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.

Transcript

1. The Future of SEO The Impact of AI on Search Barry Adams February 2025
2. Barry Adams ➢ Doing SEO since 1998 ➢ Specialist in SEO for News Publishers ➢ Newsletter: SEOforGoogleNews.com ➢ Co-founder of the News & Editorial SEO Summit
3. I’ve Worked With…
4. What are AI Overviews?
5. AI Overviews launched in May 2024
6. Summarised answers at the top of a search result
7. 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
9. Source Attribution
10. Up to 10 Source links
11. Sources in AI Overviews https://www.sistrix.com/blog/ai-vs-seo-what-does-the- future-of-search-look-like/
12. 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
13. 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
14. When do AI Overviews trigger? https://www.growth-memo.com/p/the-impact-of-ai- overviews-on-seo
15. When do AI Overviews trigger? https://www.sistrix.com/blog/ai-vs-seo-what-does-the- future-of-search-look-like/
16. AI Overviews vary by search intent https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overview-keywords/
17. AIO does not appear for news queries* * With very few exceptions
20. 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
21. Google Says… https://blog.google/products/search/ai-overviews-update-may-2024/
22. 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/
23. 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/
24. Key factors for showing in AI Overviews • Quality • Relevancy • Authority • Accuracy ‘Classic’ SEO signals
25. AI Overviews’ Impact on Traffic? https://www.seerinteractive.com/insights/ctr-aio
26. https://www.seerinteractive.com/insights/ctr-aio
27. 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
28. 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
29. 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
30. AI Search Engines
31. AI Search Engines
32. Traffic from AI Search Engines https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-traffic-study/
33. Optimising for AI Search https://www.seerinteractive.com/insights/what-is-generative-engine- optimization-geo
34. Key factors for showing up in AI Search • Quality • Relevancy • Authority • Accuracy ‘Classic’ SEO signals
35. Summarised
36. 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
37. https://www.seoforgooglenews.com/
38. Thank You barry@polemicdigital.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/barryadams/ https://www.SEOforGoogleNews.com/