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The Future of SEO: The Impact of AI on Search

Barry Adams
February 18, 2025

The Future of SEO: The Impact of AI on Search

Slides from my talk at the WAN-IFRA Bangalore AI Forum, where I talk about the impact of Google's AI Overview on search and what we can expect from generative AI search engines in the near future.

Barry Adams

February 18, 2025
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  1. Barry Adams ➢ Doing SEO since 1998 ➢ Specialist in

    SEO for News Publishers ➢ Newsletter: SEOforGoogleNews.com ➢ Co-founder of the News & Editorial SEO Summit
  2. AI Overviews are made by Generative AI • Using Google’s

    own ‘Gemini’ Large Language Model • ‘Multi-step reasoning capabilities’ • But... not 100% accurate; ➢ All LLMs ‘hallucinate’ – make things up ➢ It’s because they’re not ‘real’ AI ➢ LLMs are super-advanced word predictors
  3. AI Overviews always cite sources • AI Overviews have at

    least 1 cited source link; ➢ Every segment in an AI Overview will have a source link ➢ Average number of cited links: 6 -Sidebar on Desktop, carousel on Mobile ➢ Most cited links are pages ranked on the 1st page
  4. AI Overviews are still rolling out • Started with USA

    in May 2024 • Expanded to more countries in August 2024 • Rolled out in 100 countries in October 2024
  5. AI Overviews and News • Theory: AIO and QDF are

    mutually exclusive; ➢ QDF: Query Deserves Freshness ➢ QDF is a query/topic classifier that triggers a Top Stories box ➢ QDF != AIO
  6. Google Says… “…we aim to not show AI Overviews for

    hard news topics, where freshness and factuality are important” https://blog.google/products/search/ai-overviews-update-may-2024/
  7. Optimising for AI Overviews • Many cited sources in AI

    Overviews do not rank on the 1st page of Google’s regular results • AI Overviews cast a broader net than regular Google results https://ziptie.dev/blog/state-of-ai-overviews-5-google- aio-disruptions-found-after-analyzing-500k-queries/
  8. Key factors for showing in AI Overviews • Quality •

    Relevancy • Authority • Accuracy ‘Classic’ SEO signals
  9. AI Overviews = Lower CTR • Despite Google’s claims, an

    AI Overview sends less traffic to websites; ➢ Users find the answer directly in the AI Overview • The good news..? ➢ Other search engines may pick up some of the loss
  10. Fighting against AI Overviews? • Prevent your content from being

    used to train Google’s Gemini LLM: User-agent: Googlebot-Extended Disallow: / • Probably a good idea; ➢ Prevents your copyrighted content from being used
  11. Fighting against AI Overviews? • Prevent your webpages from being

    linked as a source in an AI Overview: <meta name="robots" content="nosnippet" /> • Probably a bad idea; ➢ Also impacts presentation in all other Google surfaces
  12. Key factors for showing up in AI Search • Quality

    • Relevancy • Authority • Accuracy ‘Classic’ SEO signals
  13. AI Search will not replace classic search • Google’s AI

    Overviews are an evolution; ➢ There will be some traffic loss ➢ Focus on building strong brand signals • AI offers alternative ways to search ; ➢ Marketshares are small… so far ➢ Not yet worth focusing on ➢ But, be ready to pivot