The latest edition of Localogy’s “This Week in Local” podcast delves further into the topic of the day –what impact will ChatGPT have on Google and local SEO.
This week we also decided to mix up the voices on the podcast. So we asked a friend of Localogy and respected local SEO thought leader Andrew Shotland to join us.
We thought Andrew, who runs the Local SEO Guide agency, which helps brands do local SEO, was the ideal person to talk about how AI is or is not disrupting local search. And secondarily, how is it changing how SEO and other digital agencies go about doing their work for clients?
A Clever Idiot
We kicked it off by straight up asking Andrew if he thought Google was facing an existential threat from ChatGPT.
“The answer is no. It’s an existential threat to parts of Google that, I would argue, are already under existential threat,” Andrew says on the episode.
He then elaborated on his point.
“So what I mean by that is, Google killed traffic to a bunch of websites that were supplying content that was basically questions easy to answer, meaning, what time is it? Or what time is it in Singapore? That kind of stuff … Apple is coincidentally has done kind of the same thing to Google, in that a lot of the kind of juiciest searches, Apple has kind of taken for its own…
“So ChatGPT, and other similar AI tools are making it so that I no longer have to go to a search engine to get the answer. So as an example, here are certain Excel formulas I use over and over again. And sometimes I forget them, and I go to Google, and I type ‘how do I do this stupid Excel thing.’ And I get a website that gives me the answer. I almost never have to do that, now because ChatGPT is really great at basically telling me how to do some obscure Excel formula.”
This led to a longer conversation about how AI is being deployed in local SEO that you just have to listen to.
For example, Andrew cites multiple examples of his agency having to redo client work originally created using AI, because, as Andrew puts it, “ChatGPT. It’s a very clever idiot.” In other words, while ChatGPT’s ability to generate content is impressive, its output, at least at this stage, is often riddled with errors. And error-ridden copy is not something that an SEO firm can survive over the long term.
Andrew believes the most immediate change ChatGPT will impose on his and similar businesses is that many writers will need to adapt their skill sets and become editors. Why? AI can create drafts, but these will need considerable editing before they are acceptable as finished work.
Expanding Our Format
Episode 7 of Localogy’s “This Week in Local” podcast is quite different from the first six episodes. These featured “lively conversations on the local digital ecosystem” between Localogy analysts Mike Boland and me. We will return to that format in future episodes. But this week, we wanted to bring in an outside voice with a strong point of view on SEO and a willingness to express it.
TWIL is Localogy’s weekly podcast featuring brief (sub 30 minute) but high-energy conversations about events in local. Please subscribe to TWIL on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please take a moment to give us a rating, and if you can, a review as well. Your engagement helps more people discover this podcast.
Please also note that AI will be a key topic at Localogy’s L23 Conference, April 17-19 in San Diego. We hope you will join us there.
And you can also find this episode of the podcast featuring Andrew Shotland (and all others) on Localogy’s YouTube channel. Please subscribe to this channel, especially if you prefer getting your content on YouTube.
