In the span of a few short years, artificial intelligence has practically taken over the world. 

Virtually every industry has been impacted by the rise of AI, but few compare to the drastic changes it’s brought to the SEO space. 

According to new research, 86.07% of SEO professionals have already adapted AI into their SEO strategies, and it’s pretty easy to see why. 

Generative AI tools are invaluable for assisting with tasks like keyword research, meta-tag optimization, brainstorming topic ideas, creating content, and analyzing competitors. 

Also, Google is no stranger to AI, as it’s been using artificial intelligence to power its search algorithms for many years now. 

Starting with BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) in 2018, Google began using natural language processing (NLP) and natural language understanding (NLU) to better understand and answer user search queries.

This trend continued with the release of MUM (Multitask Unified Model) in 2021, which Google claims is 1,000x more powerful than BERT. 

MUM is multilingual (it understands 75 languages), multimodal (it can comprehend images, sounds, and videos), and capable of multitasking. 

As a result, Google can understand and answer even more complex queries with MUM than they could with BERT.

Besides using AI to power its search algorithms, Google also introduced AI Overviews back in May of 2024.

These AI-generated snippets appear at the top of the search results page. They provide quick answers to user queries while listing high-quality sources for further reading. Ever since their introduction, they’ve become an integral part of the Google Search experience, making them important for SEO.  

When you consider all the innovative AI content generation tools paired with Google’s current AI-powered search algorithms, the AI SEO revolution becomes crystal clear.

In this guide, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about integrating AI into your SEO strategy, including how to get the most out of AI-generated content, so don’t go anywhere! 

Google’s AI Overviews and Search Changes 

Originally, AI Overviews (AIOs) were a part of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), which was a grand plan to implement generative AI into Search in a number of different ways.

While Google had plans to fully implement SGE in early 2024 (following its phase as a Search Labs experiment), it would get postponed and eventually morph into something a bit different. 

SGE’s two main features were generative AI (GAI) snapshots and a perspectives tab, which would let users know what real people were talking about on social sites like Reddit, Quora, and LinkedIn. 

The AI Snapshots transformed into what we now know as AI Overviews, and they were originally intended to be a lot more prevalent. 

During the initial rollout in May 2024, Google had to seriously dial back AI Overviews after numerous inaccuracies and gaffes began making headlines. While AI Overviews are still a thing, they don’t appear for every search query. 

Instead, they tend to appear for more complex queries that would have required more than one search in the past. 

Before BERT and MUM entered the picture, it was often difficult for users to find the answers they were looking for when using longer search queries. 

Thanks to NLP and other advances in AI technology, it’s now easier for Google to comprehend longer, more conversational keywords without requiring multiple searches. AI Overviews (powered by Gemini) also provide users with quick answers to more complicated queries, which is now their main purpose. 

AI overviews and SEO 

How are AI Overviews impacting SEO?

They are in quite a few ways. 

First, they’ve become a desirable spot on the SERPs (search engine results pages) because of where they appear. 

For queries that trigger AI Overviews, they appear at the very top of the page, also known as ‘position zero’ since it appears above the #1-ranked organic result. 

This is extremely valuable SERP ‘real estate’ because position zero is the very first thing users see on the page (and, as a result, is most likely to claim the majority of clicks). 

So, getting listed as one of the sources in an AI Overview will boost your click-through rate (CTR). 

Speaking of sources, let’s take a look at how they appear in an AI Overview:

As you can see, Gemini generates some facts about the search query on the left while listing the websites it drew the information from on the left. 

These three primary sources are the most visually prominent in the Overview, making them the most likely to generate clicks. 

However, there’s also a tiny link symbol listed by each fact that Gemini generates, and clicking on them will bring up even more sources, like this:

This particular source wasn’t listed in the original three, but it’s still a resource Gemini used to generate the answer. Ideally, you’ll want to appear as one of the three primary sources on AI Overviews, as it’s less likely that users will click on the tiny link symbols to find you. 

While research on AI Overviews is still sparse, we do know that:

  1. Appearing as a primary source in AI Overviews will boost your CTR by 1.08%. 
  2. The vast majority of sources in AI Overviews come from the top 12 organic search result rankings. 
  3. AI Overviews primarily trigger for informational keywords. 
  4. The top 3 industries that trigger AI Overviews are Health, Science, and People & Society. 

How to optimize your content for AI Overviews 

Since most sources listed in AI Overviews come from the top-ranked organic search results, following general SEO best practices will help you appear in them. 

Also, if you’re already ranking in the top 10 for informational keywords related to your business, it’s highly likely that you’ll appear in AI Overviews (if they’re common in your industry, that is). 

Other ways to optimize for AI Overviews include:

  • Target long-tail keywords. We’ve already mentioned that AI Overviews tend to appear for longer, more conversational search queries. Thus, targeting long-tail keywords is a great way to increase your chances of appearing in AIOs. This guide has some great information on leveraging the power of long-tail keywords. 
  • Implement flawless technical SEO. Your content can’t appear in AIOs if Google can’t discover it in the first place. Technical SEO is how you ensure your content is fully discoverable by Google’s crawlers, loads fast enough, and provides a pleasant user experience. 
  • Create outstanding content. Google values content that’s well-written, accurate, and helpful to its search users. So, if you want to rank in the top 10 organic results (and increase your chances of appearing in AIOs), producing top-tier content is an absolute necessity. If appearing in more AIOs is your ultimate goal, then you should produce lots of informational content that answers user’s questions. 
  • Build valuable backlinks. Lastly, backlinks remain one of the most important ranking factors on Google and other search engines. If you want to dominate the SERPs and appear in AIOs, you’ll need a higher-quality backlink profile than your competitors. 

AI-Generated Content: The Way of the Future or a Short-Lived Fad?

Next, let’s examine the prominence of AI-generated content from an SEO perspective. 

Is it something you can use to actually rank, or is it only good for spam sites and Facebook slop?

To find out, let’s learn Google’s official stance on the matter. 

According to Google’s official blog, they value high-quality content that embodies E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness), regardless of how it was produced. 

This means AI-generated content is NOT an inherently bad thing that will cause your content to plummet to the bottom of the SERPs. 

Instead, it’s all about how you use it. 

Sure, publishing whatever ChatGPT spits out on its first try without any fact-checking won’t yield the best results. 

However, if you use in-depth prompts, fact-check everything, and have editors give your content a human touch, you can create outstanding content using AI. 

Here are some best practices to follow:

  • Follow Google’s E-E-A-T acronym. Google uses the E-E-A-T acronym to determine the quality of a website’s content. For content to meet Google’s high standards, it must demonstrate experience (showing your first-hand knowledge of the topic), expertise (your prowess over the subject), authoritativeness (the quality of backlinks pointing at your content), and trustworthiness (a combination of all the other factors). 

So, if your content shares first-hand experiences, demonstrates your expertise, and is 100% factually accurate, it won’t matter if it’s AI-generated, it’ll still perform extremely well on Google. 

  • Fact-check everything. Despite the recent advancements in generative AI tools, they still are prone to errors and inaccuracies. To safeguard your content, you should fact-check your tool’s output and run everything through grammar and plagiarism checkers. 
  • Use AI to brainstorm ideas. One of AI’s most useful features is its ability to help you brainstorm ideas. You can use programs like ChatGPT to come up with topic ideas, research keywords, and rephrase sentences. 
  • Use human editors. Once an AI tool has generated a piece of content for you, have a human editor look it over. Have them tweak the content so that it reflects your brand voice and feels less robotic. This process doesn’t have to take a lot of time, but it is a necessary step to ensure quality and readability. 

AI-Powered SEO: The Benefits and Risks 

Besides creating content, digital marketers are using AI-powered tools to aid with other SEO tasks like keyword research and monitoring competitors. 

For the most part, AI tools are popular for automating notoriously time-consuming tasks like:

  1. Conducting keyword research 
  2. Optimizing meta tags 
  3. Sending follow-up emails for backlink outreach 
  4. Brainstorming topic ideas 
  5. Generating content briefs for writers (a time-consuming task for marketers) 
  6. Keyword clustering 

Here’s an example of how easy it is to use a program like ChatGPT to research SEO keywords:

Yet, using too much automation can pose certain risks to your SEO. 

At the same time, using AI-powered tools can yield lots of benefits for your business, so it’s all about achieving the right balance. 

Here’s an in-depth look at the advantages and disadvantages of using AI to power your SEO. 

The perks

Using AI tools to automate time-consuming SEO tasks can:

  • Save precious time. Marketers are always short on time, and being able to automate repetitive tasks like writing content briefs and clustering keywords is a huge help. AI-powered tools also greatly speed up the keyword research process, technical audits, topic creation, and sending follow-up emails. The more time you’re able to save via AI-powered tools, the more your marketing team will be able to focus on strategy-driven tasks. 
  • Boost productivity. With the help of AI-powered automation, you’ll be able to knock out tasks twice as fast, leading to serious boosts in productivity. You’ll get content briefs out quicker (complete with trending keywords) to give your writers a head start on creating content, and they can also use AI tools to speed up the writing process (without sacrificing quality and tone, of course).  
  • Save money. Most AI tools are subscription-based and generally affordable. A monthly subscription fee is definitely more affordable than hiring a new full-time employee to assist with marketing tasks (which can cost up to $20,000 without including base salary). Even if you’re outsourcing your SEO to freelancers, using AI tools is often far more cost-effective, which is a big reason why they’re becoming so popular.  

The potential risks 

If you aren’t careful, too much AI and automation can:

  • Cause the quality of your content to drop. You’ve got to make an effort to preserve things like your unique brand voice when using AI to create content. Also, don’t forget that providing original insights is a big part of Google’s E-E-A-T philosophy, which is something AI can’t do. Wherever possible, have your team share first-hand experiences and original insights in your articles to keep them fresh, relevant, and high-quality. If you let AI take the wheel, the quality of your content will drop, which isn’t good for your SEO or user experience. 
  • Lead to Google penalties. While Google doesn’t penalize AI-generated content outright, it does penalize low-quality content that only exists to manipulate search rankings. So, if you use AI tools to churn out low-grade, unoriginal articles jam-packed with keywords, you’ll raise suspicion from Google, and you may incur a penalty. These penalties can be very difficult to undo, so your best bet is to avoid trying to game the rankings and stick with producing high-quality content instead. 
  • Potential inaccuracies. AI still isn’t 100% accurate at this point, so fact-checking is still a necessity. If you blindly trust everything AI generates for you, it’s highly likely that you’ll share incorrect information with your audience. Publishing false information can do serious damage to your brand’s reputation, and may even result in a lawsuit, so it’s crucial to double-check AI-generated content. 

How Businesses Can Adapt Their SEO Strategy to Include AI 

Since AI has become so prevalent in the SEO world, it’s starting to become something that businesses can’t turn a blind eye to. 

Instead, it’s highly likely that AI will become a major component of SEO, so it’s best to get on board sooner rather than later. 

Here are some actionable tips you can use to implement AI into your existing SEO strategy. 

Use AI copywriting tools 

At this point, there’s no reason not to use generative AI tools like Copymatic to enhance and speed up your copywriting process. 

Whether you’re drafting outreach emails, brainstorming subheaders, writing product descriptions, or outlining a new blog post, you can use AI to:

  • Generate content from scratch 
  • Brainstorm topic ideas 
  • Rephrase sentences 
  • Overcome writer’s block 

As long as you fact-check each output and add your own spin to the content, there are many ways that AI tools can enhance your writing process. 

Leverage AI-powered keyword research 

While keyword planner tools are still extremely effective, adopting a few AI-powered keyword research tools (you can even use ChatGPT) can help you uncover lesser-known keywords with enormous potential. 

Using AI tools will help you cast an extra wide net when looking for relevant search terms. Also, don’t forget to look up long-tail keywords to capitalize on AI Overviews. 

Don’t sleep on LLMs 

Did you know that large language models (LLMs) like Perplexity and ChatGPT are giving Google a run for its money?

While Google still reigns supreme, its market share dropped below 90% for the first time in October 2024, which is a sign that things are starting to change. 

Users love LLMs for conducting complex, highly specific searches since they’re capable of understanding the queries. Also, platforms like Perplexity offer a cleaner search experience that isn’t riddled with ads. So, it’s worth broadening your SEO efforts beyond Google in the coming years to ensure you have a strong presence on LLM platforms as well. 

Use UGC and social search 

Lastly, user-generated content has become increasingly popular over the past few years. Platforms like Reddit and Quora have seen massive upticks in traffic. 

Why is that?

For one, it’s because AI-generated content has become so prevalent on search engines like Google. 

As a result, people crave content written by actual humans, which is why user-created comments are becoming all the rage. 

Since June 2023, Reddit’s traffic has grown by a whopping 603.41%. 

How can you leverage this in your favor?

You can by establishing a presence for your brand on platforms like Reddit. Join relevant communities and get involved with users by leaving comments, addressing their concerns, and answering their questions. This will not only help your SEO, but it’ll also build trust with your target audience. 

The Future of AI in SEO: Looking Forward 

Here’s a quick recap of what we’ve gone over so far:

  1. AI has become increasingly prominent in the SEO space through content creation, automation, and its use in search engine algorithms. 
  2. Google AI Overviews are a major aspect of SEO, and getting featured in them can boost your CTR.
  3. Google values high-quality content that embodies its E-E-A-T acronym, regardless of how it was produced. 
  4. Using AI to automate certain tasks poses benefits (like saving time) and risks (like Google penalties). 
  5. Moving forward, it’s smart for companies to pay attention to LLMs, user-generated content, and AI-powered content creation tools. 

Do you need help formulating an SEO strategy that includes AI?

If so, don’t wait to check out HOTH X, our fully managed SEO service. We’ll take the entire process off your hands, and we’ll develop a cutting-edge strategy that fully takes advantage of modern tactics, so feel free to get in touch!