2024 keeps delivering on search engine optimisation updates and changes. July’s SEO landscape was no different. From search everywhere optimisation to the launch of Bing generative search and beyond, SEOs and marketers are in a constant state of adaptation – and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.
Day after day, there are simply too many updates coming in for us to put them into one blog. Instead, we’ve put together the news we found to be most impactful for businesses growing through organic search.
Optimising for more than just search engines
‘Search everywhere’ optimisation isn’t new – but demand for these services is rapidly increasing. SEOs who are still only focusing on ranking factors for search engines are missing a beat.
The digital world is shifting away from how people have searched for information on the internet – welcome to optimising for everything. Here are a few examples of this in practice:
1. Social media – specifically TikTok
If you’re not Gen Z, we can hear the sigh you just let out. We recognise that this marketing channel isn’t for all businesses or target audiences, but for those it does resonate with, doing it right is critical. TikTok users aren’t just using the platform for viral videos. They’re increasingly using it for shopping and searches – resulting in conversions for B2C businesses.
The way this app is changing search is revolutionary. For example, an influencer uses a phrase to describe a product. Viewers then search for that phrase looking for the product. It’s not only increasing engagement on TikTok for those brands but also shaping search results wider in Google SERPs and keyword volumes.
2. YouTube
SEO is crucial for businesses that want to improve engagement in their video content hosted on YouTube. While keywords still play a role in how people find your content, it isn’t the metric YouTube uses when deciding where to position your video in the results list when someone searches for that content.
Instead, YouTube ranks videos based on viewer engagement. To maximise engagement, thus increasing your ranking in search results, you must:
Ensure your video is engaging from start to finish. Make sure the intro hooks people in, and the content keeps them watching until the very end.
Break down your videos into digestible sections. Put the timestamps for those sections in the video’s description. This ensures that viewers can easily navigate to the sections of the video that are most important to them.
Optimise everything – This includes titles, descriptions, tags, and transcripts.
3. ChatGPT
A rising star in SEO whether we like it or not, ChatGPT scrapes the internet to provide answers to users’ queries. If your business uses ChatGPT, its GPTforSheets add-on enables you to track specific prompts and shows metrics like rankings. For example, if you were to put “Top PR and Digital Marketing Agencies”, GPTforSheets would provide you with the response that ChatGPT provides to users.
You could then determine where your business ranks amongst your competitors. While this is a hot trend in the SEO world, we’ll need to continue adapting our approach to appear in this type of search platform going forward. Ways you can improve your brand’s mentions in GPT responses:
- Have a strong Digital PR presence This will boost your brand’s online authority, strengthening the possibility that you’ll rank among the world’s top brands for your specific product or vertical.
- Create that Wikipedia page – Despite Wikipedia’s unreliability since literally anyone can put information on it, having a Wikipedia is tied to your website’s domain authority score. This is because search engines (like ChatGPT and other LLMs) recognise Wikipedia’s credibility and its high domain authority. Creating your business’s Wikipedia page ensures that your brand is honestly represented, builds trust with users who value information from Wikipedia – enhancing your brand’s visibility, trust, and authority.
- Conduct an AI search audit – We regularly ask these tools key questions that our clients’ customers may ask to ensure its answers are accurate, pulling from the same pages and summarising correctly.
The rise of Reddit – and what your brand can do about it
In recent months, Reddit posts have ranked higher than valuable sources of information – and it’s baffling.
Reddit has blocked other search engines from crawling its forums, but Google has the been given Reddit’s seal of approval – whether or not this is because of Google’s significant investment in the company is yet to be seen.
Reddit’s users have trolled Google SGE’s AI Overviews (AIO), and as an observer, you could call this hilarious (yet shocking).
From the history behind the backflip to adding 1/3 cup of glue to a pizza to keep the cheese from sliding off, these answers derailed Google’s foray into Search Generative Experience. In response, Google rolled back how often it served AIOs and for those it did serve the citations to Reddit fell by 85%.
Despite this, in the right circumstance, having a presence on Reddit is important. Best practice includes:
- Creating a community – This could be your brand’s very own subreddit or permission to play a key role in an existing subreddit
- Engaging with brand mentions – Leave comments when Redditors mention your brand, respond to reviews and engage in discussions about your industry
- Don’t use Reddit to ‘sell’ your products and services – It is vital that you only mention your products and services when someone is looking for advice about them. Always make it clear that you’re a representative of your brand when commenting or engaging.
- Leverage Reddit advertising – this can be a cost-effective route to market
Third-party cookies are here to stay on Google Chrome
For the last several years, Google announced and then pushed back the removal of third-party cookies from its internet browser, Chrome. This follows Firefox and Safari’s removal of third-party cookies in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
So, what does this mean for marketers?
If your business uses pay-per-click (PPC) and remarketing campaigns, it’s good news. For consumers who are concerned about their privacy, not so much.
When Google announced its plan to scrap the removal, it noted that in the future it’s putting privacy in the hands of users. The ultimate goal is to provide Chrome users with the ability to adjust their privacy choices while offering a unique tailored experience based on their browsing history. As a consolation, Google announced it would be introducing IP Protection for those users browsing using Incognito mode.
The dance between privacy and ad revenue continues. We’re sure there will be more news on this as we move towards 2025.
For more information, watch Team Bamboo’s Richard Joy discuss it here.
Generative search arrives on Bing
In February 2023, Microsoft Bing launched its AI-powered chat answers and since then, the company’s market share has been rising. Following on from the success of its initial LLM integration, Microsoft announced the launch of its Generative Search Experience (GSE) – not to be confused with Google’s SGE!
Unlike Google’s AI search platform, Bing’s search engine provides traditional search results alongside its content rich AI-powered search results. This includes videos, images and text with citations that point directly to its sources.
The introduction of AI into search results has had mixed reviews from global brands. This is specifically true of Google’s SGE – where traffic to websites has seen a sharp decrease.
Bing’s LLM-powered search engine gives us a bit of hope. With traditional search results still having a prominent place, we may not see as much of an impact on organic search traffic. We’ll continue to monitor this as it rolls out to more Bing users.
Adapting to the new search landscape
SEO today is a far cry from what the craft looked like as little as three years ago. We must stay on top of constant updates, new AI features, and changing requirements from search engines. Add on top, continued search volatility, specifically on Google, and it’s the perfect storm.
Team Bamboo ensures its SEO team and clients know what is happening when and regularly adapts and experiments with new SEO techniques and best practices. Learn more about our content and digital marketing services, or contact us to discuss your business’s SEO strategy.