AI overviews aren’t the death knell for SEO or content creation. Yes, they might reduce organic traffic for informational searches and push down organic blue links further on the search engine results page (SERP), making it harder for your audience to stumble upon your fantastic content. But they also create an opportunity for increased visibility for cited pages.
While AI Overviews don’t make SEOs’ or writers’ jobs any easier, it’s clear Google is gambling on users appreciating immediate answers to different queries directly in SERP. Featured snippets, rich results, People Also Ask boxes, and Knowledge Panels have all attempted to do the same thing in different ways. These SERP features altered the way Google users interact with search results, and there’s little doubt that AI Overviews may as well.
How exactly remains to be seen, but generative AI in search may:
- Reduce click-through rates for the queries for which they appear.
- Highlight pages that aren’t ranking in the top three and drive more traffic their way
- Include ads that could further push organic links down the SERP.
Regardless of whether we think they’re good or bad, they’re here. Now we have to learn to not just live with them but also integrate them into our content research and content strategies so we can continue to use content to grow our companies’ search presence.
Here’s what that might look like.
Keyword Strategy Adjustments
Your keyword strategy serves as a roadmap for content creation — but Google has come through and repaved the road. You can ignore the signs and continue with your current strategy, or you can iterate based on the latest developments.
Since this is all relatively new — AI is still a work in progress and there’s no clarity on how many SERPs will feature AI overviews — the following aren’t so much recommendations as ideas. Take them with a grain of salt, improve them, and make them your own. Monitor any changes you make to your strategy to assess effectiveness and iterate again. (Seems like that’s generally what we need to do with SEO and content creation anyway.)
Reduce Reliance on ToFu Keywords
Top-of-funnel (ToFu) keywords seem most likely to generate AI overviews. The CTR for these queries will likely decline as AI overviews improve and do a better job of meeting user needs. In many cases, unless there’s a marketing reason to create this type of content, businesses shouldn’t rely only on ToFu keywords and inquiries unless they have such high domain authority that they will be able to rank well regardless of SERP features.
Of course, not every piece you publish needs to rank highly. But if your goal is growing your search presence, adjusting your keyword strategy to reflect industry-relevant queries where you can show up prominently and secure sufficient search volume is critical.
Alternatively, you can create ToFu content with the goal of being cited in AI overviews. There’s no tried and true way to do this — it’ll require some testing on your part, but it could be worth it for the additional visibility. Even if it doesn’t result in more clicks, it could build brand recognition. I’ll expand on this further below.
Integrate Dialed-In Long-Tail Queries
Long-tail queries come in a variety of flavors. If your goal is to capture search visibility in SERPs where no AI overview is present, try seeking out queries that are further down the funnel. Long-tail keywords (like question keywords) that are informational will likely still generate AI overviews. Focusing on high-converting long-tail queries that offer a level of specificity may help you sidestep AI overviews and connect with your ideal audience when they’re making their purchasing decisions.
Assess AI Overviews
Identifying search intent and analyzing SERPs are best practices for keyword research. These processes will need to be expanded to include reviewing AI overviews to determine what the AI overview covers and whether it aligns with the organic links in the SERP. I’ve seen cases where they didn’t, which may be indicative of mixed search intent or just AI hiccups.
The AI overview on its own shouldn’t be a reason to forgo targeting a specific keyword, but it should be a consideration, just as keyword difficulty, search volume, and other SERP features are.
Speaking of which…
Investigate Other SERP Features
Let’s say you start your keyword research thinking you’re going to create a blog post. When you look at SERPS, you see an AI overview, one blue link, and then a video SERP.
Because of the SERP configuration, it may make sense to pivot toward creating a video, assuming you have the resources to do so. Since the video SERP features a few videos, it can present a better option for capturing search visibility.
Addressing Content Currently in Production
If you have several pieces in the works right now — I know I do — what can you do to hopefully maximize their effectiveness?
Do a Pulse Check
Even if you’ve done your research, got subject matter expert buy-in, and your content is ready to cross the finish line, take a moment to reassess the SERPs to determine if you need to update the content you have in production. If you feel confident in your piece, move forward with publication. If not, consider what adjustments might be necessary.
Don’t Be Afraid To Change Things Up
If a shakeup in SERPs makes it unlikely that a piece of content will improve your search visibility, consider how it can be repurposed to build brand awareness or authority through other channels. Can you spin it off into a LinkedIn Newsletter or text post? Turn it into a YouTube or Instagram video? Can it be edited into a customer or inbound newsletter?
If you have pieces that are still early in the production process, feel free to let them go, but if you’ve already invested resources, consider whether there’s value in shifting tack.
Updates To Content Creation
Your content creation process may also benefit from some tweaks.
Focus on Unique Content Only Your Company Could Create
First, experience joined E-A-T, giving us E-E-A-T. Then, the helpful content update showed up at the party, and “people-first content” became a rallying point for content creation.
AI Overviews are just the latest twist in a shifting content plain. Ultimately, all of these Google initiatives work hand-in-hand to force companies to focus on the reader and not the crawler.
Hone in on what you bring to the table — what insights can you provide that others can’t? What subject matter experts can you tap to showcase your experience, expertise, and authority? And at some point in the content creation process, you need to assess whether you’re adding to the conversation — information gain — or just echoing what exists.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to find the gaps and fill them as only your brand can.
Capitalize on Your Search Data
Marketers often work in silos, which can lead to valuable insights being overlooked. We see this all the time with search data.
Tapping into your site’s proprietary search data can help you better understand what potential customers want to see more of. Which queries in GSC are seeing the most growth? Which drive the most clicks? Do you have related keywords with different URLs that are popular? Translate these insights into additional blog posts, social media posts, and even newsletters.
Use your search data to inform your paid strategy. Do particular keywords lead to more conversions? Perhaps boosting those pages with PPC or social ads could further enhance the page’s effectiveness. Building bridges between marketing silos can help you maximize your efforts, reduce duplication, and get more from your content production.
Of course, you should also monitor changes in impressions and clicks over time to determine if any of your URLs have been affected by AI Overviews. Google doesn’t have plans to include AI Overview data in GSC, so it will be important to create a process for doing this internally.
Aim for a Citation
Since AI overviews are still relatively new, there’s not much insight yet into why they cite particular sources. Here’s one possible way to get featured, which is similar to capturing a featured snippet. Keep in mind that this is speculation and that we need more time to assess how Google’s overviews select sources.
If you need to create content for a query featuring an AI overview, be sure to inspect the current overview to see what type of information is covered.
For example, if I want to rank for “fix broken links,” in addition to using my favorite keyword research tool, I’d google the phrase.
The top of the SERP is dominated by the following overview:
It quickly identifies how to fix broken links, provides more detailed steps, and then shares possibly helpful tools. Ignoring that this overview isn’t clear and is slightly problematic, the structure provides a blueprint for important components to include in my content. I know some of the questions I need to answer, and I can see the holes in the AI overview that I can fill. For example, step one just says to locate the broken link, but it doesn’t provide any info on how to do this.
(And just to highlight how quickly AI overviews are changing: In less than a day, this overview was updated. So, I should reiterate: Take everything with a grain of salt. These overviews are shifting quickly.)
AI Overviews FAQs
Should I block Google from using my content in AI overviews?
It’s up to you, but there’s no clear benefit to doing so. Using a nosnippet tag means you could lose the visibility that an AI overview provides. Right now, we know that Google isn’t just pulling from the top search results. Its AI overviews feature links to content in various positions on SERP. So you could be sitting at number 10 and still get pulled into the AI overview. This could lead to a substantial traffic boost for those pages. The converse is also true — higher-ranking pages may see less traffic since AI overviews don’t just pull from the top three spots.
How do I see which queries feature AI overviews?
Unfortunately, at the time of writing, there’s no SEO tool that shows which keywords trigger AI overviews. The only way to assess which queries are affected is the old-fashioned way — google it.
Can users block AI overviews?
There’s no way to completely turn off AI overviews in Google. However, users can use the “Web” filter to only browse links.
Do keywords for specific industries show more overviews than others?
Overviews are still rolling out, and it’s not clear how many SERPs they populate. Semrush Sensor now includes AI Overviews as a SERP feature and tracks their estimated occurrence for keywords in their database.
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