Ranking For AI Overviews For Dummies

It’s no secret that Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) feature has been eating up traffic from websites for some time now.

Many called this the end of SEO as we know it when it first started earlier this year. That is an exaggeration.

Yes, SEO in it’s traditional sense is dead - the idea that you could string a couple articles together, stuff them with relevant keywords, and then sit and watch them magically rank on the top of your search results is a bygone thought.

Ranking your articles has never been more difficult, and SEOs have had a hard time coming face to face with that reality.

AI Overviews was the last nail in the coffin. Now, everyone knows that the traditional ways of doing SEO do nothing but add vanity metrics to your site.

SEO is not dead, however. Anything but that. It’s just gone through its most significant evolution since the advent of the SERP page.

The new age of Search Engine Optimization is here.

Alright, so we know that AI Overviews is taking over search as we know it. There’s nothing we can do to combat it.

So instead, we’re going to learn how to build and rank our websites around it now.

First, how does an AIO work?

Let’s do a simple step-by-step walkthrough on this.

• The user types a search query on Google

• Our friendly neighbourhood search engine reads through all the millions of pages that it has indexed on the topic

• Google then picks and curates that information in the best way it understands will help answer the query

• It will then show the user its version of the answer to said query, with citations and links to all the pages that it used to come up with the result.

That’s a very quick overview of how AI Overviews work.

Think of AIOs like what Featured Snippets used to be 12-13 months ago. Except, now Google just straight up pirates and rewrites your content instead of showing it to the user.

Obviously there’s more complications to this, but you get the picture.

The important thing to notice here is the citations and sources that Google refers to while creating these Overviews. That’s where the money is.

Let’s take a look at my first screenshot.

We know that one factor for Google citing your articles is to have really good articles in the first place.

What makes an article cite-worthy though? A few details:

• Thorough research on the topic you’re writing

• Cover every nook and corner of the query you’re trying to answer

• Have proper linking to helpful sources within your site

• Establish authority by having two or more contributing authors per article

• Include videos (will get to this in a bit)

Seems simple? You’d be surprised how much this is overlooked.

On paper, if you have an outstanding article with the right links and videos, your site should get cited by AIOs on some queries. But that’s just spraying and praying.

Here’s something a fellow Redditor did to make sure the odds tipped in their favour.

This is awesome because you literally structure your site to what Google’s AI overlords want, making it easier for them to feed off of you.

Here’s another hack that you can use.

Repurpose Your Content Into Other Formats

A recent study by Growth Memo showed which domains AIOs have been citing the most - the top ones being Youtube, Wikipedia, and Linkedin

This means that you could have a viral Youtube video, or Linkedin post, and it would increase your chances of being cited on AIOs

I have not tried this one yet, but will be doing it in the coming weeks, so stay tuned to see if this is a myth I can debunk

In essence, content ranking on Google has taken a big turn. Websites are seeing massive drops in traffic, and a major reason for this has been Google’s AIOs.

But it’s never been more important than now to have quality content vetted by experts on your website. AI articles will not survive this wave, and being smart about your tactics to get featured on AIOs will be a huge win in the coming quarters.

Keep checking out this space for more SEO :)

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