On December 6th, Google officially launched its new AI model, Google Gemini, causing a shockwave across the SEO community.
But will this AI model be enough for Google to catch up to OpenAI’s Chat GPT and cement itself as the leader in AI-assisted SEO?
TL;DR:
- Google has launched a new AI model called Gemini which will more directly compete with ChatGPT. Gemini has three sizes – Ultra, Pro, and Nano – for different uses. Initial tests show Gemini exceeds ChatGPT in areas like reasoning ability and providing relevant, contextual responses.
- Gemini could enable more conversational interactions and direct answers in Google Search results, reducing the need to click on links. This may threaten organic traffic to websites.
- However, experts think search will still show links, so SEOs must adapt strategies. Key impacts include greater emphasis on multimedia optimisation, voice search, personalisation and raising relevance benchmarks.
- Challenges for SEOs include potential traffic declines, more competition and pressure on budgets. But opportunities exist, too – richer user experiences, first-mover advantages, better ROI despite lower volumes, and demand for advanced skills.
- As Gemini advances, SEOs must focus on conversational interfaces, voice search, multimedia content, website speed and quality unique content. Though the future is unclear, SEOs who adapt quickly to leverage AI tools will gain a competitive advantage.
What is Google Gemini?
Google Gemini is Google’s largest and most capable AI model. It has been built from the ground up by Google DeepMind to be a “multi-modal” system – meaning it can understand and generate text, images, audio, video, and code.
Overview of Google Gemini
Before comparing and analysing Gemini with Chat GPT, let’s briefly review its overview.
Google Gemini sizes
To meet flexible usage needs, Google says this Gemini 1.0 will be offered in three different sizes:
- Gemini Ultra: Largest and most powerful model optimised for highly complex tasks
- Gemini Pro: General purpose model good at scaling across tasks
- Gemini Nano: Smaller model for efficient on-device deployment
Google Gemini Integrations
Google is currently (December 2023) bringing this AI model to market in a few ways:
- Bard Chatbot: Gemini Pro currently powers Google’s Bard chatbot, allowing for more advanced language understanding and reasoning than previous versions.
- Pixel Phones: Gemini Nano currently exists on the Pixel 8 Pro phone to support new features like Recorder summarisation and Smart Replies in Gboard.
Additionally, Google says it has started testing Gemini in Search, making SGE faster. In 2024, they will also bring Gemini Ultra to a new Bard Advanced experience and other features.
Gemini vs ChatGPT
Chat GPT stunned the world with its advanced natural language capabilities. Before comparing Gemini and ChatGPT, let me briefly introduce ChatGPT:
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Introduce ChatGPT
Created and launched by OpenAI in November 2022, ChatGPT is a conversational AI system trained on massive datasets via Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF).
So It can understand natural language queries and respond with coherent, creative answers.
These functionalities have made SEO experts ponder over ChatGPT’s potential influence. For instance, ChatGPT could be used to:
- Optimise website content
- Research keywords and topics
- Generate meta descriptions and titles
- Answer customer queries
However, ChatGPT still faces limitations in understanding context and user intent. This can lead to incorrect or biased responses, which impact utility.
Compare Google Gemini and ChatGPT
Without going any further, Google has rigorously self-tested its Gemini models and rated their performance on a variety of tasks with Chat GPT on a Benchmark scale:
The results show Gemini is a multimodal system designed to excel in reasoning and contextual response generation. Gemini seems well-poised to address ChatGPT’s shortcomings.
Google also claims Gemini exhibits more robust contextual handling and relevant responses to natural language queries.
If these capabilities translate well to search, Gemini, as part of SGE, could enable Google to provide searchers with:
- Comprehensive answers to questions in the SERPs
- Better conversational interactions
- Personalised responses tailored to context and intent
- Tighter integration of text, images, and videos in results
Some examples of Gemini’s power
If the statistics aren’t convincing enough, here’s exactly what you need to get a clearer view.
The first is multimodal capabilities:
The second is the ability to reason with a challenging physics exercise:
The third is the ability to code:
This is a hugely ambitious project by Google. With Gemini, Google is stepping closer to making Bard the world’s most capable AI assistant across science, finance, and especially SEO.
Potential for Collaboration
Both have distinct pros and cons, so rather than Gemini or ChatGPT, using both models to complement each other would maximise value.
A short example: You could use Gemini for research and planning, then use ChatGPT to write and optimise initial drafts.
Google Gemini’s Impact on SEO Strategies
Gemini’s unveiling has left SEOs wondering how it will influence SEO strategies. Here are some of the projected impacts based on analysis and research by leading SEO experts and features of Gemini
- Shift in SERP Features: With Gemini in the mix, SERPs could move further towards providing direct answers and conversational interactions for search queries. This might reduce the presence of traditional organic links.
- Increasing Multimedia Optimization Needs: As a multimodal system, Gemini is expected to promote a richer integration of images, videos, and audio in the SERPs. Optimising multimedia elements may thus gain priority.
- Higher Relevance Benchmark: Gemini’s contextual competence means search engines can discern relevance far more precisely. Websites failing to offer relevant content tailored explicitly to user intent may risk declines in organic visibility.
- Voice Search Growth: With conversational capabilities in the pipeline, Gemini will likely spur greater voice search adoption. Voice optimisation areas like speakable schema markup and audio content may gain precedence accordingly.
- Greater Personalization: Gemini’s ability to tailor responses to individual user needs hints at more personalised SERPs in future. This demands that SEOs develop content that resonates across diverse searcher demographics.
Challenges and Opportunities for SEO in the Age of Google Gemini
For SEO’s, Gemini brings exciting opportunities accompanied by some potential hurdles.
Navigating Potential SEO Roadblocks with Google Gemini
Here are some likely pain points that may confront SEOs:
- Organic Traffic Declines: If the SERPs shift towards providing direct answers without linking to websites, organic visibility and site traffic could drop unless strategies are adjusted.
- Increased Competition: With Gemini raising relevance benchmarks, competition for ranking organically will intensify significantly. Website content will need to reflect rigorous optimisation best practices to rank.
- Budget & Resources Pressures: Competing in the age of Gemini could require more significant financial budgets and talent resources to implement cutting-edge multimedia and conversational content optimisation.
- Ongoing Flux: Rapid AI advancements mean SEO best practices will likely fluctuate. This demands agility from SEO teams to keep strategies updated in perpetual flux.
Prospects for SEO Professionals with the Advent of Google Gemini
Despite these challenges, Gemini also introduces some positive developments:
- Richer User Experiences: Gemini elevates the quality of search interactions. For SEOs, this translates into opportunities to deliver more prosperous, more satisfying user experiences through multimedia and conversational content.
- First-Mover Advantages: Brands racing to implement Gemini-aligned SEO strategies earliest can gain significant first-mover perks through greater organic visibility and lower competition.
- More significant ROI: Even if overall organic traffic declines initially, higher relevance benchmarks mean the residual traffic converts better. This can improve ROI from SEO despite lower volumes.
- Higher Value Skills: SEOs developing expertise in emerging capabilities like voice search, conversational interfaces, and multimedia optimisation will become hugely valuable.
Future of SEO with Google Gemini
As a futuristic AI marvel, Google Gemini is likely to usher in a transformative era for SEO in the coming years.
Predicting the Long-term SEO Trends Influenced by Google Gemini and AI
Here are some fundamental shifts on the SEO horizon stemming from Gemini’s capabilities:
- Conversational interfaces will become ubiquitous across search platforms, mobile apps, smart speakers, chatbots and websites. Optimising for casual interactions will be crucial.
- Voice search enhancement will gain priority to align with conversational interface growth. Speakable schema markup adoption will rise accordingly.
- With Gemini’s multimodal competence, multimedia SEO will inevitability gain precedence. Static text content will no longer suffice.
- Greater personalisation means content needs to appeal to diverse demographics. Persona-focused content creation strategies will thus thrive.
- Website speed and technical SEO will endure as vital ranking factors helping search bots crawl pages faster.
- Increased competition will make creating quality content that ensures EEAT and uniqueness a must. Generative AI may aid ideation.
- Agile SEO strategies continuously adapted to constant AI-induced shifts will separate winners from losers.
Preparing for Future Google Gemini Updates
As Google incorporates Gemini’s capabilities incrementally, SEOs need to gear up by:
- Actively upskilling in multimedia content creation, including podcast, video, and interactive media optimisation.
- Brush up on voice search best practices around speakable schema markup, audio content, intonation, and pronunciation.
- Developing conversational content approaches across chatbots, mobile apps, web interfaces and voice assistants.
- Strengthening brand identity and messaging to thrive in an era of personalised engagement.
- Tracking Google algorithm updates for signals on how Gemini impacts ranking factors.
- Optimising website architecture elements like site speed, crawl ability, security and technical SEO.
- Budgeting for necessary talent, resources and tools to undertake Gemini optimisation.
Conclusion
Google Gemini is showing that it can catch up to Chat GPT. However, it’s too early to declare a winner between Google and OpenAI, but one thing is clear – AI is revolutionising how we approach SEO.
Businesses and professionals must adapt strategies and leverage these powerful tools to thrive in an ever-evolving search landscape.
Get a free proposal and strategy recommendation at Contactora if you need help optimising the power of Google Gemini and AI tools to achieve your marketing goals.
