What is the Impact of AI on Search Engine Optimisation in 2023?

Search engine optimisation or SEO is a possible casualty of the rise of more powerful AI systems like ChatGPT. The expectation that internet users will start relying more on AI chatbots than on search engines alarms the SEO industry. Some suggest that link building, content writing, and keyword placement will lose relevance because of the new paradigm AI chatbots set for internet data collection and presentation.

Unlike search engines, AI chatbots provide direct responses to queries. They do not give thousands or millions of results for the inquirer to choose from. Users tend to favour this because of the convenience. AI readily selects the “best” possible answer to questions. This may reduce the reliance on search engines.

Will AI end SEO?

Leading AI platform ChatGPT itself says that AI is not going to kill SEO, at least in the near future. All the hype about ChatGPT may sound worrying, but it is unlikely to send SEO into irrelevance and oblivion. Search engine specialists like those from Ocere, a reputable SEO agency for example, welcome the advancement of AI as it serves as a tool to do things better and faster. They are not convinced that AI is an SEO killer. It may eliminate some jobs or tasks but create new ones in response to new needs.

This sentiment is shared by others in the search engine optimisation community. An article in Search Engine Journal by SEO expert Ryan Jones sums it up succinctly. Social media, voice search and smart assistants, TikTok, and the metaverse were said to be SEO killers, but none have succeeded. Link building, keyword placement, and optimised content development remain relevant.

There is little reason to believe that ChatGPT or other AI-powered solutions will erase the need to optimise online content for search engines. AI chatbots may be useful in finding information quickly, but they cannot match search engines when it comes to getting the latest information. AI chatbots do not ceaselessly scour the internet for newly published content the way search engines do.

Change, not kill

The consensus in the SEO community is that AI chatbots will change SEO, not get rid of it. Some suggest that it will emphasise the need for more answer engine optimisation, which is a sub-field of SEO that focuses on bringing content into the answers of AI bots. Others say that efforts at optimising content will focus more on natural language and more engaging content.

Some are also worried that AI-generated SEO content will become the most prominent form of web spam. If this happens, search engines may start tagging AI-generated content and removing them from their indexes. This would mean that SEOs will then focus on producing content that will not be identified as AI-generated by tools like ZeroGPT or whatever tool will be developed by OpenAI and Google.

The year 2023 has been quite eventful as ChatGPT and other AI tools rapidly gained popularity. They are having an impact on the way many things are done. However, fears of the dissolution of some industries or jobs may be overinflated. They are likely to bring change, not deleterious disruption.