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Bot-Busting to Beat Google’s AI Overviews in SEO

A person holding a tablet displaying the Google search homepage, highlighting the impact of Google's AI Overviews on SEO.

On May 14th, Google made a massive change to its algorithm in the US. It now includes “AI Overviews”.

These are AI-generated responses in search and are controversial. Some are reporting SERP rank drops, but you can use Google’s AI Overviews in SEO to your advantage.

So, What are Google AI Overviews?

Like everything now, Google has committed to using generative AI within search results. This means you will get AI-generated results above traditional results within SERPs after a query. So, how is this a bad thing? Well, any up-to-date search engine optimization consultant will tell you it is and isn’t! It depends on whether you will adapt your strategy to take advantage of the situation. It’s worth mentioning that AI Overview can turn on and off at the user’s discretion.

AI Overviews in SEO Queries

Some businesses report massive page ranking drops following the Google AI overview update. Google is defending this by stating that it only wants to provide users with the best results. Learning about Google SEO and how it works is a solid foundation for using AI Overview to your advantage across the 8.5 billion searches on Google daily. With solid SEO and accurate, helpful information, your post will still rank within the Overview section. 

Informative and High-Quality Content

You can use Google AI SEO to keep your posts and pages at the top of search results. The best way of doing this is to provide valuable and high-quality content. You see, Overview isn’t a replacement for SERPs; it is, in fact, a form of rich content similar to snippets. And your posts and pages can still be displayed within the Google AI Overviews section. However, this, of course, depends on the quality of the data you provide alongside the use of SEO best practices.

Understand AI Overviews in SEO SERPs

AI Overview in Google is here to stay. So it will help if you understand how it presents in order to use it effectively. In the SERPs, the Overview will be presented at the top of the page in a specific way. There are three sections to the AI Overviews area, all with usability in mind.

An AI-generated response

The first section you will see in the Overviews section is an AI-generated response. This is similar to something ChatGPT might come up with. It is generalized information. Up to now, the results have been mixed with some reports of completely useless and inaccurate data.

The carousel with links to posts

Beneath the AI-generated response lies the carousel. This is a snippet of posts or pages with links to real websites. The carousel snippets display paragraphs similar to meta data and provide the option to click through to the existing page or post and extra info is provided below.

Drop down links to sites with more information

Within the top section (AI-generated response), the carousel data, and the summary are drop-down links. The drop-down links provided are to other sites that backup the data that has been displayed. This offers alternative posts and pages you can click through for more.

The AI Overviews section will still display relevant results. So it helps to stick to SEO best practices. Ranked results that typically rank at the top are likely to also be displayed here.

Stick to the E-E-A-T Framework

Google makes a point of providing users with content that follows specific guidelines. For AI Overviews and more results such as page rankings, this is known as the E-E-A-T framework. This is useful in addition to SEO best practices. It stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness and is essentially a scoring factor for domain authority. Traditionally this is increased with SEO, high quality content and authoritative backlinks. 

Keep Track of AI Overviews in SEO Campaigns

How can you accomplish a higher rank or placement within AI Overviews if you don’t measure your SEO strategy? You simply can’t! Just by using SEO, you gain an advantage, as 40% of small businesses don’t bother. However, your content must be good enough to rank alongside the Google AI content that follows after a search. Test your keywords for where they rank as your site grows and becomes more authoritative, work to reduce bounce rate, and monitor DA.

Remove and Replace Content

Google’s search philosophy is to provide the most relevant and accurate data possible. The Overviews AI search engine will also do this. You can increase the chance of showing within the Overviews area with up-to-date and accurate content. But your content can also conflict. For example, there might be two paragraphs with similar data, and the AI can get confused. People have seen improved results by removing or replacing similar paragraphs within a post.

Summary

Google AI Overviews is the new way Google aims to show results with a mix of AI-generated results and traditional. Learning how the algorithm works and displays will help you stay at the top of the ranking. E-E-A-T, SEO best practices and updating post content will also help.

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