Google made an important but not unexpected announcement back in mid-May 2024, an announcement related to their development of generative AI for web searches. In the coming months, you will see Google looking more like Perplexity in the organic search department. What will be the fallout, particularly for agencies offering content marketing services?
As I see it, there are three possible scenarios: content marketing will become less important, it will become more important, or very little will change in a practical sense. I think the third scenario is highly unlikely. Nonetheless, it needs to be considered.
What Google Is Doing
Nearly everything in the online realm has been trending toward generative AI since ChatGPT was released to the public. Google and Microsoft have been at the forefront of the competition for generative AI dominance. But there are plenty of other players. Perplexity is one of them.
Perplexity is both a business entity and a search technology. The company uses generative AI to search the web and provide relevant data in an organized way that mitigates the need for users to scan a list of pages and links. Users can get all the information they need from Perplexity’s summary. If they still want to click on linked sites, they can.
Google will start combining what Perplexity does with its own, more traditional means of serving up results. Beginning shortly, a summary will appear at the top of every organic search. The summary will include all the information Google deems relevant along with links to reference sites. Gemini will be the AI engine driving it all.
The 3 Possible Scenarios
With the preliminaries out of the way, let us talk about the fallout for content marketing services. As I mentioned, I can see my way clear to three possible scenarios:
1. Content Marketing Becomes Less Important
Webtek Digital Marketing, out of Salt Lake City, UT, explains that content marketing has been one of the most important tools for agencies like theirs for the better part of seven or eight years. Good content drives traffic. It creates brand awareness, makes connections with customers, and allows for developing a loyal audience. That could all go by the wayside in short order.
If searchers do not need to click links to find the information they are after, it is possible they will ultimately consume less content – at least in the form of text and infographics. Video probably won’t be affected here. Nonetheless, fewer clicks mean less content being consumed.
2. Content Marketing Becomes More Important
A second scenario suggests that content marketing could become even more important. Why? Because Google will want relevant, high-quality content its algorithms trust. That is the content that will populate their summaries.
Should this scenario play out, content marketing services should see their demand go up as companies make the switch from in-house content creation to professional service. AI-driven search could ultimately be the best thing that happened to content marketing.
3. Very Little Changes
The final scenario suggests that very little changes for content marketing as a result of Google’s new push for AI search. Content marketing will continue to perform the same function it currently performs. If content is strong enough, searchers will still click embedded links in search engine summaries.
If I were a betting man, my money would be on the first scenario. I have a bad feeling that content marketing services will be less important down the road because AI-driven search will change the way people consume content. Don’t misunderstand. Content will still be important. But I do not think content marketing will be.