Side-by-side comparison of search results in regular Bing and the AI version from the message: “Create a 3-day itinerary for a visitor to Destin Florida.” Credit: Microsoft Bing
Google, Microsoft and others have generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT will search the internet better than ever for users. For example, instead of having to wade through a sea of URLs, users will be able to get just one answer combed from the entire Internet.
There are also some concerns with the rise of AI-powered search engines, such as opacity about where the information comes from, the potential for “brainwashed” responses, and copyright issues.
But another consequence is that I think it can destroy 68 billion dollars of search engine optimization industry that companies like Google helped create.
Over the past 25 years or so, websites, media, blogs and many others with a URL that wanted to get attention have used search engine optimization, or SEO, to “convince” search engines to share your content as much as possible in the results they provide to readers. This has helped drive traffic to their sites and has also spawned an industry of consultants and marketers advising on the best way to do this.
As in associate professor of information management and operations, I study the economics of e-commerce. I think the growing use of generative AI will probably make all of this obsolete.
How online search works
Someone looking for information online opens their browser, goes to a search engine and types in relevant keywords. The search engine displays the results and the user navigates through the links displayed in the results lists until he finds the relevant information.
To attract the user’s attention, online content providers use various search engine marketing strategies such as Search Engine Optimization, paid placements i banner displays.
For example, a news website might hire a consultant to help it highlight keywords in headlines and metadata so that Google and Bing elevate its content when a user searches for the latest information about a flood or political crisis.
How generative AI is changing the search process
But it all depends on the search engines attracting tens of millions of users to their websites. Therefore, to retain users and gain web traffic, search engines must continuously work on their algorithms to improve the quality of their search results.
That’s why, even if it could hurt some of their revenue stream, search engines have been quick to experiment with generative AI to improve search results. And this could fundamentally change the online search ecosystem.
All major search engines have already adopted or are experimenting with this approach. Some examples include Bard of Google, Microsoft’s Bing AI, Baidu’s ERNIE i DuckAssist by DuckDuckGo.
Instead of getting a list of links, both organic and paid, based on the keywords or questions a user types in, Generative AI will. simply give you a text result in response form. Imagine you’re planning a trip to Destin, Florida, and you type in the message “Create a three-day itinerary for a visitor.” Instead of a bunch of Yelp links and blog posts that require a lot of clicking and reading, typing this into Bing AI will result in a detailed three-day itinerary.
Over time, as the quality of AI-generated answers improves, users will have less incentive to scroll through lists of search results. They can save time and effort by reading the AI-generated response to their query.
In other words, it would allow you to avoid all those paid links and costly efforts by websites to improve their SEO scores, rendering them useless.
When users start ignoring sponsored and editorial listings, it will have an adverse impact on SEO consultants’ income, search engine vendors consultants and ultimately the bottom line of the search engines themselves.
The financial impact
This financial impact cannot be ignored.
For example, the The SEO industry will generate $68.1 billion globally by 2022. It was expected to reach $129.6 billion by 2030, but those projections were made before the emergence of generative AI put the industry at risk of obsolescence.
As to search enginesmonetizing online search services is a main source of their income. They get a cut of the money websites spend to improve their visibility online through paid placements, ads, affiliate marketing, and the like, collectively known as search engine marketing. For example, approx 58% of Google’s revenue by 2022— or nearly $162.5 billion — came from Google Ads, which provides some of these services.
Search engines run by massive companies with many sources of revenue, such as Google and Microsoft, will likely find ways to offset losses by proposing strategies to make money with generative AI answers. But marketers and SEO consultants who rely on search engine…mostly small and medium enterprises—will no longer be needed as they are today, and so the industry is unlikely to survive much longer.
A not-so-distant future
But don’t expect the SEO industry to disappear immediately. Generative AI search engines are still in their infancy and must address certain challenges before they dominate search.
On the one hand, most of these initiatives they are still experimental and often only available to certain users. And for another, generative AI has been notorious for providing wrong, plagiarized or simply made up answers.
This means that it is unlikely to gain the trust or loyalty of many users at this time.
Given these challenges, it’s no surprise that generative AI has yet to make it transform online search. However, given the resources available to researchers working on generative AI models, it’s safe to assume that these models will eventually improve upon their work, leading to the death of the SEO industry.
This article is republished from the conversation under a Creative Commons license. read the original article.
Subpoena: Why Adoption of Generative AI by Google, Bing, and Other Search Engines Threatens the $68 Billion SEO Industry (2023, October 23) Retrieved December 25, 2023
This document is subject to copyright. Other than any fair dealing for private study or research purposes, no part may be reproduced without written permission. Content is provided for informational purposes only.
[ad_2]
Source link
