|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
I want to reiterate on my previous article on the new development and strategic action on SEO under “The Aborning Scope of Search Engine Optimisation: New Developments and Strategic Action (2024-2025),” where I briefly addressed the growing complexity of SEO with the advancement of AI technologies and Google’s ongoing algorithm tweaks in and out. This week’s instalment focuses on: “The AI Revolution in Search.” We’ll explore how Artificial Intelligence is not only impacting but redefining search algorithms, user interfaces, and online visibility, necessitating proactive and responsive strategies from marketers.
Artificial Intelligence is not just impacting SEO; it is redefining the search space, offering unprecedented opportunities as well as tremendous existential risks to conventional SEO frameworks. Today, AI is changing the way content is produced, how search engines handle queries, and how users use search results.
Emergence of Generative AI in SEO Processes
The implementation of generative AI in SEO processes has been incredibly rapid and extensive. As of 2025, more than 56% of marketers have already implemented generative AI for use in SEO. It is higher than its use in other areas of marketing, like customer support and video production. The trend is expected to gain further momentum, with more than 45% of companies expecting wide-scale integration of generative AI (GEO) into their SEO processes within the next two-to-three years.
Effect of AI Overviews and AI Mode on Organic Visibility
The launch of AI Overviews (previously called Search Generative Experience or SGE) is changing Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) fundamentally by delivering AI-constructed answers directly in the results, which routinely results in a decline in clicks to external sites. Many studies indicate that organic click-through rates (CTRs) have declined by nearly six times for AI Overviews, with some websites experiencing a loss of 20-60% of their organic traffic. This is becoming a new norm of “zero-click searches,” wherein users obtain the information they seek on the SERP itself without visiting any other site. Presently, more than 58% of Google searches lead to zero clicks.
On the contrary, AI Overviews are presented within the typical search experience. AI Mode, however, necessitates that users consciously click on a second tab to start their search, indicating that its use relies on a change in user behaviour. A significant challenge for SEO experts is the inability to measure AI Overviews and AI Mode touchpoints. Google Search Console does not yet enable filtering of data to determine whether impressions and clicks are from classic search, AI Overviews, or AI Mode.
Another issue to be considered is misrepresentation. AI summaries are likely to strip important context or leave out key information, thus representing a brand’s message inaccurately. This is because AI Overviews don’t automatically prioritise brand intent.
The development of AI Overviews and AI Mode, which answer directly on the #SERP, represents a seismic shift in the intent of SEO—from driving traffic through clicks to being the direct answer or quoted source. This radically changes the long-standing goal of SEO, which has traditionally been to drive traffic through website clicks. As a result, the key measure of SEO success is shifting from raw organic traffic and click-throughs to “visibility as a source” in AI Overviews and being the sole “answer” presented directly by the AI.
As such, SEO tactics need to evolve to optimise for “snippet-worthy” content, direct answers, and strong authority signals (E-E-A-T) to have content referenced by AI, instead of optimising solely for the classic “10 blue links” model.
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
GEO puts a significant weight on the intrinsic quality of the content itself. It prefers content that exhibits #Experience, #Expertise, #Authoritativeness, and #Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) principles rather than standard measures such as raw backlink count or domain authority.
Practical implementation tactics for GEO:
1. Focus on long-tail queries type keywords that can efficiently mirror natural language and user intent.
2. Well-weaved content to be prioritised for both human readability and ofcouse, effective AI processing.
3. The technical SEO health of a website is essential.
4. Make use of Images, videos, and infographics to add layers of information that can be discovered by AI too.
5. Content should prove trust. Talking about the T part of “EEAT”
6. The A part of “EEAT”: Authority building through carefully planned digital PR efforts like getting expert comments, mentions on related industry pages or podcasts, and a good media review, is a 100% win-win for GEO.
7. Sharing content on various forums like Reddit and Quora is more and more crucial since Large Language Models are trained on content from such kind of forums.
The table presents SEO experts with a clear-cut checklist of doable measures to follow when producing content for Generative Engine Optimisation. Additionally, my objective in presenting this hand-picked and well-curated table is to support you with the knowledge that AI prefers content that presents human-like quality, credibility, and depth, thus bringing GEO efforts in line with broader E-E-A-T concepts.
The table will help you create your checklist and key points for GEO updates!
Happy SEO(ing)…. GEO goes viral!
Author:
Snigdha Shrivastava
Founder | Digital Marker Expert
Follow: Linkedin