SEO Optimization Recommendations for AI Overview

AI Overviews (AIO) is a new feature that appears at the top of Google's search results page, summarizing information gathered from websites using artificial intelligence. It provides users with a quick summary of their search query, linking back to the websites from which the information was sourced, thereby offering them additional visibility. Currently available in select countries, this feature is expected to significantly impact click-through rates and organic traffic on search result pages. AIO responses are particularly common in certain industries and long-tail searches. It is rapidly expanding and is expected to become more prevalent in the future. According to Google’s statements, websites and content optimized for SEO will have the opportunity to appear in this space. No special effort is required—simply adhering to basic SEO principles is sufficient.

If you’d like more information about Google’s new feature, you can check out our AI Overviews Guide. In this article, we will discuss what needs to be done to be featured as a source in AIO responses.

1. Technical Suitability: Crawling and Indexing

For Google to utilize the information on your website, it needs to be able to access your pages and their content. Therefore, the pages containing important content must be crawlable and indexable.

These types of pages must meet essential requirements such as:

• Not being blocked in the robots.txt file,
• Not containing a noindex tag,
• Loading quickly,
• Being mobile-friendly,
• Not having 4XX/5XX error codes.

Additionally, to allow Google to discover these pages, a proper internal linking strategy should be established, and your sitemap must be created optimally.

A website with technical SEO issues can prevent its pages from being featured as sources in AI Overviews responses. Regularly crawl your site to check fundamental technical issues and fix errors promptly. Create a list of your most important pages, which you expect to get the most traffic, and regularly crawl them to ensure they return a 200 status code and do not redirect to 4xx or 5xx errors.

2. Content Strategy: E-E-A-T and Long Tail Keywords

The content on your site must comply with the E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) principles, both for improving your overall SEO performance and for being featured in AI Overviews (AIO) responses. You can refer to our detailed content for more information on E-E-A-T.

To briefly explain E-E-A-T:

• Experience: The real-life experience of the author or website on the topic, including examples and case studies.
• Expertise: The level of expertise on the subject, based on professional or academic knowledge.
• Authoritativeness: Gaining backlinks from well-known and reputable websites in your field, and establishing credibility.
• Trustworthiness: The accuracy of the information in the content, transparent use of sources, and validation of data.

In summary, creating content based on an expert perspective, with original and accurate data, can increase your chances of being selected as a source in AIO responses. We know that AIO answers appear more often in long tail searches and specific, detailed queries. When writing content on a topic, researching alternative questions users might ask about the information in that content, identifying variations, and targeting them will be a smart strategy. While doing this, you can also review PAA (People Also Ask) questions in Google search results along with SEO tools.

You should provide clear, direct answers to these questions, and if possible, keep the responses short. Your answer should be detailed enough to satisfy the user's curiosity, but concise enough to be easily summarized by AIO. If you can present the answer in formats such as lists, tables, or graphs, definitely use them, as they are easier for AIO to summarize and present.

You should also verify the currency of the data used in your content. Regularly adding new information, updating dates and statistics, and incorporating results from new studies will keep your content fresh in the eyes of Google and increase its value.

For YMYL (Your Money Your Life) topics, such as health, finance, and law, the accuracy of the information you provide is critical. You can cite official institutions or scientific articles as sources and link to them from your content. This will help you gain both your readers' and Google's trust.

3. On-Page SEO: Titles and Meta Descriptions

Title tags, meta description content, and subheadings like H1 and H2 are important signals for both Google and potential visitors. Especially when you clearly and engagingly describe the content in the title tag, you help Google position your page and assist users in deciding to click.

Things to keep in mind when writing a title tag:

• Keyword usage: Make sure to naturally use your target keyword in the title, but avoid overusing it.
• Character limit: It is recommended to keep the entire title between 55-60 characters to ensure it is fully readable without being cut off with “...”.
• Clear expression: The title should clearly indicate the page's topic and what users can expect to encounter.

When writing a meta description, you should summarize your content in one sentence and use a compelling tone to encourage clicks. Although it doesn't directly impact your ranking on the search result page, a well-written meta description can significantly increase your click-through rate.

Things to consider when writing a meta description:

• Summary and encouragement: Summarize your content in a few sentences and highlight the most compelling point of your content.
• Character limit: Ensure the entire meta description fits within the 150-160 character range to appear fully on the search result page without truncation.

The topics you cover on your page will be determined by the subheading hierarchy. Therefore, before starting your content, you should identify what kind of information you need to provide and what type of heading hierarchy you will use, with the help of keyword analysis. The H1 tag is the main heading of your content and should only be used once. Often, issues such as not using it at all or using it multiple times need to be addressed. Tags like H2, H3, and H4 should be used in an appropriate hierarchical order for subheadings. This not only provides a better user experience but also helps Google better understand your content.

When using these titles, meta descriptions, and heading tags, conducting keyword analysis is crucial. The topics you’ll discuss, the questions you’ll answer, and the searches users perform all depend on it.

4. Structured Data: FAQ, How-to, Product, Article 

Structured data is a form of markup that helps Google better understand the content, products, or information on your page. Especially when implemented according to the schema.org standard, this markup can enable your site to appear as rich results in search, potentially increasing your click-through rates.

There are hundreds of structured data markups, with the most commonly used ones being:

• Article or BlogPosting: For your articles and blog posts
• Product: For fields like price, rating, stock information, and brand of your products
• Recipe: For details like ingredients, cooking time, calories, and nutritional values in your recipes
• FAQ: For question and answer sections in frequently asked questions
• Event: For event details like date and location, such as concerts, exhibitions, and conferences
• HowTo: For step-by-step instructions in situations that require guidance

This script, added to the <head> section of your page code in JSON-LD format, should be checked with the Schema Markup Validator, and any errors should be fixed as recommended by Google.

5. Off-Page Strategy: Backlinks and Authority

When Google generates AI Overviews responses, it selects sources based on their authority and trustworthiness. Backlinks play a crucial role in establishing that authority. Acquiring backlinks from high-authority websites signals to Google that your site and the content on the linked page are reliable.

• Forums and Q&A Sites: Participating in industry-specific forums and answering questions on platforms like Quora and Reddit with references to your website can enhance your online visibility and authority. By doing so, you can not only increase your brand's exposure but also drive targeted traffic to your site.
• Guest Posting: Contributing guest posts to important blogs in your industry and linking back to key pages on your site can significantly boost your authority. When choosing websites for backlinking, consider analyzing the backlinks your competitors have earned and reviewing sites that perform well in high-volume search queries within your niche.
• Quality Content: Creating original, data-driven content and informative visuals provides a solid foundation for naturally earning backlinks. When others find your content valuable, they are more likely to reference it, providing backlinks to your site.

6. Experience: UX and Mobile Compatibility

User experience (UX) is one of the most important metrics Google considers when evaluating a page. Many ranking factors are designed to provide a positive user experience.

• Site Speed: The loading speed of your website is one of the most crucial factors directly affecting user experience. Improving user interaction and visual accessibility metrics will positively impact your overall SEO performance in a short period.
• Mobile Compatibility: Considering the growing number of internet users who access websites via mobile devices, ensuring your website is mobile-friendly is a key component of user experience. You should carefully design a responsive structure, with legible fonts, proper text sizes, and well-positioned images and content to enhance the user experience.
• Ads and Pop-ups: Ads or pop-up windows that hinder user experience and obstruct access to content can negatively affect your rankings.

Just as quality content is essential, presenting that content in a user-friendly manner is equally important. A well-executed UX will give you an advantage in both organic search results and the likelihood of being selected as a source for AI Overviews.

7. Measurement: Position Tracking and Continuous Optimization

One of the most important steps in a sustainable SEO strategy is measurement. After making improvements to your SEO, it's essential to assess whether or not these changes are effective, and to determine how well they are working. This allows you to adjust your next actions based on the results.

• Tool Usage: You can monitor your visibility in AI Overviews answers using tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and others. By doing this, you'll learn which pages of your website appear in AIO answers for certain queries, and you can apply similar strategies to optimize other pages of your site.
• CTR and Position: Tracking how the click-through rate (CTR) and position of your page change in AIO answers is one of the best ways to measure success. Especially when comparing results before and after making improvements in the areas mentioned above, these two metrics are invaluable.
• Regular Checks: Since AI Overviews is still a relatively new feature, it's crucial to perform regular measurements, run tests with the insights gained from these checks, and determine the best optimizations for your industry and website. This way, you can optimize your technical and content actions based on data and ensure long-term success.

In Conclusion:

We can consider Google’s AI Overviews as the new "top" position in search engine results pages. Being featured here provides significant opportunities for your site's visibility and organic traffic. By adhering to fundamental SEO principles, creating quality content, and maintaining a flawless technical structure, your chances of being included as a source in AIO answers and reaching more users will increase.