How AI Is Impacting Businesses That Depend On Google Search.
By Francis Waithaka, Founder & Lead Trainer at Digital 4 Africa
As someone who spends a lot of time looking at marketing performance, I’ve analysed multiple websites in different sectors to see how AI is impacting businesses that rely on traffic from Google Search.
There’s evidence that most sites are getting less visibility from Google, as people are not opening website pages to read content. AI overviews and conversations with AI are taking away a lot of clicks from most websites that I analysed. Instead of googling to find a list of 15 webpages and choosing one from the results, people are now chatting with AI. My analysis of several websites from multiple industries using Google Search Console shows there is clear evidence that most websites are losing their average position on Google search results.
What should marketers do when trafficking is tanking because of AI?
Continue telling stories – The ability to communicate effectively through video or other forms of creative art is still important in the era of AI. So, continue creating good content and distribute it as far as you can.
Online Advertising is still relevant: Advertising on digital platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google and TikTok will still remain an important customer acquisition channel.
Events and Relationships still matter: Connecting with people through events is still an effective customer acquisition strategy. This is because of the power of humans to persuade. I recently attended an event and connected with a stranger. After about 10 minutes of talking to each other, I was able to convince him to pay for a service that he was looking for.
SEO is not dead: Do not stop doing good SEO practices. The key principles of SEO have not changed. EEAT – Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust will remain the key foundations of the Internet for the foreseeable future. Ensure that your website performance, usability and content are top in your industry.
Adapt AI or die. AIs are tools for increasing human productivity. Because of the feedback loops in AI, these tools will continue to reduce their hallucination rates and become better at writing, researching, coding, creating images, videos, etc. Instead of fighting these AI tools, embrace and use them in your daily workflow. My use of the internet has completely changed. I find myself using AI in getting recipes, preparing proposals, or finding answers to life, business and health questions. AI has become my personal assistant or information partner.
Francis Waithaka is the Founder and Lead Trainer at Digital 4 Africa, with over 24 years of experience in information technology and digital marketing. He has worked with over a hundred companies across East Africa and is a certified digital marketer. Connect with him on Twitter @waithash.
