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You may have seen some of my previous posts about Google SGE, the new ‘AI powered version’ that Google will be bringing to a screen (very) near you in 2024.
There are some who are prophesizing doom for all, with traffic losses of up to 40%. I do not agree with these findings and my research shows that the losses could well be less than 10%.
But there will be changes, most notably because Google is going to take on the job of answering the questions people ask, rather than showing sites that do the very same thing.
It reckons that its AI will come up with a better overall result. And it could be right, after all, it will be able to look at all (well, a lot) of the answers to a question and come up with what results in an ‘intelligent summary’.
This is already being done to a degree on Amazon. A summary of the reviews is being provided to help you decide whether to buy or not, and from what I have seen, it is quite helpful.
So Google could well be going down the right path.
BUT, if this is going to result in lost traffic (of any amount), it is best to start thinking about ways to stop that happening now rather than later.
So, what can you do?
The target here is to find ways of keeping (or perhaps growing) the traffic to your site by answering the questions that people who could be interested in your product or service are asking. This is the principle of Marcus Sheridans ‘They Ask You Answer’ principle and I can tell you it works…
Why is this such a good plan? Well there are two main reasons.
First, even though Google SGE is going to remove the People Also Ask section, the fact remains that people will still need answers, and many will not be happy with the AI generated solution and will want to delve deeper.
This means that they are going to scroll down the listings, and wouldn’t it be a great idea to be shown there?
The second and perhaps more important point is that answering questions is one of the best routes to increased traffic (known as ‘top of funnel’) and that could mean a big difference to your bottom line.
But how can you take advantage of this opportunity?
In essence this means you have to:-
- Find out what questions to ask
- Come up with some good answers, ones that stand out from the crowd
The good news is that there are easy ways to find out what questions people are asking and even to get some answers, answers you can build on when answering those same questions on your site.
SEMRush will even give you details of what questions your competitors are answering, which could be REALLY helpful when considering your marketing strategy.
And if you want more detailed data (and those answers) then AlsoAsked is a great way of coming up with a list of questions to answer on your site.
If you can then come up with the right form of words, written in a conversational way of course, then you are bound to reap some rewards, rewards which could well include some extra traffic from Google, even with the changes that SGE will bring.
For more information on Google SGE and what questions should I answer talk to Serendipity Online Marketing Ltd