AI (artificial intelligence) is everywhere. In fact, the AI market is projected to reach $407 billion by 2027. And between 2023 and 2030, AI is expected to have an annual growth rate of 37.3%. So not only is AI everywhere right now, but it’s probably going to be around for a long time.
If you’ve been on Google lately (and, honestly, who hasn’t?), you’ve probably seen the Google AI Overviews at the top of a search engine results page, or SERP.
What is this blurb at the top of the page? And how can this impact your SEO efforts?
If you’re wondering this, you’re not alone – 24% of business owners expressed concern about AI’s potential impact on website traffic, according to a Forbes Advisor survey.
In this article, we’ll cover actionable strategies to optimize your SEO for AI Overviews, stay ahead of algorithm changes and ensure your website continues to attract valuable traffic.
Are you ready?
Let’s dive in.
How AI is Changing SEO Best Practices
SEO best practices are changing rapidly. How do you stay on top of all the fluctuations on the SERP? As AI-powered tools and algorithms become more advanced, SEO is no longer just about keywords and backlinks – it’s about understanding user intent, delivering personalized experiences and adapting to how search engines are evolving.
If you’re still using the same tired tactics from 2022, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
Here are just some of the ways that AI is changing how we approach SEO.
1. Search Intent Optimization
AI-driven search engines, like Google, are getting better at understanding the “why” behind a search query. This means search algorithms are focusing more on the intent behind a user’s search rather than just the exact words they typed in.
If you and a close friend search for the same thing right next to each other, it’s likely that your SERP results will be slightly different.
Why?
Because Google not only understands intent better, but it understands you better.
It’s a little creepy, I know.
To stay ahead, you need to ensure that your content directly addresses the needs, questions and problems of your audience.
Moving forward, SEO best practices must focus on creating content that satisfies specific user intents, whether they’re looking for answers, comparisons or buying decisions.
What are the types of search intent, and how do you target each?
Backlinko has an incredible guide.
2. Smarter Content Recommendations
AI helps search engines deliver more personalized results, showing users content that matches their past behavior and preferences. For marketers, this means rethinking the way content is created.
We can’t just target keywords anymore. We have to make sure that each content piece we produce is more helpful, more comprehensive, and more unique than anything else on the SERP.
AI-powered tools can analyze patterns in search behavior and suggest content ideas or gaps that are likely to rank well.
For example, tools like Clearscope and MarketMuse use AI to recommend keywords, content length, and even readability levels based on top-performing pages. But here at Conveyor, we’re still super-fans of Semrush.
Check out this On Page SEO Checker which provides real-time optimization and strategy recommendations for content.
3. Enhanced Keyword Research
Gone are the days of simply plugging in a few keywords and hoping for the best. AI is taking keyword research to the next level. Advanced tools are now able to analyze vast datasets, uncovering hidden keyword opportunities and suggesting related terms based on semantic search.
AI doesn’t just look at keyword volume anymore – it understands how certain keywords fit into the context of a larger conversation, allowing you to target long-tail keywords and rank for highly specific search queries more efficiently.
Take a look at this keyword analysis from Semrush on AI for SEO variations. AI-powered research tools can help you quickly identify new content opportunities. But it should never be a replacement for human oversight. Associative content algorithms are not perfect! So, as strategists, we need to make sure we are evaluating opportunities with a fine-tooth comb. Sometimes that means scanning hundreds or thousands of variations for the best option for your client.
4. Automated SEO Audits and Recommendations
AI is also making SEO audits faster and more accurate. Tools like Screaming Frog and SEMrush now incorporate AI to automate technical SEO audits, flagging issues like broken links, duplicate content, slow page speeds or unoptimized metadata.
These tools don’t just stop at identifying problems; they also provide actionable recommendations for fixing them.
By leveraging AI, you can spend less time manually combing through your site and more time focusing on strategic improvements.
5. Predictive SEO for Algorithm Updates
With Google constantly rolling out updates to its algorithm, staying ahead of the changes can be challenging. AI can help with predictive SEO, analyzing past algorithm updates and forecasting what future ones might look like.
By understanding these patterns, you can prepare your site in advance, making adjustments to your content, keywords or user experience to ensure that your rankings remain stable.
Predictive SEO allows you to be proactive, rather than reactive, when it comes to search engine updates.
And, of course, one of the biggest ways companies are relying on AI is to generate content.
But you need to be careful.
While tools like ChatGPT can help you scale your content strategy rapidly and effectively, you should proceed with extreme caution.
Everyone now has free access to AI content generators. Which means if copy/pasting AI content is the core of your content strategy this year, you may be setting yourself up for long-term failure.
But don’t worry, there is still hope.
How to Create SEO Content Using AI
We’ve talked about this before, so I will keep it brief.
Yes, AI can quickly create lots of content that can be used for SEO. Wrike, a collaborative work management platform, used generative AI to create ten times as many SEO blogs in a 30 day period as they did before using AI.
So yes, AI can be used to help create content for SEO, but Google wants high-quality content and will rank that content higher in SERPs. AI makes writing more efficient, but it should never be used to completely create content end to end. Anything written by AI needs to be checked for bias and factual errors. Plus, the content could always use unique human touches, such as refining the tone to better reflect your organization, or adding high-value SME (subject matter expert) quotes or knowledge.
The wrong strategy can lead to total deindexation of your site. Yikes.
If you’re going to use AI to help with your SEO efforts, do so honestly, responsibly and transparently. AI is a great tool, but it can’t replace your SEO and content strategy team.
In fact, there are many ways you can lean on AI to generate content that have nothing to do with copy/pasting content at scale.
How to Use Generative AI for Your Content Strategy
1. Content Ideation and Research
We love using ChatGPT as a brainstorming tool. It’s easy to get stuck in the same old content creation formulas and patterns.
Try using AI to brainstorm content topics, subtopics or new angles on existing ideas based on trending keywords or industry insights.
AI tools like ChatGPT can provide content outlines or suggestions based on competitive analysis and keyword research. Think of it like another teammate.
AI can analyze massive datasets quickly, helping you discover content gaps and trending topics, allowing you to stay ahead of competitors without reinventing the wheel.
But please note: research with tools like ChatGPT is not foolproof. Sourcing is challenging and plagiarism is always a concern. Don’t use it as a substitution for real, human-centered data collection.
2. Creating Content Outlines
If creating content at scale is your goal, you’ll love using tools like ChatGPT to help with content briefs. Instead of using AI to generate entire articles (please don’t), use it to create detailed content outlines.
You can input specific topics, keywords or questions, and AI will provide a structured layout with headers, subheaders and points to cover.
You can even teach ChatGPT about your brand, products, services and messaging for a tailored output.
This method helps you build a solid content framework, saving time on the structural part while leaving room for personalization, creativity and human insight in the final draft.
3. Generating Content Drafts for Refinement
AI-generated drafts can be a great starting point for content, but they shouldn’t be the end product.
If you were excited to fire your writers because ChatGPT content is so great, you may be in for a rude awakening. Google is getting better and better at recognizing redundant AI content.
And remember, Google is also looking for the most helpful content piece.
If everyone can generate the same response from AI, what unique value are you bringing to the SERP? Hint: None.
Use AI to generate a rough draft, then have a real-life human content strategist or editor refine the tone, add original insights and fact-check.
We really cannot stress this enough.
It significantly reduces the time spent on first drafts while ensuring the final product still includes human expertise, unique perspectives and an authentic voice.
4. Enhancing Existing Content
Historical content optimization is still one of the strongest SEO strategies.
It’s always easier to boost existing traction than to start from scratch.
Use AI to analyze existing content and suggest enhancements such as keyword improvements, readability adjustments or updated information.
AI can recommend places to add relevant statistics, examples or case studies based on current trends. It can help you experiment with new SEO-centric headers. Or identify new keyword angles for you to boost your visibility and reach.
AI can quickly identify content that could be improved for SEO or engagement purposes, helping you keep your content fresh and relevant without creating new material from scratch.
5. Content Summarization for Repurposing
We love repurposing human-generated content using AI. Content syndication across multiple mediums has never been easier.
Let’s say you’ve invested a ton of time, money and effort into a lengthy ebook.
AI tools can condense long-form content into summaries or key points that can be repurposed into social media posts, newsletters or infographics.
For example, turning a long blog post into a tweet thread or a LinkedIn article. While you’re at it, maybe try asking it for a video script and an email nurture series.
AI-generated summaries save time and allow you to reach a broader audience through different content formats while still keeping the core message intact. Talk about integrated marketing!
And that’s not all. AI is great at helping you A/B test your content.
Use AI to generate different versions of headlines, meta descriptions, email subject lines or social media copy for A/B testing purposes. AI tools can produce various iterations with different tones, angles or keywords.
This enables you to test multiple approaches quickly and determine which version resonates best with your audience, optimizing your content for conversions.
Now that you have some exciting tactics to try, let’s get back into those Google AI Overviews, which were just released in the US in May 2024.
Head on over to our guide on using ChatGPT for content strategy here.
What Are Google AI Overviews?
AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries to answer your search query. Google uses advanced generative AI models to analyze and understand the intent behind a user’s search query, and then the model summarizes relevant data to come up with a comprehensive answer to the search query that becomes the overview.
Google AI Overviews vs Featured Snippets
In your Google searches, you may have noticed that just because AI Overviews exist doesn’t mean that Featured Snippets have gone away. In fact, sometimes you can get both an AI Overview and a Featured Snippet on one SERP.
Both features use AI to provide the user with a quick answer to their search query. However, they have some differences:
Featured Snippets pull the answer from one website (with that website usually ranking at the top of the SERP). The answer is brief and directs the searcher to the website for more information.
AI Overviews pull information from multiple sites, typically between three and seven, to generate a comprehensive answer. These overviews are longer (sometimes multiple paragraphs) and link to the sites they referenced at the bottom.
Where Does Google Get the Data to Generate AI Overviews?
Data is taken from websites that rank highly in the SERPs. As a refresher, Google uses the E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness) framework to rank content. So a lot of the content for these overviews comes from sites that have high domain authority, thought leadership content and up-to-date information that is republished regularly.
Image Source: Google
How to Integrate EEAT into your Content Strategy
I think it’s important to note that the foundation of EEAT comes from content that cannot be generated by AI.
Think about it.
Content that consistently ranks in the SERP is almost always human-generated, human-focused, human-researched and human-designed.
It’s no wonder that EEAT is becoming more and more important to SEO and content marketing.
Here are some EEAT examples you can integrate into your marketing strategy to boost your content’s chances of ranking:
- Personal Case Studies and Success Stories: Nothing says ‘human generated’ like a real human story. Case studies are a great way to showcase real-world results, internal processes and outcomes specific to your business or clients, reflecting expertise and trustworthiness.
- Expert Opinions and Thought Leadership: There’s never been a better time to bring your SMEs out of the background and into the forefront of your content strategy. Expert opinions can provide original insights and predictions from industry experts with years of experience that AI cannot replicate. Ask your SMEs for quotes, Q&As and more.
- Original Research and Data Analysis: Data that you collect and report on simply cannot be AI-generated. Try featuring proprietary studies or surveys that offer new data and fresh insights, analyzed through a unique business lens. Don’t have any? Now might be a great time to align your PR and content silos to get started.
- Hands-On Tutorials and Demonstrations: In-depth, step-by-step guides based on personal experience and real-world problem-solving. Have you noticed that Reddit is taking over the SERP? That’s because real human feedback is critical to ranking.
- Testimonials and Customer Reviews: Nothing builds trust like social proof. Gather genuine feedback from your actual customers. These can help to showcase real experiences with your brand while building trust and credibility.
- Expert Interviews and Podcasts: Podcasts are exploding. And there’s a reason. People want to learn from people, not logos. Incorporate dynamic conversations that offer spontaneous insights and deep industry knowledge from experienced professionals in your industry. That could be you, or it could be a partner.
- Unique Visual Content (Original Infographics, Diagrams, Photography): I’m sure you’ve seen a really janky AI image. As image creation becomes more sophisticated, you may find yourself leaning on AI generators for graphics instead of your talented team of designers. That’s a big mistake. Google loves custom visuals created with proprietary data and brand-specific design, showcasing expertise. Your designer is still the most qualified to do this well.
The more you can integrate non-generatable elements into your content and SEO strategy, the better.
But as more and more systems lean on AI, you may be wondering…
How do Google AI Overviews Impact My Web Traffic?
To be frank, there isn’t much concrete data yet on AI Overviews and web traffic, mainly because they are so new. And as of June 2024, these summaries appeared in less than 15% of search results, likely to allow Google to continue to refine their AI to provide quality results.
Even though it’s early, I expect Google AI Overviews to have a positive impact on web traffic for sites with quality content, as long as they adjust their SEO strategies accordingly.
Why am I so optimistic that AI Overviews will be good for web traffic?
Well, first I look at snippets. Featured snippets generated 8% of all clicks at their prime, which led to a 14% increase in CTR for pages featured there. AI Overviews are bound to follow suit as they sit at the very top of the SERPs.
In fact, in initial reviews, Google has found that when people look at AI Overviews and click on the web pages that information was pulled from, the clicks to those websites are higher quality, with people more likely to stay on page because the information is helpful to them. So not only could these summaries increase total web traffic, but also the quality of that web traffic – and the potential resulting leads.
How to Adjust Your SEO Strategy in the Age of AI
So, Google AI Overviews can help drive traffic as long as companies adjust their strategies accordingly. Here are a few ideas to start with:
Step 1. Refocus on Search Intent
Make the search intent clear at the beginning of your content. Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines has a whole section on user needs and user intent. You might have high-quality content that answers users’ questions and provides expert information. But if Google can’t quickly tell what questions you’re answering, then you aren’t going to rank high for that search query, and you won’t be in any snippets or summaries.
Step 2. Update Existing Content
New content is great, but you might be overlooking a key asset: existing content. Do you have some quality content that readers care about? Or articles that rank (or have ranked) high in SERPs? Try refreshing this content. Add new statistics, throw in a quote from an SME at your organization, link to other new content on your site. There are tons of ways to keep your content fresh and relevant.
This can also be a great strategy for building backlinks. This strategy takes time, but by keeping older content up to date, you can both keep existing backlinks and get new ones without creating entirely new content.
Step 3. Focus on the on Building Trust
I definitely sound like a broken record by now, but seriously, don’t just copy and paste from ChatGPT and post. Not only can this lead to poor-quality content, but one study showed that people are more likely to trust an article written by a person than by AI. Over time, building trust can help your content rank higher in SERPs to improve your SEO efforts.
One way to help build trust is to establish thought leaders on your team. These thought leaders can have different but complementary areas of expertise. When you create content on key topics, have your thought leaders named as the authors for content in their respective area of expertise.
It may sound like a big time commitment, but this is a great area where you can outsource this work to an external team that can take that expert knowledge and turn it into numerous content pieces that cross-promote one another.
Step 4. Incorporate Non-Generatable Elements
Incorporating non-generatable elements into your content helps show Google (and users!) that your content is not solely AI-generated. This can help you build trust and rank higher in the expertise category of Google’s E-E-A-T framework.
Some non-generatable elements include:
- Custom graphics
- Quotes from SMEs on your team
- The newest data and statistics that are not in AI knowledge bases yet
- Information from your organization’s experiences (think case studies or lessons learned)
AI is rapidly changing the user experience for search engines. But these features do not have to be the enemy of marketing strategies.
Companies should instead focus on using these AI features to enhance their SEO efforts to see higher volume and better quality web traffic.
Ready to build a better SEO strategy?
