Technical SEOs aren’t concerned that the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) will negatively affect their job security. This is an insight from the 2024 State of Tech SEO Report, published by digital marketing agency Aira and the Women in Tech SEO community.
64% said they were “not at all” concerned. 36% said they were “somewhat concerned” (30% internal; 33% agency) or “very concerned” (6% internal; 3% agencies). “While these concerns are not without merit, it is crucial that business leaders recognize that AI is not a global replacement for human employees. Particularly in the field of SEO, the nuanced application of common sense is key: an AI of quality has yet to dominate,” he said. Roxanna StingaHead of Search and SEO, Alamy, in the report.
Why we care All the overwhelming developments in generative AI over the past 18 months have caused worry and stress among SEOs. While AI will undoubtedly eliminate some jobs, it will also create new jobs. AI is a great assistant, but it cannot replace the work done by technical SEOs, aka humans.
Google SGE Fears. While most were not concerned about job security, 70% of respondents were concerned about the impact of Google’s search generative experience (SGE) on regular organic search results.
“The concern I’m in is that it’s still changing. There’s still a lot of uncertainty about exactly how it’s going to roll out, and I also want to see how everyday users react to it. A lot of the feedback has been from early adopters in the tech and SEO community and we’re not exactly representative of how the rest of the world will use it,” he said. Natasha Burtenshaw-deVriesdirector of organic growth, Flywheel Digital, in the report.
At home and agency. Only 20% of in-house, agency and freelance respondents have not changed their SEO planning and roadmaps due to AI developments. Of the remaining 80% of respondents:
59% said “a little”. 21% said “a lot”.
AI and machine learning (ML) tools. Fifty-two percent of respondents used AI and ML tools to generate metadata (eg, titles, descriptions) on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Other ways SEOs used the tools:
46% for content generation. 35% for keyword research. 23% for audit pages.
Other findings Google seems confident:
85% do not believe that ChatGPT as a standalone tool is a threat to Google. 70% don’t think Bing can take away Google’s search market share.
About the data. The survey was conducted between January 15 and March 5. It received 382 responses: 56% of respondents were from the US and the UK.
the report The report also looks at the impact of SEO, tools and more. You can read the full report here: State of Technical SEO 2024 Report
Dig deeper. SEO Technical Report Reveals What Matters in 2023
