Communicating the Impact of AI on SEO to C-Level

Communicating the Impact of AI on SEO to C-Level

AI has emerged as one of the most transformative and disruptive forces in marketing as an industry in a long time, since the mass adoption of the internet.

Brands are working on AI adoption at an organizational level

While brands are working on AI adoption at an organizational level, the benefits and applications to most departments within the business are clear to the C-level.

When it comes to SEO, the opportunities and threats are less clear.

Organizations are beginning to explore opportunities with AI agent systems based on foundation models capable of acting in the real world, planning and executing multiple steps in a workflow. 23% of respondents reported that their organizations are scaling an agentic AI system somewhere in their enterprises, and an additional 39% say they have begun experimenting with AI agents.

There are enough headlines surrounding AI from various major newspapers that the perception of, and application possibilities of AI, might vary dramatically based on your field of view.

To best explain and communicate how scared or excited your C-suite stakeholders need to be with the impact of AI on your SEO program, you need to be able to make it relatable.

This generally boils down to the possible influence on website traffic (all channels), and the measurable impact on conversions (and the ROI/CPA originating from individual channels). But also includes how it affects your viewers.

AI Adoption In Your Audience

Assessing SEO opportunities and threats with AI

Understanding target markets' perception of AI, their planning on adopting AI in their daily lives, and what opportunities AI has to enter their lives seamlessly.

New technological adoption depends upon the ability to provide value by either enhancing user experience or solving disutility. To do this, it has to achieve ARC, which is accessibility, reliability, and cost, that provide value, which leads to new technology gaining mass market adoption.

As per the consumer surveys and reports, Gen Z and Gen Alpha are embracing AI and actively using platforms other than Google as the first port of call to discover information and content.

It is reported that 1 in 4 (27%) uses ChatGPT at least monthly, with 1 in 3 of this age segment using it.

Another notable data point from this report is that men are more likely to adopt AI, with 50% reporting using AI tools, compared to only 33% of women.

Threads reached 100 million users in less than a week, but quality difficulties have seen demand and daily active users (DAU) decline considerably.

A crucial part involved in this has been Threads’ algorithm ability to return pleasing and relevant content to users, and this same difficulty is facing LLM technologies such as ChatGPT.

The Ofcom Online Nation 2024 Report indicated that only 1 in 5 (18%) of adults believed the material on ChatGPT to be accurate; however, this jumped to 33% among young adults.

Passive AI Adoption

Passive AI adoption includes things such as:

• Appearing in Google AI overviews and Bing Generative Search, which frequently appear as a part of routine internet usage
• Additional prompts for using AI tools like virtual try-ons
• Phone manufacturers are promoting AI-driven features like Gemini and Circle Search as product unique selling points (USPs)
• Apple’s integration of intelligence
• Spotify’s AI DJ
• Meta AI’s integration into its suite of products.

Adapting to AI-Origin Users

Kano Model is a framework traditionally used for categorizing and prioritizing customer demands and effectively applying it for assessing and enhancing product-channel fit in marketing.

For marketing product-channel fit, think of the channel (e.g., email, social media, SEO, paid ads) as a “feature” and map how well it satisfies user expectations.

For adapting and reaching target audiences, adoption of AI tools or AI product features in existing tools, we as marketers need to:

• Shift from broad channels to intent-driven channels
• Embracing AI-native platforms

Monitoring AI Traffic

Communicating exposure to LLMs and AI chatbots, including the accurate tracking of AI traffic to your website. Traffic from LLMs can be easily monitored through Google Analytics 4 Explore reports or through Google Looker Studio.

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reshape how users discover and consume content online, your website’s visibility in AI-generated answers, summaries, and recommendations is more important than ever.

Monitoring AI traffic includes the specialized analytics tools that reveal how major AI models engage with the website. It helps in tracking AI crawlers- the bots that large language models use for gathering content and showing what they’re accessing, when they visit and how often they return.

The tool is specifically designed to give you visibility into the AI layer of web traffic. You will know which content LLMs are consuming, which bots are indexing your pages, and how your site fits into the new AI-driven content ecosystem.

Marketers Must Adapt and Align

AI is transforming marketing, providing new opportunities and challenges across all marketing channels. To adapt, marketers must align plans with shifting user behaviours and effectively convey AI’s impact on traffic, conversions, and audience engagement to the C-suite and other business stakeholders.

Brands must effectively navigate and capitalize on opportunities given by AI while modernizing and future-proofing the marketing function by emphasizing clear communication, measurement, straightforward visualizations, and smart integration of AI technologies into current operations