The death of google search as we know it 

Google is now an immediate interaction with a chatbot. When you search, it engages you in conversation immediately instead of really offering you a choice. Of course, you can scroll down + skip the AI section, but it’s the first thing that comes up, and you + I both know it’s not a small section.

The “AI Overview” takes up the majority of the page, often extending down about half the page. If you click the “see more” button, that’s the whole page right there *plus* the “ask anything” prompt appears for you to converse with the AI. 

So what does this mean for SEO + the future of search? 

Well there’s two camps, really (in practice, there’s probably a third that’s between the two). There’s the people who will skip it entirely + diligently scroll past the AI section every single time they search for something + then there’s the people who will now explicitly look at the AI answer (+ the people in between who often scroll down but will occasionally not make it past the AI overview). 

The good news? No matter what, that means you should keep up with your normal SEO best practices. Whether it’s to reach the people who skip the chat or to try to get yourself to appear in the chat, following SEO best practices and basic web maintenance will help you get found. 

That means staying up to date with any updates for plug-ins or site versions, checking your broken links regularly, creating content that is crawlable, unique, and adds value, and submitting your sitemap whenever you add new content. Those are some of the basics, but there are a few other things you can do to optimize your content for Google’s AI if you want to focus on getting in that chatbox.

Getting your content to appear in the chatbox

First off, Google’s AI Overviews use a different method than the normal search engine for finding answers to queries. While the normal search engine looks for the specific keywords you type in, the AI submits multiple related queries at once to try to find the best answer based on the meaning of your search – not the exact language.

 That’s one of the things AI is actually useful for – compiling information + giving you an answer that otherwise could have taken 10+ individual searches. You can ask complex questions + it will find you answers even if the content doesn’t use the same language as your query. 

So, that means to optimize your content for AI Overviews, you should focus on associated subtopics + group related prompts on a single page filled with relevant information. Think of the topic you’re making content on + try to consider all the different questions someone might be asking about that topic. Then, try to answer all the questions in an organized, natural way on one page. 

Also, Google’s AI seems to favor recent information over content that’s been sitting on the internet for ages. Replace old statistics, update the publish date or indicate that the content has been updated more recently, and add more information based on related subtopics, especially if any of them are based on trending queries or new information has been discovered on the topic. 

When making updates, prioritize content that’s already doing well + ranking in the top 10 regular search results. It seems like these top results are often where the AI gets its information. Similarly to how people often don’t look past the first page of search results, the AI typically doesn’t either. About two thirds of the urls that appear in the overview also appear in the top 10 standard search results. All the more reason to keep up with your existing SEO strategy. 

Don’t abandon SEO

Although AI is always changing + evolving, by maintaining SEO best practices, you can be sure you’re giving your content the best chance at getting found by both AI + non-AI searchers. That doesn’t mean new discoveries about AI search optimization should fall on deaf ears, but it also doesn’t mean you should completely change your strategy as it’s all still so new + constantly changing. 

If all of this information (including the SEO part) is making your head spin a bit, reach out to us to chat about how we can help make sure your business still gets discovered online, in + out of the AI overview.