Like it or not, AI is about to revolutionize all industries. For those who attended INBOUND24 in Boston, it was clear that marketing is going to greatly evolve thanks to artificial intelligence. One example is that the way that humans find what they are looking for online is going to soon drastically change.

Dale Bertrand, president of Fire&Spark, gave a presentation on "How Leading Brands Are Preparing for Google's Generative AI."

When we go to search, AI will give us the answers, instead of directing us to websites. That means it will steal websites’ organic traffic. If you have a website and it plays a role in achieving new business, this can be a serious risk.

“Humans always choose the lazy option,” Bertrand explained. It is especially true when it comes to searches. Society will not mind if Google's Generative AI makes it easier for all of us to search what we are looking for.

Bertrand warned that it will not be long before businesses are seeing that Google AI gives the answers, stealing organic traffic in the process. They will wonder, “Why is my traffic declining?”

In the not-so-distant future, Google will expand their AI overviews, he continued to warn. “They pulled them back, because a small percentage were wrong,” said Bertrand. For those who think Google will not get around to this for a while, Bertrand stated, “AI doesn’t need to be perfect for them to roll it out. Just imagine when the web was rolled out. Inaccuracies on the internet have always been there.”

Other Search Considerations
He teased those who might optimize their sites for Bing and Yahoo. “That is not where your customers are. Optmize for Google,” explained Bertrand. Plus, searches are starting to trickle over to other AI sites, like ChatGPT, and social media, like Facebook.

The Yellow Pages taught us to search by name or category. Google improved the search experience, but keywords do not always get us to the right pages. We are now evolving to have a conversation with AI, so customer journeys are changing.

With traditional search engines, the process would be: awareness, consideration and purchase. Bertrand noted, maybe you cookie them and hit them with targeting ads, but now, with Generative AI search, they are getting their information directly from Google instead of going to your website.

What To Do About Stolen Search
The good news is that we can expect higher quality website visitors, even though there might be less. Bertrand recommends diversifying content formats, so a site is not full of just block articles. He encouraged attendees to think about the customer journey. Be problem focused and provide a solution.

He also recommended having some content that is the least likely to be summarized by Google’s AI. For example, create customized tools with AI and then embed them on your website. Try creating comparison tools.

Another way AI is helping businesses: “You don’t need a programmer to create these interactive tools. The possibilities are endless. The only limitation is your imagination,” said Bertrand. A spreadsheet might be all that is needed. He uses Replit to create tools for websites.

Video is another place to start. He joked, “Your competitors are probably not good at it.” Plus, a video can convey that a person can provide help better than written content can.

There will be even more changes in search technology and search behavior. Bertrand explained that websites need to prioritize brand new content. “Content decay” is real and will lead to more organic traffic decline. Freshness will need to be a focus, especially if Google’s AI is determining that the intent behind the search is looking for the latest information.

In some ways, companies will need more content updating than content creation. They will need a person that has the skillset to craft calls to action (CTAs), improve visual designs and conduct data analysis. That person should start with the best content, based on traffic, conversion or revenue. Once one figures out the best content, Bertrand recommends updating the dates on the page and talking about relevant new developments. Using Google Trends can help keep things current.

A reminder, humans are lazy, so Google will be looking at how easy it is for a site to provide content in a clear way. It also helps if the content is unique. Ask yourself, is the content answering the right questions?

On the second day of INBOUND24, Bertrand gave another presentation called Beyond CRO: Convert More Organic Visitors Into Customers. Many in our industry know about SEO (search engine optimization), but do they also focus on CRO (conversion rate optimization)?

Why CRO Is Important
If one lists “Taylor Swift” on a website, it might increase its traffic, but is it going to increase sales? Bertrand make it clear that marketers’ SEO strategies are not keeping up with Google’s changes. Think about it, is your business using outdated keyword research methods suitable for yesterday’s search engines?

For example, if someone searches “skiing,” in the past search engines did not know if the person doing the search was looking for ski lessons, ski equipment or ski mountains. Keywords could easily fail. Now Google is figuring out the intent behind the search. Artificial intelligence will match what the content means on your page. How can it do this? It’s AI is learning based on billions of searches that happen every day.

How To Improve Conversion Rates
Google is using AI overviews that will move from lexical search (the literal match of query words) to semantics search (which is search with meaning.) “Google is finding similar semantics to figure out the answer,” said Bertrand.

Some technical things to do:
• Use search intents that start with a verb, as it explains intent.

• Generate a list of long-tail keywords that indicate high purchase intent based on given seed keywords and the persona.

• If using the Google Ads search terms report, analyze it with AI.

Businesses now need to focus on more of a conversion-focused SEO strategy and content. They need to move from old-school targeting to intent targeting, from high relevance to clear intent.

Bertrand added that product pages have the highest conversions, while blog pages have the lowest conversion percentage. Know which of your pages have the highest conversions. They should be a focus.

He recommended matching the call to actions (CTAs) to the intent. Claude is similar to ChatGPT. “Uses both to brainstorm CTAs that will appeal to a specific persona and align with a given search intent. AI helps do the work,” said Bertrand.

Whether you believe it or not, search is changing because of AI, it will impact traffic, and website strategies will need to evolve to best succeed online.

[Note: As a writer, it is important for me to state… This article was not written with the help of AI.]

Mike Byrnes is a national speaker and owner of Byrnes Consulting LLC. His firm provides consulting services to help advisors become even more successful. Need help with business planning, marketing strategy, business development, client service and management effectiveness? Read more at ByrnesConsulting.com and follow @ByrnesConsultin.