Generative Search Optimization: The Next Challenge for Media Agencies

by Tracie Kambies and Todd Paris

In today's shifting digital media landscape, media and SEO agencies face new challenges with the emergence?of generative search.??AI-driven optimization strategies such as understanding and predicting conversational queries and optimizing content with?natural?language is now necessary for maintaining your client rankings and monetization.? The future of SEO is GSO (Generative Search Optimization), a transformative approach that integrates new techniques and generative AI enablement.

It’s Monday Morning!

A typical Monday morning starts at the SEO agency?with?phones ringing off the hook. You glance at the caller ID: it’s your major client, so you brace yourself for the conversation. As expected, they’re not happy. Their website traffic has been dropping over the past few weeks, and it’s getting worse as they expect a 50% decrease this month. ?Their keyword rankings have tanked, and the brand is not visible across the billions of new generative search conversations. Clearly, your clients want to know if their retainer and fees are still worth it.

As you hang up, you turn to a colleague whose clients have also been calling with similar concerns. They remind you that GPT, Google AI Overviews, Bing, and others are driving the shift in search behavior. Not only is generative search providing answers and not directing to client sites, but their answers are also reducing the research required and lowering query volume in general. These are interesting days for SEO agencies!

The New?Reality: Adapting to AI-Driven Search?

The good news is that traditional SEO tactics and paid search are not going away. Keywords are not dead. Content still matters. But now keywords will shift based on how AI infers user context and intent which will require new content development strategies and implementations.? Agencies must predict the next queries, customer intent, and context to keyword opportunities, create natural language content, and apply AI-EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) approaches.

Manual processes?where?agencies throw bodies at the problem and run a generative search iteration over days, is not a sustainable option. The reality today is that labor is already the largest?expense?on agency P&Ls. Anecdotally, we believe less than 10% of US agencies are even discussing generative search and even fewer are using technology to accelerate or scale their nascent manual processes. But let’s take a step back and define generative search optimization and what the key players are up to.

What is Generative Search Optimization?

Simply stated, generative search uses AI to infer or understand consumer queries and direct, conversational answers. ?Simple. As a consumer, who wouldn’t want an expert at your side giving you answers, while allowing you to do your own research. As a brand owner or agency, you might have a different point of view, especially if you’re not part of the conversations. The question is not whether generative search will underpin search in months and years to come, but how can agencies optimize client brands to be part of the conversation.? We call that work “Generative Search Optimization” or GSO. At its core, it involves adapting SEO strategies to account for AI-driven search answers provided by platforms like Bing’s Co-Pilot, GPT, and Google's AI Overviews, among others. Choose not to adopt new processes and new technology solutions, then risk seeing your clients lose 19 to 64% in organic traffic and conversions according to Search Engine Land.

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The Shifts Keep Coming in Digital Advertising

Over the last 20 years in the AdTech industry, across companies like Microsoft and Google our team saw first-hand the mega shifts of the advertising and digital media industry and the impact of the major inflection points in overall technology advancements across cloud, data, and AI. Not since the advent of paid search itself has there been such a systemic shift in digital advertising.?To see for yourself,?look no further than Bing Co-Pilot, Google, or OpenAI and consumer adoption.

Google and their Search Generative Engine (SGE), now named AI Overviews, is a company-wide priority and a massive shift. Google's non-opt in rollout of AI Overviews features is currently only US-focused, but they plan to reach over a billion users worldwide by the end of 2024, according to Liz Reid, VP Head of Google Search. Admittedly, Google had to slow down the rollout, not because of consumer adoption but because their AI was providing poor answers to queries. Or listen to Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, during their Q2 earnings call, where he said, “…Over time this will be just how search works… We are building the next major revolution in search.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft charged ahead of Google with their OpenAI partnership and integration of GPT into Bing. As such, Bing reported 5 times jump in query share, largely at Google’s expense. Bing, with Co-Pilot, now handles 10.51% of the global desktop query volume according to the Global search engine desktop market share 2024 report from Statista. All the while, GPT continues its record global adoption and its query volume. As widely reported after just two months of its release, GPT reached 100 million active users, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history.?

The question is not if generative search will underpin search going forward or if agencies and brands will have to work across new platforms like GPT or Perplexity, but how quickly. ?Further, each will need to work differently across those platforms with new technology-based solutions to understand intent and activate optimizations at the speed of AI to ensure client success.

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Tomorrow’s GSO Solutions for Website Traffic and Monetization

As noted above, less than 10% of digital media agencies are starting to lean into GSO for their clients using their SEO expertise as a leaping-off point. We predict agencies will face cost, scale, and technology challenges to continually optimize their clients across generative search platforms. ?To avoid the challenges, agencies should start by understanding how things are changing:

• Identify which SEO practices can be reused as a baseline for GSO and what is the client’s GSO exposure
• Develop GSO strategies to predict emergent intent, queries, and context.
• Apply new predictions and develop new themes, ontologies and content requirements. Here’s where SEO practices are useful, assuming the new AI input versus predefined rules all based on historical data.

Below, we outline basic SEO principles and highlight a few distinctions or new requirements. As this is the tip of the iceberg our next series of blogs will provide more detail on our proprietary AI intent and query prediction models, automated content generation and optimization solutions. ?Further, we will get into the need to address the transferability of our recommendation across platforms like Google or Co-pilot as their ranking behaviors drift and change.

While not exhaustive, Figure 1 above, calls out some of the differences between SEO and GSO.? SEO will still be a backbone of optimization strategies and tactics, but the AI inputs will shift the final recommendations. ?The AI will also change the speed required to remain fresh and relevant. ?And all the recommendations require AI to solve for platform specific optimizations.? ?

Our perspective is that Google and other GSO-related platforms will not release needed insights to agencies and brands and that offerings like Google trends will not be enough to understanding early emerging trends to drive new SEO strategies and tactics. Instead, they will share keywords to boost bid density and drive ad revenue. If this holds true, agencies will need to:

• Use AI to predict conversational queries and user intent to understand new organizing themes.
• Continuously infer intent and predict queries, and us AI to optimize hundreds or thousands of times per 24-hour cycle.?
• Develop new strategies for maintaining visibility across generative platforms.

The Impact of Generative Search on SEO Agencies

The shift to Generative Search Optimization isn't just a trend. For SEO agencies, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Those who adapt quickly and effectively will not only retain their clients but also position themselves as industry leaders in this new AI-driven landscape. As generative AI continues to impact the SEO landscape, agencies should leverage AI to start adapting by integrating advanced schema markup, leveraging thematic mapping, and continuously monitoring analytics to stay ahead. The task of helping clients be visible in generative search conversations is the key to maintaining organic traffic and consumer engagement.

Evolve and Win

The good news is it’s a new day in search and it’s an opportunity to win back visibility as made evident with one simple stat: according to numerous studies according to Search Engine Land’s, “Google SGE a top threat to brand and product terms”, ) 62% of the time, Google AI Overviews includes brand references and links that differ from the less visible organic links based on keywords.

Agencies and brands need to experiment and start retooling to be successful. We’re happy to talk with and invite you to join IQRush.ai phase one, private preview of GSO to optimize brand visibility in the generative AI era, please click here to sign up. Slots are limited and we will close the preview sign-up on or before August 30, 2024.

Schedule a consultation with our team today. Let's work together to redefine what's possible in generative search optimization and ensure success in this new era of digital marketing, click this Schedule Time link.