5 Strategies to Outperform Your Competition by Leveraging the Future of Search

1. Embrace the Power of Data

In a rapidly evolving search landscape, understanding data is no longer just a best practice, it’s essential for survival. By leveraging data insights, you can predict upcoming trends and adapt your SEO strategy to stay ahead of the curve.

Here’s how to leverage data to future-proof your SEO:

• Embrace the Generative AI revolution: Recognize that AI and generative AI, like GPT-3, Gemini, and SGE (Search Generative Experience), are fundamentally changing search, revolutionizing the search experience beyond simple keyword matches to conversational journeys. View this as an opportunity to innovate and not a threat to be ignored.
• Stay informed about search behavioral shifts: Understand that traditional search is transforming into a conversational experience. Users are engaging in journeys of exploration and discovery, and search results are becoming more dynamic and interactive –  your content needs to adapt to this change.
• Follow the conversation: Actively monitor and analyze search conversations to predict user intent and identify emerging trends. Tools like Google’s SGE can provide valuable insights into how users are searching and interacting with information.

By understanding the data and adapting to the changing landscape, you can position your website for long-term success in the era of conversational search. Remember, search is a conversation, and those who can participate will thrive. By embracing data and becoming active participants in the conversation, we can ensure our content remains relevant, informative, and at the forefront of the ever-changing search landscape.

“To win in SGE you have to be part of the conversion” – Jon Earnshaw, Chief Product Evangelist and Co-Founder of Pi Datametrics

2. Stay Agile and Adapt as you go

The search landscape is dynamic and ever-changing, making it crucial to adapt and remain agile in your SEO strategy. Today’s top performers might not be tomorrow’s leaders, as new features and user behaviors emerge.

Here’s how to embrace agility:

• Look into the future: Don’t just focus on current trends, anticipate the future by exploring conversational equivalents of your target searches. Prepare for the inevitable dominance of conversational search and SGE.
• Embrace new opportunities: With the evolution of search, new digital real estate opens up. Utilizing tools like Pi’s Search Radar will allow you to visualise search terms and identify the presence of new SERP features like conversational search formats.
• Continuously learn: Stay updated on the latest developments in search by studying successful competitors and analyzing their strategies. Utilize tools like Pi’s Competitor Discovery to identify new competitors and their visibility index scores.

By embracing agility and adapting to the changing search landscape, you can future-proof your SEO strategy and stay ahead of the competition. Remember, the key is to be proactive, not reactive, and capitalize on the opportunities that lie ahead.

Looking for more content on AI in SEO? Check out the blog post below.

Recommended reading: Generative AI and what it means for the future of SEO

3. Learn from Your Competitor’s SERP success

Don’t underestimate the power of learning from your competitor’s SERP success. By analyzing historical data and current trends, you can gain valuable insights into what’s working and what’s not in the search landscape.

Here’s how to leverage competitor data:

• Track competitor performance over time: Utilize tools like Pi’s Competitor Discovery or Visibility Index to see which websites have improved or declined in ranking for your target keywords over a specific period (e.g., 6 months). This can reveal valuable insights into their SEO strategies and how algorithm shifts have affected them.
• Uncover the “why” behind their success: Analyze their content and identify what might be contributing to their rise. Are they creating comprehensive content pieces focusing on long-tail keywords? Or are they embracing new conversational formats like those predicted to appear in SGE?
• Prepare for the future: Don’t just focus on “what” your competitors are doing, but also “why” and “how” it might impact the future landscape. 
• Compare with your competitors: Utilize Pi’s competitive discovery tools alongside visibility data to benchmark your performance against your competitors. Analyze their historical fluctuations and identify their strengths and weaknesses to gain valuable insights into your own strategy, and where you can improve.

By actively learning from your competitors’ successes and failures, you can identify opportunities to improve your own strategy and stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving world of search. Staying informed and proactive will be key to outperforming your competition in the future.

💡Tip: Pi’s Competitor Discovery tool allows you to identify your top 10 competitors based on SERP visibility, along with the percentage of keyword rankings they hold for each search term position.

Example:

We analyzed 1000 keywords related to “best tech” in August 2023 using Competitor Discovery. The data revealed techradar.com and expertreviews.co.uk as the clear leaders, followed by independent.co.uk and tomsguide.com.

Image source: Pi’s Competitor Discovery 

Fast forward 6 months to February 2023 – we can see that the SERP landscape has shifted. While techradar.com and expertreviews.co.uk maintain their dominance, tomsguide.com and pcmag.com have made significant gains in their rankings. Interestingly, independent.co.uk and goodhousekeeping.com have lost SERP visibility.

Image source: Pi’s Competitor Discovery

4. Gain a Granular Understanding of Your Visibility

Understanding your own website’s visibility is crucial for staying ahead in the ever-changing search landscape. While traditional SEO tools provide valuable insights, going granular can truly give you an edge.

Here’s how to get granular with your visibility:

• Leverage daily data: Tools like Pi’s Visibility Index provides daily data updates, allowing you to track fluctuations and identify potential impacts on your performance. Remember, a week in search can be a long time, so staying up-to-date offers you a critical advantage.
• Go beyond the surface: Don’t just monitor your current performance. Rewind historical data (ideally 12 months or more) to gain context and understand the “why” behind your website’s visibility trends. This can reveal the impact of both algorithm updates and shifts in user behavior.
• Focus on quality signals: Remember, visibility is directly linked to traffic and revenue. Quality signals like E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) are critical ranking factors. By ensuring your website upholds these qualities, you’ll be better positioned to benefit from core updates and maintain visibility in the long run.

By getting granular with your visibility, you can gain a deeper understanding of your website’s performance and the landscape around you. This empowers you to be able to make informed decisions, adapt your strategy, and stay ahead of the curve in the dynamic world of SEO.

5. Get Inside the Mind of the Searcher

Understanding searcher intent is crucial for SEO success. By understanding the intent of your audience, you can craft content and user journeys that resonate with their needs, questions, and potential purchases.

Here’s how to get inside the mind of the searcher:

• Analyze “People Also Ask” SERP features: Tools like Pi’s People Also Ask Explorer reveals the additional questions searchers are asking alongside their main search queries, allowing you to better understand your audience’s needs and pain points. 
• Utilize search term discovery tools: Tools like Pi’s Search Term Discovery  help you build targeted keyword datasets and understand user intent to drive targeted traffic to your website. Aligning content with intent is a proven way to increase SERP visibility and therefore revenue.
• Get granular with search matrices: Pi’s Search Matrix provides a deeper understanding of the content users are consuming by showing you which SERP features are visible for each search term – uncovering gaps in your current content, and identifying opportunities to compete for prime digital real estate.

By combining these techniques, you can gain valuable insights into user intent, search behavior, and content consumption patterns. This empowers you to create content that addresses their needs and will earn clicks in the SERP. As search features change, the way people search is changing too. 

💡Tip: Pi’s Search Term Discovery tool allows you to step inside your audience’s mind by identifying the questions they’re asking. This makes it easy to attract new customers by tailoring your content strategy to answer their needs.

Example:
Using “get fit” as our seed term, Pi’s Search Term Discovery tool reveals valuable insights including search intent, which SERP features are present, estimated search volume, and search trends over time. 

Image source: Pi’s Search Term Discovery Tool

Final Thoughts

Gone are the days of simple keyword searches. Today’s search landscape is a dynamic, data-driven ecosystem in constant flux. This shift demands a more nuanced approach to SEO, one that prioritizes understanding user intent and agility. 

By following the steps above, along with leveraging the power of Pi Datametrics, you can stay ahead of the competition in the ever-evolving landscape of search and achieve sustainable SEO success for years to come.