Google has published a new guide, it creating quite a stir in the digital marketing profession. With generative AI features now being a hot topic of discussion, businesses naturally want to learn what the new acronyms mean. This also raises the topic of whether, emanating from all this noise, businesses should be adjusting their digital marketing strategies?

What guidance has Google published relating to its new AI features?

Generative AI features, in regards to Google are confusing a lot of businesses and even marketing companies. The reason is businesses do not know whether a completely different and distinct marketing strategy is needed or not?
Well, lets get to the heart of the matter, you do not need to reinvent the wheel if you have been doing search engine optimisation correctly.

How often is Google presenting AI-generated answers?

As of March 2026, roughly 48% of all Google searches already show an AI-generated answer right at the top of the fold. However, the interesting part is this, that’s up from 34.5% from December 2025, which demonstrates how fast these results are increasing in Google search.

 

But are SEO strategies being radically changed or not?

Okay, so we could get super complicated here, and start talking about: Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and Query Fan-Out. However here at Walsh & Partners we like to simplify things. With that in mind. AI Overviews or the AI Mode do not use a different index or use a separate ranking system. This means that the answers in AI answers are pulled from the same search index, which means in laymen’s terms that Google uses the same classic organic index to pull answers and write them in a way that answers the persons question in one or two neat sentences.

Organic results and AI Overviews- how closely related are the answers?
Well, its been cited that 96 percent of backlink appearing within AI Overview answer came from business websites that were already ranked within the top 10 Google organic results. Which means, well they are very closely linked, and gives a very strong indication that in terms of AI Overview optimisation at least, you shouldn’t ignore optimising for Google’s organic results.

AEO and GEO are not separate disciplines

There are a lot of terms flying around at the moment, such as “Answer Engine Optimisation” and “Generative Engine Optimisation”- however, the fundamental building blocks that businesses have always relied upon to improve brand visibility, such as good content and links, well, they are still as important as ever.
Good SEO practice, such as the advice set out within Google’s EEAT should still be the bed rock for your companies marketing strategy.

Quality content marketing

It’s important when optimising for organic search, or a Google AI Overview answer tom ensure that the written work will display strong E-E-A-T signals.

For those who are not in the know, E-E-A-T signals stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. Writing therefore and publishing good quality content marketing is key. Make sure that you add authorship to the pages, as well as citing where you have found your sources. This could be for example with an outbound link, as well as keyword rich anchor text.

Ensure that your website has good technical health

Whether your business website has one page or perhaps 10,000 it needs to have good technical health. The website needs to be crawlable as well as also indexable. This is so that Googlebot can index the work.

Low-quality content will mean that your website is going to move to the bottom

When you have real knowledge and real expertise on a product or service, it’s important to convey this through your business’s content marketing. It’s when you do this, that you start to appear higher Google’s SERPS. The content marketing which content thin, duplicated and low quality will move down Google’s organic ranks.

Good quality content marketing, and the SEO fundamentals are still key

In a world where all you’re hearing at the moment is all about GEO and AEO, well, this article should serve to illustrate that not much really has changed. That is if you have your finger on the pulse as how to follow search engine optimisation best practices, using white hat methods, then you will be fine.

By this we mean that then by publishing high-quality advice and improving EEAT signals, you will appear more visible in the AEO and GEO answer’s

How Walsh & Partners can help your business.

We are one of the longest established marketing agencies in South Wales. Even though the acronyms, such as GEO are evolving, we simply have some of the best SEO minds working for us. We therefore know how Google’s algorithm rewards super high-quality content and links.

This involves, well a lot of graft.

We are not afraid at Walsh & Partners to roll up our sleeves.

Here’s therefore how we can help you business with our distinct skill-sets.

SEO Consultancy

Who runs one of the longest established SEO consultancies in the rather Brillant city of Cardiff?

Well, we do, so if you have got yourself in a bit of a tangle, as GEO and SEO is boggling your mind, then call us.
Link Building Pro’s

Link building, we believe is here to stay. Some say its dead, but in reality, well its anything but. The reason is that, with regard to Google EEAT, well, a key part of that is assessing and working out how strong the business’s authoritativeness is. So, what does that mean in reality?

Well, all businesses are going to shout from the roof tops that they are the best in their respective industries. But in reality, well how good are they?

This is where backlinks come in, a business that simply has many quality links. That is a backlink profile so incredibly strong, it has tons of links with high DA score, well that normally supports the business with much higher organic rankings.

Technical SEO excellence

You could be writing content until you turn blue in the face, but the work must be able to be crawled and indexed. This is so all that hard work can translate to the page appearing in Google’s SERP’s. Therefore, part of a websites technical audit is to make sure the website pages can be crawled and indexed.

However, it doesn’t stop there, there should be regular checks for broken links and pages. There should also be checks conducted for page speed. If for example your e-commerce website gets, well a bit on the slow side, this can destroy organic rankings.

Crafting work that the AI platforms want

As this article highlights, to make a brand more visible, you have to create top-quality content marketing. For this work to be more likely cited by Google AI, you often have to rank high organically. Plus, we would say that the business would need to be considered an expert in that particular area.

Here at Walsh & Partners, we have good solid understanding of the semantic web, Google EEAT and also the key ranking factors such as building links.

We have over 10 years of experience and work with a wide range of different businesses.

 

Call us today:

Whether your business wants to appear more visible in Google Business results, Google AI Overviews or Google’s organic results, we are the company to call. The agency is managed by Ryan Walsh, who is known as one of the best SEO experts around.