In August this year, OpenAI announced that ChatGPT had hit 700 million active weekly users, which was nearly four times compared to last year. Data from other sources, like SimilarWeb, also confirmed that there are 250 million visits every day to these websites using AI.
This is good for companies like OpenAI, but it is not for traditional websites and search engines like Google. It even distracts the audience from Google ads. The result: Google’s share market price dropped by 90% for the first time since 2015, as per Search Engine Land. This trend also has a negative impact on services relying on SEO.
Experts see this as concerning, as the increasing usage of AI tools will lead to a significant drop in search engines. Thereby impacting businesses using the internet across the world.
Janek Bevendorff, a researcher, states that it is increasingly true that when users get direct results using AI, they rely less on search engine research. This is even backed by a study conducted by the Pew Research Centre on 900 adult Americans. The research found that people who were able to get research summaries using AI did not go to any other website for their results. The findings showed that one in five Americans relied on AI summaries, which is a major hit to the businesses relying on website clicks.
Bevendorff and many other experts point out that, though this is a concerning trend for search engines, it will be too early to say that SEO itself is completely dead. As it involves much more than just ranking websites. Research suggests that to cope with the changing dimensions of the internet, creators have to create content that adapts to results generated by AI.
Generative Engine Optimisation, which is a process of creating content that is more easily integrated with AI, is one of the best options to do this. This does not involve a complete overhaul of strategy but can even solve issues focused on by SEO, as per Bevendorff.
