In recent months, we have seen the rapid expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across all facets of digital marketing and SEO. This month has been no different, and there have recently been significant developments for Google search and other engines.
Below are some of the top stories that have emerged from this month, including Google reaching over five trillion searches per year, Google’s new ‘AI Mode’, the growing practice of ‘Query Counting’, and the impact of AI Overviews on organic traffic.
Google Now Receives Over 5 Trillion Searches Per Year
After confirming at least two trillion searches in 2016, Google has now publicly shared that they receive more than five trillion searches per year. The number of commercial enquiries has also increased following the launch of AI Overviews. Considering that in 1999 the number of Google searches completed annually was approximately one billion, it is clear to see that the popularity of using Google to resolve user queries has grown exponentially.
What Does This Mean for My Website?
Due to the exponential growth of users on search engines such as Google, it is more important than ever to optimise your website to rank highly in Google! To start the process for implementing a robust and comprehensive SEO strategy, contact a member of our team today.
[Source: Search Engine Land]
Google Introduces New ‘AI Mode’
While AI Overviews have become a common occurrence in SERPs, Google has recently announced the launch of a new experimental feature of Search called ‘AI Mode’. AI Mode essentially allows users to enter complex queries, similar to ChatGPT. Using this feature of Google, users would be able to enter follow-up questions and multi-part queries to receive detailed results.
Learn more about AI Mode by clicking here.
[Source: TechCrunch]
The Growing Popularity of ‘Query Counting’
Queries are becoming a popular metric for marketing professionals to track for a number of reasons, including:
- Measure visibility of content – By tracking the number of queries for your website and how they change when you upload content, you can effectively track how people are interacting with your website and evaluate your expertise on a topic.
- Performance troubleshooting – In an ideal world, your clicks and queries would be increasing. However, by tracking the number of queries for topics on your website, you can more easily identify whether your content needs optimising, if you need new content altogether, or if there is another issue at play.
- Local SEO – During times of seasonal fluctuation, it can be easy to automatically assume a drop in clicks translates to a drop in traffic. Make sure to keep an eye on the query count, as this could be increasing as you appear for new locations.
- Keyword cannibalisation – Query counting can be used to validate fixes for certain issues, including keyword cannibalisation. For example, if you remove content that you think may be cannibalising and the query count remains the same, you can rest assured that you have successfully addressed cannibalisation.
Learn more about keyword cannibalisation by reading our detailed blog: What Causes Keyword Cannibalisation?
[Source: SEO Gets]
Are Featured Snippets Still Valuable?
In recent months, the AI Overview feature of Google has become more and more prevalent. In fact, it is now estimated that AI Overviews appear in 42.5% of search results. Situated at the very top of the results page, AI Overviews tend to have a far lower click-through rate than a featured snippet. For informational queries, this has resulted in lower rates of organic traffic as users are less likely to click on their website from an AI Overview compared to a featured snippet.
SEOs are now analysing their featured snippets to identify how their rankings are being affected by AI Overviews. Many have found that the number of queries they are receiving featured snippets has been slowly decreasing over the past 12 months.
Learn more about featured snippets by reading our detailed blog: Why are Featured Snippets Important for SEO?
[Source: GSQi]
Top Digital Marketing Tools We Recommend
Below are some of the top tools our team has been using this month to aid their SEO efforts.
2Index – Google Indexing API
If you have uploaded new content for a number of URLs on your website, you may be looking for a quick way to add a large number of URLs to Google’s search engine index. Fortunately, using a tool such as the one 2Index offers, you can have your updated URLs quickly added to Google’s search engine index without being restricted to a daily limit of requests.
Exploding Topics
Using Exploding Topics, you can quickly identify keywords and topics as they are becoming popular. By staying ahead of trends, you can produce content using keywords that are highly relevant and likely to draw in users as a topic gains popularity. Exploding Topics doesn’t just use information from search engines, but will identify when a topic is being commented on, discussed and mentioned all over the internet.
GeoRanker
If you are trying to rank in specific locations, you will need to measure how your keywords are performing in those areas. Using GeoRanker, you can easily track how your position for selected terms changes as you optimise and produce new content.
Stay Ahead of the Trends with Wildcat Digital
At Wildcat Digital, we have a passion for delivering outstanding SEO services, helping businesses punch above their weight online. Get in touch today to arrange a free consultation.
Catch up with the last few months’ news updates here:
Andy Blanchard
Senior SEO Executive
