How to Make the Best of Google’s AI Overviews

Initially known as Search Generative Experience, Google announced AIO at Google I/O 2024. SEO experts have sought ways to leverage it since it is at the top of Google results.

According to SE Ranking’s AI Overviews sources, 84.72% of AIOs are linked to at least one domain from the top 10 organic search results. Now, the crucial nature of SEO is intact. SEO is required; the experts have to do it a bit smartly. Let’s dive into Google AI Overviews and discuss how to make the best of them.

What are Google AI Overviews?

Google AI Overviews, or AIOs, are AI-generated responses by Google to a user query. These responses are generated based on multiple cited sources across the web. AIOs use different sources cited from the web and provide the most helpful information at the top of the Google SERPs.

Here are some interesting facts about the Google AIOs:

• Surprisingly, Google generates AIOs for only 8.71% of keywords.
• Google AIOs are shown in the collapsed version. You have to click on “Show more” to know more and get access to relevant links.
• Machine learning (ML) plays a critical role in Google AIOs. It uses the power of keywords, location, previous searches, devices, and browsing history to provide tailored results for the audience.
• The average length of a Google AIO is around 4342 characters.
• Longer user queries (> 10 words) tend to bring up more AIOs.
• AIOs appear for keywords that have a search volume of less than 50.
• AIOs mostly link to specific websites. LinkedIn, Healthline, and Wikipedia are among the top names.
• Popular niches that AIOs deem worthy are Relationships, Food and Beverage, Technology, and Business.

Source

We should know that AI overview is still an experimental feature and will change shortly, like other Google practices.

How Does Google’s AI Overview Impact on Organic Search?

Well, everyone is flabbergasted and concerned about the Google AI Overviews. Why?

Businesses are worried that if Google presents the results to users at the top, their CTR will decrease, directly impacting their sales and revenue.

As Google AIO is new and experimental, there is no way to prove this. If we look at the organic Google results, they are the same as those below the AIO. On the other hand, several companies have been researching the Google AIO thing, and they have concluded the following:

• Google AIO results are not always correct. That is known as AI hallucinations. (I have experienced this, too.)
• 55% of Google AIO results overlap with standard organic search results. However, the links in the uncollapsed version may vary; the results below are consistent with the top 10 SERPs.
• The CTR of some websites can also increase, provided they have created helpful and user-centered content.
• Google AIO only provides a concise result. So, if a user needs to dig deeper into the topic, they will click the link, which does not impact the CTR.

Based on the above-discussed points, Google AIOs are almost synced with the regular SERPs. So, they do not affect organic search that much, apart from appearing at the top of the page.

“The best thing about Google AI Overviews is to ask brands to change their content marketing strategy, particularly for informational and how-to posts,” says Adam Zayed, Founder of Zayed Law Offices. “Instead of panicking, you should do the most to adapt your content strategy for AI Overviews, as AI will get more deeply woven into search results.”

But, as it is experimental for now, future development will explain its impact on organic search more clearly.

How to Prepare Your Website for Google AI Overviews

Indeed, businesses still need to create content that Google likes. But that’s not it. Besides content, several other factors are on Google's list of considerations while filtering content for its AI Overview. Let’s have a look at these things:

1. Leverage Content Types and Formatting
2. Optimize Title Tags
3. Prioritize Long-tail, Detailed Search Queries
4. Improve Technical SEO
5. Structure Content for Featured Snippets
6. Optimize Your Website’s Structured Data
7. Build up Brand Reputation and Digital PR
8. Track Your Site's Appearance in AI Overviews

1. Leverage Content Types and Formatting

As emphasized, content is the primary way Google ranks the top results. The same is true for Google AIO. Though it may seem like lousy advice, Google prefers authentic and concise content in the era of generalized AI-generated content.

Solid and relevant content is the key if you want to make it to the Google AIOs. Furthermore, research on Google AIO shows that some content types are among AIO's top favored. These types are the following:

• Lists
• Images
• Unique graphics
• Concise descriptions
• Videos

Also, web pages cited as sources for definitions often include images and lists. As I mentioned above, lists, images, and concise explanations are essential to increase visibility in generative AI search results and ranking in general search results.

However, “Getting ranked in Google AI Overviews is possible, but doesn’t work by a wave of the wand,” says Triumph Curiel, Founder of Curiel & Runion. “The AI considers certain factors and criteria to evaluate content relevance and quality. That means you should focus on creating relevant and well-structured content with all SEO that meets Google’s standards. Yes, it’s not easy to appear there, but the AI Overview won’t stop you from getting to the top of Google search results.”

Of course, you must optimize them for relevant keywords and ensure that your content directly addresses users’ needs. As Google AI responses include links to information sources, you should do your best to meet the requirements.

You can create middle and bottom funnel user-first content that shows your knowledge, unique insights, and expertise on a specific topic and leads to a link from AIO. Focus on improving your topic authority, and Google will notice that your content is relevant and valuable to users.

2. Optimize Title Tags

That can be a quick win for you. Just like title tag optimization helps SEO experts get a higher rank in the SERPs, it is also a catalyst for getting featured in Google AIO. Even knowing that Google tends to rewrite title tags for AI Overviews, eye-grabbing titles can increase the chance of getting high rankings in general search results.

Title tags are the starting point for running your SEO campaign and getting quick results. While optimizing the title tag for your content, keep a tab on certain aspects, such as

Add the main keyword towards the beginning of the title.

• Don’t use more than two keywords.
• Include your focus keyword not only in the title tag but in your URL, meta description, subheadings, and within the blog post.
• Generate a unique page title and add a USP to it.
• Use numbers in the title wherever possible.
• Use your brand name in the title.
• Stay within the character limit of 50-60 words.

Google AI Overviews uses the first 40 characters of your page’s title in the related knowledge panel. Optimize your blog and FAQ content to achieve maximum discoverability.

3. Prioritize Long-tail, Detailed Search Queries

If you have used generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Jasper, you would know that prompts must be detailed. The more detailed your prompt, the better the output will be. The same is the case with Google.

Since it uses Gemini, your content can be featured in the Google AIO if tuned for long-tail and detailed queries. According to the stats, the number of words in the user query decides the possibility of getting an AI Overview. With ten words in the query, the chances of an AIO are 19.10%.

Therefore, if you optimize your content for longer queries with relevant keywords, you might win a spot on the Google AIO. Ensure you build more detail-specific web pages within the search journey (categories vs blog posts).

4. Improve Technical SEO

The faster Google crawls a website, the better is that site’s technical SEO. If you want to get your website featured in Google AIO, it is critical to work on technical SEO.

That includes taking control of the aspects that can hinder the speed of the website and its indexing. Here are some examples:

• Avoid intrusive interstitials, such as sales and promotion pop-ups.
• Keep a check on the background scripts that hinder the website's speed.
• Make sure you use a suitable hosting service that can handle your website's growth.
• Make your website responsive to mobile devices.
• Ensure your website is visible and safe by ensuring HTTPS in the address.
• Use SSL certificates for website security and encryption.
• Fix any broken links to the 404 error page, 301, or 302.
• Ensure that your website URLs have a clean structure to ensure easy indexing.
• Reduce the number of GTM containers and JavaScript files.

In the era of AI-generated answers, website speed remains crucial for maintaining a good user experience. Analyze each page, code, and file that can slow down your site and decide whether you need it.

5. Structure Content For Featured Snippets

A featured snippet is a small box at the top of the Google SERPs that provides a quick answer to a query. Google AIOs and featured snippets can occur together. When they do, their source is the same, around 63% of the time. Optimizing for featured snippets and other search features will increase your chances of having a link from AIO.

So, aiming to get in a featured snippet equals getting you into AIO. Here are some practical ways to appear in the featured snippet and AIO:

• Follow the “people also ask” section to add content to your website, keeping it short and crisp.
• Add a schema markup to your website’s main page.
• Use bullets, numbering, and tables to present your content.

If you don’t have any results, continue to do the same until you succeed.

6. Optimize Your Website’s Structured Data

As website structured data helps the Google crawler understand your website's contents for traditional search results, Google AI Overviews can favor your content when providing quick answers to search queries. These include content snippets, videos, FAQs, job postings, events, breadcrumbs, etc.

Google scans the website's HTML code to obtain this data and presents it to the user based on the query. Ensuring that all this data is strategically and structurally added to the code is crucial. Structured website data helps boost SEO and CTR.

Furthermore, if your content is relevant, structured, and high-quality, Google can also present it in the AIOs. Some of the tools that you can use to optimize your website’s structured data are Schema.org, Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool, and Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper.

7. Build up Brand Reputation and Digital PR

If you want to make it to the Google AIOs, you must establish your brand identity in Google's eyes. Your brand name is affected by AIO overviews, especially when getting third-party mentions about your company, products, or services, including reviews.

For example, if a third-party website like Reddit mentions your brand as good, it will be an organic indicator of brand reputation. The main focus should be building your brand reputation on other authority platforms, like Reddit, Medium, TechCrunch, Statists, etc.

Building and optimizing brand-specific content on your site (for example, the About Us page, etc.) and showing relevant information about your company using structured data is vital. It is also more important to track all your links on your site to detect all third-party mentions and react to them.

Reviewing and responding to positive and negative reviews on review websites is essential. You should also ensure you interact with clients and customers on social media, engaging with them through posts and comments and even showcasing user-generated content through a social media wall. 

8. Track Your Site's Appearance in AI Overviews

Everything will only be helpful if you track your progress. It is crucial to monitor the performance of your efforts and track your site’s appearance in AI Overviews. No matter how many articles you have read about Google SGE, the data and insights from tracking and experiments will benefit you the most in the long run.

Using SE Ranking AI Overviews Tracker can help you uncover multiple aspects of AIOs. It can track rankings in AI snippets, analyze sources featured in AI Overviews, examine AI snippets for your keywords, and get an idea about traffic from AI Overviews.

Based on these factors, you can further fine-tune your efforts to feature in the Google AI Overviews.

Preparing for AI Search With Google AI Overviews

AI Overviews are an excellent Google feature that helps users quickly gain an edge on the topic. However, they are just experimental, so specific concerns exist regarding Google AIOs in the market.

Some relate to their content accuracy, CTRs, etc. Right now, businesses' SEO efforts will not be in vain. As Google AI presents relevant content on top, it will always point to the best resource.

There are reports of data hallucinations, too. But if we look at them, they are only for some of the results. Moreover, we can expect much more from Google when it is released on a full scale. It is best to follow the strategies to extract the best right now.

Author Bio

Irina Weber is a content strategist and regular contributor to many media outlets, providing tips, ideas, insights, and expert advice to help B2B and SaaS agencies scale.