From SEO to AIO: Shifting Focus to Audience-First Content in the Age of AI-Enhanced Search Engines

"SEO strategies are evolving."  You may be thinking, 'no s$&t Sherlock!' Am I right?

It's no secret, however, that AI will increasingly continue to markedly influence search engine results. The old SEO playbook that focused solely on rankings is becoming less effective. Senior marketing executives are already in mid-pivot. This blog explores why and how your focus should continue to evolve from merely optimizing for search engines to creating high-quality, audience-first content.

The Traditional SEO Landscape and the Impact of AI

A Changing Game: The Role of AI in Search

For years, SEO has been about climbing the search engine rankings to drive organic traffic results. So many of the traditional strategies for ranking higher have been left in the dust as search engines like Google are now using AI to deliver direct answers to user queries at the top of the results page. This includes features like Google’s featured snippets and knowledge panels, which provide instant answers without requiring users to click through to a website.

AI’s integration into search engines means users often find the information they need directly on the search results page. According to Ahrefs, this shift has significant implications for traditional SEO strategies, as it reduces the click-through rates for even the top-ranked organic results.

Quality Over Quantity: The New Content Strategy

Prioritizing High-Quality Content

Producing high-quality, authoritative content is one of the enduring tactics that remains for dominating search engine rankings  even with AI having such a huge impact on the search landscape. Backlinko emphasizes that in addition to being high quality,  content must now also more effectively answer user queries thoroughly and provide real value to maintain engagement. 

Creating content that resonates with your audience has always meant understanding your audience's needs and delivering comprehensive answers. That matters at every point in the buying journey. Make it a point in your content strategy planning to think through what pieces will answer questions most effectively for buyers that are top, mid, and bottom of the funnel. 

 HawkSEM suggests that content should align with user intent at every stage of their journey.

Building and Engaging Owned Audiences

Instead of solely relying on organic search traffic, prioritize building an owned audience. Your audience/database should be one of your marketing team's greatest assets. Too often we see databases that are actually sick: filled with people that have no business being there. 

For more on sick audiences, make sure you check out the slightly foreboding warning we recently published here: Your database is sick. 

Leveraging platforms such as your company blog, email newsletters, and social media to engage directly with your audience will have far less impact if you are sending them to unengaged contacts. Focus on putting the right people into your database, and kicking the wrong people out. 

Because yes, as Moz points out:  having a robust owned media strategy ensures a loyal audience base that’s less dependent on search engine traffic.

Optimizing for Search Intent, Not Just Rankings

Understanding and Targeting User Intent

Traditional SEO focused on keywords and rankings. Today, optimization needs to align with user intent. This means understanding what your audience is searching for and delivering content that directly meets those needs. Understanding of SEM (search engine marketing - otherwise known as PPC), can help guide your understanding of user queries on top of organic research through Google Search Console.

A strategy for crafting content that serves user queries comprehensively now sits alongside and complements  keyword analysis when putting together your content strategy.

Comprehensive Content Strategies

Creating content that provides value at every stage of the buyer’s journey is crucial. Mike Khorev recommends focusing on the broader scope of user questions and providing detailed, valuable answers.

1. This means your customers should have a wide and expansive  set of resources available to consume online.  And yes, for many companies,  many of those should be publicly available. 
2. This means your late-stage prospects should have brass-tacks implementation analysis and onboarding questions answered within your content so they can make the best decision for their journey when signing on with you. And yes,  other mid-funnel gems of content that help you establish trust and become familiar are essential too.
3. This means you should certainly be creating content that educates your buyers and their network about immediate questions they have right now. And you should be in lock-step in sync with your inbound team and their strategy when you're determining those pieces of content.

This approach not only improves user experience but also aligns with AI’s role in search, which prioritizes content that directly answers user queries.

Integrating Social Media and SEO

Leveraging Social Media for SEO Benefits

Ah, social signals. Those little website traffic boosts, engagement bumps, spikes when new people are getting to see and know your brand. Those milestones typically sit in a different bucket than SEO. 

Social signals still do indirectly impact SEO because all those visitors back to your site to check out your latest case study or blog are considered by search engines when they determine your site's authority and relevancy.

So, if your social media efforts are driving traffic to your site: keep it coming!

Distributing Content Across Platforms

Of course you should continue to distribute your own content across social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and in some cases Meta to boost visibility and encourage interaction. In addition, this is one instance wherein which link-building can still be relevant. 

Content that packs  an extra SEO boost will have extra value when it  includes  valuable information about or from networks, companies, or partners beyond the content producers. Which makes it is much more likely to be shared across not just your own social media presences and websites, but among those mentioned in your content as well. 

Leveraging Marketing Automation for  SEO and Audience-First Content

Creating An Automated System For Content Distribution 

Marketing automation platforms have come a LONG. WAY. Some marketers among us, (ahem), are old enough to remember HubSpot's evolution from app, to work suite, to robust marketing automation platform and customer relationship management platform. 

Ultimately most organizations will end up with strategies around owned, earned, and paid audiences. And yes there are many other options for marketing automation platforms, content management systems and CRMs, and about a million AI-driven solutions or add ons to help distribute your content to all corners of the web beyond those in your marketing database. 

But HubSpot's relative simplicity to meet all of those use cases still makes it our favorite.

Specific to automating content distribution, HubSpot workflows can automate audience content preference segmentation, subscription statuses and so much more inside a built in content management hub that can schedule and automate distribution of your internal content. 

Automation enables personalized content experiences which make it more likely the recipient will care about that content. This in turn leads to the likelihood of repeat visits and longer site durations, positively impacting SEO. 

And if personalizing and creating custom content journeys for your audiences is your jam, check us out. We're a HubSpot marketplace approved app that enables you to effortlessly personalize B2B content journeys for any prospect and customer in your HubSpot ecosystem.

Future Outlook: Preparing for Continued Evolution and Conclusion

Adapting to AI and Emerging Trends

The breakneck speed of advancement as related to content marketing and SEO are not going to slow down any time soon. The future of content marketing will continue to evolve with AI advancements. In our opinion, successful companies will balance staying informed about emerging trends and tools, embracing continuous learning, and also remaining focused on strategic priorities. 

For example, it's fine to stay abreast of some (not all) the latest trends and tools if you're focusing on how they'll bring value to you at work. And guess what!? There are probably already technologists, writers, and thought leaders that are experts in your specific areas of interest. Find them, follow them, and let them bring these to your inbox and feed to cut down the amount time you might be spending researching new trends and tools. It can admittedly become a full time job once you start going down the rabbit hole.

Once you do find something you and your team determine will bring value to your marketing, content, or SEO tech stack, establish set parameters for how you'll experiment with it or implement it. Continuous learning yes, but also, time to value. Bringing new technology into your marketing ecosystem is not always going to be something that just seamlessly happens. It will require a time investment and you need to make sure you factor that in as you decide what you want to continue learning, what value and how quickly it will incur, and why. 

Lastly, these seismic shifts from search-engine-optimization strategies to audience-first content strategies in the AI age are exciting. And so is all the new technology at our fingertips everyday. It cannot replace, however, remaining focused on our fundamental strategic priorities that drive our content production.

Those will be different for every organization. It could mean staying focused on continuously implementing customer feedback to your help center to improve customer experience. It could be constantly prioritizing your customer community to build connection and brand loyalty and reinforcing those connections within your content. 

Whatever your priority is we'd love to be a resource. If you're interested in seeing how Air Traffic Control can help you shift to an audience-first mindset, get in touch!