Perplexity’s growth upends marketers’ fears about AI’s impact on SEO

When Microsoft announced that Bing would incorporate OpenAI technology, businesses began complaining about the potential loss of network traffic. What about all the efforts you put into search engine optimization (SEO)? Google’s entry into the space with its Search Generated Experience (SGE) has only made critics more vocal. However, a new study of AI-first search engine Perplexity suggests these concerns may be overblown.

“It’s a very exciting time for what’s happening in artificial intelligence and search,” Jim Yu, CEO of enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge, told VentureBeat. “Search models have evolved over the past few decades. . Now, there’s a big change: new AI models are fundamentally upending search.”

Yu’s company spends time parsing the database of queries Perplexity runs, analyzing the results to understand the future of search and what it means for consumers and companies. According to their research, Perplexity has seen a 40% month-over-month increase in referral traffic from its search engines to brand websites since January. Additionally, 60% of its citations match the top 10 Google organic results, meaning users using Perplexity will see similar and relevant answers to their queries as they would get using traditional search.

Google Crown “on”

Yu explained that whether AI is involved or not, companies still need to invest in SEO. But in the age of artificial intelligence, credibility will be the key to a website being cited frequently in responses. “If you rank well today, you’re ahead,” Yu said. But instead of focusing on optimizing a single page, think about the bigger picture. “Concentrate. Which topics do you qualify to win?” he asked.

Google has been the undisputed search leader for decades, but artificial intelligence — specifically generative AI — is threatening its market dominance. Perplexity’s referral traffic growth is proof of this. “This is the first time we’ve seen actual referral traffic from someone changing market share at any rate. [brand sites]”, Yu shared, although he acknowledged that Google is far from in trouble. “This is just a small part of [of market share], but with motivation. “

To understand Perplexity’s impact on search, Yu cited nine industries studied by BrightEdge: healthcare, education, B2B technology, restaurants, travel, entertainment, insurance, finance and retail e-commerce. The team discovered domain differences between Google’s SGE (still in beta at the time of writing) and Perplexity, highlighting which search engine receives the most content sources.

• Reddit is considered a top-level domain for seven of the nine industries (excluding healthcare and finance)
• For finance, Perplexity prefers Yahoo, MarketWatch and CNN
• Mayo Clinic, Yelp, Tripadvisor and Coursera are considered highly authoritative in the fields of health care, dining, travel and education respectively
• Perplexity and Google don’t exactly see eye to eye when it comes to e-commerce. Both use Wikipedia and Amazon, but for third-party product reviews, Google uses Quora and Consumer Reports. Reddit is once again the site of choice for Perplexity.

Some sources are obtained through paid partnerships, while others are obtained through open networks. Regardless, Yu sees this as an example of “waterfront real estate,” where a generation of AI engines must strike deals with online communities to obtain the training data their models need. Just look at Reddit’s pre-IPO licensing deal with Google, and Yelp’s partnership with Perplexity.

confusion on the move

BrightEdge’s report follows Perplexity’s announcement that it will soon display brand ads in its search results. The AI-powered search engine company will display native ads within relevant questions, allowing advertisers to influence what is displayed for subsequent queries. Such a move would appear to run counter to the company’s claim on its website that search should be “uninfluenced by an ad-driven model,” but Perplexity’s chief commercial officer Dmitry Shevelenko told AdWeek that advertising has “always been part of our approach.” Will build a great business. “

If this goes beyond native advertising or sponsorship issues, could there be a Google AdWords-like product on Perplexity? While still far from scale, this could make AI applications more like Google and attract more interest from digital marketers.

Search advice for marketers

Perplexity’s growth after one year of existence shows that artificial intelligence won’t necessarily disrupt web traffic or make people rethink Google search marketing. Instead, Google’s lead will once again be solidified once SGE comes out of beta sometime this year, probably before Google I/O. “Never underestimate Google,” Yu declared. “[It’s] Very dominant in referral traffic. “

However, based on research from BrightEdge, he offers the following insights:

• Identify the areas in which you have the greatest expertise from a subject perspective. Where do you have the power to win with your content? In the past, SEO involved optimizing for a few keywords.But now, Yu suggests optimizing dialogue. One response will trigger a subsequent query as well as another response, so make sure your website has all relevant content.
• Make sure your website has structured information for AI search engines. Metadata is used because it hints to the AI ​​where the content comes from, who the author is, etc.; additionally, it provides an easy way for the model to label and cite the source of the information it extracts. If you’ve done your SEO well, this shouldn’t be a problem.
• Consider breaking down silos within your organization. Yu explained that the AI ​​experience glues everything together, so network optimization requires help from everyone on the team, regardless of department.

It’s worth noting that this report doesn’t suggest that Perplexity is a better marketing tool than Google. Instead, Yu urged businesses to prepare, saying the young startup’s snapshot showed it “shows the beginning of other search models.” He elaborates that we can ask questions on Perplexity, ask Google for help shopping or planning a trip, and then use OpenAI’s ChatGPT to learn how to purchase a billing system. “You have to be prepared for a world with multiple AI engines,” Yu said.

“AI-first engines are steadily gaining ground and carving out their own niche, making it critical for the marketing community to master multiple search platforms. There is so much revenue that needs to be left behind, which is why we track these engines closely and the evolution of everything in AI search—from traffic trends and queries to result quality and more.”