What are Google’s AI search summaries, and how can you adapt your content strategy to appear in them?
Google’s AI overview feature is already here and is set to be used more frequently as it improves over time. With users increasingly having their queries answered by AI-generated summaries, rather than needing to click through to websites, how should website managers update their content strategy to seize the new opportunities this affords, while mitigating the potential downsides?
It's a quickly changing picture, but we’ve distilled the latest thinking to give you an overview of what these changes will mean and how you can benefit.
What are google’s ‘AI overviews’?
Google has begun rolling out ‘AI Overviews’ into search engine results pages (SERPS). These tend to show up when a user asks a question, such as ‘how can I do X?’ or ‘What is the largest Y?’. They don’t show up when a user is searching for a website or brand. For example, an AI overview wouldn’t appear for the search term “British Museum”, as it’s likely the user wishes to go to the British Museum’s website. However, if the user asks “How many objects are there in the British Museum?” this generates an AI summary that claims it contains 8 million objects, with a link to the British Museum’s website for more information.
Here’s an example of another query generating an AI overview:
When the user clicks ‘Show more’, the full answer is revealed, along with links to the articles that informed the answer. We’ve highlighted these link cards with a red box below:
What impact is it having?
By giving users answers directly on the results page, AI overviews are likely to reduce traffic to non-branded keywords, particularly those keywords that answer specific queries.
This impact is similar to Google’s ‘featured snippets’, which have been around for several years. They pull out a small section of a webpage that directly answers a question, so a user doesn’t have to click through onto the website to get the info they’re looking for. This new AI overview feature may be new, but it’s part of a continuing trend for Google to answer queries on the results page itself to give users answers faster.
How to respond to it?
Website managers have always needed to respond to changes in how Google ranks and presents search results, and responding to the AI overview feature is no different.
For purpose-driven organisations, having your content read is what matters. It’s not hugely important whether users read it on Google, having been summarised by an AI, or on your website. So, the key principles of your content strategy don’t need a radical overhaul. It’s more about changing how you measure success. Tools like SEMrush are already adding features to allow you to understand when your articles are being featured in AI over-views, and now that AI overviews are available to non-logged-in members in the US, these tools will get ever-better and tracking how the AI overview is working.
Take the example of Kidscape, an anti-bullying charity. Parents often arrive on the Kidscape website having searched a query related to how to support their child if they’re bullied at school. What’s important for Kidscape is that parents can access their advice, and it’s okay if that’s via an AI overview. If they need more info, they’ll click through to the site to learn more. And if that overview answers their query, then the charity has played the part it needed to. There’s a term for this kind of interaction - it’s called ‘positive abandonment’. This is when a user gets the information they need without going to the website, and thus abandons their onward journey. This isn’t actually a bad thing, as the user got what they were looking for from your content.
How to be featured in the AI summary
Now we’ve established that being featured in the AI summary can be beneficial, the obvious next question is how can you get your content featured in it?
There are no hard and fast rules here, but there are patterns emerging we can use to predict what will make it more likely for your content to be featured. The good news is these generally align with existing SEO best practice, so you don’t need to start from scratch with your content strategy.
Research by SEO Clarity, an enterprise SEO platform, showed that Google AI summaries now pull their sources from web pages in the top 10 Google organic search results for that query 99.5% of the time. That means if you want your content cited in the AI summary, the best way to do so is to have your content rank highly in organic results, just as before.
We know that when it comes to ranking in SERPs, Google is increasingly using ‘topic authority’ to decide what to rank. This means it’s important not just to optimise a single page but to publish high-quality content regularly on the topics you wish to rank for.
Regarding on-page strategies, we recommend answering the query you’re trying to rank for directly and succinctly within your copy. This makes it easy for the AI to identify the answer and cite your page in the AI summary. It’s also important to apply the same best practice techniques that make it more likely your content will appear in Google summary snippets, such as use of structured data and clear headings.
To get your content ranking more effectively, see our SEO Audit to get a targeted plan for delivering organic traffic growth.
Conclusion
Although they may impact your website traffic negatively, Google's AI overviews actually offer an opportunity to reach a wider audience with your message. Plan to create high-quality, authoritative content that directly addresses user queries to increase your chances of being featured.
Remember, your goal is not web visitors, but rather to support your organisation’s wider mission. Focus on the message, not the medium. Great content will continue to stand out, whether in traditional organic ranking or AI search summaries.
This is a new and fast-moving field, so stay informed about new developments and be prepared to adjust your strategy when needed. For now, existing SEO best practice remains relevant, so keep building on your existing efforts and you’ll see your content increasingly being picked up and featured in AI summaries.