Do you still need SEO if Google is using AI Search?
The answer is yes. SEO is still needed, but how it works is changing. In 2025, about 30% of U.S. searches show AI-generated summaries at the top, giving users quick answers without clicking links. This shift has caused a significant drop in website traffic for some publishers, with losses reaching up to 80%.
However, SEO is far from obsolete. It’s evolving to fit this new search environment. SEO now focuses on optimizing for AI-generated content like summaries and featured snippets to maintain visibility.
In this blog, we’ll explore how SEO is adapting to the rise of AI search, why it’s still essential for businesses, and what strategies you can use to stay visible and engaged with your audience.
What is Google AI Overview?
Google’s AI Overviews have changed how search results work. Instead of just showing links, Google now gives a short summary at the top of the page. This summary is made by its Gemini 2.0 model, which collects key details from different websites and puts them into a quick, clear answer.
For users, it’s faster and easier; they often get what they need without clicking any links. But for SEO, it’s a big change. Even if a site ranks high, people might not visit it if the AI box already provides the answer. This means websites now have to plan their content so it can stand out in this new AI-driven search, especially when working on SEO for dynamic website strategies to ensure all types of pages stay visible.
The Impact of Google AI Overview on Traditional SEO
Website Traffic and Publisher Revenue
The most immediate and noticeable effect of AI Overviews is the decline in website traffic for many publishers. These AI-generated summaries appear at the top of search results, providing users with direct answers and reducing the need to click through to original content. As a result, traditional click-through rates (CTR) have plummeted.
Declining CTR: A study by Pew Research found that only 8% of users clicked on a link when an AI summary was present, compared to 15% when no AI summary appeared.
Publisher Lawsuits: Penske Media, the parent company of Rolling Stone and Variety, filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging that AI Overviews use their content without compensation and have led to significant traffic losses.
These developments have raised concerns about the sustainability of the digital media ecosystem, as publishers face challenges in monetizing their content effectively.
Search Engine Result Page (SERP) Dynamics
AI Overviews have altered the structure of search engine result pages, pushing traditional organic listings further down and sometimes off the first page entirely.
Visibility Challenges: With AI summaries occupying prime real estate at the top of search results, even well-optimized pages may struggle to gain visibility.
Zero-Click Searches: The rise of AI Overviews has contributed to an increase in “zero-click” searches, where users obtain answers directly from the search page without visiting any websites.
This shift necessitates a reevaluation of SEO strategies, emphasizing the need for content to be featured in AI summaries to maintain visibility.
Evolving SEO Strategies in the Age of AI Search
To grow in the AI search landscape, businesses must adapt their SEO strategies. Here are some effective approaches:
a. Creating AI-Friendly Content
Developing content that is both human-readable and optimized for AI systems is crucial. AI models prioritize clarity, structure, and relevance. To enhance your content’s compatibility with AI:
- Use Clear and Concise Language: Avoid jargon and complex sentence structures. Aim for simplicity to ensure AI can easily parse and understand your content.
- Structure Content Effectively: Implement a logical hierarchy using headings (H1, H2, H3) to organize information. This aids AI in identifying key topics and subtopics.
- Provide Direct Answers: Incorporate question-and-answer formats, especially for common queries. This increases the likelihood of your content being featured in AI-generated summaries.
- Optimize for Voice Search: With the rise of voice-activated AI assistants, ensure your content is conversational and answers questions succinctly. This aligns with natural language processing used by AI systems.
b. Implementing Structured Data
Structured data, also known as schema markup, helps AI systems understand and organize your content more clearly. By giving search engines specific details about your content, you make it easier for them to feature it in AI summaries.
One of the biggest benefits is better visibility. Structured data can create rich snippets, which are the highlighted results you often see at the top of search pages. These stand out and are more likely to be included in AI-generated summaries, which is especially helpful for web design BC content that needs to grab attention.
It can also improve your click-through rates because rich snippets catch the eye and attract more clicks compared to plain search results.
Another advantage is that AI systems can understand and present your content more accurately, making it more useful to readers.
Adding schema markup to things like articles, reviews, products, and FAQs can go a long way in improving how your content performs in AI-driven search results.
c. Focusing on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness)
Google’s E-E-A-T framework emphasizes the importance of content quality and credibility. AI systems prioritize content that demonstrates:
- Experience: Firsthand knowledge or involvement in the subject matter.
- Expertise: Demonstrated skill or knowledge in a particular area.
- Authoritativeness: Recognition as a leading source of information on the topic.
- Trustworthiness: Reliability and accuracy of the information provided.
To align with E-E-A-T principles:
- Showcase Credentials: Include author bios, certifications, and affiliations to establish authority.
- Cite Reputable Sources: Reference authoritative sources to back up claims and enhance trustworthiness.
- Maintain Content Accuracy: Regularly update content to ensure information is current and accurate.
- Encourage User Reviews: User-generated content, such as reviews and testimonials, can enhance perceived experience and trustworthiness.
d. Monitoring Google AI Overview Results
Tracking how your content performs in AI-driven search results is essential for ongoing optimization. Specialized tools can provide insights into your content’s visibility and performance across various AI platforms. These tools help you:
- Identify Performance Gaps: Determine which content is underperforming in AI search results and why.
- Analyze Competitor Strategies: Understand how competitors’ content is being featured in AI summaries and identify areas for improvement.
- Optimize Content Accordingly: Make data-driven decisions to adjust and enhance your content for better AI visibility.
e. The Role of Featured Snippets in AI Search
SEO still needs to target featured snippets, as Google uses them as a primary source for its AI summaries. Featured snippets are often pulled from well-optimized pages and play a big role in how AI creates overviews for informational queries. Adding strategies on how to optimize featured snippets can make your content stand out even more in search results.
For example, when AI generates a summary for a query like “What is the capital of France?”, it might directly pull the answer from a well-formatted snippet that clearly presents the information. By making sure your content is structured properly and gives clear, direct answers to common questions, you increase the chances of being included in AI-generated summaries.
Conclusion
AI is changing how people search, but SEO isn’t going away; it’s just taking a new shape. With AI summaries giving quick answers, businesses need to update their SEO strategies to keep getting noticed.
The key is to make content easy for AI to understand. Write clear, well-structured pages, use schema markup to highlight important details, and show expertise and trust so Google knows your content is reliable.
It’s also important to keep an eye on how your pages perform in AI-driven results and adjust when needed. By staying flexible and improving content for both people and AI, businesses can stay relevant in this new search world.
