Google’s new AI Overview is changing the landscape of search. But how can you ensure that your content is still being noticed by Google’s AI? This guide will help you understand how to optimise your content for Google’s AI, increasing your visibility and boosting your website’s ranking and organic traffic.
What Is Google’s New AI Overviews?
Google’s new AI Overviews feature, previously referred to as SGE in testing, is a cutting-edge way of finding information on the search engine. It uses artificial intelligence to analyse search queries and writes concise summaries of the more relevant information from multiple sources. It helps users to understand complex topics quickly.
Whilst not yet mainstream in the UK, Google rolled out their new feature in May 2024 to users in the United States. Google plans to expand this to other regions in the near future.
How Does Google’s AI Overviews Work?
Google’s AI Overviews works by summarising an answer to a query using an AI-generated response, supported by multiple sources, cited in a drop-down section. This drop-down section sits just beneath the summary.
This sophisticated software should enhance the user experience, saving them valuable time.
Google’s AI Overview has naturally created a lot of uncertainty in the future of SEO, however, with strategic planning and proactive measures, businesses can safeguard their website’s visibility on search engine result pages amidst these changes.
When Will AI Overviews Go Mainstream in the UK?
Whilst Google has not specified a date for AI Overviews to go live in the UK, it is expected to be within the next few months. Google is already trialling AI Overview with a small number of users in the UK and has been doing so since April 2024.
In an update in May 2024, Google’s head of search, Liz Read, said that Google is expecting to bring AI Overviews to over a billion people by the end of the year.
How To Optimise Your Content For AI Overviews?
Keyword Optimisation
In traditional SEO, keyword optimisation has always been important to help rank on Google for exact-match keywords. Now, with Google’s AI, things will remain similar.
Since Google’s AI Overviews primarily surface for informational searches, where users seek knowledge, using long-tail keywords can be especially beneficial. Long-tail keywords are more specific phrases people use in natural language searches. By incorporating these keywords and addressing the user’s intent behind the search, you increase your content’s chance of being included in relevant AI Overviews.
Quality written content
High-quality content has always been a vital ingredient to performance on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Content needs to be clear, concise, and easy to understand, helping users find the information they need quickly.
Content should be written in digestible chunks with headings throughout. Beneath each heading, there should be a focus on answering the user’s intent and avoiding unnecessary fluff language.
Google prioritises content from sources that demonstrate Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). This ensures users encounter information they can rely on for accuracy and credibility.
Content writing requires a significant amount of time and skill. That’s why we have a dedicated in-house team of expert writers, designers and content strategists ready to help you effectively express your business.
User Intent
Google’s AI prioritises content that directly addresses what users are looking for. User intent is crucial because it is intertwined with building your entire content strategy.
If you’re unsure about what people are searching for on a specific topic or keyword, you can utilise resources such as AnswerSocrates, Quora, and even Google searches.
The more you write with the user in mind and understand the intent behind your content, the more likely your content will succeed in Google’s AI Overviews.
Content Structure
The structure of your content helps Google to navigate and index your web pages. Content with clear structure, including headings and subheadings, makes it easier for both users and AI crawlers to grasp the key points and navigate the content.
How To Optimise Your Website For AI Overviews?
Page Speed
Ideally, your page load time should be between 0-2 seconds. Beyond about 3 seconds, the likelihood of visitors leaving your site increases significantly.
Compressing images and videos can greatly improve page load times. Other effective strategies include reducing redirects, optimising code and leveraging browser caching.
If this all sounds a little bit confusing, the SEO team at Pod are here to help.
Schema Markup
Another element of technical SEO that can improve your chances of ranking on Google’s AI Overviews is schema markup. Schema markup is a tag you can add to your HTML (the standard code used to structure and display content on your website) to improve the way search engines read and understand your page.
By using schema markup, you can provide additional context to search engines about the type of content present on your page. This is great for explaining the user intent to search engines.
Mobile Optimisation
With a large proportion of all Google searches now made using mobile devices, it’s crucial your website must operate effectively on mobile phones and tablets.
Make sure your website features a mobile-responsive layout, with fast-loading pages and full functionality.
URL Structure
A clear and logical URL structure makes it easier for Google’s crawlers to navigate and index your website effectively.
Keywords in the URL can provide additional context to Google’s AI about the content of your page, and a well-structured URL can significantly contribute to better ranking on search engines.
Site Structure
A well-structured site can again help crawlers identify every page and its intent, and index these. From a user perspective, it can also enhance their experience, and prevent negative signals, such as high bounce rates and a low time spent on your website.
You want Google to understand the relationship between different pages and topics and determine the relevance of your content for specific search queries.
Monitoring and Measuring Success
It’s important that when Google’s AI Overview is live in the UK, and you’ve made your optimisations, you track the success of your changes. This will help you to create a strategy going forward.
This won’t be easy, as Google won’t be providing more granular data on traffic generated from AI previews. However, AI Overviews link cards may receive higher CTRs than other organic listings, so it is certainly worth looking for spikes or anomalous data.
If you’re not seeing results, remember this list is not an exhaustive list of SEO techniques.
You should also remember that SEO often isn’t instantaneous. SEO is a long-term strategy that can take a couple of months to see real results. That’s why being prepared for AI Overviews now is so incredibly important.
Adjusting strategies and understanding a wide variety of elements of SEO will help you to identify key action plans going forward to improve your results.
Google’s algorithms constantly change, too, so staying well-informed on SEO is crucial. Contact our team of SEO experts to help you navigate these changes and stay ahead of the curve.