SEO continues to positively impact 91% of “website performance and marketing goals,”  according to SearchEngineJournal. Of course, some businesses have better outcomes than others. If your clients want to score fast SEO results, they need stay current on the latest algorithm updates.

Organizational Goals for SEO

Most organizations have set goals for what they hope to achieve with their SEO efforts. A survey by SearchEngineJournal reveals that the following goals are most common.

• Improved brand awareness
• Automate SEO for better efficiency
• Optimize SEO to leverage AI tools

In this post, we’ll look at how to leverage AI tools effectively to score fast SEO results. Because Google continues to dominate search activity, you need to understand the company’s new AI Overviews (AIO). Specifically, understanding how they impact your client’s efforts can help you generate more revenue.

Google AI Overviews (AIO) – What to Know

In 2024, Google rolled out Google AI Overviews (AIO). As always, Google notes that its key intention in rolling out these types of changes is to improve the end user experience. At the top of the search page, users now see a list of AI-​generated responses shown in response to their query. Marketers are naturally questioning what this change means for their SEO efforts. Some reports have indicated that businesses could experience “a 25% drop in traffic.”

This outcome seems plausible if your clients continue to follow their old SEO practices. Why? The AIO list on the search results page can push down a marketer’s position. We all know that listings further down on the page don’t attract as much attention.

But there is one silver lining to the cloud hanging over your clients’ quest to generate fast SEO results. Based on an analysis by BrightEdge, marketers have some reason to cheer. The study shows that Google’s AIO search results now often include a link to “to websites that match organic search results.”

How to Improve SEO Results

To stay relevant your clients must change course. They will need to shift away from keyword selection and placement to score a better position on the search results page.

Analysts point out that Google continues to adjust the AIO tool. Here are the details that matter to Google’s system.

• First: AIOs seem to give preference for “early-​stage research and discovery.”
• Second: Educational content and “critical data points” seem to perform better than “how-​to instructions.” Marketers that have been attracting traffic with content that teaches searchers how to repair a faucet must change course. This could be an opportunity for you to sell more services.
• Third: AIOs seem to prefer “list structures” which makes it easy to scan for information.

Another element of AIOs is that they tend to surface in specific industry searches. For example, AdLift research shows they are more likely to appear in health, safety, SEO, and technology searches. If your clients operate in these industries, they will need to adjust their SEO tactics.

AdLift analysts conducted their own study on which website factors play the biggest role in AIO rankings. These factors will be familiar to SEO specialists.

The Tactics That Still Work

• Keyword-​content mapping 29%
• Backlinks 24%
• Page speed 15%

It’s reassuring to know that some of the work that has gone into building authority still matters. You can show clients which keywords are ranking in their industry. Run a Digital Audit on AdMall for their business and compare what they are doing to the competition.

The Link Between Paid Search and SEO

But SEO specialists can’t afford to relax. If they make the effort to optimize for AIO, they will yield fast SEO results. For B2C marketers, especially those that engage in e‑commerce, the carousel format appears to be favored by AIO.

BrightEdge research also points to the need for marketers to consider using SEO and paid search together. In some cases, paid ads will appear lower on the page, below the AI-​generated content. In other cases, paid ads may show up as a link to the AI-​based content.

How Your Accounts Can Stand Out

Google still encourages marketers to commit to its core E‑E-​A‑T principle. The acronym stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. As Lissa Duty explains, this amounts to the careful planning. She suggests building “citations about your business from different sources, generating trust, brand authority, and author expertise.” In addition, the content should range from blog posts and videos to business listings and social media.

It is possible to generate fast SEO results, but the process requires constant monitoring and refining.

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