Introduction - How AI-driven platforms reshaping referral traffic and SEO strategies - World News Media COngress 2025 - WAN-IFRA

Introductory presentation to the session ‘How AI-driven platforms reshaping referral traffic and SEO strategies’, a session of the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress 2025 organised in Krakow. The meeting featured presentations by Barry Adams (SEO consultant), Carly Steven (Head of SEO & Editorial E-commerce at MailOnline) and Lucky Gunasekara (founder of Miso.ai). This presentation gave context and opened the session, which ended with a Q&A moderated by Clara Soteras (SEO consultant for publishers and digital strategy) with all the speakers and questions from the audience.

Transcript

1. HOW AI-DRIVEN PLATFORMS RESHAPING REFERRAL TRAFFIC AND SEO STRATEGIES WORLD NEWS MEDIA CONGRESS 2025 - KRAKOW
2. Hello! I am Clara Soteras • SEO for News Publishers & Digital Strategy Consultant ◦ Google Discover, SEO Strategy, Workflows and Product • Head of Innovation and Digital Strategy • Associate Professor Journalism • SEO for News Professor in business schools • Judge for Journalism and Judge for Search Awards • Proud to be part of MujeresEnSEO and SEO in Catalan association • I served as Director of SEO and Product at hola@clarasoteras.com clarasoteras.com
5. But not.
6. I just want to give you 5 keys to keep in mind for this session
7. https://sparktoro.com/blog/new-research-so-far-ai-is-not-disrupting-search-or-making-a-dent-in-google/ Provide context for the data. 1 1
8. https://datos.live/blog/chatgpt-search-by-the-numbers-how-is-it-performing-in-the-search-space/ The AI hype shows no signs of slowing down, but… Provide context for the data. 1
9. https://www.seerinteractive.com/insights/ctr-aio Zero-click searches are not new. Let’s not forget this isn’t new 2
10. Google Discover vs Google Search 3 Publishers have a high volume of traffic from Discover. +60% in some cases.
11. Google Discover vs Google Search 3 https://www.newzdash.com/page/google-discover-monitoring-discoverpulse In 2024, Discover will surpass search as the world's top traffic source for the first time. And now Discover is coming to the desktop.
12. AI Overviews are rolling out. (and now in Europe) 4 https://blog.google/feed/were-bringing-the-helpfulness-of-ai-overviews-to-more-countries-in-europe/
13. AI Overviews are rolling out. (and now in Europe) 4 September 2024. https://www.growth-memo.com/p/the-impact- of-ai-overviews-on-seo
14. https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks/ More analysis is coming to light. AI Overviews are rolling out. (and now in Europe) 4
15. Is there still an opportunity for publishers on Search? 5
16. New challenges are opening up in the media for SEO professionals. • How to optimize for GEO (the new SEO?) • Should the media embrace AI? • Is it time to change KPIs? How should the SEO mindset change? GEO, LLMO, AEO… It’s all just SEO Ryan Law (Ahrefs SEO expert)
17. THANK YOU LET’S GET STARTED! hola@clarasoteras.com clarasoteras.com WORLD NEWS MEDIA CONGRESS 2025 - KRAKOW