In recent years, Artificial Intelligence has emerged as a disruptive technology, as it has transformed the business equations worldwide. Whether B2B or B2C marketers, all have to rely on AI Chatbots to retain their market position. The message is clear: Shape up or ship out! The facts and stats given in this blog post echo this very thought and suggest that marketers brainstorm a fresh and AI-centric SEO strategy.
The Rise of AI Platforms: Facts and Stats
With Artificial Intelligence engulfing its digital presence worldwide, even search engines succumb to the rising adoption of AI platforms for product searches.
- Research conducted by Adobe revealed that AI search has become a crucial mode to garner traffic for retailers. The report opined a 1300% rise in AI search referrals during the 2024 holiday season compared to the year 2023. Cyber Monday alone witnessed a staggering hike of 1950%
- AI’s Consumer adoption for online shopping has also increased significantly in the UK, where 25% of Britons have confided in AI for online shopping
- Adobe predicts a remarkable 32% rise in the direct visits to retail sites through AI recommendations as compared to traditional search engines.
- According to Bain research, 80% of customers use AI-generated content for over 40% of their searches.
- People in large numbers use AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity to get relevant information instead of using search engines
- As users today prefer to search for product suggestions through AI chatbots, product content is the new trend in AI citations.
The significance of product content in AI citations
A recent AI search study has revealed that product content accounted for 70% of AI search citations. The research was conducted for more than 12 weeks by XFunnel and tracked 76,800 citations across multiple search engines.
The motive was to find out the types of content that the AI tools cite more often when responding to user prompts. Interestingly, product content accounts for up to 70% of all the referenced sources. While this information is a red alert for SEO professionals to tweak their SEO strategy, it also guides how marketers should create content amid the voluminous surge in AI searches
Here is the breakdown of the research:
What About the Citation Patterns?
Depending on the buyer journey, the AI platforms mentioned varied content types:
Top of Funnel (Unbranded)
Product content topped the race of early-stage content with 56% as compared to research and news content, which accounted for 13%-15%. Educating targeted customers about the business domain is passé now. The message is loud and clear – Come straight to the product if you are promoting a so far unbranded product.
Middle of Funnel (Branded)
This stage witnessed a slight dip with 46% product citations during AI searches. User reviews and affiliate content increased to 14%. This highlights the way AI engines prefer outside opinions for comparison searches, especially for branded products.
Bottom of Funnel
After a momentary slump to 46%, product content peaked again in this funnel stage with 70% of citations. The rest of other content types witnessed a fall below 10%.
Message for SEO Professionals and Content Creators
Focusing on content in the following categories would be worthwhile
- Product specifications
- Comparisons
- Best of lists
- Vendor details
These categories received the highest citation rates during the study.
Key Insights
Here are the other crucial takeaways for SEO and Content experts in spite of the surge in demand for product content at the top and bottom of the funnel.
- Even if you are writing content for the beginner or awareness stage, provide detailed product information.
- Overhaul your content strategy regarding blogs, PR content and educational content
- Include product-focused material in your content at all funnel stages, whether top, middle or bottom
- When writing content for websites, B2B marketers should furnish detailed product information
- B2C markets also need to devise a foolproof strategy to encourage the inflow of genuine online reviews.
- B2B marketers should prioritize solid product information on their own websites. B2C marketers need strategies that also encourage quality third-party reviews.
Lessons Learnt
To conclude, large language models give importance to credible, trustworthy, and detailed product content. If the material is for the awareness or decision stage, including core technical information becomes even more crucial. This will result in a significant boost in AI-generated citations of your products.
For marketers, understanding AI citation patterns is extremely indispensable if they wish to increase their visibility in online searches. While search engines are still proactive, AI platforms have given another solid medium to display their products and win loyal customers.
After all, people are now gradually shifting to AI prompts instead of typing keywords on search engines.
