Google AI Mode and AI Overviews Optimisation
Google AI Optimisation
Shoppers use many different methods to find the goods and services they need. Whether it be the organic, local results or via Google’s AI-generated answer. Online businesses are now looking to get their company cited in Google AI Overviews. This space, where a business is cited, is therefore fiercely fought over.
To get visibility here, to obtain those clicks which are “top of the fold”, the business needs very strong E-E-A-T. For this to happen, the central pillars of your organic SEO already need to be extremely strong.
Whether it’s AI Overviews or Gemini’s AI Mode, there is now so much more to optimise for. So, some businesses have had to totally rethink their content marketing. Moving perhaps from having “content thin” pages to pages which offer an abundance of helpful information to customers.
EEAT- Why it’s important to offer quality advice in era of AI and LLM’s
Getting a business mentioned in LLMs and AI is not something that happens overnight. The brand and business need to be seen as the experts on that particular subject.
For this to occur the company need to have strong organic search engine optimisation in place.
The LLM’s for example are trained on information that’s already indexed. Then for Google’s AI such as Google’s AI Overviews to quote a business, that business needs to be seen as an authority, which is part of Google E-E-A-T guidance.
For those readers who do not know what E-E-A-T stands for, it stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. These are the metrics in which a page’s quality is assessed.
When a business consistently publishes high-quality, helpful, informative work over a sustained period of time, then this is when the EEAT score is raised. The business is then considered experts in a field; this is when Google’s AI is more likely to extract an answer from that page and quote it directly within Google’s AI Overview answers.
How to rank in Google’s AI Overviews?
We would recommend first and foremost a robust and well thought out SEO campaign is put in place. Now, for those in the know, they will acknowledge that organic search engine optimisation is a slow process in itself. The reason being is you need to strengthen ranking factors; this takes a huge amount of time.
Building links, for example, when implemented correctly, takes sometimes hundreds of hours over a long period.
Therefore, the point being made here is, the bedrock of good SEO principles needs to be in place first.
That means organic SEO needs to be implemented correctly.
Then, on top of that, when ranking factors, such as content marketing with high dwell times, are produced, this is when Google moves that content marketing up the ranks.
Good quality work with high EEAT score is therefore more likely to be used and cited by the AI platforms.
Having a complete and rounded optimisation strategy
We would recommend that whichever agency you choose, that a robust and rounded marketing strategy is put in place. That’s starting with the organic SEO, then progressing at a later stage for GEO and AI Overview optimisation.
A fact worth remembering is that Google has millions sometimes billons of pages and answers it can cite.
Therefore, when it’s mentioning an answer in Google AI Overviews it citing the page or person that’s considered as the best expert on that particular subject. No matter is its quantum psychics or perhaps which is the best oven to buy, Google wants to cite the best source.
Therefore, to achieve this, concentrate on Google EEAT and supply the customer with the best possible advice through pages, posts, YouTube and on other social media channels.
This will help Google to understand your business as an entity.
When you become a standout expert on a particular subject, let’s say its luxury Swiss watches, its then the work becomes more widely cited by the LLM’s.
However, before that process can begin, a lot of content marketing needs to be written over a sustained period.
That work must also show high levels of engagement, meaning the average reader is really engaged with the work. Therefore, other metrics such as the bounce rate will be low. It’s then when Google’s AI, such as Google Rank Brain sees that your publishing content marketing that’s truly helping the customer with their question, its this work that AI cites.
Remember, however, that leading GEO experts acknowledge that you can write very good content marketing with a high E-E-A-T score.
However, for that answer to be extracted and used in say a Google AI answer, the answer needs to be easily extractable. For that to happen, the author needs to write in short and clear paragraphs.
Meaning that if the page has very good on-page optimisation, through the use of titles and FAQ style of writing, this is why the answers can be more easily extracted by LLMs and AI Overviews.
Again, increasing your business’s chances of being more regularly mentioned in the LLMs.
Why does our business need to adapt marketing strategies for Google AI Overviews?
The simple reason is a diminishing number of organic clicks. Before AI become hot topic of conversation in marketing, marketeers were solely focused mainly on where they ranked in Google’s organic results.
Things are now changing, shoppers are finding the answers they want through a variety of means. For example, this could be asking ChatGPT or it could be asking Google’s AI, such as Gemini where the closest best restaurant is.
Therefore, marketing companies do need to adapt. The great part is, you don’t need to totally rewrite the optimisation rule book. In matter of fact, most of guidance you need can be found in the Google E-E-A-T guidance.
However, AI has raised the bar, in terms of the quality of work that is needed. Let us explain what we mean by that.
Google’s AI, such as Google’s AI Overviews, that typically only references one source though a citation. The AI platforms such as ChatGPT they may only mention a few recommendations as well. Therefore, the number of businesses recommended, or suggested, or simply mentioned as a citation are less.
Before, when you contrast this for example with the organic results, well typically have 10 businesses that are recommend. Sometimes this would be on top of a list of local businesses.
The point being made here is, fewer results means that it’s even harder to get clicks. Plus, when you combine that with the fact the LLM’s and AI are directly answering the question, well the number of clicks is becoming even less.
Therefore, this is why the business’s SEO needs to be superb. This will allow your company to be seen as the experts in terms of that product or service.
When this happens, you’re more likely to be cited and mentioned by the LLM’s and of course within the Google AI Overviews as well.
How do we better optimise our website for the AI platforms such as Perplexity and ChatGPT?
Despite what some other digital marketing companies may tell you, there’s no completely different “secret sauce” for getting cited in the AI platforms.
If the organic or local search engine optimisation is implemented correctly, by that we mean very high quality then you already have the foundations in place.
What is sometimes then needed is a ramping up of the authority aspect of the work. Such as, for example, improving the authoritativeness of the website. This is achieved through brand mentions in the right places, plus gaining extremely strong links or “backlinks” as most agencies refer to them as.
Therefore, this is why we always say that for GEO and AI optimisation to work, it’s important to get the foundations right.
The foundations are strong organic or local search engine optimisation. Observing which of the 200 Google ranking factors to optimise and work on and form a long-term strategy of how to achieve this.
It’s worth noting that organic search engine optimisation is very different from how Google’s AdWords algorithm works. It takes months, sometimes in the very competitive and valuable business sectors years to get a business on page one.
However, think it would be quite impossible for a business to be cited in the LLM’s or Google AI Overviews unless it has work which has already been crawled and indexed by Google. The indexation is only one part of the process; the work must also rank high in the results. It’s only then that the work can be more regularly cited by Google AI Overviews.