Evolving SEO for Evolving Search Engines

@RyanJones EVOLVING SEO FOR EVOLVING SEARCH ENGINES Ryan Jones

@RyanJones Ryan Jones SVP @WeAreRazorfish Stable Genius – WTFSEO.com @RyanJones
Linkedin.com/in/jonesy www.RyanMJones.com Also the guy behind: WTFSEO.com SEODataViz.com ServerHeaders.com & SEOnews.pro And NOW: SERPrecon.com

@RyanJones I’ll mention Google a LOT – but they weren’t
first…..

@RyanJones AI is NOT a Search Engine

@RyanJones Inverted Index Next Token Prediction VS

@RyanJones 6 Examples: it’s not doing logic/math. It’s giving most
likely completion.

@RyanJones 7 It’s all Just Probability. Example: next word prediction
https://poloclub.github.io/transformer-explainer/

@RyanJones 8 Or “Beam Search” Go Read This Article: https://ig.ft.com/generative-ai/
Example: next word prediction

@RyanJones 9 Which Can Lead to Weirdness…

@RyanJones 10 Because it’s tokens and vectors, not words.

@RyanJones Let’s talk about: Retrieval Augmented Generation & Factual Grounding

@RyanJones 12 AI Overviews are summarizing results, but not just
the results for your query. Opportunity: you can get cited in a popular query by ranking for a related query!

@RyanJones 13 People who searched this, also searched these things.

@RyanJones 14 How are websites cited?

@RyanJones 15 You have to rank for the summary Takeaway:
Even though it might be summarizing one document, it could cite one that ranks for that summary

@RyanJones 16 Bing Example: WebMD is cited here, but the
text in this citation doesn’t appear on the WebMD page

@RyanJones 17 Example Answer says “according to stadium-maps.com” However that’s
not one of the sites cited. Thanks @njmott for screenshot

@RyanJones 18 Proof: Google is telling us what text it
“searched” to find a citation in the URL Hat tip @kevindoory for noticing this

@RyanJones 19 Guess what ranks #1 for that snippet of
text……

@RyanJones Do I have to Rank to Be “Sourced” in
AI? Source: Brightedge MAY 2024 SEPT 2024

@RyanJones 21 Example DO NOT RANK ON PAGE 1

@RyanJones How Often are AI Overviews Showing up? Source: Brightedge

@RyanJones Where are AI Overviews Showing up? Source: Brightedge

@RyanJones Let’s Talk About Spam

@RyanJones 25 An Example of AI SPAM Hat tip: @lilyray
for the example

@RyanJones 26 Opportunities for Misinformation might increase Hat tip: @rustybrick
for the example

@RyanJones 27 Opportunities for Misinformation might increase Hat tip: @rustybrick
for the example

@RyanJones 28 Best Cigars.. No AI

@RyanJones 29 Best Cigars For Kids However…..

@RyanJones 30 Google LOVES Reddit

@RyanJones 31 And Reddit has figured that out

@RyanJones The Future of AI and Search

@RyanJones 33 Google Wants to Build the Star Trek Computer

@RyanJones 34 What Is Google Saying? AI Improves search –
doesn’t replace it. - Sundar Pichai

@RyanJones 35 Woo Hoo! Where’s My Clicks? There Might Be
an Effect on Clicks

@RyanJones 36 Affiliate sites are going to feel this. Remember,
Google has a review platform that they can easily use AI to summarize.

@RyanJones Is SEO Dead? WTFSEO

@RyanJones The total number of searches on Google has increased
every year since its inception People are just searching more – and search is built into more things

@RyanJones What Should SEO’s Do?

@RyanJones 40 First: Populate your Freaking META Descriptions H/T Sean
Stahlman for this one

@RyanJones 41 Multiple brands means: All 4 citations are our
client ☺

@RyanJones 42 We did a “quick answers” question project for
Grey Goose. Bonus: 70% of those questions are now cited in AI too!

@RyanJones 43 Take Advantage & Optimize! See what Gemini Generates
for popular queries. Look up related keywords & questions. Apply that to your copywriting This is why I showed you the patents & how it works!

@RyanJones 44 Or Reverse Engineer it! This script: 1. Scrapes
google 2. Feeds content from top results, related questions, related queries to Gemini 3. Asks it to create a summary 4. Uses BERT to extract relevant queries and passages from that summary 5. Let’s the SEO team create content based on those! 6. Gets us more citations!

@RyanJones 45 How Do I Know If I’ll Rank?

@RyanJones

@RyanJones 47 How Do I Know If I’ll Rank?

@RyanJones 48 Be Like Bill: Focus on the VERBS For
some queries – users never wanted a website. Focus on the ones where they do.

@RyanJones 49 What Is Google Saying? - Sundar Pichai

@RyanJones I JUST WANT THE NUMBER. Accept that not all
users want websites

@RyanJones 51 NOT THIS

@RyanJones 52 I’M NOT WORRIED Retrieval Augmented Generation (the step
before the AI answer is generated) is no different than a Search Engine. • Still based on a user query • Still links to websites • It’s still looking for relevant passages on relevant pages. • There’s (hopefully) still spam algorithms. • It still needs to crawl, index, and retrieve.

@RyanJones 53 WHICH MEANS… • We still need to understand
user intent and do keyword research • We still need to meet our user’s needs and create helpful, authoritative content. • We still need to make our sites crawlable, accessible, and indexable. • We still need to do SEO, but it’s becoming real marketing!

@RyanJones Let’s Get The Common Questions Out Of The Way

@RyanJones You CAN opt-out with the nosnippet attribute. <meta name="googlebot”
content="nosnippet"> <div data-nosnippet>text ignored</div>

@RyanJones You CAN but should not Block AI

@RyanJones WHY NOT? It’s sending traffic! Source: Parse.ly

@RyanJones THANK YOU Ryan Jones SVP @WeAreRazorfish Stable Genius –
WTFSEO.com @RyanJones Linkedin.com/in/jonesy RyanMJones.com Also the guy behind: WTFSEO.com SEODataViz.com ServerHeaders.com & SEOnews.pro Use code: “welcome3” to get 10% off for 3 months!

Evolving SEO for Evolving Search Engines

Evolving SEO for Evolving Search Engines

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