Hey friend!

There’s a clear theme in today’s roundup of SEO and content news: Human-centric content is more important than ever. 

This doesn’t mean AI-generated content is out, though (reminder: Google doesn’t penalize AI content)—only that including firsthand insights and expertise is essential if you want your content to do well.

More from Google and some of the industry’s top experts below!

–Thenuka

[INSERT_SUBSCRIBE_CTA]

What’s new in AI and content?

🛍️ Google is testing a product carousel based on customer reviews

Google is testing a new "Top products from customer reviews" carousel that showcases products based on customer feedback pulled from the Google Shopping graph. This feature, which highlights top-rated products directly in SERPs, currently appears only for select mobile queries. If launched broadly, customer reviews may become an even more critical factor in organic product visibility and rankings.

• What this means for SEO: Google’s always testing various features, so there’s no telling whether this one will stick around. That said, the introduction of this carousel emphasizes the importance of customer reviews—aka human-created content. Not a bad idea to prioritize gathering real customer feedback if you aren’t already doing so.

🛒 Google to discontinue Sitelinks Search Box next month

Google is getting rid of its Sitelinks Search Box feature, effective November 21, due to a significant drop in usage over the years. In case you’re drawing blanks, this is the search box that appears under some search result snippets, letting users perform internal searches on a site directly from Google's search results. The feature first launched 10 years ago, and according to Google, its removal will not affect search rankings or regular sitelinks that appear below results.

• What this means for SEO: This change highlights Google’s goal to simplify the search experience by removing features and tools that aren’t widely used. If you did happen to use this feature to drive internal site searches, consider improving the visibility of your own on-site search functionality. For example, display your site’s internal search box more prominently.

💬 Are LLMs causing fewer people to post on Reddit?

According to a recent study published in PNAS Nexus, generative AI tools like ChatGPT may be disrupting traditional knowledge-sharing platforms such as Reddit and Stack Overflow. Within six months of ChatGPT's release, the study found that user activity on Stack Overflow dropped by 25%, particularly in areas related to programming. This decline suggests that some users are turning to AI-generated answers over human-driven content. The problem here, the study warns, is that “this phenomenon could weaken the quality of training data for future models, as machine-generated content likely cannot fully replace human creativity and insight.” (Model collapse, anyone?)

• What this means for SEO: This shift presents both a challenge and an opportunity. On the one hand, it validates the fear that organic search traffic will drop as more users turn to AI tools for quick answers. At the same time, it opens a door for SEOs and publishers to create high-quality, human-driven content—something users increasingly want more of.

Expert Insights

🙋 Cyrus Shepard: “The sites that are winning are human-focused.”

Jordan Koene chats with search expert Cyrus Shepard about Google’s shift to human-centric content. According to Cyrus’s research, the sites that have continually performed well in the face of Google’s updates are those that use more personal pronouns and photos of human beings. Given that so much content is formulaic these days, one of the biggest challenges now is answering “How do you bring something in [to your content] that no one else can replicate?” Cyrus also recommends that companies invest in building their brands because it offers a buffer against core updates and other search changes. As he explains, “If you can generate just a little bit of branded search volume, you can leverage that a hundred times.”

>> Listen to the episode

❓ Wil Reynolds: “Questions aren't dead, people might just be getting answers in new places.”

Wil Reynolds of Seer Interactive shares a clip from his recent presentation at MAICON 2024, where he spoke about navigating SEO in a time of transition with LLMs. He emphasizes the importance of focusing on your customers and trends in their behaviors—and using that info to guide your strategic priorities. “When people ask if SEO is dead, it’s the wrong thing because you’re still focused on the channel,” Wil says. You can think of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools as a channel, too—only optimize for and invest in them if that’s where your customers are actually going.

>> Read on LinkedIn