Google’s AI has been a hot topic lately. So, how do you make sure your website can be found in this exciting new world? This is really the most pressing question for anyone who cares about getting more organic traffic – how to optimize for AI overviews in search. This means understanding Google’s new AI Overviews (formerly SGE) and tailoring your SEO strategies to work with it – not against it.

Do a quick search, and you’ll find that everyone is talking about complicated new strategies. Some are even saying SEO is dead, but I am here to tell you; that’s not true. At least not yet, anyway. It’s true that SEO in 2024 and beyond looks a bit different than it did a year ago, and ignoring this shift in search could be disastrous for your website’s visibility.

The Rise of AI in Search: What It Means for Your Website

In May of 2024, Google officially rebranded Search Generative Experience (SGE) to the more approachable “AI Overviews.” This AI-driven feature uses machine learning to create summaries of information that appear directly in the search results.

Think of it like Google is doing the hard work for the user. Google attempts to understand a user’s question on a deeper level. It then provides a more complete answer pulled from different websites, sometimes with images or even videos.

Understanding Google’s AI Overviews

A recent study on AI Overviews by Authoritas showed that 93.8% of cited URLs in the AI Overviews were not from the first page of search results. This means websites Google didn’t think deserved to rank well, were still considered useful sources by Google’s AI. This directly impacts how we should approach SEO. It shows us that creating content Google considers “helpful” matters, even more so now with how to optimize for AI overviews in search.

How AI Overviews Work

I always tell my clients it’s critical to understand how things work before trying to “outsmart” them. When you understand why Google makes changes to Search, you can adapt and refine your approach more effectively. According to Google’s patent (yes, there’s an actual patent for AIO.), several things happen:

Diverse Sourcing: Google casts a wide net. AI Overviews don’t just use top-ranking websites but pull from various sources – this is where EEAT comes into play.
Click-Data is King (Still): Remember all those times Google denied using click data? Well, a leak back in 2023 pretty much confirmed what many SEOs already knew; click-through rate (CTR) is still an essential ranking factor.
Location, Location, Location: Just like in traditional SEO, local SEO is very important in how to optimize for AI overviews in search. Your website and content need to align with your service areas – even more so than ever before.

Why Traditional SEO Strategies Fall Short in the Age of AI

The old ways of keyword stuffing and building spammy backlinks won’t get you anywhere. Honestly, they probably never should have. I always focus on building a real brand that users love. A big part of this means creating content that answers your ideal audience’s questions.

Your content should be in-depth and easy to understand. It should also be factually accurate, and genuinely useful. Let’s get real – no one (including Google’s bots) likes thin or unhelpful content. Building for the long term is always the way to go. Here are a few reasons why the old ways of thinking about SEO just won’t work anymore:

Reduced Organic Traffic

We can’t ignore this; a study from Search Engine Journal found AI Overviews lead to a roughly 6% decrease in click-through rates across most industries. Think about it – if you’re getting all the answers right there on the search page, you’re less likely to click through, right?

Changes in Search Behavior

I’ve definitely seen it myself; people use longer, more conversational search queries now because AI is changing how we search. This means we have to focus on conversational, natural-language keywords. The average person doesn’t say things like “best [keyword] near me”. People actually write out their question like a complete sentence, which often leads to an AI Overview in Search.

Measuring Success (It’s Different Now)

If we don’t get click-throughs to our website, we have to find other ways to “prove” what we’re doing is working. This means shifting from relying solely on CTR to monitoring factors such as:

How often our content gets featured in AI Overviews.
Backlinks to our content.
Brand mentions (even without a backlink).

With a 195% increase in AI Overview visibility for websites that already rank for featured snippets (thanks, Brightedge), there’s a lot we can learn from websites already ranking. Ranking well matters because people rarely look at page 2 of search results. In fact, many SEOs will tell you if you’re not ranking on page one, you don’t really exist in the digital space. In 2024 and beyond – maybe not.

Actionable SEO Strategies for Google’s AI Overviews

Here’s where we shift from understanding why AI Overviews exist and focus on the “how to optimize for AI overviews in search”. Google says to just follow SEO best practices – which, if you ask me, they already tell us, so is that really helpful advice? But now that AI is here to stay, we need to pivot the way we traditionally approach content, SEO and even measure results.

Optimize for Google’s Shopping Graph (eCommerce Sites – Listen Up)

Did you know Google’s Shopping Graph is a massive AI-powered system that tries to understand everything about every single product in the world? It sounds like something from a sci-fi movie, but it’s 100% real. This is extremely important for Google Shopping, as this will determine what products show for what search results. The Google Shopping Graph will rely heavily on product feeds in order to learn about all of these products.

Think about all those little details in your product listings and make sure they’re perfect. Seriously.

Focus on Building Your Website’s EAT (It Matters Now More Than Ever.)

This isn’t exactly new advice, but now we’re going to look at it with fresh eyes to understand how to optimize for AI overviews in search better:

Expertise: You have got to be an expert in your field. Google’s looking for sites with insightful, in-depth knowledge, and fresh perspectives. Use your knowledge graph to leverage your expertise and increase visibility in search.
Experience: What’s your story? Share real-life experiences related to your topics to build authority and connect with your audience authentically.
Authoritativeness: Think of your website as a source of truth. Google favors content that’s well-researched, accurate, and supported by solid evidence, such as data, research studies, and expert quotes. Authoritative sources will always be favored over non-authoritative sources.
Trustworthiness: It takes years to build a brand’s trustworthiness, but Google’s algorithms can assess it fairly quickly (scary, I know, but true nonetheless.). Ensure your website is secure (that means having your SSLs.), easy to use, and factually accurate.

A group of AI SEO experts conducted an experiment about something called “Generative Engine Optimization” or GEO – which focuses specifically on SEO for AI, like AI Overviews.

While still in the very early stages, this group found success with content centered around giving expert opinions. They studied the impact of user intent on how search results populate. User queries will ultimately determine the success or failure of websites in the ever-changing landscape of SEO.

Focus on Topic Clusters (Not Just Individual Keywords)

Let me give you an example; let’s say you’re in the sustainable clothing business (because honestly, who isn’t concerned about the environmental impact of fast fashion now?).

Pillar Content: Sustainable Fashion
Cluster Content:	Benefits of Organic Cotton	How to Find Ethically Made Clothing
	Guide to Clothing Recycling	The Impact of Fast Fashion on the Environment

Instead of targeting the keyword “organic cotton” with one blog post – we can create a “cluster” of content related to sustainable fashion, ensuring we cover all aspects.

Structured Data, HTML, and a Fast Website Still Matter

If you’re like most people, you get confused when it’s time to talk about the more technical aspects of SEO. But I assure you, these things still matter. Here’s a breakdown of these three crucial elements:

Structured Data

Structured data is like giving Google a cheat sheet. Okay, that’s putting it simply, but in all seriousness – structured data is important. It helps Google to determine what your content is about and categorize it correctly. This can lead to your website being displayed in Google’s various product listings, depending on the search query. You can use tools like Schema Markup (schema.org) to make it crystal clear for Google what your content is about and not leave it up for interpretation. Using a structured data testing tool will allow you to ensure you are implementing this markup language correctly.

HTML-based Content (It’s What Google’s AI Understands Best)

From what I’ve seen so far, AI Overviews predominantly source content directly from a website’s HTML. A few years ago, SEOs put their focus on other things, like page experience (how your website looks) and Core Web Vitals (test your website using Google’s PageSpeed Insights). They also made sure their sites loaded incredibly fast. While still very important, how Google’s bots “crawl” and read websites is slightly changing now.

Make It Snappy (Website Speed and Crawlability Matter)

This has always been an important factor in SEO and directly impacts how to optimize for AI overviews in search, but it’s worth mentioning because it often gets lost when people talk about all the reasons why SEO is changing. Remember, it’s all about user experience; if your website takes forever to load, no one’s going to stick around to read it – human or bot. Use a free tool like Google’s PageSpeed Insights (test your website using Google’s PageSpeed Insights) to identify any potential issues that slow down your website, such as large images and slow server response time.

FAQs about how to optimize for AI overviews in search

How to get AI overview?

Unfortunately, there’s no magic button for that (if only it were that easy.). The best thing you can do is focus on traditional white hat SEO best practices. However, you also need to double down on helpful and in-depth content that directly answers the query. It’s really all about understanding the search intent and aiming for those coveted featured snippets, as websites already ranking there tend to do well in AI overviews, as we’ve discussed earlier. Google’s search algorithms are constantly changing, but Google has made it clear that they are prioritizing high-quality content.

How do you optimize content in AI?

That’s the million-dollar question everyone wants to know, right?. Well, start with creating factual and well-researched content that uses clear headings (h2, h3, etc.), internal and external links to reputable websites, and short paragraphs that are easy to digest, and optimize your content with schema markup. In order for your website to perform well and to optimize content, you must also optimize for voice search. Voice search is becoming more popular. Optimizing for voice search means using more natural language and long-tail keywords.

How to optimize for Google AI search?

Make your website lightning fast and super easy to navigate – nobody likes a website that makes them hunt around for what they’re looking for (this is where things like UX/UI, site architecture, and Core Web Vitals come into play). Make sure all information on your website (contact information, hours of business, etc.) is up-to-date. The best thing you can do is give your visitors (and Google’s bots) an experience that makes them want to stick around. You can then track your progress using a combination of your analytics data, rank tracking tools (some have even started tracking your rankings inside AI Overviews.) and Google Search Console. Google Search Console is an extremely useful analytics tool. It can help you to understand your website’s performance. This tool will provide your website’s click-through rates so that you can see how often people are clicking on your website in the Search Engine Results Pages.

How to use AI for search engine optimization?

Now, this is where things get really interesting. AI SEO tools are already being widely used for everything from writing meta descriptions and website copy to suggesting keywords and tracking performance, but that’s a whole other conversation for a different day. This can really change the future of content as we know it. However, it is important to use AI for SEO ethically and responsibly.

Conclusion

Learning how to optimize for AI overviews in search requires a change in our mindset as SEOs. This new world of AI SEO doesn’t have to be scary. Embracing Google’s AI initiatives by focusing on the user’s intent, writing helpful, high-quality content, making data-driven decisions based on facts, and maintaining a solid technical SEO strategy will allow you to succeed, no matter what curve balls Google throws your way. I think we’re only just starting to see how Google will use AI within search and to combat its competitors, like Bing. By following the tips laid out in this article, you will be on the right path toward success. To answer common questions your users may have, create an FAQ section on your website. Be sure to incorporate images on your website, such as high-quality images and videos. This multimedia content will keep users on your website longer.

How to Optimize for AI Overviews in Search

Table Of Contents: