makes up about 0.34% in comparison to organic traffic. So even know it's small, it's almost nothing right now. But it's going to grow incredibly fast over the next year. Fast forward five years, it might be the new Google. I don't know if, if that can happen, but maybe. Currently only about 14% of Americans have tried chat GPT. I thought the number would be larger, but the more I think about it, I'm not so sure. I. I don't know what I think about that. And AI chatbot traffic is growing at a monthly average of 25.9% overall, which is huge growth. And as a comparison, organic traffic over the course of 2024 has only grown by about 1.1 times. So it's only gone up a little bit. It's not a lot of growth in organic making the switch to AI. So there we are.
Ross Dunn
We'll see what happens. I mean when I first heard this about AI Chatbot, I always. I immediately thought of. I'm like, I actually got confused and perhaps our listeners did too if they're. But they have to be kind of enmeshed in this to probably think way I was. But I thought it meant like the AI chats chatbots that you've integrated into your website. But no, this is the AI search areas like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini. Yeah. Which is their own places in a sense. These are AI search versus Chatbot. But I get how they're saying it.
Scott Vanack
That's true. And I, I guess I should have clarified that a bit more. In the start I just kind of went with how Kevin's laid out his article. But you're right, it's. That's what I thought too when I first started reading it. Is I was thinking just a little the little chat windows on various websites. That is not what we're referring to yet.
Ross Dunn
Yeah. And I personally hate those so far. I know that they must be getting better and I probably now just old man hate it. Even though I probably should be trying them out more and more as they get better. I know that there are a ton of way better systems out there, but just the same. It's never going to be like talking to a real person. No, it does get annoying when you're always thrown the same answer from a system that is just reading off a script.
Scott Vanack
It's kind of surprising they haven't gotten a lot better because AI is so much better. And why. Why aren't they incorporating more AI into it to make it work better? I guess they will. Maybe they're just falling behind, I guess. Or cost.
Ross Dunn
Yeah, well, and if we're talking about chatbots again here, then that's also it's only as good as the content it has access to, I suppose. But you'd think the more conversational, friendly aspect of it would improve in time and again. It probably has. I just got tired of it. Yeah, well, and I'm sure all of us will at some point or another. But anyway, on behalf of myself, Ross Dunn, CEO of Stepforth Web Marketing, and my company, Senior SEO Scott Van Achieved, thank you for joining us today. Remember, we have a Show Notes newsletter you can sign up for@seo101radio.com don't miss a single link and you can refresh your memory of a past show at any time. Have a great week and remember to tune into future episodes, which air every week on WMR fm.
Scott Vanack
Great. Thank you for listening everybody.
Ross Dunn
Sa Are you tired of juggling contacts manually following up and deals falling through the cracks? We can fix it so you never lose another lead. Enabling 24. 7 sales and support via an AI that learns your business. Ready to close more deals with less hassle? Get a free trial of our marketing automation@thebuzz CRM.com.
Scott Vanack
Yeah, sure thing.
Ross Dunn
Hey, you sold that car yet?
Scott Vanack
Yeah, sold it to Carvana. Oh, I thought you were selling to that guy. The guy who wanted to pay me in foreign currency, no interest over 36 months? Yeah, no. Carvana gave me an offer in minutes, picked it up and paid me on the spot. It was so convenient.
Ross Dunn
Just like that.
Scott Vanack
Yeah.
Ross Dunn
No hassle. None.
Scott Vanack
That is super convenient.
Ross Dunn
Sell your car to Carvana and swap Hassle for convenience.
Scott Vanack
Pickup fees may apply.
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People are driven by the search for better. But when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search Match with Indeed. The hiring process can be slow and overwhelming. Simplify hiring with Indeed Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors according to Indeed data and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast. Ditch the busywork. Use Indeed for scheduling, screening and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. Join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com p o d k a t z 12 that's indeed. Com p o d k a t z12. Terms and conditions apply.
SEO 101 Podcast Summary: Episode 489 - Exploring ChatGPT Search, Google’s Gemini 2, and Project Mariner
Release Date: January 6, 2025
Hosts: Ross Dunn & Scott Vanack
Podcast: SEO 101 by WMR.FM
In Episode 489 of SEO 101, hosts Ross Dunn and Scott Vanack delve into the latest developments in the SEO landscape, focusing on advancements in AI-driven search technologies. The episode primarily explores ChatGPT Search, Google's Gemini 2.0 update, and the innovative Project Mariner initiative.
Scott Vanack begins by discussing a recent update to the Google Search Console. The update, rolled out on December 11th, simplifies the process of changing date ranges in performance reports.
"They've made a new change… with buttons for 24 hours, 7 days, 28 days, 3 months, and a dropdown for more options, making it easier to quickly view different time frames."
– Scott Vanack [02:55]
Scott appreciates the small but significant improvement, noting that it will enhance user experience by streamlining data analysis.
The hosts address ongoing concerns regarding Google's core updates, specifically the volatility in search rankings following the December 5th update.
"The last core update… There's a lot of chatter at Webmaster World with users seeing a lot of rank movement."
– Ross Dunn [04:23]
Ross reminisces about the Florida Update of 2003, highlighting its impact on businesses during the holiday season. Both hosts express skepticism about the frequency and scale of Google's updates, suggesting that Google’s dominance in the market allows them considerable leeway in their algorithm changes.
Scott Vanack references insights from Clark Sang of Search Engine Land, emphasizing how ChatGPT Search diverges from traditional search engines like Google and Bing.
"ChatGPT tends to favor long-form content over brand product pages and smaller content."
– Scott Vanack [06:49]
Key observations include:
Differentiated Results: ChatGPT provides unique search results by applying its proprietary algorithms to data sourced from Bing, resulting in non-aligned rankings compared to Google and Bing.
Preference for Long-Form Content: Unlike traditional SEO which balances between product pages and informational content, ChatGPT prioritizes lengthy, authoritative articles, reducing the visibility of brand-centric pages.
Local SEO and Reviews: ChatGPT focuses on ranking top businesses based on reviews and location without displaying ads, emphasizing the importance of authentic, positive Google reviews for local SEO success.
Brand Awareness over Traffic Generation: Instead of driving direct website clicks, ChatGPT enhances brand exposure and recognition, as users seek concise answers rather than navigating to specific websites.
Ross and Scott discuss the implications of these findings, noting that long-form content remains valuable not only for traditional SEO but also for AI-driven search platforms like ChatGPT. They underscore the necessity for businesses to adapt their content strategies to align with these evolving search behaviors.
Ross introduces the Google Gemini 2.0 update, outlining its three main enhancements:
Expanded AI Overviews: Reaching 1 billion users, Gemini 2.0 can handle more complex and multimodal queries, offering improved AI responses for sophisticated questions.
Enhanced Model Capabilities: The Gemini 2 Flash model boasts faster response times and can process various input and output types, including images, video, audio, and integrated coding capabilities.
Future Developments – Project Mariner: This initiative aims to revolutionize user interaction with web browsers through advanced AI integration.
"Project Mariner… a research prototype exploring the future of human agent interaction, starting with your browser."
– Ross Dunn [16:42]
Project Mariner is highlighted as a pivotal development in AI-driven browsing experiences. Described as an initiative by Google DeepMind, it seeks to create a smarter, more intuitive browser assistant capable of:
Enhanced Interaction: Allowing users to interact with browsers using natural language, making inquiries and commands conversational.
Multimodal Understanding: Processing and integrating text, images, and sounds to provide richer, context-aware responses.
Task Automation: Automating routine online tasks such as form filling and information retrieval, thereby increasing efficiency.
Personalized Experiences: Tailoring suggestions based on user behavior and preferences to create a more customized browsing experience.
Ross speculates on the potential impact of Project Mariner, suggesting it could pave the way for AI agents becoming ubiquitous by 2026, fundamentally changing how users engage with the internet.
"Project Mariner aims to create a more seamless and enjoyable browsing experience, allowing people to engage with the Internet in a more natural and efficient way."
– Ross Dunn [21:01]
Scott Vanack adds his perspective, noting the potential for highly personalized interactions but also expressing concerns about the current limitations of AI, such as short-term memory issues and reliability in understanding user preferences.
"If the personalization gets to the point where it just remembers everything you're asking and how you want it, you won't have to ask for clarification."
– Scott Vanack [22:23]
Ross concurs, emphasizing the ongoing challenges in AI development but remains optimistic about rapid advancements.
The hosts discuss a Search Engine Journal article by Kevin Indig, which presents a mini-study on the significance of AI chatbot traffic in the Business-to-Business (B2B) sector.
Key findings include:
Rapid Growth: AI chatbots are the second fastest-growing consumer product, trailing only behind electricity in historical growth comparison.
Traffic Increase: For six B2B companies studied, referral traffic from AI chatbots surged from an average of 250 to 1,300 visitors per month within the first half of 2024, representing a fivefold increase.
Market Share of Chatbots:
Despite the impressive growth rate, AI chatbot traffic currently accounts for a mere 0.34% of total traffic compared to organic search. However, with a monthly growth rate of 25.9%, this segment is poised for exponential expansion, potentially becoming a dominant search modality within five years.
"As a comparison, organic traffic over the course of 2024 has only grown by about 1.1 times."
– Scott Vanack [30:13]
Ross clarifies the distinction between AI chatbots integrated into websites and AI-driven search platforms like ChatGPT, emphasizing the latter's role in redirecting search behaviors.
"I thought it meant like the AI chats chatbots that you've integrated into your website. But no, this is the AI search areas like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini."
– Ross Dunn [30:13]
Both hosts acknowledge the potential of AI-driven search to transform SEO practices, urging listeners to stay ahead of these trends to maintain visibility and traffic.
Ross and Scott wrap up the episode by reiterating the continual evolution of SEO in the face of advancing AI technologies. They emphasize that SEO is far from obsolete, highlighting its enduring importance in ensuring information accessibility within emerging AI systems.
"SEO is never dead as long as we need to make sure that information gets out there to these systems."
– Ross Dunn [26:34]
The hosts encourage listeners to subscribe to their newsletter for show notes and future updates, promising regular insights into the ever-changing SEO landscape.
"ChatGPT tends to favor long-form content over brand product pages and smaller content."
– Scott Vanack [06:49]
"Project Mariner aims to create a more seamless and enjoyable browsing experience, allowing people to engage with the Internet in a more natural and efficient way."
– Ross Dunn [21:01]
"SEO is never dead as long as we need to make sure that information gets out there to these systems."
– Ross Dunn [26:34]
Episode 489 of SEO 101 offers a comprehensive examination of how AI innovations like ChatGPT Search, Google’s Gemini 2.0, and Project Mariner are reshaping the SEO landscape. Ross Dunn and Scott Vanack provide valuable insights into adapting SEO strategies to thrive amidst these technological advancements, underlining the importance of long-form content, personalized user experiences, and the rapid growth of AI-driven search modalities.
For more detailed discussions and future episodes, listeners are encouraged to subscribe to the SEO 101 newsletter and tune in weekly on WMR.FM.