Google’s AI Mode Changes Everything!

How A.I. Is Affecting Your Website Traffic & Conversions – (2 min read)

Google AI Mode (formerly Search Generative Experience, SGE) introduces AI-powered AI Overviews directly atop search results. AI Mode analyzes multiple sources, synthesizes them into concise summaries, and highlights key links, images, videos, and follow-up questions—all without users clicking through. This reduces the amount of clicks that you will get to your website. It also means your potential customers are relying on AI for their research.

For example, you can see in the following example that a new “AI Overview” section is giving the answer, instead of a website.

Now if you click on the “Show More” button, then you will get some suggested resources. These links will likely be more important than the top results because many people will simply trust the A.I. answer.  Here is what is shown after clicking to see the full AI Overview: 

There are many other examples. Some with pictures, graphics, quotes, product recommendations, and a section where user’s can ask a follow up question. Here is another example:
(photo credit : Yevheniia Khromova)

Is SEO Dead? 

SEO must adapt. The A.I. has to pull information from somewhere and the user experience would not be great if Google doesn’t connect people to a business that can help them. Which is why, A.I. overviews pull Google Reviews into their suggestions and cite the sources for the answers that they provide. 

LinkedIn links, Reddit links, Quora answers, and other high-authority sites are being used to feed the A.I.  So having good content on many different online platforms is important. Being number 1 in the search engine is now even more important because less people will click the links that are not in the top. 

Long tail keywords and content that answers popular questions is also going to be more important. The A.I. doesn’t have experience in your local area, doing “what you do”. It can only predict text and find meaning in content. Therefore, you must have good, unique, content on your website. 

Let’s say that someone types in “Best Gluten Free Pizza Near Me”, the AI will likely look at the reviews, read articles and websites and select the pizza place that has high reviews, won awards, and gluten free options on the menu. The AI will evaluate the content and then make a recommendation, which is why a new optimization standard is emerging. 

AI Visibility Optimization + SEO is what you need to stay ahead of your competitors

AI visibility optimization, which is also known as Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), Generative Search Optimization (GSO), etc., provides the AI with everything that it needs to make high value recommendations for your brand. We can track AI visibility by making a prompt every day and tracking the recommendations for your brand and competitors. We would then optimize for the AI. The foundations of SEO is still the backbone of what is needed for AI optimization. For example, meta and schema data is used by the search crawlers and AI crawlers to understand the content. Having local citations and good backlinks improves the domain authority for SEO and the likely hood of being recommended. 

Getting Help with AI Optimization

Optimizing your website for AI can be a complex process. At OklaMedia, we stay ahead of the curve on the latest SEO trends. We can help you craft a data-driven SEO strategy to ensure your small business website thrives in the age of AI-powered search.

Contact us today for a free consultation and see how we can help you prepare your website for Google’s SGE!