Google updates, self-favoritism, preference for specific website types, and AI Overviews are the main threats to SEO in 2024, according to a recent survey.
About the survey
SEO consultant Aleyda Solis surveyed 337 SEO professionals between July 21 and August 21, gathering their responses to determine what they consider the biggest threats to SEO in 2024.
The survey reveals compelling insights, industry trends, and the main SEO challenges for small to medium businesses.
Solis said:
- “Many of these findings align with my own experiences, though there were also a few unexpected trends.”
Significant threats to SEO 2024
According to the survey, Google updates, self-favoritism, preferences of certain websites (e.g., big brands and user-generated content), and AI Overviews are the top SEO threats in 2024.
SEO study key insights
The study’s results show that SEO professionals believe Google favors user-generated content, its services/features, and AI Overviews, in that order, over small independent sites:
Here are the results:
- 52% – Google updates favoring certain types of sites (e.g., UGC, big brands) in their SERPs
- 48% – Google favoring their own features/services over external sites
- 41% – Google AI Overviews
- 37% – Adoption of LLMs to search instead of Google
- 32% – AI Personalization of Google Search Results
- 28% – Adoption of social platforms to search (e.g., TikTok)
- 20% None of these are a real threat to SEO in the next year
Combating the threats
Besides asking SEO professionals what they think the most significant threats are, the survey also asked them what steps they will take to combat them.
Here are the strategies SEOs are focusing on:
- Improving the quality of their content by ensuring it is helpful, valuable, engaging, and high-quality based on their audience’s needs.
- Implementing their E-E-A-T, which refers to their experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust, is a guideline Google advocates and one that serves its search requirements for AI Overviews.
- Diversify their site traffic by ensuring it is independent of one source.
Looking forward
Google’s Danny Sullivan recently advised site owners experiencing ranking problems due to Google’s 2023 helpful content update to use all these strategies.
Danny said to think beyond Google and focus on building a relevant audience, diversifying your traffic sources, and creating quality content that serves your audience’s needs.
So, while the survey highlights the major threats many small independent site owners and SEO professionals are experiencing, the cure remains the same.
