By now, everyone will have encountered AI Overviews (AIO) appearing atop search results. I imagine most users will have found them useful too, answering queries with an informative, contextual response.
The primary aim of AIO is to continue the default behaviour we do without thinking - google it. It has been suggested that younger audiences are less likely to do so, favouring the visually stimulating results from the likes of TikTok or perhaps Amazon for product-related searches. In reality, those searches are a mere fraction of that which Google enjoys - to the tune of 13 billion a day. This is up from the last report of 8 billion daily searches.
So Google appears to be winning at maintaining consumer attention, but how does that help the website owners and publishers who might have noticed a change in user behaviour since the arrival of AIOs?
‘Featured snippets’ previously appeared in position 0 (aka ’rank zero’) and contained a sample of the answer along with a clear hyperlink through to the source. An image thumbnail, again, hyperlinked to the source might also have been displayed. Website analytics data consistently trended upwards if a site gained the featured snippet spot, that is until the AIOs supplanted them and made it a multiple click affair to visit the source of the information.
When an AI can generate the answer it’s understandable to think that blogging or producing content is not worthwhile, given the resulting change. That though overlooks a wider range of benefits that publishing content pieces on your own website achieves. It’s these we’ll go through here.
User help & advice
The primary reason for content to exist is to help users. Irrespective of how visitors arrive at your site, showcasing a wide range of useful information, such as in a Help & Advice Centre, leaves a positive impression of the business.
The writing style of blog content is usually less directed towards sales, meaning it appeals more to users. The tone can present the business in a more approachable manner, lending itself to your public image.
Blogs and content tend to include visuals that illustrate or demonstrate what is being discussed. While image and video generation is possible by AI, the likelihood of it generating something inaccurate (called a hallucination) is a concern, with it limiting consumer trust. This may be why Google is yet to significantly serve visuals in AIOs and so users could be underserved through only plain text answers.
Through providing users with helpful content pitched at the various stages of the sales funnel, they can naturally progress closer to making a transactional decision. Ideally with your business!
You could argue that generative AI can easily populate a resource centre, however bear in mind that uncertainty in UK copyright legislation means competitors could take it and use it, without issue.
Shareable content
Blog content is also great for sharing on your company social media profiles and presenting your helpfulness on other platforms. Content that is evergreen in nature will be reusable many times over, providing good value from a business perspective.
For businesses that receive routine general enquiries by phone, messaging or email, producing content that answers your business’ frequently asked questions means you’ll cut down on the time spent handling it. A fully stocked resource centre with helpful guides means your staff are freed up for their other work duties.
Content may also generate referrals (aka recommendations) through people sharing things they find useful and thereby building brand awareness for your company naturally.
Topicality of domain
Google crawls trillions of individual web pages and files. Those that are grouped together on the same website domain allow it to build up a picture of what the site is about. The overarching category and subcategories can then inform the results that Google chooses to rank for search queries.
Following this line of thought, it makes sense that the more information on a site, the greater the chance of ranking and capturing traffic. SEO consultants have followed this strategy for over a decade - enhancing page text and adding articles, guides, infographics and more - backed by Google’s encouragement to produce helpful content.
It’s worth noting here that Google has been releasing successive algorithm updates which seek to distinguish knowledgeable, credible content with that that’s thin, waffly or spammy. Generative AI has enabled easy site expansion but Google’s quality guidelines follow a framework of E-E-A-T - experience, expertise, authority, trustworthiness - which largely cannot be said of pure AI output. Data is showing Google ignoring AI content, likely making it a waste of time.
Internal linking
A key way to help Google’s understanding of a website is through internal linking. Whether it’s page to page, post to post or a mixture, hyperlinking allows search engines to crawl and discover your site.
Keyword optimised anchor text (aka the words that make up the link’s visible text) allows Google to understand more about the destination’s content. By regularly producing content, website owners expand the opportunity to naturally connect different pages on the site, through relevant keywords.
At the same time, users who start reading one article may want to learn more. By clicking the links and reading the associated material, they should develop their knowledge or interest in the subject matter. Through this process, more prospective customers become ready to make contact and work with your business.
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I want to acknowledge that generative AI could have answered this topic itself. I chose to write as a way for Adtrak to put across our rationale for anyone considering the worthwhileness of blog content in the AI era. You’ll have seen the internal linking while reading, as well as maybe finding it through our social feeds; all reinforcing the wider benefits that blogging affords.
There’s a saying that ‘people buy from people’ and I suspect the popularity of social influencers and customer reviews online lends itself to human blog content too. If nothing else, having made your way through to this point, it suggests you are also interested in content despite the AI era we find ourselves in.
