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April 22nd, 2025

AI in SEO: A New Era for Web Optimisation

Insight Opinion

In May 2024, Google officially launched AI Overviews, a new element in search designed to provide users with instant, AI-generated summaries for complex queries. Although Google had been experimenting with this feature before the announcement, its official introduction marked a turning point in the search landscape. Later, in October 2024, OpenAI followed suit by launching GPT Search within ChatGPT, further disrupting how users access information.

These advancements have sent ripples through the SEO industry, sparking speculation about the “death of SEO” and the emergence of Generative Search Optimisation (GEO), whatever this term means. While SEO is far from obsolete, its strategies must evolve to align with these AI-driven search experiences. Brands looking to maintain visibility must adapt to this new search paradigm.

Why AI Overviews Matter for SEO

As Reid noted in Generative AI in Search: Let Google Do the Searching for You (May 2024), “Traffic from AI-powered search has increased, with AI Overviews providing extended information for complex queries and citing sources deemed trustworthy by machine learning models.” This means websites appearing in AI Overviews could benefit from more clicks than traditional search listings.

For SEO professionals, this shift underscores the importance of optimising content to secure visibility in AI-generated results. The key to success lies in understanding how AI Overviews select and rank sources, ensuring content meets the evolving criteria of AI-driven search algorithms.

Optimising Content for AI Search

Content has always been king, and AI-driven search reinforces its importance. However, the focus is shifting towards addressing long-tail, complex queries that reflect human reasoning in search behaviour. AI Overviews and GPT Search demand a deeper understanding of user intent, requiring SEO professionals to fine-tune content strategies accordingly.

Best Practices for AI Search Optimisation

SEO experts widely agree on several key strategies for optimising content for AI-driven search visibility:

  • Create High-Quality, In-Depth Content. Beyond traditional keyword and content gap analysis, publishers and SEO expert could benefit from focusing on topic gap analysis, by addressing long-tail queries with comprehensive and insightful responses.
  • Structure Content for AI Readability. Content strategists should organise site Information in a way that it becomes concise, clear, and structured logically so AI search engines can process it effectively.
  • Keep Content Updated and Relevant. Don’t get rid of old content, instead regularly refresh existing content, ensuring accuracy and alignment with current trends.
  • Ensure Content is Authoritative. Provide demonstrable facts, statistics, and credible citations to support claims. A webinar participant recently raised an important question about authoritative content: How do AI-powered search engines evaluate credibility? The reality is that AI-generated responses can be flawed due to the inherent challenge of filtering trustworthy information online.
  • Align with Google’s E-E-A-T Guidelines. Although Google’s systems have evolved, Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) remain fundamental. However, even sophisticated machine learning models struggle to distinguish between highly reputable sources and widely circulated misinformation.

Technical Optimisation for AI Search

High-quality content alone isn’t enough, technical SEO remains crucial in making a site indexable and crawlable for AI-driven search engines. Industry leaders emphasize the following aspects:

  • Implement Semantic HTML. Semantic HTML uses proper HTML tags to define the role of each content element, enhancing comprehension for both developers and search engines. In other words:
      • Semantic tags improve content relevance signals for AI-powered search.
      • Structuring content correctly helps AI understand which sections carry more weight (e.g., <article> tags hold more significance than <img> tags).
      • AI-driven search engines, which struggle with JavaScript, benefit from raw HTML structures with proper semantic implementation.
  • Optimise Robots.txt for AI Agents. The robots.txt file has always played a pivotal role in SEO, guiding search bots on which pages to crawl. However, AI agents bring new considerations:
      • To appear in AI Overviews, sites must ensure that AI search bots can access and index relevant pages.
      • As Jeb White (January 25) emphasizes, robots.txt configurations should be adjusted on a “case-by-case basis” to avoid blocking AI-powered crawlers unintentionally.

Leverage Schema Markup for AI Visibility. Schema markup (or structured data) provides AI search engines with contextual information about a webpage. This metadata improves the chances of being featured in AI-generated results. However, How-To and Q&A schema markup are particularly valuable, as they align with AI Overviews’ focus on answering user queries

The Future of AI in SEO

AI-driven search is not a passing trend, it’s the future of information retrieval. As AI search capabilities evolve, SEO professionals must adapt their strategies to optimise for AI agents, much like they have for voice search and screen readers.

While AI search optimisation shares similarities with traditional SEO, it demands greater expertise and a proactive approach to technological advancements. Staying ahead in SEO means keeping up with industry developments and user behaviour shifts.

Connecting the Dots: AI and Mobile-Friendly Optimisation

It’s worth noting that optimising for AI-driven search does not occur in isolation. Mobile-friendly optimisation remains a cornerstone of modern SEO, and in many ways, it complements AI search strategies. AI-powered agents rely heavily on clean code, fast loading times, and accessible layouts, elements that mobile-optimised websites typically excel at. If the site is already responsive, loads quickly on mobile, and delivers a seamless user experience, site’s owners are likely already meeting several of the technical benchmarks AI search engines favor. To dive deeper into how mobile optimisation supports overall SEO performance, don’t miss our dedicated blog post on the topic.

View more: Mobile-first indexing: The Importance for Web Performance

Final Thoughts

This blog post is not a definitive guide to AI search optimisation but an introduction to what’s coming next. As the SEO landscape continues to evolve, adaptability will be the key to success.

At Golley Slater, we are at the forefront of SEO and AI advancements. If you’d like to learn more about our SEO services, visit our services page or subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on the latest industry insights.

References

  • Google. (2024, May). Generative AI in Search: Let Google Do the Searching for You. https://blog.google/products/search/generative-ai-google-search-may-2024
  • White, J. (2025, January 29). AI Optimization: How to Optimize Your Content for AI Search and Agents. Search Engine Land. https://searchengineland.com/ai-optimization-how-to-optimize-your-content-for-ai-search-and-agents-451287
  • Traphagen, M. (2025, March 11). How to Optimize Your Content Strategy for AI Search. SEOClarity – Content Strategy, SEO Strategy, SEO, Webinar. https://www.seoclarity.net/blog/optimize-content-strategy-ai-search
  • Pavlik, V. (2025, February 7). What Is Semantic HTML? And How to Use It Correctly. SEMrush Blog. Contributors: Sydney Go and Simon Fogg. https://www.semrush.com/blog/semantic-html5-guide