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The Future of SEO The Impact of AI on Search Barry Adams February 2025

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Barry Adams ➢ Doing SEO since 1998 ➢ Specialist in SEO for News Publishers ➢ Newsletter: SEOforGoogleNews.com ➢ Co-founder of the News & Editorial SEO Summit

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I’ve Worked With…

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What are AI Overviews?

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AI Overviews launched in May 2024

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Summarised answers at the top of a search result

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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

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Source Attribution

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Up to 10 Source links

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Sources in AI Overviews https://www.sistrix.com/blog/ai-vs-seo-what-does-the- future-of-search-look-like/

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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

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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

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When do AI Overviews trigger? https://www.growth-memo.com/p/the-impact-of-ai- overviews-on-seo

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When do AI Overviews trigger? https://www.sistrix.com/blog/ai-vs-seo-what-does-the- future-of-search-look-like/

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AI Overviews vary by search intent https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overview-keywords/

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AIO does not appear for news queries* * With very few exceptions

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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

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Google Says… https://blog.google/products/search/ai-overviews-update-may-2024/

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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/

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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/

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Key factors for showing in AI Overviews • Quality • Relevancy • Authority • Accuracy ‘Classic’ SEO signals

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AI Overviews’ Impact on Traffic? https://www.seerinteractive.com/insights/ctr-aio

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https://www.seerinteractive.com/insights/ctr-aio

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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

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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

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Fighting against AI Overviews? • Prevent your webpages from being linked as a source in an AI Overview: • Probably a bad idea; ➢ Also impacts presentation in all other Google surfaces

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AI Search Engines

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AI Search Engines

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Traffic from AI Search Engines https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-traffic-study/

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Optimising for AI Search https://www.seerinteractive.com/insights/what-is-generative-engine- optimization-geo

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Key factors for showing up in AI Search • Quality • Relevancy • Authority • Accuracy ‘Classic’ SEO signals

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Summarised

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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

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https://www.seoforgooglenews.com/

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Thank You [email protected] https://www.linkedin.com/in/barryadams/ https://www.SEOforGoogleNews.com/