WEBVTT 00:00:00.440 --> 00:00:02.720 And so we're starting to see this end-to-end journey, 00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:05.640 this mission fulfillment within one engine, which is super exciting. 00:00:06.800 --> 00:00:08.640 We're joined by Rob from BCG. 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:10.000 Thanks very much for being here. 00:00:10.280 --> 00:00:13.400 Well, search is evolving so quickly. 00:00:13.840 --> 00:00:17.920 Just explain the sort of shifts that you're seeing and how it's changing the 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:21.000 way people are discovering brands and information online. 00:00:21.040 --> 00:00:23.320 Yeah, there's really three trends that I'm seeing. 00:00:23.720 --> 00:00:28.200 So the first one is really from keywords to questions to answers. 00:00:28.680 --> 00:00:32.040 And so in the past, you know, you'd have your anchor keywords or your 00:00:32.040 --> 00:00:35.800 head keywords and you'd search and you'd navigate and then you'd go, you know, 00:00:35.800 --> 00:00:39.080 clickoff site essentially, and discover and then ultimately fulfill 00:00:39.080 --> 00:00:40.160 your customer mission. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:43.920 Now what we're seeing with a lot of these AI engines is you're actually completing 00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:45.440 that mission within the engine itself. 00:00:45.640 --> 00:00:48.080 And so think about it from question to answer. 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:51.280 Another one that's really emerging is this notion, 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:55.120 I like to call it from inquisition to acquisition or from search to sale. 00:00:55.440 --> 00:00:59.840 And it's really the completion of that full commercial journey within the engine. 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:03.760 And so what you're starting to see now is you'll come in, you'll have some intent, 00:01:03.760 --> 00:01:07.480 you'll search for, let's say, a product, you'll get a number of those product 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:10.720 reviews, you'll get price comparisons, you'll get ratings, reviews, 00:01:10.720 --> 00:01:12.920 you'll have all the social proof right there. 00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:15.000 And you're even getting the opportunity to transact. 00:01:15.360 --> 00:01:17.680 And so we're starting to see this end-to-end journey, 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:20.680 this mission fulfillment within one engine, which is super exciting; 00:01:20.680 --> 00:01:23.760 has a lot of implications on commerce and a lot of patients on brands. 00:01:24.520 --> 00:01:27.640 The last one, which is, which is search kind of adjacent is social. 00:01:27.640 --> 00:01:29.560 And it and social has been around for a while. 00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:31.560 But I think what you're seeing now with Gen Alpha and Gen Z 00:01:31.560 --> 00:01:34.440 is really this, this dominance within social. 00:01:34.440 --> 00:01:37.520 So from a product-and-service perspective or a brand perspective, 00:01:37.520 --> 00:01:41.320 you really need to be omnipresent within social to then drive those queries back 00:01:41.320 --> 00:01:42.160 to the AI engine. 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:45.720 And in terms of the way people are searching, I mean, 00:01:45.720 --> 00:01:49.840 you've talked about optimizing for answer engines and AI visibility. 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:51.560 What exactly does that mean? 00:01:51.560 --> 00:01:53.800 I mean, just explain how different that would be 00:01:53.800 --> 00:01:54.800 from traditional SEO. 00:01:55.240 --> 00:01:59.080 Yeah, so in traditional SEO, what I like to say is you would always 00:01:59.080 --> 00:02:01.000 have content and relevancy first. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:03.960 So how do you make sure that you have relevant content on your site for your 00:02:03.960 --> 00:02:06.160 product and service that's meaningful to drive revenue? 00:02:06.800 --> 00:02:10.760 The next one would be visibility or technical visibility or readability. 00:02:10.760 --> 00:02:13.960 And so this would be how do I make sure my contents surface so the bots 00:02:13.960 --> 00:02:16.720 essentially can see it, understand it, process it, index it? 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:20.080 And then lastly, I like to talk about kind of, you know, 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:21.360 popularity or reputation. 00:02:21.640 --> 00:02:25.360 And so in the SEO world, this was backlinks and in the kind of AEO 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:27.680 world, it's more citation and visibility. 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:29.080 So it's off site SEO. 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:33.320 So a couple of kind of tactical things that I'm seeing you can do in the AEO 00:02:33.320 --> 00:02:35.920 world is one, make sure your off-site strategy is 00:02:35.920 --> 00:02:36.320 robust. 00:02:36.320 --> 00:02:39.680 So how do you make sure your content, your branded content is on Reddit, 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:42.360 is on Wikipedia, is on ratings and review sites is really 00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:46.240 out there and proliferated so you can get citations back from these other websites? 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:50.160 Another is: very kind of pointed is FAQ content. 00:02:50.200 --> 00:02:54.160 So you know people are asking questions if you can actually have those answers 00:02:54.160 --> 00:02:57.800 verbatim essentially on your site and not necessarily in an FAQ section, 00:02:57.800 --> 00:03:01.560 but maybe integrated on your product detail pages or pages and where those 00:03:01.560 --> 00:03:02.840 questions might be asked. 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:06.680 We're really seeing some great uptake from the answer engines, the AI engines. 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:08.000 Lastly is measurement. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:12.440 So measurement historically in search has been about keyword volumes, rank, 00:03:12.440 --> 00:03:16.800 traffic and now in answer engines is more about citations and visibility. 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:20.440 And so it's, it's tricky to take that leap from just 00:03:20.440 --> 00:03:22.400 being cited or mentioned to traffic. 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:25.960 And so what we're doing is really setting up controlled pilots and trying to 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:28.080 understand those relationships of inclusion, 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:30.440 essentially to traffic and then ultimately sales. 00:03:30.880 --> 00:03:32.560 It really is moving so quickly. 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:34.280 Well, Rob, thanks very much for joining us and 00:03:34.280 --> 00:03:35.120 talking us through it. 00:03:35.320 --> 00:03:35.640 Yeah. 00:03:35.640 --> 00:03:36.400 Happy to thank you.