The Impact of AI on SEO: What’s Going On and How Do You Stay Ahead?

We’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy

If you’ve been merrily Googling your way through business life assuming your website’s fine because it “comes up when you search for it,” I hate to be the bearer of bad news…

The game has changed. Big time. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has stormed into the SEO world like a toddler who doesn’t like losing boardgames: flipping the board and making new rules up as it goes - I had one of those and you really can train (but not tame) them, so it’s a great analogy to what’s happening now.

With Google’s AI Overview, ChatGPT writing half the internet, and tools popping up every bloody week claiming to be the next big thing we’re all struggling to know who is friend or foe. If you’re a normal business owner this stuff can feel like a confusing mess of acronyms, robots and doom-mongering blog posts.

But not this one!

I’m going to break it down in true Web Goddess style - no technobabble and with a little humour - just the facts you need to keep your business showing up online and ahead of the AI tsunami (yup, it’s happening that quickly!).

Definitions: WTF Are They Talking About?

First, let’s get these acronyms sorted – I want you to understand what everything means because it’s all pretty new:

AI = Artificial Intelligence: Fancy term for computers doing smart stuff like writing, analysing data, and pretending to be human. Think ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Siri, etc. Or, if you’re my age, think Terminator or even Person of Interest.

SEO = Search Engine Optimisation: All the things you do to make sure your website shows up on Google when someone searches for what you offer. This is both the on-site stuff as well as the technical backend (it all counts).

AEO = Answer Engine Optimisation: The newest, nerdier cousin of SEO. It’s all about making your content the best answer for AI tools like Google’s AI Overview or ChatGPT so we’ll be tackling this later in this post.

EEAT = Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness: This is Google’s measuring stick for content. They want to see that you know your stuff, you’ve been around the block, and people trust you. i.e. if you just throw content at your site to appease the SEO gods it won’t work.

AI Overview - aka Google robots : Google’s new AI-powered summary that appears at the top of some search results. It answers the user’s question before they even click on a website. P.S. My staff reliably inform me they use this more than actual websites now – so that’s what this post is all about!

AI Overview: What the Hell Is It and Why Should You Care?

Google’s AI Overview (previously called SGE or Search Generative Experience) is rolling out now. When someone searches, instead of just getting links, Google often gives them a tidy little AI-generated summary at the top of the page. Great for the user. Potentially that may be a bit shit for your website traffic and we are seeing drops in traffic for lots of our clients.

If your website isn’t mentioned in that overview - or worse, if the AI gets its info from someone else, you miss out on the click.*

So the goal now? Get your content in shape so the AI picks you as the source of truth.

* Remember my comment earlier about my staff just reading the overview? This may seem like a death sentence for your website anyway, but more seasoned internet users (i.e. old people like me) still tend to check out the result and not just trust the AI result so for now you're safe! 😉

ChatGPT and AI Tools: Friend or Foe?

I hate to break it to you - AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Bard are here to stay. They’re not just for nerds anymore. Normal (especially younger) people are using them to:

• Research stuff instead of Googling it

• Plan holidays, diets, gym sets, interior design – pretty much everything

• Ask business questions (“What’s the best type of accountant for a small biz in Staffordshire?”)

If AI tools are giving people answers without them ever hitting Google - or your website - you need to make sure your content is good enough to feed the answer machine (AEO).

My caveat to this is that as an ‘older’ person (Gen X or older) I still like to check an answer and I’m a bit nosy so like to delve into real websites – but we have to plan for the younger generation too…

How to Future-Proof Your Website (Without Losing Your Mind)

Right, time for the hard truth. This isn’t the end of SEO, but you do have be proactive - just as you always have! So, if you want to get ahead of the AI wave, here’s what you can do to stay visible:

1. Focus on Helpful, HUMAN Content

Google’s not thick. It can smell AI-written crap a mile off. So, if you’re starting a blog post, advert or article with “In today’s fast-paced digital world” it will know who/what really wrote it! What search engines really wants is content that:

• Solves real problems – not just a sales pitch

• Sounds like it came from a person (you!) – so you need to write it yourself or at least ensure that your AI tools understand your brand and tone of voice.

• Is original and not just regurgitated nonsense – if you use AI please fact check what it spits out and rewrite the parts that don’t make sense.

If you want to find out more about using AI the right way to help you write content, check out our previous post that shares the right way to go about it.

2. Answer Questions Clearly

FAQs are King! Think headings like “What does X mean?” or “How do I do Y?”

AI loves clear answers. If you can give the best one, you might end up featured in that fancy AI box at the top of Google.

This is probably as good a time as any to mention that we have a Google AI Overview mention and it’s because I wrote a blog post titled “Do I still need Google Analytics if I have a Wix website?

I’m sharing our own experience later in this post so you’ll see exactly what this means.

3. Show Off Your Experience

Tick those EEAT boxes. Remember the Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness matrix that search engines love?

When you write a post or add any content to your website, make sure you are adding to the global consciousness and not just regurgitating everyone else’s shit. This means:

• Add your name and photo to your blogs

• Talk about real-world examples and client stories

• Show that you know your industry inside-out

• Keep your Google Business Profile up to date – it matters!

4. Structure Your Content Properly

Use headers, short paragraphs, bullet points and simple language. Basically, write like someone who actually wants to help - not like a university lecturer who would prefer not to be there (yes, I am talking about my son’s lecturer who wanted them all to go home so he could too – yay to my boy who wouldn’t leave!).

Seriously, you need to make it EASY for visitors to find what they are looking for and I’ve never seen a website that tries to be clever actually do that well.

5. Keep Your Site Speedy and Mobile-Friendly

This hasn’t changed. If your website’s slow or shit on a phone, Google will ghost you. And we all know how that feels.

Check how your website has been built, reduce image sizes and just get better at organising your stuff. Trust me, it really does work. “Mobile-first design” is more than just important, it’s essential. Over 62% of world website traffic is now via mobile devices so if you’ve ignored your mobile site and think a replica of your desktop site will suffice, you’re missing a huge audience.

6. Be Everywhere/Anywhere (Consistently)

AI tools love trusted sources. If you’re mentioned in blogs, reviews, podcasts, social media – even in your LinkedIn posts - it all helps.

But don’t panic! You really don’t have to be everywhere. We have clients who are really only active on Instagram and never touch LinkedIn making 5 figures every month – the key is to choose where your ideal clients are and then treat that platform seriously and be consistently present.

7. Embrace AEO

I hate to break it to you, but Sarah Connor is not coming to save us.

This is the future: Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO). So, how can we be ready for AI? Learn to think like the AI: What questions are people asking? What answers can you provide better than anyone else? If you can get ahead of this then you’ll actually benefit from this new technology.

Our Own Experience at Web Goddess

Want to stand out? Talk about what you actually know and are passionate about – and speak to your people. I’ve always tried to do this at Web Goddess and we’re already making inroads to AEO.

We recently noticed that one of our blog posts had been gaining traction and bringing in lots of new visitors to our site organically. Not only that, but when we checked the AI Overview we were surprised to see our post referenced there too.

What’s the Question?

I love Wix Analytics but know that Google Analytics gives depth that Wix doesn’t. So, I wrote a post highlighting the benefits of both, completely for my clients and audience and not for SEO, but this is what happened…

When you ask Google what the difference is between Wix Analytics and Google Analytics (or any similarly worded question) this is what shows up…

You can see from this screenshot that the Google AI Overview shows a summary answer to the question without having to click through to any website. However, each section of the answer is followed by a small link icon and on the right of the screen it shows which websites have been scraped to provide the answer – and that’s where we appear, just below Wix’s own website!

Even better, at the bottom of the AI Overview it actually says: “Recommendation: For the best results, Web Goddess suggests using both Wix Analytics and Google Analytics” and our website sits right below the AI Overview too as you can see below:

This shows that not only is Google referencing our blog post, but linking to it from the AI Overview as a trusted source of information on this topic.

From within our own Wix dashboard, we get a summary of AI bot traffic so we can see how often our site has been crawled in response to user queries, and what pages/posts those queries relate to.

This just goes to show that if you write posts and content on topics that you actually understand and with the purpose of informing your clients and customers, AI will find you and can actually help improve your visibility and reach.

So, What Now? Don’t Panic, Just Pivot

Appearing in an AI Overview can be beneficial for your website's visibility and brand recognition. It increases your website's chances of being featured prominently in search results, potentially boosting click-through rates and organic traffic. While it may not guarantee increased website traffic, it enhances brand credibility and exposure.

In fact, statistics already show that clicks from AI Overview tend to lead to better website engagement and longer interaction times on websites.

Don’t Panic! Just remember to focus on what you know best and to speak to your audience. AI is not going to kill SEO - but it is really shaking it up. The businesses that adapt and take action will stay visible. The ones that ignore it and cling to their keyword-stuffed blog posts from 2015 will slowly fade into Google oblivion.

You don’t need to become an AI expert. You just need to:

• Write for humans and especially for YOUR humans – your target audience

• Help people find real answers – writing content without a clear strategy and just to ‘fill’ your website just doesn’t work and never has

• Be visible in all the right places – hang out on the platforms where your ideal customers hang out (i.e. don’t create a TikTok account and post there unless your target audience is there too)

And if all else fails, give us a shout. The robots may be clever, but we're doing all we can to stay up-to-date with everything as it lands in the SEO/AEO/AI world. In fact, we even have a special AEO Strategy Session that you can book with us.