Author: IBL News

IBL News | New York

When search has turned on generative AI, the SEO practice is still relevant?

Experts express a resounding yes. Creating valuable, non-commodity content and maintaining a clear technical structure continues to be critical in the goal of converting a user into a subscriber, requesting commercial info, or making a purchase.

Techniques such as AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization) are now part of any SEO setup to improve a website’s visibility in both generative AI search experiences and Google Search.

In this regard, Google has posted a best-practices guide for reframing SEO and optimizing any website for succeeding in AI Overviews and AI Mode searches. This means more opportunities for any website to appear beyond web page links.

According to the company, these AI features are still rooted in Google’s core Search and Qualify systems, which rely on Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and Query fan-out — a set of concurrent, related queries generated by the model to request more information and fetch additional relevant search results to address the user’s query.

Creating unique, valuable, good content requires, according to Google:

• “Providing a unique point of view that stands out. Don’t just recycle what others on the internet have already said, or could easily be produced by a generative AI model.
• Creating non-commodity content that’s helpful and reliable for people. Avoid content that can be generated by anyone and typically adds little unique expert insight for readers.
• Write and organize well-written, easy-to-follow content into paragraphs and sections, with headings that provide a clear structure for navigation.
• Add high-quality images and videos: Many people appreciate finding them when they search online. As with Google Search overall, our generative AI search features can bring in relevant images and videos. “If you’re already following our image SEO best practices and video SEO documentation, you’re already optimizing for generative AI search,” says Google.
• Focus on what your users want, and avoid overdoing it.
• Using AI in content creation must meet Google’s Search Essentials and spam policies. Otherwise, it will trigger Google’s content abuse spam policy.
• A core principle is to focus on what visitors would enjoy, find helpful, useful, and satisfying, by building and maintaining a clear technical structure.
• Technical clarity ensures users’ content is ready for discovery and indexing, and all existing technical SEO best practices remain worthwhile.”

Some topics circulating on the internet around generative AI and Google Search are unnecessary, Google says, such as LLMS.txt files and other “special” machine-readable markup files; breaking up content into tiny pieces for AI to better understand it; rewriting content just for AI systems; adding inauthentic “mentions”; and overfocusing on structured data.

Overall, prioritizing effective SEO strategies over “AEO/GEO hacks” is a mistake.

• Google Search Central blog

• Hubspot AEO tool