Last week, I read thru a really great piece by a fellow SEO expert that included a chart comparing AI search to traditional search. You can check out the chart that compares use of AI search engines like ChatGPT to traditional search engines like Google (the version we all used for years that didn’t/doesn’t have an AI component). Of course, Google has rolled out an AI mode, but again, we are talking about the older versions of Google and search engines like Bing and Yahoo that we were all accustomed to using for years and years.
Later that week, I was struck by this metaphor that sums up a key difference between what you can expect from results spit back by an AI search and those spit back by a traditional search engine. And, the metaphor is this. While traditional search engines require/required the searcher to visit and sift thru extensive content on a number of different websites, AI search doesn’t require you do all that wading thru of information/content. AI/answer/chat engines like ChatGPT do the content wading for you — sifting thru content all over the internet (websites, social media platforms, discussion platforms, etc.) and consolidating what they believe is appropriate information to provide you with content that will most effectively and directly answer the question you entered into their engine.
As we explained in this previous blog post about the mistake most people make when they manually conduct an SEO audit, your organization is better off hiring an SEO expert to conduct an audit, so that the results you get are unbiased. For most businesses/organizations, i.e., ones that have both a website and a Google My Business Profile, an SEO audit will provide information related to both your website and your Google My Business Profile, since Google may serve up either in search results (and as of the date of this post, the traditional Google search engine is still the one most used by search tool users, followed by YouTube, and ChatGPT.)
Peeling Back An Onion Skin To See What Lies Beneath
Listed below is the information you can glean from having an SEO company or digital marketing agency, like ours, conduct an SEO audit for you:
what external websites and certain other digital properties (not owned by your organization/business) have links on them to your website, and therefore, are providing “referral” traffic via backlinks to your site — these may include other websites or discussion-forums like Reddit
does your website and/or Google My Business Profile rank differently in Google in a particular geography for a particular keyword (search term), based on the device used by the searcher, i.e., mobile phone vs. desktop/laptop
what keywords your website and Google My Business Profile are ranking best for on Google and in what geographies
whether your Google My Business Profile or your website is being served up higher in search results in certain geographies for certain search terms — this will help you determine whether or not you should be putting more energy into getting your Google My Business Profile ranking better (you always want that to be served up for “near me” searches) and/or your website ranking better (ideally this would rank better for non-near-me terms)
missed SEO opportunities — these include best practices which haven’t been implemented by your organization, such as writing and entering SEO page title and meta description tags on your website platform/CMS for every page and post on your website, and writing an entering image alt-tags
mistakes/issues/challenges with your website that are likely causing it to be served up less than it could/should be in relevant geographies for relevant search terms, such as slow site load speed or broken links on your website
what are the top 10-20 search keywords that Google is serving your website up most for
how many individuals are clicking on a link in your Google My Business Profile to arrive at your website
what are the most-viewed pages of your website
what pages of your website are being served up the highest in search results by Google
what marketing activities/vehicles are driving website traffic and what percentage of your overall website traffic is coming from AI or traditional search tools
what geographies/locations are your website visitors coming from
what devices do people use most to access your website, i.e., laptop/desktop vs. mobile
If my memory serves me correctly, I’ve written about the second “new beginning” that September offers each of us each year on my own blog or that of a client. I love the fact that September provides a second start to any year and a chance to begin any kind of project you’d been hoping to get to earlier in the year, and to revisit goals — whether they be personal- or work-related ones. There’s still four full months to accomplish something you’ve always wanted to, or at least make a lot of headway toward achieving that accomplishment, so let’s agree to not start thinking another year is already behind us!
Since I own and run a digital marketing agency, the fall and early winter work goals I’m going to discuss below are marketing-related, but obviously, your work goals could pertain to any area of your organization, such as employee satisfaction and retention, new technology implementation, or expense reduction.
Marketing Goals For Q3 & Q4
Here’s some marketing goals you might want to complete in September, October, November, or December:
Dip your toes in the Reddit (or other discussion-forum waters) since search engines are serving up discussion threads more & more because of their Q & A format. If you’re not ready to start a discussion, weigh in on appropriate discussions without being too self-promoting!
Start collecting content for an Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), or an enhanced FAQ on your website if you already have an FAQ, by creating a shared document that your team can add to as they continue to be asked the same questions from customers or prospective customers.
Once you have sufficient content, create an FAQ page on your site and load the FAQ content.
Run, or hire a marketing consultant to run, website diagnostics reports, so you can identify and address both website features and factors that might be causing search engines to not want to serve up your website in target-audience’s search results, as well as missed SEO opportunities.
Set up the Google accounts discussed in our previous blog post, If you don’t already have them, to position yourself both to be able to better understand what marketing activities are and aren’t working for you, but also to support your target audiences finding you when they complete a “near me”/local Google search.
Since everything one does in life ends up positively or negatively impacting their mental and/or physical health, every personal goal ultimately is a wellbeing/wellness/health goal. For example, if you enroll in a class this fall or winter, it may cause you to gain knowledge to support a professional goal, but it also will likely make you feel more optimistic and improve your emotional wellbeing.
As I shared in this blog post about why I’ll always feel like a cancer (sarcoma) patient, I deal with chronic digestive issues on a daily basis because of past cancer treatment. I also have had chronic neck muscle mobility and pain issues since my late 20’s. Unfortunately, the neck trouble all started when I was working as a research associate at Fidelity Investments and going to graduate school at Boston University at night. I used to regularly carry a heavy bookbag of notebooks and books on the T (subway) to and from the University for many years. Post graduation, and ever since then, I’ve suffered from neck troubles.
I’ve already taken steps this summer, and plan to continue them thru the rest of Q3 & Q4, to improve the above two situations by:
Working with a nutritionist who has personal experience with the digestive issues from which I suffer. By working with me to introduce new foods and to keep a food diary, we’ve been able to identify which foods do and don’t improve my unpleasant digestive symptoms, and I’m feeling so much better. Hooray! Shout out to Dear Nutrition!
Starting PT for my neck and being very focused on my posture as I work at my computer — keeping an eye out for “forward head” and taking computer breaks once in a while to loosen myself up. I’ve got my trusted companion, Truly (see image below), who sits on my desk, to remind me to sit properly while typing or reading on my computer! Thank you, Truly! And, thanks to the physical therapists at South Shore Health Physical Therapy for your great advice & support!
Degas Ballerina Statue That Provides Reminder About The Need to Maintain Good Posture While On Computer!
In addition to the above, I’m using the hashtag #SeptemberStrong with friends and family to encourage them to stay well and for us to cheer each other on, and I’m identifying situations and people that are unnecessarily and excessively anxiety-producing (in some cases, toxic) and steering clear of them!
