This month in search marketing [February 2023]

From AI to voice search - the new and growing trends for search marketing in Feb!

The search marketing landscape is ever-changing, with new features, trends, and technology emerging on a daily basis. From AI chatbots to the increasing popularity of voice search, the shortest month of the year was not an exception to these advancements in the field.

Wednesday 22nd February 2023

Optimising your paid search campaign

PPC is an important aspect of search marketing, so optimising the performance of your campaigns is essential. An article by Search Engine Land  discusses the ways you can optimise your paid search on popular platforms like Google and Microsoft. Automating processes, customising dashboards, and setting up alerts provide a multitude of benefits such as enhancing ROI, encouraging data-based decisions, and identifying underperforming areas before they cause problems. 

Voice Search

As well as bringing the new Bing AI chat and search experience to mobile, Microsoft have also started rolling out a voice search feature. Though voice search is currently a limited preview, it has been a highly requested feature and is likely to expand as the technology develops. 

ChatGPT – the impact on SEO

The popularity of ChatGPT has skyrocketed throughout February, and its potential for use in content marketing has been discussed at length within the industry. The impact of AI generated content on SEO has been central to these discussions. Historically, the general consensus has been that Google view AI generated content as ‘bad’ – but a recent tweet from Google has had an impact on this perspective:

As said before when asked about AI, content created primarily for search engine rankings, however it is done, is against our guidance. If content is helpful & created for people first, that’s not an issue.https://t.co/3rs3Yrrrk1https://t.co/TlFEbdXGAphttps://t.co/Yl9XWr5CAN pic.twitter.com/gFTE2C2wq1

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) January 12, 2023

This means that, while AI generated content will not necessarily have a negative impact on SEO rankings, its lack of EEAT signals, the tendency for it to be factually incorrect, as well as produce mediocre rather than detailed content, will generally cause it to rank lower. While there certainly is a place for ChatGPT and similar gadgets within content marketing, it should be used as a tool and not a solution.

Tuesday 21st February 2023

Dip in organic traffic

Regardless of industry, most websites have seen a dip in organic traffic from 2021 to 2022. It is thought that the reduction in online traffic was due to more businesses moving back offline following the covid-19 lockdown.  This dip in traffic is likely to have an impact on organic search results – highlighting the importance of SEO in content marketing. 

AI generated Keywords

As previously mentioned, the benefits and drawbacks of using AI tools such as ChatGPT for content marketing have been discussed at length throughout the month. While some drawbacks of the tool have been discussed, there are some beneficial uses for ChatGPT in content and search marketing, such as generating keywords. The tool is able to complete tasks such as producing a decent sized list of keywords, sort keywords by topic, and assign user intent, in a mere fraction of the time it would usually take for SEO specialists – speeding up the way research is conducted.

Tuesday 7th February 2023

The power of caps

Semrush recently released the results of a test they conducted, on the impact of using capital letters in search title tags. It used to be thought that using capitals in the title would incur SEO penalties – but this is not the case. Interestingly, they concluded that strategically placed caps within a title can increase article performance. 

Thursday the 2nd of February 2023

The impact of inflation on advertising

Inflation has reached its highest levels in over 40 years. This has had a huge impact on businesses, causing them to re-evaluate budgets and cut costs – a lot of that within advertising. Additionally, the cost of advertising has risen along with everything else; both of these things combined have led to an advertising slump across several industries.

March and beyond

As we move towards March the trends in search marketing will continue to grow and alter. No doubt we will see more of AI powered chatbots, and it will continue to impact how we market in the future. Spring is the month of new beginnings, and I am certain we will see new trends emerge, and old ones will adjust to match the ever- changing landscape.