Hey there, my friend, welcome to episode 330 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.
Thanks for leading me your ears right now – I know you have lots of other things you could be doing or listening to – so I appreciate you.
Did you get a chance to listen in to my first episode of 2025 – the Happy New Year one? Or maybe you’ve tuned into the summer series which was a rerun of some of your favourite episodes? If not, then feel free to back track after listening in today!
Before I get started though, just a nudge to remember that I have a free webinar coming up on the 20th of January from 1 pm to 2 pm NSW Time that’s all about the things you need to know about marketing in 2025.
Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/marketing2025Jenn
One just topic that will be talked about in the webinar is the one I am going to chat about today – Google! And more specifically something you may have noticed that’s changed in your google search results – and that’s the Google AI Overviews that are sitting at the top of google search once you’ve searched!
Have you noticed them?
They are at the top – before any other search results, google is giving you it’s generative AI search results to, and these are their words “take the legwork out of searching”.
It was first rolled out in the US but it’s here in Australia now and I’ve been watching with anticipation and dread!
As someone doing a google search, it can be fabulous. The AI is finding the answer for me. Saves me clicking on websites to maybe or maybe not find the answer I am looking for.
And there lies the actual issue for us business owners – I don’t have to look, scroll or click – the answer is there, generated by AI for me.
And there’s a little bit of dread in that for us content creators. We don’t really want Google to take the “legwork” out of searching, we actually want people to scroll and click on our website to get the answer!
But before you kick the cat, let’s go a little deeper. And maybe you could do some google searching (obviously you need to be using google and not safari or Bing etc) and see if the Google AI Overview comes up for your search.
So, if I Google, what to buy my Mum for her 80th (and that’s a real search for me – my MIL is 80 this year!), it’s not going to give me a Google AI Overview search – not yet anyway! The question is not definitive – the answers are too variable and therefore my search will look as it always has – sponsored ads, google shopping and websites to explore to find the perfect gift.
BUT, if I google What’s new in marketing in 2025, it is going to give me an AI Overview, but the good news is with this question, it’s also going to give me the source link – which means I have a chance to get the click to my website if I have the right content on it.
PS – the answers to that question in Google’s AI Overview is so boring and so generic, I hope people would scroll down to find some more realistic, on the ground, answers.
But I digress.
A third example I wanted to give was if you typed into google “how do I make potatoes sprout” – then the generative AI given as the search result is probably the only thing you need to read. The answer is almost definitive and therefore scrolling to find 7 more techniques to make your potatoes sprout is probably not something you will do. In other words, all those websites with the answer to this question, will no longer get the click because you have the answer from google at the top of your feed with not much effort or “legwork!”.
I don’t want to say it too loudly in case Google hears, but it kind of feels like we, the content creators, have spent years and years providing Google our expertise, knowledge and bits for it to now use it against us a little.
But that’s AI right – Google’s just doing what ChatGPT has been doing for a few years now – but it’s a little more obvious when the search engine gives us the result and we then carrying on with our life!
Google is, quite clearly, doing what we are all trying to do in business, and that’s serve its customer and give them exactly what they are looking for – in Google’s case the answer is the fastest, simplest way.
We could all learn from that! Again!
So, what does it mean for your content then – for being found on Google – how do you get the clicks to your website via google searches?
Well, you might need to up your game a little or start playing the game!
When we do a google search, there’s a section labelled “People also ask” – seen that?
There’s also a section down the bottom of a google search labelled “People also search for”
These are your Google gold for 2025.
Starting doing some search – what are the answers until both these headings in your niche? Do you have answers for these on your website? If someone physically google [insert one of the questions or search titles] would your website have any hope of appear with the answer?
There are three answers right.
No – well that’s your job now to create some content around this – content being social posts, google business posts, blogs, etc
Maybe – well if you’re not sure throw your content into Ai – like ChatGPT – and ask it to help you make the content into a yes – you might need to change the headline, H1 tag, schema or whatever to help it be a yes – this could be a quick job or a little longer, depending on the content you already have.
Yes. Great – but I still think it’s worth doing the process under “Maybe” and seeing if you could improve it.
Remember with Google, it’s doesn’t punish AI content, it punishes bad content with lower rankings – so don’t be afraid to help an AI program help you develop this type of content.
My podcast friend, AI is changing so much so quickly, and we do need to keep up to date with it and change our marketing and content creation habits.
I feel like we haven’t been this disrupted since social media and business got married and we all realised we could reach our audience on social media. That was tough right – it was hard, different, sometimes difficult and it took us outside our comfort zones, and we have to be challenged and learn new things.
This is the next evolution of that – AI is that next thing that will make us feel uncomfortable, will take us outside our comfort zone and will make us need to learn new things and do marketing and business a different way. And that’s okay. It’s exciting.
AI, if you embrace it, will make your business life simpler – in fact could make your actual life simpler too!
So, your to do list from listening in to this is to go to google, start typing in some key phrases, questions and/or keywords your ideal client would use to find the answer in your niche and start building content around those answers.
Of course, if you are intrigued about this and other ways of marketing in 2025, come along to my free webinar on January 20th at 1 pm NSW time – here’s the link again: https://bit.ly/marketing2025Jenn
Thanks for tuning in – appreciate you. Here’s to Google helping you grow your business in 2025!
If you’re not already a member, come join my Facebook Group – Like Minded Business Owners. And if you are a member, ask a question, do a post, use it as your community too!
I’ll be back next Thursday with some more marketing know-how in episode 331.
If you’re enjoying this podcast, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode and share this with a friend. And maybe leave me a rating and a review wherever you listen in. Those things are like gold for podcasters like me! PS – you can leave more than one rating and review – just saying!
If we aren’t hanging out on social media then let’s get social on social – you’ll find me on Instagram, Facebook, and my fav LinkedIn.
But whatever you do,
…….. remember small business peep, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!
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