While it may feel like there’s a never-ending stream of updates, Google recently published an official guide to use when you’re optimising for its AI search features (AI Overviews and AI Mode). The good news is, for those anticipating having to break everything down and rebuild the strategy all over, you don’t need to change a lot. Ultimately, solid (and traditional) SEO principles still get you there.
To save you picking through the details and trying to translate everything, here’s what you actually need to know.
SEO Isn’t Changing, The SERP Is
The key point here is that while the SERP looks different because of the introduction of AI Overviews (including the new chat feature) the goal is changing to getting cited rather than listed in the list of ten blue links. When it comes to achieving this though, the rules haven’t really changed.
Essentially, if you already have a solid SEO strategy, you’re already ticking a lot of the boxes you need to in order to get cited by the likes of AI Mode. Google is explicit that its generative AI features are built on the same core search ranking and quality systems that have always driven organic visibility. Everything from crawlability, indexability, and technical site structure, to helpful content, and clear page hierarchy all still matter. They’re not just the technical pieces you need for “AI SEO”; all these factors are SEO fundamentals.
You’ve likely also seen an abundance of posts and blogs about AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) – Google addressed this, saying they’re simply SEO, just by another name.
What Google Says to Focus On
If you’re looking for specifics, while we’ll never know the exact formula, Google has got a fresh set of guidelines. It’s mainly a reframing of what already exists:
When it comes to content, unique and non-commodity driven copy is the priority. You don’t want to be recycling existing content for the sake of getting more words on your website. Instead, Google is asking for content that brings something genuinely new. Whether that’s first-hand experience, an expert perspective, or a take that couldn’t have been produced by a generative AI model itself, the E-E-A-T principles are still in full force. AI generated copy recycles, but can’t create new ideas and fresh insights the way humans can, and that’s the point.
When it comes to the technical side of things, pages need to be crawlable and indexable in order to be eligible for AI features at all. Page experience, mobile rendering, site structure, and duplicate content management are all called out explicitly. Structured data is still helpful, but there’s nothing special you need to do on this front to help your website appear as a citation in AI features.
For ecommerce and local businesses, Merchant Centre feeds and Google Business Profiles can support visibility across both traditional (read as: your conventional SERP) and AI-led Search results. If you haven’t got them set up already, now’s a good time to prioritise them.
One Important Caveat
There’s a whole lot of LLMs out there, and these notes relate exclusively to AI Overviews and AI Mode, but aren’t indicative of what the likes of Claude, ChatGPT, or Perplexity require to be cited.
Ranking (or rather, showing up as a citation or recommendation in other LLMs) is still very much in the early stages when it comes to understanding what they’re looking for. With the introduction of ChatGPT ads, we may soon get some more context soon, but for now, Google’s guidelines and SEO best practices are a logical (and attainable) approach to take.
So, What’s Next?
In short, if you’re already familiar with the principles of unique content, proper technical optimisations for the SERP, and clear structure, you’re on the right track.
If any of these concepts or insights sound foreign (or you’re not sure how to optimise everything yourself), the team at Reform Digital are here to help. Get in touch and we can check all the key components in a free consultation to let you know where to go from there.
