AI Overview and its impact on SEO for businesses

Exploring the Influence of AI on Modern SEO Tactics

SEO has always played an integral role in any businesses marketing strategy. Broadly speaking effective SEO can help businesses in the following ways:

Increased website traffic
Improved brand awareness
Higher conversion rates

The integration of AI technologies into Google SERP’s has fundamentally changed how users discover and interact with brands and content online.

A major addition to Google SERP’s is the introduction of AI Overview. How has this new feature impacted on SEO strategies for businesses?

What is AI Overview?

Google AI Overview is a feature on search that provides a single response to certain search queries by evaluating multiple sources on the web using generative AI technologies.

The results are then displayed above all other search results on the SERP and include links to the website from where the information was sourced.

What is the impact of AI Overview on search?

The AI overview feature is expected to increase zero-click searches, which is when a user finds the information they need without actually clicking through to a website. This could obviously impact organic traffic to websites that would otherwise rank highly for these search terms.

Luckily, all is not lost.

If a business website is featured as a reference, initial tests by Google suggest that this will in fact increase visibility and click-through rates for the brand as users perceive the company to be an authority on the subject.

In addition, brands can expect to receive more highly qualified traffic owing to the fact that these users are more engaged in the content and more invested in their research. This is concluded by the fact that the user would have already received extensive information in the overview so if they are clicking through to the site there is a high level of intent shown.

Google has also committed to continue to find ways to use AI to improve traffic quality to websites with valuable, relevant content for searchers.

How do AI Overviews impact my businesses SEO strategy?

The good news is that traditional SEO best practices are currently the most effective way of ensuring that your website is considered as a source for AI overviews.

This means that if you are not focusing on SEO as a fundamental marketing strategy, now more than ever, you should consider this channel.

What SEO best practices should my business be focusing on?

SEO is a technical and multi-faceted discipline that requires a dedicated expert resource. However, for the most part every company should be implementing the following:

On-Page SEO
- Keyword Research: Identifying relevant keywords to target.
- Content Optimization: Creating high-quality, informative, and keyword-rich content.
- Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Writing compelling and keyword-optimized titles and descriptions.
- Header Tags (H1, H2, etc.): Structuring content with clear headings.
- Image Optimization: Using descriptive alt text and file names.
- Internal Linking: Connecting related pages within your website.
Technical SEO
- Website Speed: Ensuring fast loading times.
- Mobile-Friendliness: Optimizing for mobile devices.
- XML Sitemap: Creating a sitemap for search engines to understand your website’s structure.
- Robots.txt: Controlling search engine crawlers’ access to your website.
- URL Structure: Creating clear and descriptive URLs.
Off-Page SEO
- Link Building: Acquiring high-quality backlinks from other websites.
- Local SEO (if applicable): Optimizing for local search results (e.g., Google My Business).
- Social Media: Leveraging social platforms to increase visibility.
User Experience (UX)
- Site Navigation: Making it easy for users to find information.
- Content Readability: Writing clear and concise content.
- Mobile-Friendly Design: Ensuring a positive mobile experience.