SEO or Search Engine Optimization is an integral part of any businesses digital marketing strategy. There are certain benefits to SEO that Paid Google Ads and Social Media Marketing can’t provide.

The underlying theory behind SEO is remains constant. Search engines want to provide the best user experience possible for those conducting a search, and prioritizes the search results accordingly. The role of search optimization, is to present your website to Google Search, in a way that it will be viewed as a relevant and useful to those conducting a search.

Google relies on certain algorithms to determine which websites to prioritize in search results. Google is constantly looking to upgrade the user experience in Google Search, so it is constantly updates it’s search algorithm.

Some Google Search Algorithm are minor, and may have had a limited impact on your websites organic ranking. However, recent changes in both Google Search and Googles Search Algorithm have been significant, leading many people to question “Is SEO Dead in 2024”

Is SEO Dead in 2024?

If you do a Google Search for that exact question, you will get over 65,000,000 results. So if you’ve noticed a change in your websites Google Organic Ranking recently, you aren’t alone.

The answer to whether “Is SEO dead in 2024” is a little more nuanced. The “Cliff Notes” answer in most cases is that while SEO is not dead, it has become more challenging.

Below are some of the changes in Google Search that can impact the organic traffic your website generates.

1) AI Overview - Instead of Google and Bing presenting website listings in response to search queries, they are now providing their own AI generated answers based on content from multiple websites. Often, these AI generated answers can take up half of the screen in search results.

So if your goal was to rank in the “first page” of Google, that “first page” is now half a page, making it much more difficult to show up prominently in organic search. While AI Overview may currently have a limited impact on your organic traffic, it will likely become a bigger factor as Google’s AI improves.

2) Authenticity - In 2023 website content managers discovered AI; utilizing AI to generate content and blogs. While this was effective for a while, it flooded the internet with low quality AI generated content.

In 2024, the table has turned, Google has gotten much better at detecting AI generated content, and has been cracking down on it. At best, it won’t improve your organic rankings, at worst, your website will be penalized for it.

3) Expertise - Google values articles from authors that are experts on the topics being discussed. There are a variety of signals Google uses to establish expertise. In order for your website to perform well on organic search, it is important to establish expertise on subjects related to your website.

4) Authority - While this isn’t new, and SEO practices used in the past to improve authority are still relevant (for example; high quality backlinks), Google now gives top priority to UGC, or user generated content.

If you have recently noticed websites like Quora and Reddit dominating Google Organic Search results, it is part of Google’s intentional strategy to prioritize UGC.

So Is SEO dead in 2024?

While algorithm’s have changed, and in some cases SEO has gotten more difficult, there are ways to optimize your website to conform with the algorithm updates.

For a review of your websites SEO and/or digital marketing, reach out to O2 Consulting.