8 Top SEO Website Strategies to Survive Google’s AI Overview

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SEO Website Strategies

SEO website for AI Overview has introduced by google, designed to provide users with quick, AI-generated answers to their queries. However, some people believe this update may impact SEO website performance, especially in terms of traffic and visibility.

Is it true or not?

Yes, it might potentially impact SEO. But it can be both positive or negative, depending on how well you adapt your web’s SEO strategies. We’ll help you discuss more in this post.

Google’s New AI Overview and Its Impact on Organic Search Results

Initially, AI Overview evolved from the Search Generative Experience (SGE), a part of Google’s Search Labs experiment that uses generative AI to enhance search results. Then, this update was first introduced officially at the Google I/O 2024 event, on May 14th, 2024.

By the end of 2024, this feature is expected to reach over one billion people globally.

Simply put, the AI Overview sits at the top of the search results page and uses generative AI to answer complex questions.

AI Overview sits at the top of the search results page
AI Overview sits at the top of the search results page

It pulls information from various websites to create a comprehensive and accurate response, making it easier for users to find the answers they need without scrolling through multiple links.

As users get their answers directly from the AI Overview, there might be fewer clicks on the links below.

So, it is said that this trend towards “zero-click searches” may decrease CTR from organic search results by over 50% for certain queries.

On the other hand, AI Overview can also lead to increased visibility, because it will show selected websites for further references just below the AI’s summary.

Websites featured in this section are particularly chosen based on their ability to provide specific, high-quality answers to user questions. This means, featured websites will get higher chances to enhance their overall traffic.

Google even stated themself, that featured link cards shown in AI Overview generate higher CTRs than usual web search results.

For more information about how Google’s AI Overview works, check this out: “Google Launches “AI Overview”: Here’s What You Need to Know”.

Key Strategies to Adapt Your SEO Website for AI Overview

To get the positive impacts of AI Overview, website owners or SEO specialists should adopt new strategies, increasing the potential to be selected as featured websites on the summary, thus maintaining the site’s visibility.

Here are 8 crucial tactics to consider:

1. Embrace the Change

Actually, adapting to new search engine algorithm changes is not a new concept in the world of SEO. As you might know, Google is known for regularly updating its algorithms.

However, did they ever kill SEO? No, not one.

It is true that every time Google announces a new update, there will be a major industry change. But, it has mostly benefited users and people behind the SEO industry. As long as you follow Google’s guidelines, negative impacts are rather unlikely.

So, with AI Overview now becoming a standard feature, the SEO community must adjust its strategies to leverage this new opportunity. Rather than fearing displacement, you should view AI Overview as a chance to enhance your digital strategies.

2. Pay Attention to Structured Content and Readability

As we explained in the first section, AI Overview prioritizes concise and structured content that provides immediate answers to user queries, which will be shown on top of the SERP.

Pages optimized for readability and structured data are more likely to be featured in the AI Overview carousel, as it aligns with Google’s preference for delivering compact, informative responses.

This means SEO website owners who structure their content with clear headings, bullet points, and relevant schema markup stand a better chance of appearing in Google’s AI-generated responses.

3. Optimize for Specificity in Content

Google’s AI is designed to pinpoint and highlight specific passages that directly answer user queries. Thus, your SEO strategies should focus on addressing niche questions with detailed, comprehensive answers.

You may include the best possible answers from the forum’s comment, the article’s snippet, or an FAQ passage.

Additionally, the use of Google’s passage-based ranking now has broadened.

Passage indexing from neilpatel
Passage indexing from neilpatel

This will make the citation links featured on AI Overview bring users to a highlighted passage specifically, instead of bringing them to the page as a whole. It is because Google wants to find what they call “hidden gems” within content.

Thus, ensure to answer specific user questions, directly hitting the points that people are searching for.

4. Prompt Summarization

If you’ve ever seen or tried AI Overview, you will see that it provides a brief summary for users. They often extract and highlight these summaries from SEO website content.

So, try to add prompt summarization to your post. It involves crafting introductory paragraphs that concisely encapsulate the essence of the article.

Websites that strategically summarize their content at the beginning of a page will facilitate easier extraction by AI algorithms, thereby enhancing their visibility in AI Overview’s featured carousel.

5. Prioritize E-E-A-T and Authorship

E-E-A-T is the next-level E-A-T, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google uses this as a part of its Search Quality Rater Guidelines.

To ensure your website stands out in AI Overview, it’s essential to establish your content as authoritative and trustworthy in your niche. This can be achieved by showcasing credentials, certifications, and detailed profiles of content creators who demonstrate expertise in the subject matter.

Also, authorship is another key aspect that AI Overview prioritizes. Google seeks to attribute content to knowledgeable individuals rather than anonymous sources. This means, highlighting authorship across your content helps in establishing credibility.

6. Expand SERP Rankings

While traditional ranking factors like backlinks and content quality remain vital, adapting to AI Overview requires a more diversified approach for SEO website performance.

This is because there are multiple ways to lead users toward your site.

You can use

  • People Also Ask
  • Image results
  • Video results
  • Social media posts, etc.

Now, Google shows even more variety in its SERP.

For example, currently, tweets–or now X’s posts–can appear as regular blue links on Google. Even Reddit posts’ visibility on search engine results pages has notably surged with a +200% increase in the top ten over the last year.

What does it mean?

Yes, try expanding your SEO efforts across different platforms and formats, as long as Google can index them. Besides a single blog post, you may create videos, infographics, FAQs, and more.

The more types of content you have, the higher the chances for you to survive and appear on Google SERP, despite the existence of AI Overview that provides instant answers.

7. Adopt an Always-On SEO Website Approach

It’s also crucial to shift from reactive, manual processes to a proactive, technology-driven mindset, as SEO has evolved beyond individual tasks to become a collaborative effort across forward-thinking teams.

Unlike traditional SEO practices that focus on periodic optimizations, an always-on approach emphasizes continuous monitoring and adjustment of SEO tactics.

Because in a rapidly advancing AI landscape, staying competitive means leveraging AI technologies effectively.

So, websites that proactively monitor and respond to changes in AI Overview rankings can quickly adapt their SEO strategies to maintain or improve their visibility.

8. Submit Changes via Google Search Console

One of the most actionable steps to influence your visibility in Google’s AI summary is through proactive management via Google Search Console (GSC).

Regularly submitting updated content for re-indexing will help expedite the process of inclusion in AI Overview results. The process is simple, just input the content’s URL into your GSC’s inspect bar, right at the top page. Then, click ’Request Indexing’.

SS request index search console
SS request index search console

According to a real-case experiment, it is said that no improvement in terms of AI Overview was seen in the first two days unless the web owner did this re-indexing request on SGE.

The experiment also shows that after the re-indexing request, improvements can be seen within five hours. Thus, this is a promising strategy to get your site linked in AI-generated search summaries.

As you can see, Google’s AI Overview can be both beneficial and disadvantageous for SEO website performance. As long as you follow best SEO practices and adopt new strategies, you can still maintain–or even maximize–your online presence.

For more insightful content marketing-related posts or professional content writing services, visit our page at Toombooh or contact us now.

FAQ

  1. How to improve SEO using AI?

Currently, SEO professionals are using AI for content creation, SERP research and keyword analysis, development of content strategies, technical SEO, and more.

  1. Is AI content good for SEO?

Yes, AI can positively improve your SEO website performance or ranking by generating optimized content that aligns with best SEO practices. But combining it with human expertise will give an even better result.

  1. What is the role of AI in SEO?

Integrating AI into SEO can be beneficial in many aspects, as it can be used for web data analysis, customer behavior prediction, content optimization, and even task automation.

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Hilyatun Najiyah

Hilyatun Najiyah

Ziya is an experienced digital marketer. She started her career as SEO specialist and content specialist in 2016. Currently, she continues to develop her skills in the field of SEO and content writing. Follow on Linkedin

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