The Gist
A strategic approach is required. Compostable content simplifies AI and search engine indexing for better query response.Audience knowledge is critical. Deep understanding of audience queries improves AI and search optimization.Experience flows essential. Mapping information-seeking experiences helps structure AI-friendly content.
If you weren’t already convinced that a structured content approach is the way to go to deliver omnichannel and personalized content experiences at scale, the proliferation of AI (and what that means for AI-powered search and SEO) might tilt the scale .
SEO is currently undergoing one of the biggest disruptions in history with the emergence of generative AI tools and AI-powered search. More people are using some form of AI in their search for information, in addition to or instead of search engines. (Editor’s note: And now AI is infiltrating Google’s search terrain.)
As a result, the way organizations optimize their content to be found, whether through search or AI, will have to change. I think there will be a greater need to use composable content to make it easier for search engines and AI to publish your content in response to specific queries.
Is this really new?
It’s true that the search landscape is changing rapidly, but so is the fact that search engines, Google in particular, have been experimenting for years with ways to deliver succinct and accurate answers to users directly on their results pages.
Since 2016, Google has taken rich letters like “People Also Ask,” “Things to Know,” and “Featured Snippets” seriously on its results pages, leading to what’s now known as zero click searches. Audiences were able to get their answers directly from the search results page without ever having to visit the organization’s digital properties.
Also, over the past decade, Google has used artificial intelligence in its algorithm to adjust results based on things like search intent and content usefulness. And now it’s time “AI Overviews” within the search results.
More recently, search has jumped to the next level with the introduction of AI-assisted search through Google’s experimental Search Generative Experience (SGE) i Bing Deep Search. It’s early for those changes, though Gartner predicts that as a result of these developments, organic search traffic will decline by 50% or more by 2028 as users adopt AI-powered generative search.
Related Article: Marketers: What’s Your AI-Powered Search Strategy?
What does compostable content have to do with AI-powered search?
While data on the performance of AI-assisted search is not yet available, we noticed that much of the same content that appeared in search snippets also appears in AI-assisted search and AI summaries. Numbered lists in response to the question “how…”, short definitions or descriptions in response to “what is…” and high-level summaries taken from specific sections of longer pieces of content. If your goal is to engage, educate, and inform your audience with your content, you want to make sure yours is the answer that appears.
AI tools and AI-assisted search provide these answers based on learning models that use information pulled from the Internet and, like search engines, are more likely to refer to content that is targeted to the user’s query. The bottom line: If you use composable content and tag it appropriately, it will be easier for these tools to identify and reference answers contained in larger pieces.
The bottom line: If you use composable content and tag it appropriately, it will be easier for these tools to identify and reference answers contained in larger pieces.Lyudmila in Adobe Stock Photos
Related Article: Assessing the Impact of AI-Based Web Browsing on SEO and Marketing
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How does it work in practice?
Structuring your content to be indexed and found by AI tools takes a strategic and thoughtful approach, and is insightful, actionable, and iterative in nature.
Start with your audiences: understand what they want from you
Optimizing content, whether for search or AI (or AI-assisted search), starts with a deep understanding of your audience and the types of questions they’re likely to ask. At a macro level, defining your audience personas and their information needs at each stage of the customer journey will help you stay focused on the information that matters to them.
For a more granular picture, look at behavioral metrics. While data related to AI queries is currently sparse, we do have search data that can help us focus on the wording and content of user queries. We also look at AI suggested prompts and “people also ask” if we’re trying to understand how users might ask for specific information.
Finally, you can ask your audience! We’re big fans of our own research and have learned a lot simply by having users walk us through how they can search for information on a specific topic or task.
Related article: Will search be generative AI or blue links? They are actually both
Extend your experience streams to include AI and search
Deciding how to structure information begins with mapping the experience of searching for and finding information. Experience flow diagrams put informational use cases under a microscope to break down each step and identify informational needs, customer questions, decision points, and potential complications across all channels of your digital ecosystem.
If we consider AI and search as channels in this mapping exercise, we can easily add specific use cases for those channels to help us define the types and structure of information needed to support them.
Modularize (and label) your content
Mapping experiences helps us identify the lowest common denominator or content building block which will be necessary to meet the needs of the public on all channels. For example, a set of instructions can be offered as a single content object, but step 3 can also be a very useful stand-alone answer for a product help or AI query. In this case, you’ll want each step to be a piece of content that can be pieced together into a more comprehensive guide as needed.
It’s also important to think about how you label your content. Using a robust taxonomy and other metadata will help both search engines and AI understand the context of a piece of information.
Test and optimize
As with most search initiatives, delivering an AI-optimized content experience will likely take a few cycles. Applying a strategic, audience-based approach to structuring your content is a good start, and then observing results, testing performance (if possible); and returning to your audiences will help you refine your focus. AI is also a great tool for evaluating content performance (a topic for another day!)
It starts and ends with a good content experience
At the end of the day, as with all other efforts to ensure your content is seen by a key audience, your success depends on the quality of your content and the experience it provides. Content that is created and structured to be easily found and meet the informational needs of your audience will naturally be more likely to succeed in search, whether it’s an algorithm or a more advanced search with artificial intelligence that retrieves the information
Focus on delivering great content and meeting your audience where they are, and you’ll be off to the races!
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