SEO Trends for 2024

In the world of search, a lot of change has been building up throughout 2023; all the rumblings in the industry suggest these will continue in 2024. New technologies are being introduced to the field and search engines such as Google and Bing are making reflective changes. This will no doubt change the way users search for and find information.

Understanding and preparing for these shifts in search behaviour may help you potentially rank better, and connect with new, relevant audiences.

Here are four key trends the SEO industry should keep an eye on throughout 2024:

The continued rise of AI:

2023 saw a boom in AI technology being available to the public. With tools such as Chat GPT becoming popular to automate tasks, many regular SEO tasks may continue to be impacted. This is both a positive and negative for “SEOers”. In many instances, AI tools can make marketers much more productive as many tasks can be automated. In the same breath, many clients that hire an SEO team may feel they can do the role of an SEO team member solely off these tools. 

The continued adoption of AI tools will also impact the content we see generated by websites, with many articles being produced completely by these tools. Many topic spaces may become crowded due to how easy AI makes it to create content. 

The rise of AI will continue in 2024, and SEO strategies should factor in AI tools to ensure they are performing in an efficient manner, while still managing to ensure their content resonates with their intended audience.

SEO metrics may change:

With the increased usage of AI, many companies are making changes to make use of the new technologies. This includes both Google and Bing. They have announced that they are working on updates to provide users with in depth answers to their queries with the help of AI. Google has announced their Search Generative Experience update and Bing has announced their Deep Search algorithm. This will impact how search engine result pages (SERPs) look and how users find information.

From a marketers point of view, these changes may cause a shift in the metrics we report on. In recent years, there have been many changes to SERPs resulting in a higher importance in 0 click results. This is where websites appear in rich results such as featured snippets so they are capturing the search demand without users clicking through to their website.

Marketers may begin to focus on reporting on how many times they are pulled in to AI generated responses in the new Google and Bing systems. This may slightly de-prioritise clicks and increase priority on impressions.

Alternatives to search engines:

Similar to the rapid increase in AI usage, alternative options to traditional search engines have seen an increase. In particular, TikTok is a key example of showing search behaviour shifting from solely using search engines to using alternative platforms. Many users are using TikTok to search and find answers to their needs. Both TikTok and Google have tested incorporating each other’s results in their own result pages.

This shift in search behaviour highlights how SEO strategies need to include platforms such as TikTok as they will need slightly different tactics to traditional strategies to earn organic visibility. This may also mean SEO teams having to work closer with social media teams in order to gain organic visibility on TikTok, creating a holistic marketing strategy.

Importance of brand reputation:

There has always been importance on brand reputation – however with the increased importance of Google’s EEAT guidelines, this has been emphasised in 2023 and will continue in 2024. With the different changes to search engines and the rise in AI generated content, brands being able to show their expertise on their topic will be a key factor in earning organic visibility. 

This again may suggest that SEO strategies need to factor in different aspects including in helping build brand authority and expertise rather than only focusing on traditional SEO aspects. This and needing to have a focus on social media platforms being used as search engines highlights that an SEO strategy is now more of a complete marketing strategy, affecting different channels in 2024.

There are many things to consider when planning out your 2024 SEO strategy – and the Digital Carrera team can help at every stage. Please reach out to the team today!