Despite being in the world of SEO for 10+ years, and even sending the rest of team Brick last year, this was my first visit to the hub of SEO excellence that is BrightonSEO – And it did not disappoint!
I enjoyed two days surrounded by thought leaders, experts, and bright minds shaping the future of search. Not to mention, I got to enjoy Brighton’s surprisingly sunny weather while diving deep into some incredible insights.
With the recent trends in technology and search, there were two letters on everybody’s lips this year… AI.
There’s no doubt that AI is poised to have a big impact on not only the world of SEO, but the world in general; and how we as SEO agencies respond is important to ensure that we can continue to drive revenue growth for our clients.
Therefore, without further ado, let’s dive into the key takeaways from the October 2024 BrightonSEO conference.
Key takeaways from BrightonSEO October 2024
AI is changing the search experience
As soon as AI search was mentioned this year, SEOs have been scrambling to work out how to optimise it, our team at Brick Digital included. But after attending a number of seminars at BrightonSEO and speaking with experts on the future of search Crystal Carter and Claudia O’Shea, it became clear that before we can optimise for it, we need to understand what search is actually going to look like in the future.
The general consensus amongst people I spoke with is that the search experience as a whole is going to change dramatically. However, the extent to which it changes will depend on the context and type of search, thanks to the capability of AI to better understand context than traditional search algorithms.
Predictions included:
- More product results with information like pricing, dimensions, and other details, shown directly in the search results.
- Large AI overviews made up of content from multiple sources could be presented for informational searches, with prompts to help you dig deeper into the details.
- The ‘Search box’ could instead become more of a ‘Conversation box’ to encourage users to engage with further questions and prompts after their initial inquiry.
- Zero click results could become commonplace… more on that below
At Brick, we’re already starting to adjust our strategies based on these predictions. We’re testing new ways to optimise for AI-powered search tools, and while it’s early days, our approach is rooted in understanding AI’s growing role in delivering hyper-relevant content. We know that ranking in AI-generated search results will require not just traditional SEO, but a deeper focus on providing clear, structured, and easily digestible information that AI can use effectively.
Zero-click search results could be on the horizon
With AI search reshaping how results are presented, the landscape for independent publishers who rely on organic search traffic could become more challenging. Many talks at the conference centred around ‘zero-click’ results, where AI generates complete answers to user queries directly in the search results. This means fewer opportunities for users to click through to websites, especially for informational searches.
Zero-click results refer to searches that render a wholly and complete answer to the user’s query that has been written by AI using content and information from websites. These AI answers provide complete information, reducing the need for users to click through to websites, which could lower traffic to informational pages and articles due to ‘zero-clicks’.
For businesses, this shift means that focusing solely on organic traffic might not be enough anymore. At Brick, we’re advising clients to diversify their content strategies, focusing on brand authority, user engagement, and providing content that makes users want to explore more rather than just seeking quick answers.
It is worth noting that zero-clicks isn’t all doom and gloom. For starters, there will still be links out to sources, just not in the way we’re used to. Moreover, we’re most likely to see these zero-click search results for informational searches and not so much in commercial searches such as ‘data protection consultancy’.
Tracking visibility in AI search tools is yet to be perfected
A question that came up a number of times during my time at BrightonSEO was ‘how are we going to track our visibility in AI search results?’
Luckily, there was a talk for that! Again Crystal Carter gets a shout out for sharing an awesome Regex code for GA4 that shows you how much referral traffic you receive from the most common AI tools and search platforms in use right now such as:
- Perplexity.ai
- ChatGPT
- Meta.ai
- Claude.ai
- Google Gemini
- Plus more!
However, this only gives insight into the number of users who clicked a link from any of these AI platforms to your website. There is not yet a solution to show how many times content from your site was served to users as a source in an AI overview.
At Brick, we’ve already started integrating this tracking into our clients’ GA4 setups, allowing us to track traffic from AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity. While it’s not a perfect system yet, it’s giving us valuable insight into how AI tools are impacting our clients’ digital presence, and we’re using that data to refine our approach.
Early actions businesses should take to prepare for AI search
BrightonSEO didn’t just deliver on the theory; There were lots of talks and panels which focused on the specific, immediate actions businesses can take to increase their chances of visibility in AI search results.
These included:
- Start by reviewing your best performing top of funnel content and blog posts, as informational searches are likely the first to be impacted by AI overviews.
- Ensure that the most popular AI search and chatbot tools are able to crawl your site, and set up rules to avoid them crawling pages which add no value to them.
- On AI search tools such as perplexity, give feedback on the information it has about your business and correct it where necessary.
- Update existing content to ensure it directly answers users queries, in a similar way you would optimise for long tail keywords.
- Add detailed structured data throughout your website to help AI better understand your business.
- Implement tracking.
Wrap up
Aside from AI future there were also amazing insights shared around more current SEO strategies which you can read more about from Adam, our Head of SEO in his BrightonSEO highlights post.
Overall, my first experience at BrightonSEO was hugely positive. Despite the changes ahead, I left BrightonSEO feeling optimistic. Yes, SEO as we know it is evolving, but these innovations bring exciting new opportunities to provide even more value to users and clients. At Brick, we’re ready to embrace this future and help our clients do the same. Here’s to an exciting new chapter in search!
See you next year, BrightonSEO!
