Jason Hall, Founder & CEO of FiveChannels, specializes in brand awareness, traffic & lead gen, marketing funnels, social media, and more.
If you’ve searched for something on Google lately, you’ve probably noticed the AI-generated text that’s produced to answer many of your questions. These AI overviews are revolutionizing search engine optimization, which means companies have to step out of their comfort zone and into new marketing strategies. As AI overviews become more common and better at delivering the information that searchers are looking for, you must adapt or risk your business becoming irrelevant.
Update Your Keyword Strategy
The first thing to focus on in this new world of AI overviews is your keyword strategy. What worked in the past was focusing on high-volume keywords that appeared in the most searches. But as AI becomes better at understanding context and providing more relevant search results, what worked before may not in the future. Instead, start prioritizing longer key phrases, especially those that reflect natural conversation and speech patterns.
Think about what exactly people are typing into the search engines, as opposed to just focusing on certain keywords. If you can figure this out, you have a much higher chance of increasing your visibility and engagement moving forward.
Produce Higher-Quality Content
In addition to a better keyword strategy, focus on higher-quality content that is both in-depth and user-friendly.
MORE FOR YOU
Keyword stuffing will no longer suffice in a world where AI can summarize your entire content in a matter of seconds. Instead, you need to take content creation much more seriously and put attention to detail and a high level of research into every article on your website. You must be able to provide value.
Focus on not only answering specific questions with your articles but also anticipating searches that are closely related to the topic. This will give you a greater chance of being noticed by AI.
Ultimately, your goal should remain the same as it always has: Provide engaging and informative content that answers questions your visitors may have about the topic. However, in this new world powered by AI, shortcuts and workarounds probably won’t get you anywhere.
Make Appearing In AI Overviews Your New Goal
Search engine results pages (SERPs) are likely in for a significant change as AI overviews become more and more prevalent. With AI overviews in position zero, and organic links being pushed further and further down the page, users can find the answers they’re looking for right at the top of the search results. This means they won’t have to click through to random websites looking for the information they need.
As a result, many businesses may notice a reduction in their click-through rates. Your new goal, then, should be to appear in AI overviews as opposed to just being on the first page, and you should adjust your content accordingly. This further emphasizes the need for content that is high-quality and authoritative.
Prioritize Structured Data And Schema Markup
Another thing you need to prioritize in this AI climate is structured data and schema markup, or the standardized format for search engines to understand and interpret website content accurately.
Handled correctly, structured data highlights key information, making it easier for AI to detect the relevant details to be shown to users. This is actually a twofold approach, as it not only gives you a better chance at being prominently featured but also improves user experience by offering clear and accurate information.
Don’t underestimate just how much visibility good structured data and schema markup can offer in an AI overview landscape.
Improve User Experience And Engagement
Don’t forget the importance of user experience and things like dwell time, bounce rate and interaction either. AI overviews strive to give the most accurate and relevant information they can, and engagement metrics like these can go a long way in how algorithms judge quality.
Longer dwell times and lower bounce rates indicate a positive user experience, which shows the content is valuable and engaging. Focus on this kind of content. Try to incorporate as many interactive elements as you can in your content and entice readers to respond.
With an enhanced user experience, your content is more likely to be recognized as high-quality. This also will lead to your content being used more, which leads to higher engagement and better placement in the SERPs. You aren’t just looking for visitors; you’re looking for visitors who stay.
Focus On Authenticity And Ethics
As with anything associated with your company, authenticity should be your highest priority.
There also are ethical considerations to think about when it comes to AI overviews. Content that is inaccurate or biased can damage your company’s credibility and trustworthiness. Make sure you emphasize fact-checking and offer genuine and unbiased information.
Though AI has advanced at an incredible rate in recent years, it is far from perfect and can produce suggestions that are flat-out incorrect. One viral social media post showed an AI overview suggesting that glue can help prevent cheese from sliding off pizza, for example. However, as with anything else, this technology will improve, reliability will increase and so will the general public’s trust.
To stay ahead of the game, focus more on transparency and hold your content to high ethical standards. The last thing you want is for AI overviews to quote your content to someone only for it to go viral for how ridiculous it is and destroy your reputation and authenticity along with it.
Embracing these changes will help your company stay relevant and competitive in an increasingly AI-driven digital landscape. By focusing on more nuanced keywords, better-quality content, authenticity and ethics, you can better meet user needs and improve your search visibility.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
