It’s crucial to be aware of how massive evolutions in the tech world are shaping the ways others see you online.
AI is rapidly changing the Internet in ways that affect how you and your organization appear on Google. If you recently searched yourself and noticed that your name and organization are framed differently than they were just a few months ago, the big reason is AI.
Last February, The Wall Street Journal’s Christopher Mims wrote that we have taken for granted the simple act of online search for decades. “Online has meant googling it and clicking on the links the search engine offered up,” he wrote. “Search has so dominated our information-seeking behaviors that few of us ever think to question it anymore.”
That’s all changed. Google recently rolled out AI summaries of its own search results to all U.S. users. You’ll notice that concise overviews appear before many websites. Take a look, there is a high likelihood one appears before your own personal and company websites.
Why did this change happen? The central ecosystem that made Google the reigning leader in search over the past few decades is under threat by tech competitors that are seriously impacting its standing and once-overwhelming digital advertising dominance. The WSJ’s Mims explains that, now, people are heavily turning to AI to answer their online questions. This is deteriorating the quality of search results, which are now “flooded with AI-generated content.”
One example? OpenAI is now including “search” to its ChatGPT services.
Here at Reputation Communications, we do use AI to create high volumes of social media content and general information texts. But, the thought-leadership content we create for our clients is produced by professional writers — not AI. The reason is that AI is impersonal and sometimes inaccurate. These systems scrub from a wide range of sources online. Much of their output is just rehashing existing writing. This can result in content that doesn’t create value for readers and could even pose reputational risks and threats of plagiarism.
This is why it is crucial to turn to services that are reliable and trusted. Google’s ranking tools focus on the usefulness of content. When building your brand’s online presence, your content has to be high-quality, relevant, and add measurable value to your audience. Think podcasts and videos, which rank highly online. Adding them to your thought-leadership mix will be a big plus in the year to come.
