AI SEO Best Practices: How to Optimize Content for Google AI Overviews

Marketing goalposts have shifted once again. In May 2024, Google rolled out AI overviews, a small feature that sent massive shockwaves through the search industry. With AI overviews, Google gives users fast, conversational summaries for complex queries, drastically altering search results.

Consequently, brands and search engine optimization (SEO) experts are now in a rush to create AI overviews SEO strategies. As the era of AI search gets underway, optimizing your website for Google’s AI overviews should be a top priority. The harsh truth is that AI is here to stay, and SEO will never be the same again.  

What Are AI Overviews?

AI overviews are fast, AI-generated previews of key information gathered from relevant websites in response to a search query. They provide quick and systematic answers to users, leveraging generative AI, structured data, and pattern learning. The summaries appear on top of search results so that user doesn't have to read a plethora of articles to get answers to their questions.

AI overviews are primarily activated for questions that require detailed explanations or comparisons. For example, when users ask, “What are the best practices for hybrid work setups?” or “How does solar power compare to wind energy?” These queries are more likely to get AI summaries.

Of course, there has been pushback in the SEO community. But Google has defended its AI overviews feature, emphasizing that it saves time for users while promoting authoritative websites. AI overviews may be experimental, but early feedback shows that they increase user satisfaction.

How to Optimize Your Content for AI Summaries

1. Use long-tail keywords

Long tail keywords are search phrases that contain three or more words.  For example, instead of searching for “shoes” with longtail keywords, a user searches for “comfortable running shoes for men.” Optimizing your content with such long-tail keywords increases your chances of appearing in AI overviews.

Google’s search AI favors long-tail keywords because these detailed phrases match informational search intent. This gives the search algorithms the capability to understand and deliver relevant answers in AI overviews through context analysis and pattern recognition.

2. Simplify your content structure

Google’s search AI likes simplicity. To appear in AI overviews, ensure that your content is easy to read and scan. Incorporate plenty of bullet points, lists, and easy-to-follow steps. In other words, users want immediate answers in a format that is easy to digest, and the AI periodically responds by surfacing this type of content.

For example, cooking blogs that use bullet points to break down a recipe will be more likely to show up in an AI overview than those with dense paragraphs. The same happens with technical guides. The more logically organized your content is, the easier it is for AI to pull relevant information from it and display it in search results.

3. Use task-based keywords

Action-based keywords, which have a “how to do” element, are more likely to trigger an AI overview. For instance, in-depth content built around keywords such as "how to start a podcast" or "how to save on electricity bills,” is more likely to show up in AI overviews.

But there is a way to capitalize on this with nearly everything you post. The key is to ensure that you always answer users' questions through actionable advice or step-by-step guides in your content. If your content is built around action keywords, there's a better chance it’ll rank high.

4. Rich media and schema

Structured data, such as FAQ schema, review schema, and how-to schema, provide more context about your content to AI. Add rich media such as images, videos, and infographics to this mix, and you stand a slightly better chance of getting featured in an overview. These elements break up the text and enhance readability.

For example, a fitness website with videos, infographics, and schema markups for sports activities has a higher chance of getting featured in AI overviews.  Schema markup helps search engines understand your content faster and curate summaries for search results pages.

Common challenges with AI overviews

AI overviews are experimental. Probably the biggest challenge with AI summaries is that you have no control over how in-depth your content will be summarized. Several users reported inaccurate information and oversimplifications in overviews. In response, Google released a blog post explaining its AI overviews and promised more improvements.

Nonetheless, the current challenges call for strict adherence to SEO best practices when optimizing content for search AI. Ensure your blog posts are fact-checked, updated, and easy to understand. Adopt an integrated SEO approach that guarantees an all-rounded visibility on the web, whether or not AI is in the picture.

Conclusion

AI overviews now represent the prime real estate in SERPS. Getting featured in these summaries can drive up your clickthrough rates and conversions in record time. Start by adding long-tail keywords to your blogs, simplifying content, using rich media, and adding schema. But if you need a much more elaborate SEO strategy, partner with the experts. The Goat Institute designs and implements tailored organic strategies for long-term visibility on rich snippets and AI summaries. To learn more, schedule an exploratory call.