When Google tells you to be calm, it’s wise to seriously consider panic.

So, when they say to marketeers and SEO-types that their new (ish) AI Overview in search results will ‘increase’ clicks to the news and website links near the top of the results page, it’s not a huge surprise that the hard evidence is that, actually, it doesn’t.

The correct word is ‘decrease’.

The logic always pointed that way – after a generation of saying the higher you are on a results page, the more clicks you get, it’s strange to suddenly decide that being lower doesn’t affect things. Now, having fought your way to the top of search, you are now relegated to halfway down the page, reducing eyes on you. Some pretty hardcore analysis of over 300,000 keywords suggests that when there is an AI Overview on a results page, the click-through rate (CTR) falls by over a third. You can geek out on the details here.

That causes some issues for corporate brand and reputation. Google has long been the roadmap for most of us through the internet. So many user journeys start on a Google page. What they do matters a lot, certainly more than is healthy - and these AI-driven shifts have led to the advent of generative engine optimisation (GEO), yet another form of SEO.

So while you may have dismissed the AI Overview as just something to get used to as a user, if you’re in any way concerned about how the rest of the world views your or your company, there’s things to consider:

1: Deal with AI bias, increase visibility and publish more content
While AI will be the dominant technology of this generation, do we yet wholly trust it? Is Google’s Gemini generative AI free from bias? Do we think that the Large Language Models (LLM) emerge from a vacuum, free from influence and driven by a global viewpoint, rather than a Trumpian/Tech-bro world view from Silicon Valley developers? At the very least, it’s wise to be sceptical.

But you can introduce a little bias of your own.

The LLMs scrape what is visible. Some media brands are battling to keep their content away from the scrapers to keep the sanctity of their copyright. That affects your media strategy (see below), but should have you dusting down your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy.

Google takes a lot of data from its search engine – it powers the ads, which power its revenues. So, it’s not as if ‘traditional’ search will completely die anytime soon. And, while they’re not going to share what data underpins its AI engines, there seems to be a strong correlation between a site’s Google rank and the likelihood of content being included in the generative overview (news sites notwithstanding).

So, if you want your viewpoint to be represented in the next generation of generative search results, then the practices of SEO are just as key as they always have been – publish good quality content on a well-optimised site.

2: Publish for people, not Google
While Google offers routes to your stakeholders, customers, regulators and so on, it isn’t your target market. Google is the route, not the destination. So, while worrying about the visibility of your content is key, so is worrying about what you tell your users once you’ve got them.

Analyse your website data (likely to be Google Analytics, of course, there’s no escape) and understand the search terms that got them to you (and the search terms they put into your own site search), and understand better what people are looking for. Create content that answers those questions – whether they are product, career or even reputation related. Create content that addresses those issues – and optimise content to match the more conversational style of search language. Anticipate the terminology of users and the ‘natural’ language patterns of AI and you can create visibility, and keep your messaging seen by users.

3: Look to your media strategy (balance between committed v large audiences):
AI-driven search results are a big worry for news brands, for whom Google has been a lifeline for traffic and, therefore, advertising revenue.

For companies, who want to appear on news and trade sites, it adds a nuance to media strategies. Do you go for the titles that ‘happily’ allow themselves to be scraped for AI engines? Does that give more visibility? Or do the ones who have paywalls (and tend to battle to protect their copyright) have ‘better’, more committed audiences.

In short, do engaged subscribers in smaller numbers have more value than casual browsers in greater numbers? (spoiler: ‘it depends’)

It’s another nuance to a media strategy – picking what media to target will increasingly require an understanding of that title’s own strategy in regard to readers, search and AI.

So, while the changes in search results are likely to be significant, the approach to making yourself visible in Google’s world remains the same – a high-quality content strategy, an editorial calendar, a well-researched keyword strategy, a considered editorial tone and good quality SEO. Backed with a nuanced media strategy.

This is all significant shift – maybe the biggest change to Google’s search offering since it first mapped the internet. It will have significant impact on how people learn about your organisation- if you want to be equipped to deal with it, get in touch with our digital team: digital@cardewgroup.com