AI overviews have quickly taken over the search engine landscape, where, before, searchers were greeted with a list of links to webpages; now, there’s often an AI overview giving users an AI-generated summary of the search results.
Why Google AI Overviews Matter
Google AI overviews appear at the top of search engine results pages above other organic listings and ads. Rather than links, these AI overviews provide a brief summary of information relative to the searcher’s query, often answering a question directly.
Understanding AI overviews and LLM search rankings, and how they work, is crucial for better search visibility. Classic SEO still has its place, but with the rise of AI-assisted results, you must know how to get featured in Google AI overviews. In this article, we will cover:
- What LLM Search Engines Are
- AI Search Engine Optimisation
- The Best Content Structure for AI Models
- On-Page and Off-Page Signals
- Common Mistakes for AI Inclusion
Understanding Google AI Overviews and LLM Search Engines
On the surface, AI overviews and traditional features snippets may look similar, but they are quite different.
When looking at Google AI overviews vs features snippets, the biggest difference is the underlying technology used to create them. Featured snippets are directly pulled from a single web page with no words changed, whereas AI overviews are formed with the use of LLMs and use several web sources for a comprehensive yet succinct overview.
It changes the game for a traditional SEO strategy; now, LLM search engine optimisation and Google AI content ranking are becoming more important.
Content Structure That Feeds AI Models
To rank in AI overviews, you must create content for AI overviews. Here’s how it’s done.
- Clear Headings: Write consistently clear, to-the-point headings throughout the content.
- Subheadings: Use the right subheadings for your content’s structure, such as H2s and H3s, creating a clear hierarchical structure for your content.
- Fact-Based Writing: Focus on the facts and answer direct questions. List formats and Q&As are good for this.
- Inclusion of Definitions: Including definitions within the content for more clarity.
- Bullet Points: Bullet points improve the readability and scannability of your content, so use them to rank in AI overviews.
- Concise Explanations: Always be clear and to the point, offering concise explanations.
Semantics SEO for AI: Semantics SEO is all about creating content that aligns with LLMs. It focuses on topics rather than keywords and always aims to understand the user’s intent.
By writing structured content for LLMs, your content is more likely to be ranked in AI overviews. It’s now a crucial part of anyone’s content strategy.
On-Page Optimisation for AI Visibility
Our next AI search engine optimisation tips focus on on-page SEO for AI.
- Schema for Google AI: Use schema markup types that support AI visibility, such as FAQs and HowTo articles.
- Internal Linking Strategies: Keep up a good internal linking strategy to establish topical authority. Doing so helps search engines and LLMs understand the relevance of your content. Check out our link-building service.
You should also focus on many of the traditional on-page SEO strategies, such as improving page speed, optimizing for mobile, using the right keywords, and improving your Core Web Vitals – our managed SEO services cover these.
Content Depth, Authority, and EEAT Signals
Google has stressed the importance of using EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness) for better rankings. To improve EEAT for AI search, you must understand these AI content authority signals.
To write expert content for Google AI, you should write author bios, source all your claims/data, and use citations. It also helps to add real-world examples such as case studies. Your goal is to create genuinely helpful, in-depth content that shows your knowledge of the topics. If you need help with this, check out our content writing services.
Creating Answer Focused Content Blocks
To get featured in AI overviews, your goal is to directly answer questions, writing concise, accurate answers that can be easily lifted into AI overviews. Your answer-targeted content should meet AI-friendly content formatting structures. That includes writing bold intros, sticking to short paragraphs, and including summaries of the answers.
Looking for a more all-around digital marketing approach? Check out our digital PR services.
Off-Page Signals and Link Building for AI Trust
Off-page signals for LLMs play a crucial part in ranking for AI overviews.
Acquiring backlinks for AI trust signals is a good idea, as authoritative backlinks play a role in influencing LLMs’ confidence scores, and, in turn, the likelihood of the AI ranking your content.
To improve link building for AI overviews, focus more on acquiring curated links, which means adding backlinks to your web page coming from already existing and high-authority content.
For boosted entity awareness, include a blogger outreach strategy, a common and useful marketing tactic that involves building strong relationships with bloggers who post content that reaches a similar audience to your own.
Entity Optimisation and Brand Presence
Entity SEO refers to optimizing content around entities, with entities meaning any defined concept, whether that’s a brand, a specific person, or a place. This is important as entities are used in AI models, as they use the Named Entity Recognition (NER) model to identify various names entities within content.
Use this for boosted brand optimisation for AI. To do this, connect your site to trusted knowledge graphs, such as Wikidata, LinkedIn, and Crunchbase. Clearly defining your brand is also crucial for LLM entity recognition, so always use a consistent brand name and include an About Us page on your site.
Monitoring, Testing, and Tracking Performance in AI Overviews
Incorporating new techniques to rank in AI overviews is one thing – next, you must monitor, test, and track your performance to ensure you stay on top of the game.
Luckily, there are various great AI search performance tools to track AI Overview rankings, including SERP monitoring and feature snippet tools, such as Click Insights AI Overviews tracker.
Test content for Google AI, looking specifically at structured content formats and then measuring the outcomes, adjusting as you need to in order to get it right.
If you need help monitoring and tracking your performance, Click Insights can help, as it’s an all-in-one software that provides actionable insights after a comprehensive SEO audit.
Common Mistakes That Prevent AI Inclusion
Have you followed a lot of the above advice and still wondering why content isn’t in AI overviews. There are several possible AI search exclusion reasons for this – it’s not just about knowing what LLMs want; it’s also about understanding what is never included.
- Thin Content: This means any content that adds little value to readers. The content is poorly written, doesn’t answer questions, or is stuffed with keywords with little substance to back it up.
- Over-Optimisation: There can be too much of a good thing. Over-optimisation means overusing SEO techniques to the point where the content is focused more on search engines than user experience – LLMs do not want this.
- Lack of Schema Markup: Schema markup is structured data that helps search engines understand your page’s content – not having this could be hindering your rankings.
- Orphaned Content: This refers to any web pages that aren’t linked to any others.
To avoid AI SEO mistakes, steer clear of all of the above. Pages that consistently make these mistakes signal to LLMs that their content is not worthy of being ranked.
Conclusion: Becoming an Authority in the AI Search Era
An AI-first SEO strategy is becoming increasingly important, as AI overviews often show up before typical links to web pages. Here are the key takeaways for LLM search optimisation:
- Write Clear Content with a Hierarchical Structure
- Focus on Content Depth and Authority
- Optimize Content Around Entities
- Consistently Test and Track Your Performance
Do you want to become visible in Google AI Overviews? Our SEO services can help you. We are a white label reseller SEO and digital marketing agency that knows the ins and outs of search engine rankings, so get in touch to get started!
