Google AI – We’ve had this battle before
Google has announced lots of new innovations in their Search Results and integration with their AI tools – nothing to see here. or is there?
SEO’ers are upset, there’s a massive element of SEO driving content creations, and anyone in the SEO game has been recommending their clients to write blogs, articles, updates to their website, content, content, content, fresh new material. And now, Google appears once again to be ripping the floor from under a marketers feet.
It appears on the face of it that Google have been getting us all to produce this content so that we can feed their AI engines and now Search Results will offer up a mash-up of our content without ever leading a click to our websites. In fact, if anything it’s likely Google will charge us a premium to be cited in AI so making us pay yet again for people to see the content we have produced. A true middleman.
It’s Happened Before
We all know this… it’s not the first time, take Google Photos – coupled with a bit of Recaptcha and identifying motorbikes or fire hydrants, those weren’t Google’s photos they were ours. All the time Google was learning, learning, learning increasing the capabilities of image recognition, using our data for their algorithms.
In return Google let us store our photos on Google Photos, until, that is, they no longer needed our Data, now if you want to store photos on Google, you need to subscribe and pay the monthly fee. You can still store a few GB of photos at a lesser quality, but if you want to keep original versions of your photos – you’ll need to pay.
Gmail, Google Docs, and other consumer services are going the same way. Even Google Analytics, once found on over 95% of all websites, now offers almost no valuable or decipherable information, unless you move up a few levels and pay. As we move to a Cookieless world Google Analytics is going be become even less reliable and Google states it themselves, they fill in data based on their best guess.
This is Google’s way of backing out of the Analytics Market and it’s been going on for a few years now, mostly due to regulation over user privacy. For Google, this is not a market worth chasing any longer. Besides, what’s in it for Google if all they show us is a declining set of Stats.
AI Factor
Enter AI and the rather odd world of Machine Learning and all the other names being given to this technology at this time. What we have to realise before we think about Google and AI, is that they got Mobile right. Back when Android was first launched, it was Google that predicted all the right things about how we’d all move to Mobile. And we have.
My children, as an example, have all had Laptops for their school days, now starting to pop out of University, unless they start moving into the design world or to work for themselves, they probably won’t need a computer of their own, everything can be done with their mobile.
Our offices are full of computers, but is that true of most people? probably fewer and fewer, people travel for work more, educational information is moving to mobile, health, military (drones don’t need computers). Computer (Laptop) usage will gradually become more niche and Mobile will continue to dominate.
When thinking about AI we actually have to think about the problem being solved. All the examples AI uses are the surface of the issue. A travel Itinerary, ideas from Google – that’s not really how people use Google, it’s more the other way around. Eitherway, what we do want is a quick way to find something out and Google AI will do that.
What could be interesting is to see how Google AI will help us find products we want to buy. Personally, I rarely as Google to solve a complex mathematical problem, I might ask for an exchange rate of the day, but that’s about it. What I really use Google for is shopping and dining the best price I can for the right piece of kit, I want to buy. And it’s difficult to see how AI will help with that decision. But eventually it will.
The bottomline here for SER’ers that are upset is that actually this does not effect more people that much. Informational websites like Wikipedia may suffer the most… But their ‘content’ will continue to be relied on and used for AI… and with less cost to themselves. In fact, websites like Wikipedia may even see a huge reduction in Server load as few people visit. but it will continue to be relied on for the ‘source’ information.
Shopping websites (eCommerce) too will not suffer to greatly, if someone wants a specific product and your website sells it in a way that is attractive for a consumer, then it will continue to do well.. If anything better.
In short, most websites have little to fear from Google’s new announcements.
Embrace AI – not Complain
It’s hard to see the effect of AI – this is done on purpose, AI works in subtle ways and it creeps up on us. It can’t do this any other way. A tool here, a gimmick there, it’ll be on your phone in your car, used to switch the lights on and off. But that’s the whole point of AI – it’s invisible, whether it helps in the workplace, study place or home, it shouldn’t be noticed.
As Amazon Alexa something – you just want the answer.
So, we say embrace AI, there actually nothing much needed to be done here, all we have to do is go on producing the best content we can about our services and or products. Explaining how they work, why they are good and their advantages is all we need to do. Let AI do the rest and it makes no difference to us if we use Open AI, Google Gemini, Apple, Facebook or any of the others.
I have always maintained that the bedrock of all Marketing is SEO and that the core of SEO is fresh content and that the easiest way to achieve this is a Blog. The Blog is the dumping ground for all Marketing Ideas. A video, other websites, articles, snippets, full explanations, instructions, detailed research, the advantage of a Blog is you can write anything you like, you’re not contained by photos of a particular size or a buy now button or even any design issues. Just write.
If AI picks up and uses any of your data – then you’ve done the world a service and you’ve been recognised for it. What more is needed?
Google Ads
The obvious issue is how Google going to pay for this AI. And I suspect that will be some sort of Paywall. YouTube is already funded by Adverts or a subscription model and however hard Google tries the subscription model is a far more difficult sell than plain old ads. Alphabet, Google’s parent company still get over 80% of revenue from all Google products combined from Google Ads. Workspace, Photo subscriptions, Data Storage, Driverless cars – you name it Google get over 80% from Google Ads.
The obvious thing is for Google to introduce Ads into their AI products. Thus for a very low cost-per-click – we’re all back very nicely at square one. Consumers will be able to chose a Free (Ad-supported) or Subscription-based AI – and that is already the case. Job done.
So, back to how to market your website. Yes for fewer hits – the only message I really have is to produce more content. The more you produce and the better quality it is, the more likely it will be picked up by the various AI tools and you’ll get a little exposure, otherwise, take the short cut and pay for Google Ads as many people do anyway.
AI is here to stay, it’s not yet particularly useful, as Mobile wasn’t back in the day, but the tech is coming and it will only get better. We’d had this battle with Google before and we know how it will end.