SEO is still king, or so says Google
Google has published new guidance for optimisation within its AI features, including AI Overviews and AI Mode.
The tech giant is upgrading Search to meet evolving user behaviour, with audiences increasingly using AI features as part of their discovery journey.
Optimising for SEO is already a complex process, and this has become more complicated with the rise of AEO (answer engine optimisation). As chatbots, LLMs, and AI tools have become more widely used, publishers and retailers have increasingly looked to tailor content for AI-driven search experiences.
In its guidance, the tech giant reiterated traditional SEO practices remain relevant for AEO, stating that generative AI features within Google Search are “rooted in [..] core Search ranking and quality systems”.
AI techniques highlight content from within the Search index, relying on methods such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and query fan-out.
Valuable, non-commodity content
Google’s advice on optimising content for AI search remains relatively broad, focusing on established SEO principles such as offering a unique point of view, producing non-commodity content, and organising information in a clear and structured way.
The company also advised against creating separate content for every variation of likely search terms, or fan-out queries, stating that “doing so primarily to manipulate rankings or generative AI responses in Google Search violates it’s scaled content abuse spam policy”.
Using high-quality images and videos also remains important, while publishers using AI-generated content are advised to avoid violating spam policies.
AI search myths
Google also addressed several perceived myths surrounding AEO, stating that “many suggested ‘hacks’ aren’t effective or supported by how Google Search actually works”.
Content “chunking” was highlighted as one example. According to Google, AI systems do not require content to be broken into small sections for better understanding, and there is no ideal page length.
The company also stated that content does not need to be rewritten specifically for AI search, as its systems are designed to understand synonyms and broader topic meaning.
Google further advised against creating new machine-readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown specifically for generative AI search, stating that its crawl bots do not treat these differently from other file formats.
The company also warned against seeking inauthentic “mentions”, stating that its ranking systems prioritise high-quality content while penalising spam.
Going forward, Google’s guidance suggests publishers should continue prioritising established SEO practices over unverified AEO tactics, as Search remains central to content ranking.
