I am going to share 7 predictions based on my decade of experience in the SEO and Digital Marketing industry.
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SEO Prediction #1: Less Organic Clicks
Google is trying to take clicks away from websites through AI overviews, excessive ads that push the organic results down, and SERP features that exclude traditional SERPs. You should prepare for less organic search traffic, even if your rankings are solid. But even with reduced clicks, Google is still the best organic traffic source.
For example, getting clicks to your website on platforms like X or LinkedIn is very difficult. You can’t just drop a link in your social media content because the platforms will punish you and reduce your reach. So in comparison, Google is still the best, and you can use Google Search Console to measure your organic clicks and CTR.
SEO Prediction #2: More AI Overview
Currently, most AI overviews are for informational long-tail queries. However, I expect Google to expand this to include commercial and local queries. If Google continues to cite its sources in the AI overviews, I don’t believe it’s going to be super damaging to organic traffic because they’re very similar to Featured Snippets.
That said, I have anecdotal evidence where I’ve found myself reading an AI overview and not clicking through, especially on mobile. But this will vary dramatically depending on the query. Never forget, you like to take the path of least resistance, even if the information may be inaccurate.
SEO Prediction #3: Ads in the AI Overviews
Google will always prioritize its advertisers above all else, so it’s very likely that you’ll be able to advertise within the AI overviews. It’s only a matter of time.
SEO Prediction #4: Search GPT and Perplexity Will Be Viable Alternatives to Google
This is the first time in Google’s long dominant history that they might have some competition. But we just don’t know how good Search GPT will be. It could change the game if it integrates well within ChatGPT. But don’t fear this change — it’s called SEO, not Google SEO.
SEO practitioners should be adaptable and willing to optimize for any search engine. You must learn how to optimize for large language models and modern search engines like Search GPT or Perplexity going forward.
Traditional digital marketing is the key, because both platforms crawl the Internet to deliver answers. The more visibility your brand has online, the more likely you’ll show up in the results. That means having a firm understanding of natural language processing (NLP) will also help you drive visibility, because these LLMs use NLP to understand content.
SEO for Dentists Example
Let’s take an example: SEO for dentists. As you can tell, Gotch SEO is ranking for this keyword. But that’s not the part I want to show you. The part I want to show you is, if we scroll down, you’re actually ranking here.
I’ve also done this with SEO tools for agencies, which is very competitive. Once again, ranking number one, and going down here, I actually have two different rankings here in YouTube. Now here’s where this part really comes into play: I use NLP to create the blog post or the SEO asset first for Google, and then I take that same NLP-optimized content and write my YouTube script with it as well.
When you publish a new video on YouTube, the platform crawls the transcript using NLP to understand what the video is about, and pushes it out to the most relevant audience possible. This is the technology that Google, YouTube, Amazon, X, and LinkedIn are all using: NLP or NLU (Natural Language Understanding) to understand human language.
You can use this technology to your advantage by feeding algorithms exactly what they’re looking for.
SEO Prediction #5: Google’s Market Share Will Continue to Be More Than 85%
Google’s market share in the traditional search market will continue to be more than 85%. The truth is, Google isn’t going down because competitors have limited resources to counter their moves.
SEO Prediction #6: Website and Brand Authority Will Continue to Be Critical Ranking Factors
At this point, anyone can create decent content with large language models like ChatGPT. So Google needs a way to filter through all the noise and determine what should rank. This is why website authority via backlinks and branded searches will continue to be critical for long-term performance.
You must acquire backlinks consistently every month. But that’s not all — you also need branded searches and strong user signals on your website, or else the backlinks will look super sketchy. According to a study by Moz, there’s a correlation between brand authority and backlinks regarding SEO performance. Websites with backlinks and brand authority survive Google algorithm updates.
Example of a Successful Affiliate Website
One of my favorite affiliate websites is Ratings. Take a look at their content; it’s pretty insane. They’re literally using scientific methods to test hardware — it’s like testing in a laboratory. This isn’t your typical affiliate content where someone just regurgitates reviews from Amazon.
SEO Prediction #7: Fewer Pure SEO Agencies
In the past, being 100% focused on SEO as an agency was useful. But to keep up with the times, SEO agencies that will thrive will also offer broader search marketing strategies, including organic and paid search. They will likely consider adding conversion rate optimization as well.
The truth is, driving traffic isn’t enough. You also need that traffic to convert. Every agency should add this to their skill set.