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Looking things up on Google is not the same anymore. The era of manually piecing information together by browsing through a list of links may end soon.
Because of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) now renamed as “AI Overviews”, you can search for something and Google will gather all the necessary information on that topic and present it to you as a summarized answer with relevant links to support it.
These AI-generated search results are still in an experimental phase and it’s all set to get more updates in the coming months. It will change search engine optimization forever because AI-assisted searches differ from keyword-based searches.
As AI-generated search results keep growing, the importance of keywords will decrease because SGE focuses on understanding the user intent behind a search. Here are some other factors that SGE considers while generating search results for you:
Your search history
Your previous interactions with other Google products
Your location
The type of device you are using
Read on to learn more about Search Generative Experience and how you can leverage it for your future content marketing initiatives.
What is Google Search Generative Experience?
As of May 2024, Google has renamed SGE as AI Overviews. It is part of an AI experiment from Google Search Labs that aims to offer a better search experience by compiling information from multiple sources and then generating an answer with AI that covers all the key points. Besides AI-generated answers, Google also includes website links, product links and more to help users easily access information. This feature takes up the top section of the search engine results page (SERP) and that’s bad news for websites trying to rank at the top on Google SERP with their SEO initiatives.
In simple words, SGE aka AI Overviews will reshape the SEO best practices marketers have followed to date and the top organically listed websites will see a steep fall in their web traffic.
Let’s dig deep and study how AI Overviews differs from traditional search results, how it can change the future of SEO and content creation and what changes we need to make in our SEO strategy to stay well-prepared for this new AI-powered search experience.
How Is AI Overview Different From Traditional Search Results?
Well, I guess there’s no need to explain that the traditional keyword-based search results are just a list of links. You have to comb through all the available web links to find out that one vital piece of information you are looking for.
On the other hand, AI Overviews generate a multi-paragraph snippet that tries to answer your question accurately. Along with the multi-paragraph response, Google also provides additional resources like tables, web page links, product links, multimedia, etc.
Hence, a user’s interaction with Google is changing completely. Initially, the concept was to redirect people to relevant websites, but now AI Overviews is providing all the necessary information on the search result page itself.
While this is more convenient for users, they don’t need to navigate multiple websites to uncover the information they need. However, it is a major setback for content-creating brands and bloggers because this transition in search results decreases the web traffic of all the organically listed sites. Research shows that ever since its launch in May 2024, organic traffic has dropped drastically.
How Will AI Overviews Impact SEO and Content Marketing?
The impact of AI overviews on SEO and content marketing will be widely felt across all industries:
Users will now get their answers directly from the search results, hence no one will click through the websites in the SERP listings. And reduced click-through rates mean reduced web traffic.
The traditional SEO approach focuses on ranking your website on top to drive more traffic. However, the new SEO approach will focus on optimizing content to get featured within the AI Overview snippets.
Websites will see an enormous drop under different metrics like average time spent on a website, total page views, active/total/new users and click-through rates.
Content writers will have to create well-researched, valuable and informative content. The content has to align with the user’s intent so that the AI can recognize it as the best source of information and suggest it to the user if the user is not completely satisfied with the AI snippet and wants a more comprehensive answer.
So the real question still stands:
How to Optimize Your Website for SGE?
Let me remind you again, AI Overviews is still in a growing phase and it is yet to reach its full potential over the next few months. So if you are planning to optimize based on the current version of AI Overviews then let me just stop you right there.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves; we do not know how AI Overviews will grow in the future. But here are a few things that you should definitely consider while updating your SEO and content marketing strategies:
Look Beyond Keyword Research
If you’re planning your content solely based on some high search volume and low competition keywords, then you might need to rethink your strategy. Instead of that, try combing through the questions in Google’s PAA (People Also Ask) feature. That’s where you will find questions that people are looking for answers to. Try creating content that will genuinely answer those questions or create surveys to find out what problems people encounter in your industry and try addressing those problems.
Focus on Creating Topic Clusters
Every topic is an umbrella with numerous sub-topics underneath it. Bringing all the related topics together under one roof and interlinking them can show the search engine that your website offers valuable content on numerous key issues related to your industry.
For example, let’s say your main topic for content creation is digital marketing, which means you can branch out and also create content on subtopics like SEO, PPC, social media marketing, content marketing, etc.
You can further break down these subtopics into more subtopics. For example, you can break down PPC into Google Ads, Meta Ads, Unity Ads, Bing Ads and more. And you can go on further breaking these subtopics into more sub-sections.
Improve Your Content Quality
Spend more time researching before you start creating content on some topic. Look out for the questions in the “People also ask” section and try to offer comprehensive answers to those questions. Strictly follow Google’s E-E-A-T principles and make sure that you create people-first content instead of search-engine-first content.
Tailor Your Content for Niche Searches
Focus on creating content to address the needs of people who have the purchasing power. If they find relevant information on your website, they are more likely to engage with it and become your customers.
For example, if you’re creating content on “the benefits of chia seeds” then AI Overviews will probably have an answer and a list of website links ready for you. And it will be next to impossible for you to get your content on that list.
But instead of that, if you narrow your focus and create content on something a little more specific like “Can chia seeds prevent cancer?” then there’s a better chance for you to get featured in the AI Overviews section because there’s less competition in this subtopic.
Use Structured Data (schema markup)
Structured data can make your web content more visible to AI Overviews and might help feature your content in AI snippets. Schema markup (a type of structured data) that helps search engines understand if the content on your page is relevant to the search query. It can make your content appear in search results, rich results and AI snippets and improve your website traffic and click-through rate.
Measure What Matters
While Google’s AI Overviews is making all kinds of controversial headlines about its inaccuracy, marketers expect a steep decline in organic traffic and click-through rates. Hence, your KPIs based on traditional SEO metrics like organic traffic, keyword ranking, impressions, bounce rate, and click-through rate might become less reliable.
To truly measure your SEO efforts, focus on calculating your Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI). It will give you a clear idea of how your SEO efforts are contributing to your overall revenue.
How to Calculate ROMI for SEO:
1. Identify Costs: Calculate all your costs associated with your SEO initiatives, including premium subscriptions to SaaS marketing tools, salary overheads, and all other resources.
2. Track Conversion: Determine the revenue generated from your SEO activities. This can be tracked through analytics tools by identifying traffic and conversions attributed to organic search.
Use Google Analytics or other web analytics tools to track how many organic site visitors are making a purchase or filling out a contact form.
3. Assign Revenue Values:
For eCommerce Sites: Analytics tools have e-commerce tracking features that allow you to link transactions with organic traffic. Then you will see the exact revenue generated from organic search.
For Lead Generation or Service-Based Sites: Assign a monetary value to each conversion based on historical data, estimated customer lifetime value, or average deal size. This will help in quantifying the revenue impact of organic leads.
4. Calculate ROMI: Use the formula:
This will give you a percentage of return on your marketing investment.
5. Analyze and Adjust: Review your ROMI every month to find out which SEO strategies work best for you. Optimize your SEO strategy based on the initiatives that drive high returns for your business.
Key takeaways
Google’s new AI Overviews will reshape our approach to SEO and content strategy and this feature is yet to evolve in the upcoming few months. Hence, my suggestion would be to wait it out. Do not try to optimize your entire SEO strategy to match the current version of AI Overviews, but you can definitely make some small tweaks.
Forget everything else right now and simply focus on creating content that people will find helpful. You can contact me anytime for a free consultation and I will tell you how you can navigate these complexities like an expert.
Interesting
I love how you focus on measuring the returns on your marketing investment