Author: Ryan Walsh
Date: 03/02/2025

So, there’s a hot topic on the lips of many SEO consultants at the moment: “Generative AI.” For a long time, Google’s SERPs have remained the same, with Google AdWords at the top, possible Google Business results below, and, of course, the organic results beneath those.
Yet, things are changing now, and that is because of what are called AI Overviews, powered by generative AI.

This may sound sophisticated and complicated but do not be afraid. The experts at Walsh & Partners will explain precisely what this means and its implications for the SERPs.

Table of contents:

• What exactly are A. I Overviews?
• How AI Overviews align with search intent
• How this will impact SEO
• How a business can increase its chances of being displayed as an AI overview

 

Sock it to us, what are A. I Overviews?

AI Overviews are powered by artificial intelligence. These answers display a direct answer to a question that you ask Google. They can often appear above the organic listings and sometimes result in what SEO consultants call a “zero-click search.”

This means that when someone wants an answer to anything from how tall Big Ben is to what the average household spends on water per month, A. I can supply the answer directly in an AI-powered overview.

 

How are these AI overviews any different from featured snippets

Featured snippets were often just that, a snippet of text from a well-known brand or organisation.

What makes AI overviews a bit different is that many consultants believe artificial intelligence allows for blended or synthesised information from multiple sources, allowing for a more rounded or comprehensive answer.

So, for example, you know when you, as ChatGPT, ask a question like ” What’s the most reliable car in the UK.”

Well, then, often, an answer is formed from multiple sources, with the sources cited as hyperlinks that you can click on to find more information.

This is excellent, a bit like Google’s new generative artificial intelligence.

Quick answers

As we will discuss a bit later, for the time being, we think most of these answers relate to people who want more general advice rather than looking to buy something.

So, if you ask Google Voice Search “washing machines,” you get a list of online retailers and may, therefore, be unlikely to get an AI answer unless you ask a more detailed question about a washing machine, something like “What’s the most energy-efficient washing machine on the market?”

However, when people want more generic, general advice, such as how big Big Ben is or when we were built, we think these more general questions are more likely to generate a Google AI overview as an answer.

What impact will “zero-click searches” have on a business?

As an agency, we can only discuss this from the experience of representing our clients—we would say that for the time being, the SERPs are largely unaffected when looking for businesses.

What is more affected are your general searches, so how do you stop a leaking tap, for example?

These types of searches are more affected. Yet, let’s say a business offers a lot of high-quality advice via blog posts that have a very high Google E-EAT score.

It’s then possible, because the business is offering advice, say, evergreen content marketing, that some of this work is used to form an AI overview. Google often includes a link to its source, so there’s an opportunity here when a reader wants to read more and then visit your company website.

Should you optimise for Google AI Overviews?

How do you optimise a company website to appear as a Google AI overview?

Well, here’s the thing: You can’t request that your business be used as a Google AI answer.

For example, you cannot apply markup such as Schema markup. It just doesn’t work like that.

However, what we would say is that the businesses/organisations that tend to get mentioned in a Google AI overview are the websites that already rank high organically.

So, for example, if your business ranks high for the number 1 or 2 spot in Google’s SERPs, then you have already massively increased your chances of appearing as an AI answer.

Therefore, the businesses that have content marketing, have a very high Google E-EAT score and rank high already organically are the websites that tend to be used as an AI Overview answer or as a featured snippet.

Therefore, the same SEO rules apply. The work must be white hat, and the business must follow Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Also, Google’s Quality Raters have made it clear that they want a page to show expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

So, in a nutshell, the companies that push the boat out write content marketing like what you are reading here, which clearly shows you know what you are talking about, you’re an expert on the subject, and these pages rank better in Google.

Because that page has a high Google E-EAT score and the rest of Google’s ranking factors are strong, such as the backlinks leading to the page, these pages tend to be used much more often as a Google AI answer.

 

Informational

Some businesses tend to offer more general information than others. As an experienced consultant, we would say the companies that offer general advice, such as hotels, may talk about local landmarks.

The hotel chain may provide facts about Cardiff Castle, for example, and those facts may be mentioned in an AI answer.

 

Crawled and indexed

Whether you’re improving your business’s organic SEO or aiming to increase your chances of being displayed as an A, I answer that you must make sure the on-page and technical SEO is good.

The reason for this is as follows:

On-page SEO

On-page SEO, such as adding page titles, having a good site structure, having internal links, etc., tells Googlebot what that page is about.

 

Technical SEO

You’ll need reliable hosting, and the technical SEO needs to be good. Googlebot must crawl and index all the pages you want to be indexed.

 

Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines

This is where the same rules apply to trying to increase your business’s chance of being displayed as an AI overview. Google’s Search Quality

Raters have published guidance that each page on a company’s website should have a high Google E-EAT score.

What does Google E-EAT stand for?
Google E-EAT is simply an acronym for:

 

Expertise

For your company page to rank high organically in Google’s SERPs or be used as an AI answer, you must show that you have expertise in what you are writing about.

If your written work clearly shows that you are an expert on what you are writing about, this will increase your business’s chances of appearing as an AI overview answer.

The reason is that Google uses something called Google’s Knowledge Vault.

Therefore, Google can crawl and index an article and instantly determine if the author is an expert on what they are writing about.

 

Experience

Google’s algorithms also want to see if the author of the work has experience with the topic. Again, if the author can demonstrate that they have real experience with what they are discussing, then this can improve the business’s chances of appearing as an AI overview answer.

 

Authoritativeness

Many marketing agencies believe that to improve a company’s organic SEO, you have to build no-follow and do-follow quality links. This can improve the page’s authoritativeness.

Therefore, again, if a page has a high Google E-EAT score, it’s likely to rank higher in Google’s organic SERPs. If it ranks higher in Google’s search engine results pages, then it stands a better chance of Google selecting that page as an AI Overview answer.

 

Trustworthiness

This is another part of Google E-EAT. This means that content marketing must be trustworthy. Therefore, we think the work needs to be well written by an expert on that particular product or service.

Then, you should use many references. You might want to use, for example, the Harvard referencing system. This shows that you have completed much research when writing an evergreen content marketing piece.

 

Google Ranking Factors

When you talk to any good SEO agency, they will know how Google’s algorithm works by applying different weightings to ranking factors.
So, for example, backlinks are considered an important ranking factor.

So, in order for a business to appear as A. As a featured snippet, I answer that all ranking factors, such as backlinks, must be well-optimised.
The point we are making here is that a website that just went live and got indexed on page 10 of Google is unlikely to be the business used as

 

Google AI Overview’s answer.

Instead, Google is much more likely to select a business with top positions in the organic results. Yet, to get there, you must have good organic SEO. This means ranking factors, such as content marketing, page speed, and backlinks, must be optimised.

This is why a brand-new business will very unlikely be used as a Google AI Overview answer.
It tends to be the more trusted and established businesses.

 

Content marketing that matches search intent

The Needs Met rating chart is part of Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines.

The businesses that do really well, in terms of drawing in more organic traffic, stand a much better chance of appearing an AI answer—these are the pages that are focused on offering helpful advice.

Google rolled out the Google Helpful Content Update, which rewarded companies that worked hard to offer detailed and helpful answers.

So, when a business examines the questions that customers often ask and writes really helpful answers, these are the pages that rank higher in Google’s SERPs.

 

The level of competition is very high.

So, in our previous point, we mentioned that you have to think of questions your customers ask.

Then, we recommend that this is the title of a piece of content marketing.

So, for example, if you own a wedding company, you might write a piece of content marketing titled ” How far ahead should we be planning for our wedding day?”

This type of content marketing, if it has a very high Google E-EAT score and offers truly helpful information, may possibly draw in thousands of organic visitors every week.

Now, if this page ranks high in Google’s SERPs and has an incredibly high dwell time, then Google will know that it offers high-quality advice. Therefore, it stands a much better chance of being used as an AI answer.

 

Generative, responsive and helpful and saves time

Say that you’re on the move, walking through the beautiful city of Cardiff.

You have coffee in one hand and your smartphone in the other.

You ask, Google what type of food Wales is well-known for.

Then, Google will display an AI answer. Now, this is brilliant for the person who wants that answer, as when they are, say, walking through the city centre of Cardiff, they may want to click on multiple websites; they just want to obtain an answer quickly. Therefore, this is exactly what Google’s AI answers can offer: a quick and helpful answer to someone who is on the move, enjoying, say, a nice Americano coffee.

 

Do AI overview answers also contain links?

Often, when Google supplies an AI overview answer, it will also contain a link to where it sourced that answer. This allows the shopper to obtain more advice by simply clicking on the link. This allows the business to get more visitors as if your business appears as an AI answer; you could potentially draw in many more shoppers who want to read more helpful advice your company offers.

 

How we can help

We are the SEO agency in Cardiff that your business can contact when it wants to improve its organic or local search engine optimisation.

We offer free quotes.