October 2024 SEO Updates That Impact Your Marketing Strategy

A new month means a new slew of changes in SEO World, and October 2024 was no different! We know staying informed on every little update and change to organic search can be challenging, especially as some of Google’s latest changes flew under the radar to most. No worries, though, that’s why the BFO team stays ahead of the trends for our clients (and to make sure we’re as up-to-speed as humanly possible). 

With recent developments affecting everything from Google’s search interface to shopping personalization, it’s important for businesses to understand how these changes may impact their strategies, as well as what they can do to overcome them. Here’s a roundup of important updates you might have missed this October:

Google Retires Sitelinks Search Box

Google is retiring the Sitelinks Search Box feature on November 21, 2024. We have to admit, this one feels like closing the final chapter of a good book, since it has been around for more than 10 years. However, Google makes decisions based on data, and usage of this search element has been on the decline for years. 

If you are not familiar, the tool allowed users to perform site-specific searches directly from Google’s search results since 2014 (see visual).

Impact: This change will appear globally across all languages and countries. Google is assuring that removing this feature will not impact search rankings or other sitelinks, and the rich results report for this feature in Google Search Console will be removed. Finally, existing structured data related to this search box does not need to be removed by webmasters. However, if you do decide to remove it, please note that WebSite structured data continues to be supported.

Google Shopping's AI Enhancements

Google recently upgraded Google Shopping with AI-powered features that make product discovery more personalized to users. Leveraging advanced AI, the platform now provides recommendations based on users' preferences and search behaviors, adding tools like styling suggestions and product insights. Along with product listings, you will see AI briefs based on your search queries that give context to which products Google has displayed from sources around the web.

Also, these enhancements will feature a virtual try-on feature, powered by generative AI and AR shopping tools to help you shop more confidently. Additionally, users will now see a feed when they click on the shopping tab that suggests a variety of products based on past searches, or previously viewed items.

Impact: These updates aim to create a more tailored experience that helps users make better shopping choices, potentially benefiting brands by connecting their products with the right audiences. From a SEO perspective, we anticipate keywords becoming a more important tactic for product listings. For example, Google is catering to application based searches like “good shoes for trail running”.

The AI model is sophisticated at gathering product results that have these keywords in the product description, or within the reviews.You can see in the preview below in the “top recommendations” section that keyword statements about product features are now being brought in as product titles. This evidence shows the importance of optimizing product descriptions. Bonus points if you include content that targets the AI overview section above the product listings.

Ads on Google Activity Cards

Google has introduced ads into its Activity Cards, which help users continue previous searches. These ads are customized to users’ search history and are positioned at the top of the Activity Cards. 

Impact: This addition gives brands increased visibility and engagement, as ads aligned with users’ past searches improve relevancy and potential clickthrough rates. This is great news for advertisers since there is now another way of serving ads to people. Also, these ads will be appearing based on search queries that align with your offering.

Key SEO Changes to Watch

October also brought additional updates in SEO best practices. With more and more AI-integration in search, SEO experts recommend staying up-to-date on Google's handling of structured data, with particular attention to Core Web Vitals for page speed and user experience improvements. 

Impact: With AI-generated content guidelines evolving and data privacy requirements intensifying, it’s essential to keep SEO strategies both current to best practices and competitive within your business’ market. Key AI SEO practices are still relevant such as focusing on structured data and site speed, but it is very important to incorporate AI thinking into your content strategies. For example, have you been ignoring long tail keywords and question based keywords? These keywords are very prevalent in AI Overviews, and are a relatively low lift to incorporate into existing pages. 

Spending time doing searches yourself and seeing how AI generates its overviews will start getting you in the mindset to produce content recommendations that can increase your exposure in those sections. Finally, with the AI Overviews section becoming more prominent, you need to start thinking about how it is affecting website clicks. You can expect organic website clicks to drop as Google doubles down on AI, but luckily new tools like the AI tools in SEMRush are giving us a bit more visibility into our performance in AI Overviews.

What Do These Changes Mean for Now?

Ultimately, these updates reflect Google’s ongoing push toward a more personalized, efficient search experience, all while enhancing opportunities for ad engagement - all great things when trying to create the most meaningful buying journey possible for a potential customer! Staying informed and agile (with the help of digital marketers and SEO experts) can help you and your teams make the most of these changes in the coming months.

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