HubSpot Blog User Acquisition Manager Curt del Principe and Marketing Expert Amanda Sellers discuss the impact of AI on SEO rankings, changes in user search behavior, organic traffic vs. paid marketing, and more. This interview, shared on the HubSpot Blog, provides insights into how generative AI is shaping SEO and offers strategies for adapting to these changes.
Summary:
1. Generative AI excels at rephrasing objective facts but lacks unique insights. Unique perspectives and differentiation are key to achieving higher rankings on Google search. These insights often come from real-life experiences and proprietary data.
2. AI-powered search engines have not yet become mainstream, but businesses must pay attention to the content AI provides in response to user queries. The quality of AI-generated responses can significantly impact how users perceive a brand.
3. AI is decreasing the effectiveness of Google search channels, but Google remains an essential marketing tool for businesses. Compared to paid marketing, SEO-driven organic traffic is sustainable and repeatable.
4. Three SEO tips from Amanda Sellers:
• Produce original content: Simply generating factual content is no longer enough to attract audiences, as tools like ChatGPT can easily handle this task. Creators need to establish a unique voice and focus on producing content that can’t be found elsewhere.
• Address AI’s limitations: Use AI as a tool, but recognize its limitations. Fill in the gaps with a unique human perspective that will set you apart from those using ChatGPT to write the same articles.
• Always create content for your audience: Whether writing blogs, news updates, or product landing pages, always prioritize the value you’re providing to your readers.
Part.01: How AI is Impacting SEO
Amanda Sellers explains: “I believe that Google’s Helpful Content algorithm update (and the broader emphasis on EEAT) is a direct response to AI-generated content.”
The Helpful Content update refers to a significant change Google made to its search ranking algorithm at the end of 2022. This update sparked a series of adjustments throughout 2023, aimed at prioritizing content that aligns with Google’s quality guidelines: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT).
The goal of EEAT is simple: to ensure that content genuinely created for people appears in search results, rather than content created solely to manipulate search engines.
“The widespread use of generative AI essentially means the floodgates of content creation have been opened,” Amanda Sellers states.
But more content doesn’t necessarily mean better content.
Amanda Sellers explains: “Generative AI is excellent at providing verified objective facts or paraphrasing existing viewpoints. However, it struggles to offer unique insights, differentiated perspectives, or original research.”
Unique insights and differentiated angles are crucial for gaining an advantage in Google search rankings, and these often stem from real-life human experiences.
“Generative AI cannot create things that do not exist in the real world, as it lacks life and cannot experience things,” she adds.
2) Has AI Search Changed SEO?
In February 2023, Microsoft led the way by embedding an AI chatbot directly into its search product (Edge), ahead of Google. In response, Google quickly unveiled its own AI-driven search engine (SGE). However, by the end of 2023, Google quietly postponed the release of SGE.
So, what exactly happened?
Amanda Sellers states, “First, the threat from Bing AI search to Google’s market share didn’t materialize.” As of early 2024, Google still controls 91.47% of the global search market, with only a 1.5% decline from the previous year.
“Second, SGE could threaten Google’s advertising revenue,” she adds.
According to data from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Google’s advertising revenue reached $237 billion in 2023, heavily relying on users’ continued engagement on the Google platform.
“Lastly, there are many infrastructure challenges that need to be handled carefully.”
What is the most significant challenge? Large language models (LLMs) are not ideal search engines.
Every day, new information emerges in the world. Google can simply update its index to include new pages, videos, or social media posts. On the other hand, LLMs must add this new content to their training data and retrain the entire model before it can be updated.
Despite this, some users still treat AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity as true search engines. When a user asks an AI search engine questions related to your industry or brand, the responses provided by AI in the dialogue box are worth attention. The quality of these AI-generated answers can influence users’ perception of your brand, even though AI search engines are not yet mainstream.
This leads to the next question: if LLMs haven’t made a significant impact on search tools, have they already changed user search behavior?
3) Will AI Change User Search Behavior?
There were early concerns that users might turn to ChatGPT for answers instead of using Google. In December 2024, Gartner predicted that due to the widespread use of LLMs, Google search volume would decline by 25% by 2026. This prediction sparked panic among some marketers.
Is the traffic loss due to users completely leaving Google?
Amanda Sellers explains, “Changes in user search behavior are difficult to quantify; these changes are usually slow and widespread.”
“I’ve started to notice a decrease in some search queries on our pages. This could be because users find asking ChatGPT more efficient than reading blog posts, thus reducing queries. But with various fluctuations in 2023, it’s hard to determine if AI adoption is the main reason.”
Therefore, while this possibility exists, it hasn’t yet raised significant concern.
It’s also worth mentioning that search queries that can be satisfied by ChatGPT may have been zero-click searches to begin with.
In other words, users get answers directly from AI search engines without ever clicking through to your website. While this isn’t good news for website traffic, optimizing for AI search results could significantly enhance your brand visibility and influence.
This brings us to an ongoing question: in the age of AI, how do you approach SEO?
4) Has AI Changed the Balance Between Organic Traffic and Paid Marketing?
Amanda Sellers states, “No matter how strong the basket is, it’s never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket. This is something I’ve believed in even before the widespread application of AI, and I continue to hold that belief.”
(This is a lesson often learned by SEO professionals after encountering the impacts of algorithm updates.)
“Google is still an important channel for business blogs because the organic traffic from SEO is sustainable and repeatable.”
This contrasts with channels that require paid marketing, such as email, paid ads, or social media.
But is AI changing the power dynamics of these channels?
Amanda Sellers admits, “I do think the effectiveness of Google as a channel is declining. Interestingly, it’s been a gradual decline throughout my entire career as a content SEO manager.”
“The introduction of featured snippets, increased Google ad space, the addition of images and videos in search results, the rise of zero-click searches… all these factors have reduced the effectiveness of Google search channels,” she lists several challenges faced during content SEO work.
However, long-term SEO professionals also recognize that every challenge brings new opportunities.
Amanda Sellers says, “There is tremendous user demand in the search space. We’ve observed significant changes driven by AI, and within these changes lie new opportunities. As a result, we are actively adjusting and developing new strategies.”
Part.02: How to Approach SEO in the AI Era?
So, how should SEO professionals adapt to these new changes? Before concluding the interview, I specifically asked Amanda Sellers for her advice.
Here are the three key recommendations she offers to SEO marketers:
1) Create Original Content.
Amanda Sellers advises: “When deciding what content to create, simply producing fact-based, repetitive content is far from enough because tools like ChatGPT can easily do that. You need to think about your positioning and focus on creating unique content that can’t be found elsewhere.”
This might mean inviting insights from industry experts, utilizing proprietary data your company has collected, or even adopting a unique tone of voice—all of which can help attract repeat visits from readers.
2) Compensate for AI’s Limitations with a Human Perspective.
She explains: “When creating content, use AI as a tool, but be aware of its limitations.” She goes on to emphasize: “It’s not just about knowing its limitations, but about using your unique human perspective to fill in the gaps.”
This unique perspective will set you apart from others who may use ChatGPT to write the same articles.
3) Always Create Content for Your Users.
Whether you are writing a blog, news updates, or product landing pages, always focus on the value you’re providing to your readers.
Here, Amanda Sellers highlights the core point:
“Your content is not being read by a search engine; it’s being read by a real person.”