The Changing Tech Landscape – Optimising SEO For Modern Search Needs
The modern marker of technology in today’s day and age has witnessed a wealth of integrations into functions of our day-to-day lives. Cloud-based applications and IoT tools have created smart environments removing the need for its users to deal with menial tasks, and the adaptation of large language models have even created platforms that can read, write and speak like ourselves.
The practice of optimising SEO, as digital marketers, has been no exception, as we see platforms like ChatGPT or Gemini begin to cross into territories of quick-searched answers and technical information – tasks that would traditionally belong to tools like Google Search.
What does this mean for brands that will emerge in the near future, in a society built on generative models that search for you? We’ve contemplated this question for a while – in today’s instalment of the SEO Sydney Podcast, we explore the differences in traditional and generative platforms of search – and potentially how we can optimise for both.
Traditional vs Generative Search
Fundamentally, optimising SEO for traditional search has always functioned on the principle of the search engine – a database, directory and results page that aims to deliver as accurate, quality and trustworthy a series of search results for its users’ queries as possible. Being able to optimise elements of your website and its webpages, in this case, works off of established criteria that have managed to quantify these aspects into metrics, like on-page metadata, or site structure, and list them on the basis of indexation.
ChatGPT and other generative platforms, by direct comparison, don’t operate based on indexation. Instead, they piggyback off search engines’ ability to supply information through its indexed webpages, and scrape data from their content as a means of training their models.
Optimising for one might not necessarily mean alienating another, in other words – following best practices and guidelines, at the end of the day, returns trustworthy signals that bridge user needs with the right brands, where applied consistently and earnestly.
Keen to learn more? Explore our services at SEO Sydney – we’re keen to build visibility for brands that resonate with their audience.
