Search engine optimization in the year 2024
Google Search has been shaken up quite a bit in 2023 by the developments in artificial intelligence through OpenAI and Google Bard, which have been publicly and widely used. In almost every industry inside and outside the IT world, it has left its mark and it is clear that we are only at the beginning of these developments.
Professions that were certain of their existence in the past are now uncertain about the future.
In 2023, there will again be major updates from Google, partly due to AI and with a focus on "helpful content", with Google looking more and more at the expertise of an author, the person or team behind a website, the relevance and readability of the content and focusing even more on unique and helpful content. Websites and social media such as Reddit have often taken the top spots in many search results here too.
In our own circles, we also see professions that are most affected by these developments, freelancers who had made their work out of translation and proofreading are finding it particularly hard to compete. More and more voice-over work, media creation and content creation have also been outsourced to AI, and it's hard to offer your work at competitive rates and quality.
However, SEO or search engine optimization for websites is not something you can currently outsource to AI out of the box, and the role in it demands a lot from you as a webmaster. In this blog post, we take a look at what you can do in 2024 to keep your website on the map and embrace AI rather than challenge it.
Focus on content your readers and visitors want to see
On every website, there is some form of content. Because without it, your website has no reason to exist. Content comes in many forms, but the most important thing is that your website provides information that visitors want to see.
For example, as a gardener, you could advertise your business online and show your most recently tended gardens, your hourly rate and your contact information. Most webmasters will declare this good and ready and leave it at that. You can then use Google Ads to advertise locally to get new projects.
But you can also think further and bigger with a website. For example, you can write great tips on your website about how to look after a garden yourself. Content in the form of: "How and when is the best time to mow the lawn", where of course your expertise comes to the fore. This is also a form of advertising and marketing, as it often leads visitors to your website. They read this content, like it and apply it. But there are also people who realize that you, as a gardener, are happy to do this work for them and contact you immediately.
You can have such content written cheaply for 0.01 cents per word, then make it robot-compatible with as many keywords and other tricks as possible and publish it on your website. In 2024, however, this will no longer appear in the search results. And this method hasn't worked for some time.
In fact, in recent updates, Google is focusing on the proven expertise of the author behind the content and the authority of your website and profile. So if you are a gardener with 20 years of experience who writes beautiful content and demonstrates this expertise on your website and beyond, this will count more than some text on the subject.
Use artificial intelligence
It is of course tempting to let artificial intelligence do all your work for you and sit back and relax, but this is not a sustainable strategy. At some point, you will run into difficulties. What AI can do incredibly well is treat it like a personal digital assistant. It is able to provide you with 50 ideas for a problem or question, for example, while you can only think of five. It is also particularly good at drafting repetitive or simple work that you can go back over yourself to give it your personal touch.
As AI evolves, it will also be able to be used better and more frequently for other work. Your job as a webmaster is to always develop a better and more personalized result than AI does. So you need to be involved and always be up to date with the latest developments.
What does this mean for you as a website operator?
As a hoster, a large proportion of our customers are independent entrepreneurs who have entrusted us with their own website and email address. With these services, you as an entrepreneur can appear on the map and communicate professionally with your customers and suppliers and use your website to attract new customers and retain and service existing customers.
To keep your website relevant and not just rely on ads, optimizing for Google search has always been a cornerstone you should build on as a website owner. So in 2024, you will have to work even harder to get your website content to the highest standard. And invest more time and money in creating it. From beautiful (unique) images to texts that are pleasant to read. Such an investment can pay off for any company with an online presence.
What do you see as the biggest challenge in 2024? Are you planning to invest more in content creation? Or will your focus shift entirely to advertising? We are curious about your plans! Let us know if you do.
Inspiration for this article:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-experts-predictions/503049/
