Copenhagen SEO Meetup hosted by IIH Nordic.
Agenda
- 17:00 – Doors Open
- 17:15 – Welcome + Round of Introductions
- 17:30 – Another AI and eCommerce SEO Presentation – Promise It’s Worth It! 😉
(Matti Ljungberg, Head of SEO @ Morningbound)
Find out how AI can supercharge SEO by automating content at scale—delivering real-world results that make this more than just another AI and eCommerce SEO presentation. See AI in action with case studies, including programmatic SEO and an e-commerce case study. - 18:10 – Break
- 18:30 – SEO in an AI-Powered Future: Are You Ready for the New Era of Search?
(Christian Doeleman-Lassen, Director Digital Marketing Strategy @ IIH Nordic)
Discover how breakthroughs like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT’s SearchGPT, and emerging zero-click trends are revolutionizing search, and learn actionable strategies to thrive as an SEO specialist in this landscape. - 19:10 – Mastermind/Focus Groups
Interactive problem-solving session in small groups. - 20:00 – “Tak for i dag” (or stick around for one last drink and network some more)
When
Date: Thursday, April 3rd, 2025
Time: 17:00 to 20:00
Where
IIH Nordic, Artillerivej 86, 1st floor, 2300 København S
Key Takeaways of the presentation by Matti Ljungberg
- AI for SEO is Powerful but Needs Direction: Using AI (like the cernel.ai platform discussed) can massively speed up creating SEO content for tons of e-commerce pages (categories and products), saving huge amounts of time (like 97%!).
- It’s All About the Data (Not Just Keywords): Simply stuffing keywords isn’t enough. You need a deep understanding of what users actually need and talk about. This means digging into forums (Reddit, Quora), reviews (Amazon, Trustpilot), search trends, and combining it all into a “Knowledge Graph.”
- Knowledge Graphs are Key: This central brain stores all the info about products, attributes (like size, material, use cases), and user questions. It helps create genuinely useful content that goes beyond basic specs and prevents the AI from making stuff up (hallucinating).
- Tone of Voice is Tricky: Getting the brand’s personality right across hundreds of AI-generated pages is a major hurdle, especially for client work. Good systems allow clients to train the AI on their specific voice.
- Website Health Matters: Even the best AI content system struggles if the website itself has poor structure (bad internal links, confusing menus, messy URLs) or a weak link profile. Links still matter a lot for e-commerce rankings.
- User Experience is Crucial: It’s not just about the text. How the page looks, how easy it is to use, and whether users click around (user interaction signals) heavily influence rankings, especially for top spots. AI can help analyze competitor layouts, but fixing the site often needs developer input.
- Testing is Easier with AI: You can quickly test different approaches across thousands of pages – like trying different unique selling points (USPs) in titles vs. descriptions, or seeing how fast you can publish content without upsetting Google.
- Google & AI Content: The fear is real, but the focus should be on creating helpful content that answers user needs. Google says they target unhelpful content, not necessarily AI content. Plus, reliable AI detection is still tricky. The value provided (like detailed product info) is key.
Slides
Key Takeaways of the Presentation by Christian Doeleman-Lassen
- Search is Undergoing a Massive Shift: AI is changing the game. Forget just the ten blue links; AI-generated answers (like Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT) are becoming central.
- Expect Less Traffic (Especially for Info): The days of users clicking through to read full articles might be dwindling. AI provides answers directly (“zero-click”), which is great for users but bad news for websites relying on traffic, especially informational sites. A 25% drop overall is predicted by some.
- Google’s AI Overviews Are Coming: Already live in many places (US, UK, parts of EU), expect them in the Nordics likely by late summer/early fall. They appear often for health, finance, and “how-to” questions, but rarely for shopping searches.
- Ranking High Still Helps (Maybe): Being in the top organic spots increases your chances of being cited as a source in AI Overviews. But whether users will actually click those source links is a big unknown.
- Content Needs a Rethink: Forget just long articles. AI often grabs small snippets of text. You need to make sure these snippets make sense on their own, are authoritative, cite sources, include stats, and maybe even mention your brand/product within them. Structured data (Schema markup) is likely becoming even more vital.
- ChatGPT is a Competitor of Google (Sort of): It uses Bing for search results and is getting better at providing sourced answers, especially for information and news. However, it’s currently terrible for shopping searches and has a spam problem (thanks, Bing!). Crucially, it sends almost no traffic back to websites.
- Tracking is Getting Way Harder: AI results are often personalized and unique for each user. Old-school keyword ranking reports mean less. New methods are needed, maybe tracking specific snippets using JavaScript tricks or focusing on overall brand mentions within AI answers. Standard tools (like Google Search Console) don’t yet differentiate AI clicks.
- The Future is Even More AI: Features like “Deep Research” (where AI reads dozens of websites to write a report for you) and “AI Agents” (software that uses websites for you) are emerging. These are powerful for users but further reduce the need to visit websites directly. We might even need to build simpler sites for these agents.
- Optimizing for AI (“GEO”): It’s early days, but focus seems to be shifting from keywords to demonstrating authority, citing sources clearly, using statistics, and writing confidently.
Slides
Thanks for coming and see you next time! With ❤️ from Copenhagen SEO Meetup team – Germans Frolovs, Matthias Kupperschmidt, and Alberto Di Risio.