AI Overviews and the SEO Shake-Up: How to Navigate through it

In May 2024, Google finally released the much-awaited ‘AI Overviews’ previously called the Search Generative Experience (SGE), to everyone in the US with a much more expansive launch plan for the rest of the world. Since then, however, there has been a flurry of speculation around the impact of AI Overviews, some nonsensical results popping up, and Google’s rollback in a few places due to odd results while making continuous improvements on the future of SEO.

Three months after the US launch, Google has now expanded its AI-powered search summaries to six more countries, including India. Even though AI Overviews have gaps today, there is a radical shift happening in the world of SEO and we should pay attention.

What are AI overviews? A New Search Paradigm

AI overviews are Google's "upgraded" search landscape - it was previously called Search Generative Experience (SGE). This new technology doesn't just find information; it generates it, fundamentally altering the search experience. Unlike traditional Google search, which involves a query and a search index, overviews use generative AI to synthesize an answer based on the relevant links. Google cites these links below the AI-generated summary. Efficiency is the primary driver for AI overviews. In the old search paradigm, users had the prerogative of opening the top-n links and deciphering whether the search results satisfied the search query. By providing a summary of the appropriate links, users can efficiently navigate to relevant links without leaving the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). What is interesting about AI overviews is that the links they reference are not the same as those that sit atop the Google organic search ranking. Underneath the hood, AI overviews are more than just a "Gemini-wrapper" that summarizes the top-n search results on SERP; it is a new paradigm of page indexing, thereby necessitating new SEO strategies.

AI overviews’ initial rollout had immediate and significant effects:

• Decreased website traffic across many sites
• The surge in AI-generated content as a quick response
• Google's crackdown on low-quality AI-generated material
• Accuracy issues leading to a temporary rollback of SGE

A lot is yet in motion, but these developments highlight the need to adapt our SEO strategies, requiring us to rethink how we approach search engine visibility.

With AI overviews coming and impacting my traffic - how do I prepare?

If we were to distill AI Overview’s change to SEO, it would be that keywords were previously a proxy for matching user intent and content. With AI, search engines can better understand content, collate multiple sources, and match them to user intent. From a marketer's perspective, the drawback is that AI could be a black box; SEO heuristics optimized on the keyword-based system might no longer work in SGE. Within SGE, content alignment and quality signals, like CTR, time on page, content authority, etc., will decide website ranking.

In the SGE landscape, authentic expertise is not just beneficial—it's essential for digital survival and success. While SGE's evolution is ongoing, you can adopt these strategies to create content that withstands its scrutiny:

a. Human-generated content is king

The adage in SEO and digital marketing is "content is king."— after Google's March 2024 update, it would be prudent to amend it to "human-generated content is king." It is no longer just about content volume; it's about the authenticity and engagement of the content—the writer's genuine voice is crucial.

Tactically, balancing organic and paid campaigns is hotly debated when scaling companies. A balanced marketing strategy involves both organic content and paid campaigns. Protecting your branded keywords is crucial, and as organic traffic grows, you can think about reducing paid activities. For Series B-C companies, avoid traditional SEO agencies and invest in Growth Engineers — people close to the product who can create authentic content and automate marketing processes.

b. A New Growth Model: From Funnels to Cylinders

What gets measured gets managed - track the right metrics.In today's marketing landscape, it's time to move past the traditional funnel to embrace the Growth Cylinder concept. Traditionally, website traffic has been a metric marketers track since it is a leading indicator of the top of the funnel. However, this obfuscates the quantity from the quality of traffic. The goal of a successful marketing organization should be to build a 'marketing cylinder'—where high-quality leads enter and cylinder leakage is minimized. Therefore, the KPIs to track should be the ones that directly impact the top line, like user retention, demo ups, etc., which matters more than mere traffic numbers.

Here, success is measured by revenue, emphasizing results. Picture a model where ideal customers smoothly enter at the top and move effortlessly towards conversion, with minimal drop-offs.

c. Use the power of the enemy - AI to optimize content for SGE

To optimize content for AI overviews, we can simulate the SGE experience by uploading content to a ChatGPT, Gemini, or Llama and reverse engineering the themes detected by AI. This allows us to understand what the AI is looking for and how it interprets our content. We can then use this knowledge to fine-tune our content and ensure it aligns with search queries relevant to our ICP. Using AI for keyword and competitor research can be a game-changer in marketing. It allows us to gather valuable insights quickly and efficiently, helping us identify content gaps and create high-quality, relevant, and differentiated content. However, it's important to note that while AI can assist in research, it should not be used as a substitute for human creativity when it comes to generating content. Google has made it clear that it is actively delisting programmatically generated content. From a reader's perspective, content written by a human who is close to the product and deeply understands the ICP's pain points is always going to be superior to AI-generated content.

d. Attention to detail - finer optimizations for AI Overviews

Content will always be the most crucial factor when it comes to SEO. After experimenting with Overviews, some optimization heuristics emerged. Given that latency is a big issue with LLMs, having a low-latency website enables Overviews to reference it and display it in the index. AI overviews will penalize you if your site is slow to load, loads in stages, or returns a 404 message. Building on-site speed, and optimizing HTML markup schema for AI overviews are more important than ever.

e. Be present where your consumers are - diversify your marketing channels.

There are more search engines than Google - YouTube, Spotify, etc.- with very large MAUs. Diversification and regularity with unique content increase authority on the topic, and thus, your content is more likely to show up as citations in AI-generated search results.

Alternatives like Perplexity and Co-Pilot contribute to a decline in Google's search traffic and ad revenue. Marketers should also explore and start developing content strategies around those channels.

Knowledge engine optimization is the new SEO

Despite the hiccups in the rollout of AI overviews, the SGE paradigm of search is here to stay. The evolution towards a zero-click world means less traffic coming to your webpage. However, it is an opportunity to drastically improve the quality of traffic at the expense of quantity.

Since a summary is provided before a user clicks on your link - we must think of search engines as knowledge engines. By focusing on authentic, high-quality content that amplifies your unique insight, you can navigate these changes and keep your brand thriving. Whether you're a startup or an established company, staying flexible and innovative is essential in this evolving KEO environment.

Madhukar also regularly shares his thoughts on AI, Marketing and Growth on his blog here - https://madhukarkumar.medium.com/