How to do SEO today: emerging on Google among AI, brands and socials
SEO is dead, long live SEO! The historic formula used to announce the succession in the French monarchy also fits well with the work of organic visibility research, all the more so because it also brings to mind another “topos” that never fails to pop up, namely the death of SEO. We are in a phase of transition from the old search engine optimization business to a near future that seems to increasingly take the form of SEO for AI that we have already described. Yet, this should not make us underestimate the present, which requires a much more strategic approach, one that is constantly evolving and attentive to an increasingly sophisticated set of variables. Google, for its part, is no longer the simple “list of results” we used to know, but incorporates authority metrics , takes social signals into account and has introduced concepts such as EEAT to measure the trust it places in sites. In short, doing SEO has become much more than optimizing a few keywords and hoping to get a good search engine ranking: having a good strategy today requires mastering a set of advanced tools that capitalize on the dynamic nature of the digital world, the evolution of SERPs, and the new possibilities provided by technological innovations.
SEO today in this transitional phase
Undaunted by the competition on Google and worried or hopeful about the coming evolutions, we are therefore in danger of underestimating the changes that have already taken place in SEO and that impose this paradigm shift.
To put it another way, doing SEO today is no longer just about keyword research and site optimization, but about overall strategy, technology and authority. Being competitive within this scenario means understanding not only the technology behind Google and its algorithms, but also grasping the opportunities offered by AI, which does not aim to replace content creators, but to empower them.
As highlighted by our CEO Ivano Di Biasi in his recent speech at Marketers World 2024, we can see how the dynamics driving search engines have changed to the point that Google’s trust in brands and content plays a decisive role. At the same time, digital platforms are constantly changing the rules of the game, evaluating for ranking content from social networks, generative AI and factors increasingly related to trust and perceived quality.
In the face of brands monopolizing the SERPs, one must understand that visibility is not achieved just by appearing among the top results, but by understanding how to adapt to the constant updates of Google, an engine that now integrates authority and trustworthiness into its algorithm like never before. Today, dominating SEO requires a holistic approach that combines artificial intelligence, advanced tools such as SEOZoom and a clear strategy aimed at maximizing the dialogue between content and users.
We are facing a constantly transforming SEO, where technological tools and brand relevance play a central role, and where every content creator has once unimaginable opportunities at his or her disposal – as long as he or she knows how to exploit them.
The goal remains maximizing visibility and conversions
The change involving SEO today is therefore not only bringing challenges, but also offering new opportunities for all those brands and creators who are ready to make the most of emerging technologies and adapt to the changing dynamics of SERPs. Success, in fact, is not just a matter of technical positioning or single keyword dominance: the real goal is to maximize visibility on multiple fronts and translate that increased visibility into concrete user action .
Brand relevance increasingly depends on the ability to build authority and generate an ongoing dialogue with the user, not only through optimized content, but through a consistent and recognizable presence across multiple platforms. By integrating new social signals and focusing more on trust metrics, Google reinforces this trend and rewards brands capable of demonstrating trustworthiness throughout the online user journey. This means that a piece of content must not only respond to generic queries, but must be able to build trust, positioning itself to respond to a full range of search intent.
In parallel, new technologies such asgenerative AI provide tools to optimize the structure of the content and also its resonance with the audience. Thanks to SEOZoom , for example, we can identify keyword clusters that can guarantee qualified traffic, intercepting users who are not just looking for information, but are ready to take specific actions . For example, generating content that addresses purchase intent or fills specific lead generation needs becomes an essential part of a holistic SEO strategy, in which visibility automatically translates into conversions.
In this context, multichannel SEO is another key lever. Social platforms, such as YouTube or TikTok, no longer just play the role of independent channels, but contribute directly to global SEO, placing their content in the top positions of Google. Social media , today, represent true discovery nodes for audiences and can extend organic visibility far beyond traditional search engine results. An effective multichannel approach therefore combines SEO and social in a synergy that amplifies the reach of content and enables brands to rank better-not only on Google, but at every stage of the user journey.
At the same time, we cannot underestimate the fact that visibility without conversions means little. Every brand or creator must build the conditions necessary for visibility to turn into tangible results: whether it is to increase sales, collect sign-ups or get qualified leads, the focus must aim to find not just visitors, but engaged users. Choosing strategic tools such asAI does not just improve content for SERPs, but can optimize call-to-actions and personalized interactions that directly impact the ability to drive audiences to final action.
Today’s SEO landscape is therefore not only more complex, but also rich in potential. True value emerges through our ability to adapt to these transformations and by choosing to use advanced technologies, multichannel strategies and both a technical and emotional approach that keeps the user’s needs at the center .
The Google situation: between brand, EEAT and static SERPs
In recent years, Google ‘s behavior has changed significantly, and today we can say that the search engine has become much lazier in deciding what content to reward, going for the best organic returns based onbrand authority and practically freezing the SERPs, the static nature of which prompts us to reevaluate our SEO strategies.
Brand is now an essential factor in ranking decisions by Google. Data in hand clearly show that sites belonging to the most influential brands enjoy an almost constant position of advantage. The monopolization of top positions by large domains is now a fact: as found by SEOZoom surveys, in sectors such as travel or food sites such as Booking, Tripadvisor and GialloZafferano hold more than 50 percent of the traffic generated for some of the top queries. This means that even with impeccable technical optimization, visibility for small or medium-sized competitors is greatly reduced.
The reason for this is to be found in a system that almost automatically “assigns the podium” to brands that already enjoy enormous authenticity and trust, i.e., those domains that Google perceives as highly trustworthy along four basic axes: experience, expertise, authority and reliability. EEAT is not just an abstract concept, but a real indicator of perceived value: the more a site can convince Google of its overall quality, the more likely it is to occupy the top positions permanently. And this leads to the stabilization of some major market players.
Traffic Share – an advanced metric available right on SEOZoom – shows that the top three results in SERPs capture, on average, 77 percent of the clicks related to a given query. The rest of the available traffic is distributed among the lower positions, which compete for extremely small portions of the “organic pie.” But there’s more: the static nature of SERPs further reduces visibility prospects for smaller players. Once at the top, certain domains maintain a steady leadership position. It is almost as if Google, once it has established its “confidence” in a small group of domains, rewards them with as much exposure as possible, while everyone else – our study still says – risks being excluded from the top positions in the long run.
The phenomenon of frozen SERPs is visible in almost all the domains analyzed, where the top players maintain their presence in TOP 3 virtually unchanged . For the majority of smaller sites, therefore, this translates into a continuous struggle to intercept the crumbs of traffic and, above all, attempt to climb the low positions, the only ones subject to more frequent rotation. Google almost seems to adopt a system of “rotation” for less authoritative pages, a kind of test in which, if you fail to prove yourself “up to” expectations in a short time, you are pushed back again.
All of this reinforces the idea that today’s SEO can no longer just rely on technical best practices or keyword hunting, but rather must focus on a job of building brand authority, aided by key factors such as perceived trust and the ability to consolidate one’s status not only on sites but also on external channels, such as social or media mentions.
This is why SEOZoom introducedi Opportunity Finder, which leverages intelligent algorithms to identify keyword clusters in which the big players, those firmly anchored at the top of the SERPs, fail to dominate outright. This opens windows of opportunity to rank well on new keywords, avoiding queries monopolized by industry heavyweights. SEOZoom thus helps us strategically navigate the world of SEO, avoiding head-on clashes against overly strong competitors and directing our focus to clusters where saturation has not yet been generated. It is a logic that goes beyond single keyword hunting: it is about presiding over themes, intercepting search intent , and building content based on data-driven insights that no traditional analytics would be able to detect so readily.
The evolution of SERPs and the entry of social
Next, an aspect that should not be underestimated is the fact that Google has also begun to include content from social platforms among its search results. This change, part of the search engine’s constant effort to better respond to new trends and habits of users, confirms to us that limiting ourselves to traditional SEO may no longer be enough.
Until recently, Google’s SERPs were dominated by classic results from Web pages: Creators had no chance of being visible on Google, because the search engine did not index content posted on social platforms, limiting itself to measuring signals such as the authority of a brand or famous people through the system of backlinks and mentions that the referring website received.
In the past two years, Google has decided to expand its ecosystem, starting to collect social signals and content from all existing platforms to measure the authority of brands, products, personalities and so on.
Most importantly, Creator content has become increasingly present in SERPs , regardless of the platform used. In fact, today we are increasingly seeing posts, videos and visual content from platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok emerge among the top positions.
Just to get an idea, with SEOZoom we found that more than 38 percent of searches – and thus more than one in three – feature content from a Social Network or YouTube in SERPs.
Even the classic comment “The content has gone viral” can then hide a different interpretive key: perhaps it simply ranked on Google and rose to prominence.
Theentry of social media into Google SERPs not only introduces a new type of competition, but opens a new trajectory for those seeking to stand out in a visibility environment dominated by established brands. Social offers the possibility of diversifying content and responding to micro-intent search queries with rapid and interactive formats, integrating seamlessly into the habits of users increasingly oriented toward dynamic content.
This phenomenon does not only affect sectors with a high rate of visual interaction: SEOZoom has noted how social platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube , obtain prominent positions in SERPs for keywords belonging to even more specific segments and with a strong informational implication, as in the case of tourism or recipes. This is because social media, with their ability to generate immediate interactions, manage to respond to the user’s search intent quickly and effectively, giving creators the opportunity to reach a wider audience even outside their native platforms.
And thus, every bit of the traffic pie available today via Google is split between traditional sites, videos from YouTube, viral posts, images, and user-generated content (UGC) platforms . This distribution is far from static and gives us an essential window into understanding how to approach SEO: maximizing visibility requires looking not just at the main site, but at the entire network of content touchpoints that give rise to more complex queries and strong social dynamics.
Multichanneling and the importance of social media in search results
The platforms with the most presence in SERPs are obviously YouTube and Facebook, but the others also offer truly unique opportunities to grow your brand. Moreover, each platform turns out to be more or less suitable for specific sectors, and it is crucial not to make a mistake in choosing a strategy.
This represents an important turning point for those seeking to gain organic visibility: Google recognizes the added value offered by multimedia and social content, making it crucial for brands to expand their SEO strategy toward a multichannel presence.
Translated into operations, it means that SEO, as it is conceived today, can no longer disregard this multichannel approach , because precisely even social content has now established itself as a central component in Google’s SERPs, gaining crucial positions thanks to their ability to intercept audiences on multiple levels, and this opens up new opportunities even for less established brands.
However, we should not make the mistake of producing uncritically, because on the contrary, it is necessary to reason about which content to optimize and on which platform, because each sector finds visibility with a different channel. Take for example the travel and tourism sector : at the moment, Facebook is the platform most often rewarded by Google in this niche, making its way into the top results for queries related to destinations or reviews. But it is not the same for other areas. If we move into the music and audio segment , it is clear that YouTube emerges as the preferred channel to target for visibility; by using different social formats, such as visual posts or short videos on Instagram, a brand can make a strong impact in other areas, such as in design and furniture, where users are often looking for visual inspiration for more emotional purchasing decisions.
We are facing a change that impacts both big brands and small creators: thanks to the power of social content, today even those who do not have a strong presence through their website can achieve relevance by leveraging the right platforms. A concrete example is the video posted on Dovealsud‘s Facebook page : despite the limited authority of the site itself, the content reached the fourth position on Google for the keyword “Custard” (right after the untouchable triad of the food sector). It was the potential of the social platform that pushed it up, untethered from the usual parameters of domain notoriety: the value of optimized social content can provide visibility even for high-volume keywords.
Another important fact, we can note how often this content from social media occupies positions between fourth and seventh in the SERPs: these are coveted positions, which most websites struggle to achieve, all the more so in areas where leading domains consistently monopolize the top three positions. And therein lies one of the greatest potentials for emerging creators and lesser-known brands: leveraging the authority of social media not as an end, but as a vehicle to position themselves solidly on Google.
Another significant example related to this change concerns the query “Pesce” (“fish” in italian, playing on the ambiguity of a local innuendo) : those who have searched for this term in recent days have noticed how the SERPs have been dominated by memes and social content related to the work of the artist Gaetano Pesce hosted in Naples (here in the image from Il Post).
This shows how viral events or cultural movements on social can significantly impact even organic searches on Google, offering new visibility angles that were once not even imaginable with traditional SEO logic.
Choosing the right channel for the right industry
These data show us that multichannel SEO strategy should be tailored not only by content, but more importantly by industry. In a standard SERP, from fourth to seventh place we can find posts, images, or videos that would be unlikely to outrank the “big names” online, but that perfectly match the user’s visual or immediate search intent .
We cannot simply think of ranking a site as a separate entity: getting concrete results in multichannel SEO means knowing how to adapt the strategy to the needs of the target audience and the type of content. In fact, as mentioned, each sector sees the predominance of a specific social platform, which can best meet the needs of users. Therefore, the success of a multichannel strategy depends on the correct personalization of content and the choice of the social platform best suited to reach the right audience.
Let’s take some practical examples. As noted in the context of the music industry, Google prefers to use YouTube as the main channel for content involving music and audio. This means that any brand operating in this sector must move toward producing high-quality video content to effectively address the user’s search needs and intent. Posting videos dealing with albums, music tracks, live concerts , or even tutorials can not only generate engagement within the YouTube platform, but also significantly push the brand’s SEO performance by ranking those videos in the first pages of Google SERPs.
A similar argument applies to industries related to design and furniture. Here the key to success is, clearly, the visual strength of the content. Users, when looking for inspiration or ideas for decorating, rely heavily on visual content such as that hosted on Instagram. Posting high-quality images, properly optimized and integrated into a visual flow that takes into account the target audience’s preferences, can help gain immediate visibility in both Instagram searches and Google SERPs.
On the other hand, for those involved in tourism and travel , it is the reviews and personal recommendations that make the difference. Facebook stands out in this area because of the ability to create conversations and get real-time feedback on accommodations, experiences, and destinations, enriching the SEO context of the brand-related site and creating the social value-add that Google tends to reward.
The clear message that emerges is that sector optimization is a necessary process for those who want to compete in the new SEO landscape. Different socials have different impacts depending on the industry and content format. Careful platform choice and a smart publishing strategy not only increase the likelihood of gaining social interaction, but also open an avenue to climb Google’s SERPs , especially when the search scope is dominated by stronger brands in the traditional web context.
The tools for a successful multichannel strategy
The great value of this evolution lies not only in SERPs enriched with multimedia content , but also in the synergy between the various channels used by a user during his or her customer journey. This is where the importance of a multichannel strategy comes in : our presence on different platforms is no longer a strategic “more” but an essential part of maximizing useful traffic. Leveraging SEO and social media in parallel means multiplying the possibilities for user engagement, closing the gap between diverse intents and creating cross-platform experiences that can influence user behavior from interaction to conversion.
On the practical and analytical front , tools such as SEOZoom ‘s Social Opportunity allow us to find particularly relevant keywords that see content from social platforms alongside classic web results . Not only does this help identify less saturated areas where new players can arrive, but it also allows us to see what types of social content perform best in specific industries. In areas such as food, social pages like GialloZafferano ‘s get huge volumes of traffic not only through the site, but also through posts shared on Facebook and YouTube, which rank among the top results on Google on an ongoing basis. GialloZafferano‘s Facebook page , for example, consistently ranks in the TOP 10 for recipe-related keywords, amplifying the reach of the content originally designed for the website.
Integrating social and SEO within a strategic logic therefore gives us the opportunity to gain cross-visibility, place content not only on a proprietary site, but also through that social structure that today Google rewards with a prominent position. Taking advantage of the insights offered by the Social Opportunity allows us to diversify content, ensuring that it is multichannel and capable of generating qualified traffic that converts into concrete actions, such as sign-ups, inquiries or purchases.
AI: the new ally in content creation
We understood how social media and multichannel SEO can give brands visibility beyond the traditional domain of SERPs. But identifying the right platforms and understanding their dynamics is not enough: we also need to ensure a continuous and maximized flow of effective and differentiated content across all channels. This is where a key lever comes into play to optimize not only presence but also operational management:artificial intelligence.
Automating means not only speeding up the process, but freeing ourselves from repetitive tasks to focus on what really makes a difference: strategy, creativity and targeted improvement of engagement and conversion metrics . Creating custom content for each channel that is optimized for SEO and resonates with the right target audience is now possible thanks to AI-based tools. Think, for example, of creating hundreds of posts optimized for YouTube, Facebook or Instagram, planned simultaneously through a combination of SEO data and AI, without having to sacrifice the quality of the result.
Automation through AI never takes shortcuts: it allows us to pursue our marketing goals, reducing the burden of the most tedious and repetitive tasks and offering support on the truly strategic points. What used to require weeks of manual work, such as managing posts on multiple channels simultaneously or writing specific text for video scripts or blog posts, can be handled in batches, simplifying the entire content creation process.
Thanks to this, even small brands and less established content creators can compete strategically against industry giants, putting their ingenuity to enhance their creativity thanks to the new possibilities offered by technology.
SEOZoom’s AI tools: superpowers for copy and content creators
Today’s SEO therefore requires the conscious use of advanced tools capable of streamlining massive processes without losing quality or strategic precision. And this is where the superpowers offered by SEOZoom‘s AI tools come into play , providing advanced technology to improve all phases of content marketing: from copywriting to SEO optimization to automated multichannel content creation.
Thanks to SEOZoom and the power of the suite’s data, we can do much more than just use artificial intelligence to generate texts: we can consider it an ally that helps us analyze, create and optimize content in a whole new way, with prompts already geared toward maximizing opportunities for user ranking and liking.
At the center of this “toolbox” is AI Writer, the only SEO data-enhanced text generator: thanks to the integration with SEOZoom’s Editorial Assistant, we have the ability to optimize our content on the SEO side by analyzing in real time the pages of competitors that are winning in SERPs and getting all the valuable information on how to get the most out of them.
But we have gone further with AI Assistant, a tool that is capable of performing a complete X-ray of the content, examining more than 25 criteria of the writing to highlight any problems and provide quick application suggestions to make changes that improve the article.
In this way, the tool provides us with a critical analysis on our work allowing us to focus it more on the goal we want to achieve and, most importantly, to ensure the quality perceived by readers. Indeed, the review goes beyond simple technical suggestions, providing guidance on tone of voice, optimal formatting and emotional engagement of the text, and in fact allows us to improve the entire user experience, refining all stages of writing. AI Assistant then helps us maximize readability and engagement with the audience, linking these aspects not only to SEO optimization, but also to understanding the user’s search intent . In this way, we can tailor content to both the needs of Google’s algorithm and those of the end reader, keeping attention high and making the text fluid and persuasive.
Added to this is another crucial feature for those who want to speed up content creation, Generative Fill, which allows us to write or edit extended portions of content in no time, starting from a simple description or outline, so that we can fill and restructure content by selecting and rewriting paragraphs, generating headlines and enhancing entire sections of text with the click of a button. But the practical use of Generative Fill lends itself to a variety of cases, allowing creative rewriting of content, tailoring the message to the type of target audience, and including strategic keywords on time to improve content ranking.
From ranking to useful traffic: strategies for competing in today’s SEO
In short: getting a good search engine ranking is only one aspect of today’s SEO strategy. The real challenge is toattract useful traffic, that is, qualified traffic that not only visits the site, but interacts, takes actions and generates tangible conversions. To truly compete in contemporary SEO we must therefore go beyond simple ranking, enhancing our visibility through techniques that integrate Authority Building, targeted use of internal linking and intelligent use of tools offered by Artificial Intelligence, such as those available on SEOZoom.
The concept of Authority Building is now more relevant than ever. Google rewards websites that demonstrate trust, expertise and authority in their field. Building the authority of one’s site is not just limited to backlinks, but includes building strong links between valuable content and referring pages, which in turn generate trust for both search engines and end users. At SEOZoom, advanced tools such as the Opportunity Finder become central to this process, allowing us to identify unsaturated keywords and strategic topics where competitors have not yet consolidated their authority and where there is attractive room for growth.
But today’s SEO cannot rely solely on building external authority, and internal site dynamics play an equally crucial role. One of the key levers that is often underestimated is internal linking, a practice that directly optimizes the flow of navigation and boosts the distribution of link juice between site pages. By strategically linking in-depth content or conversion sheets, and creating linear reading paths, we can keep users within the site longer, reducing bounce rates and improving the overall user experience. This is a strategy that does not require the acquisition of external backlinks, but it can significantly improve overall site ranking and useful traffic.
Strategic use of AI to scale content creation and optimization
To optimize traffic, today’s brands can no longer rely solely on traditional SEO methods, but must be able to create a constant volume of content, which is continuously updated and lives up to the expectations of both Google and end users. The good news is that, thanks to technological advancement, we can delegate many of the more repetitive tasks toAI, freeing up valuable time to devote to the strategic and creative aspects.
In this context, SEOZoom’s AITools are designed to help copywriters and marketers manage the production of texts, product sheets, articles, social posts and video scripts in a scalable and fast way : there is no need to know every detail of a complex topic, because thanks to these tools it is possible to generate insights, relevant topics and strategic keywords even in less familiar areas, while always maintaining a focus on the quality of the text.
One of the main advantages offered is the ability to adapt the content for specific social platforms. For example, with the “Post for…” toolset you can generate copy intended for Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or TikTok, optimizing the text according to the particularities of each platform, such as tone of voice and optimal length. Thanks to this automated process, it is possible to efficiently manage the multipublication of content, always maintaining consistent quality and ensuring that each post reflects the language and expectations of its specific audience.
Not only that, within the SEOZoom suite we also find the “Script for Video” tool , designed precisely to simplify the phase through which brands or content creators create texts for videos. This tool takes into account variables such as the number of speakers, the optimal duration of the video, and even the tone of voice required for the audience. In this way, we create cross-platform content that not only follows a smooth narrative, but is personalized and versatile, suitable for any type of communication format, such as the increasingly predominant podcasts.
Creating useful traffic through the right opportunities
But optimizing for diverse content creation is only one piece of the picture. To generate useful traffic, i.e., qualified traffic that actually leads to conversions and interaction with the site, you need to know how to intercept the right search intent and take advantage of opportunities not yet manned by large competitors.
This is precisely where the importance of combining authority building with the correct use of SEO tools comes in: one of the most powerful for this purpose is definitely Opportunity Finder, designed to identifydormant areas where traffic can be qualified and where saturation has not yet been generated. This means that even if we don’t have the authority of a big brand, we can strategically position ourselves on long-tail keywords or less populated topic clusters . The Opportunity Finder facilitates the discovery of growth spaces, highlighting keywords for which major competitors have not yet been able to dominantly preside.
The tool is also particularly useful for organic traffic: scovering alternative topic areas, we can build specialized content that offers direct and comprehensive answers to user searches. Long-tail topics or topic clusters that a brand can reflect on, often laser-targeted, can become a useful source of traffic-users looking for answers and attentive to the specifics of the query.
To compete in SEO today, we cannot help but combine creativity, process automation and a strategic approach based on the tools that help us scale creation and optimization. These factors, combined with the strategic niche discovery opportunity that SEOZoom makes possible, can ensure not only good rankings, but also useful traffic with a real impact on conversions.
