by Editor
Maxim from Affiliate Diaries recently streamed on his Telegram channel, speculating what awaits affiliates in light of Google's updates. He also shared his opinion on what those promoting gambling through websites should prepare for, given the growing influence of AI. The most interesting insights from the stream have been published in this article.
Featured snippets, AI snippets
A featured snippet, or "zero" snippet, is the snippet that appears at the very top and essentially occupies the zero position in the search results. It contains information that briefly and accurately answers users' queries. Thus, this snippet competes with the audience of the site ranking in the first position of the search results.
AI snippets were introduced by Bing a couple of months ago. According to feedback from those who promote affiliate sites on this search engine, not much has changed. The effect is similar to featured snippets. Based on Maxim's experience, "zero" snippets take approximately 20% of the traffic from sites ranking in the first position of the search results.
For the query ‘weather forecast’, the featured snippet occupies half of the user's device screen. Consequently, this negatively impacts the traffic of thematic websites. For search queries like ‘best online casino’, weather-related zero snippets aren't generated, so they don't particularly affect traffic.
Hence, the speaker concludes that AI snippets won’t affect the traffic of the top 3 search results. At least, this statement is relevant for the near future.
Changes to Google search results
Many websites that have been in the top for several years are gradually losing their positions. This happens because the landscape of search results is changing. Just 5 years ago, there were no more than two advertising links in it. Now, advertising takes up 5 or more spots, and in addition, news, YouTube, and social media blocks have been added.
Users no longer want to see classic websites for their queries. In most cases, their intent is fulfilled by the blocks shown by the search engine. Users save time and find the information they need directly on the search engine results page without visiting a website. Organic traffic of websites is also partially shifting to YouTube, which is slowly but steadily gaining ground in Google's search results.
How to avoid being left out of work
No matter how the "face" of the search results changes, the main message that Google consistently promotes is the comprehensive satisfaction of user intent. More and more often, posts from social networks appear at the top of search results for various queries. In particular, links to Twitter are popping up everywhere, especially in the English-speaking segment of the internet.
This leads to the conclusion: if the search engine isn’t promoting your website, publish content on the platforms it does promote. In other words, create high-quality video content and publish it on YouTube. Good articles on your site can be reformatted into posts for social media. All of this increases the chances of being maximally represented in search results.
"In 2-3 years, organic traffic will be widely distributed across various platforms. The winner will be the one who is present on the majority of them, rather than just focusing on nurturing their favorite website", — predicted Affiliate Diaries.
At the same time, the speaker emphasized that, in his opinion, trust will continue to rule. This means that preference will be given to content from authoritative resources. Therefore, neglecting the development of one's own website is definitely not advisable. On the contrary, it should be more closely integrated with media and social networks. It’ll be trust that Google considers when forming AI snippets.
About the role of YouTube
Maxim is confident that many affiliate marketers underestimate the role of YouTube. The share of traffic from this source is increasing every year. Moreover, the competition on it isn’t as strong as on Google.
Another advantage of YouTube is the role of behavioral factors. According to the speaker, while behavioral factors hardly work in Google, they can be effectively boosted on YouTube with high-quality content.
AI will be wary of YMYL
Another argument in favor of AI soon outpacing most affiliate sites is Google's approach to YMYL topics. Historically, Google has been very cautious about resources in this niche. Consequently, there is little chance that it’ll recommend information about, for example, casinos as part of its AI project.
It's obvious that users can easily sue Google if the casino recommended by them turns out to be a scam. None of the search engine managers will take such responsibility upon themselves.
YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) refers to websites that can impact people's financial well-being, safety, and health.
About capturing the attention of users
The younger audience is predominantly engaged with TikTok, watching shorts and reels. Getting these people to read articles on sites reviewing the best casinos is nearly impossible. This is another argument in favor of the fact that creating video content for affiliate marketing has no alternative.
Maxim advised creating short videos tailored to user queries. If there's traffic on the keyword, you can confidently create a video for it. In the video, use high-quality transitions and narration, and capture elements of gameplay.
“Do you think reviewers will die out if, in the future, AI will be able to gather traffic from pages effortlessly?”
“I don't think casino reviewers will die out. SEO theoretically could suffer where all clicks are concentrated on the first queries. However, considering that no more than 20-30% of traffic comes from top-1 queries, the losses won't be 100%.
As I mentioned earlier, sites that users visit to get specific, precise information will suffer. Now, to check the weather forecast, all you need to do is search for something like ‘weather in Kiev’. 95% of users will be satisfied with the information from the large banner snippet. The remaining 5%, like myself, for example, skydivers, need to know wind speed and other more precise weather parameters. It's these types of websites that will experience a significant loss of traffic.”
What do you use to analyze YouTube?
In the Keyword Tool service, there is a YouTube analysis tool. We also use Google Trends, but it's more suitable for those who enjoy dealing with analytics.
What do you think about a source like PPC?
PPC is what Google earns from. It compensates for all its losses from search precisely through this source. Accordingly, the price of PPC will rise, and Google will promote it wherever possible.
“Should we expect Google to partner with Instagram and TikTok, just like with YouTube? In other words, could search results become even more filled with alternative platforms?”
“This cannot be ruled out. On the one hand, Google promotes YouTube as its own business, which is why it appears so frequently in search results. On the other hand, search results for many queries are represented by links to Twitter. Because of this, I don't exclude the possibility of potential new collaborations between giants.
Should one start creating content for their websites using neural networks?
It depends on the GEO and theme of your website. If competitors in your niche are writing texts by hiring copywriters, it’ll be challenging for you to compete with them using text generation.
To generate high-quality articles, you need to learn how to work with prompts. Additionally, it's important to refine the AI-generated texts before publishing them on your website.
Have you tried getting into the featured snippet? Did it work out? What worked?
We've tried various approaches. The only thing that worked was great content and its association with a trusted channel.”
“Do you think that eventually websites will have to completely transition to media?”
“No, I don't think so. Media will inevitably attract more traffic, but not all of it. Moreover, organic traffic is more valuable than media traffic.
I’d say this: the media opens up new ways to generate organic traffic. So, incorporating it into your arsenal will be necessary.”
Conclusion
At the end of the stream, Maxim shared his opinion on the future development of SEO in affiliate marketing. Based on his experience, he believes that promoting affiliate websites is becoming increasingly challenging with each passing year.
Just 5 years ago, creating high-quality content was a challenging task. Significant effort was required, for instance, for outreach. Now, with an iPhone, any school student can produce cool videos. There are plenty of SEO services that significantly simplify the affiliate's tasks.
Overall, the toolkit for promoting websites has become easier. The challenge lies in capturing the user's attention. In the future, creating websites and content for them will become even simpler. However, getting to the top of search results and staying there will become increasingly difficult.
by Editor
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