Digital marketing is extra confusing right now because these two huge changes are happening at the same time. Search engines are evolving, integrating AI and recalibrating to incorporate technology to try and anticipate user demands, and at the same time, search patterns are evolving, with people looking for information beyond traditional search engines and expecting fast, accurate, helpful answers. 

Google is aware of the changing search patterns and feeling the competition from social media applications; you can see Google’s response to this competition in their recent updates. The new Short Videos tab and the inclusion of short-form video carousels in search results are great examples, with Google surfacing TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts rather than regular videos hosted on YouTube and other video platforms. 

So where does that leave marketers? Our idea of search must expand beyond traditional search because people are already migrating. They are searching for information in different ways, on different platforms, using voice, text, and image search, and wanting short-form video and accurate, easy-to-digest written responses as answers.

We can’t wait for traditional search engines to catch up to evolving search behaviors. So in that sense, our job as marketers remains the same: We must create content that resonates with our audiences and ensure it is optimized to be found, wherever it may be on the internet.