AI strategy consulting

How Google’s AI Search Works and What You Need to Do

May 30, 2025By Ryan Flanagan
Ryan Flanagan

If you’ve noticed a drop in website traffic, even when your pages rank well, this might be why.

Google has changed.

When someone searches now, they don’t just see a list of websites. They see an AI-generated summary at the very top. This feature is called AI Overview (it used to be called Search Generative Experience or SGE). It takes your content—along with others' and creates a short answer to the user’s query.

No click required.

So the real issue is no longer “Are you ranking?”
It’s “Is Google’s AI using your content in its answers?”

First, How Does Google Rank Content?

Before we get into what to change, let’s ground this in simple terms.

When someone types a search into Google, here’s what’s happening:

  • Google scans its index of the internet.
  • Think of this like its giant library of websites.
  • It evaluates pages based on hundreds of signals.

This includes:

  • Keywords in the page and headings
  • How quickly the page loads
  • Whether people stay on the page or bounce off
  • Backlinks (who else links to your page)
  • Freshness (how recently it was updated)

It uses a quality framework called E-E-A-T.

This stands for:

  • Experience: Do you actually know what you’re talking about?
  • Expertise: Are you a credible source in this field?
  • Authoritativeness: Do others trust or cite your content?
  • Trustworthiness: Is the site safe, reliable, and well-maintained?

It ranks your page but now also decides if your content should be included in the AI Overview.

This is where things shift. The AI system is no longer just showing links. It’s summarising content. And to be part of that summary, your content needs to be easy to extract, clearly structured, and deeply helpful.

Example: How This Affects Your Page
Let’s say our business: AI Strategy Consulting, wants one of our offers like the AI Strategy Roadmap to show up when someone searches:

“How do I create an AI strategy for my business?”

In the past, our goal would’ve been to rank on the first page with blog posts or landing pages.

Now, that’s not enough.

Here’s what happens if our page isn’t written or structured in the right way:

  • The AI Overview might pull an answer from a generalist blog (like Forbes) or a competitor with better on-page structure
  • Our site might appear lower down, under the fold, never clicked
  • We won’t know unless we check our Google Search Console Traffic
  • But if our page is clear, structured, and trusted, it can be pulled into the AI summary even if we don’t rank #1 (we do'nt).

What to Do and Where 
To make this real, let’s walk through what to change, and where it needs to live on your site:

1. Homepage and Landing Pages
Where to focus:

  • Top-level service pages (like your AI Strategy Blueprint page)
  • About page (for E-E-A-T signals)
  • Homepage intro section

What to change:

  • Open with a clear value proposition in the first 100 words
  • Use H2 headings that reflect real user questions (e.g. “What’s included in our AI Strategy Roadmap?”)
  • Add a “Quick Answer” or TL;DR section at the top for AI to extract
  • Include client results, case study links, and testimonials (E-E-A-T)

2. Blog Posts
Where to focus:

  • Education blogs (e.g. “What is agentic AI?” or “Steps to adopt AI”)
  • FAQ-style articles

What to change:

  • Use Q&A format with search-style headings (e.g. “How long does it take to build an AI strategy?”)
  • Keep answers short and direct (2–3 sentences before deeper context)
  • Link to supporting internal pages (like your services) to signal topic depth
  • Make sure posts are regularly updated—especially if they mention tools, frameworks, or regulations

3. Metadata and Schema
Where to focus:

  • Meta title and meta description of every indexed page
  • FAQ schema and HowTo schema for blog posts

What to change:

  • Include long-tail, natural language phrases in your meta descriptions (e.g. “Learn how we help small businesses create an AI roadmap in weeks.”)
  • Use schema markup to help Google identify your FAQ answers 
  • Run pages through tools like Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool

4. Author and Site Credentials
Where to focus:

  • Blog authorship
  • About section
  • Footer or trust indicators

What to change:

  • Add bios for blog authors with relevant experience (even short blurbs work)
  • Include trust signals: partnerships, media coverage, certifications (like our ISO 42001 Lead Auditor credential)
  • Make sure your site has an SSL certificate and fast mobile performance (both matter for trust)

Bring It Together with One Example
Let’s take our AI Strategy Roadmap page.

  • A better version for AI search would:
  • Start with a short summary like:

“Our AI Strategy Roadmap helps non-technical teams plan and implement practical AI use cases. Delivered in 12  weeks, it’s tailored to your business goals and team capacity.”

Include H2s like:

  • “What is an AI strategy?”
  • “Who is this blueprint for?”
  • “How long does it take to implement?”
  • Include FAQs at the bottom (marked up with schema):
  • “Do I need technical staff to start with AI?”
  • “What’s the difference between a strategy and a pilot?”

Mention our credentials:

  • “Built by ISO 42001 Lead Auditor and AI implementation specialist Ryan Flanagan.”
  • Now you’ve built content that answers questions, builds trust, and is extractable for AI Overview without needing a top ranking.

Last Word: SEO Is Still Here, But...
SEO hasn’t died. People still search. But the way Google shows answers has changed. It’s not about keyword density. It’s about helpfulness, clarity, and trust.

If your site is vague, slow, or cluttered it gets ignored.
If your site is structured, answer driven, and credible it gets cited.

And it’s not just big media sites getting picked up.
Pages from niche blogs, industry services, and solo operators are being used in AI Overview every day.

Want Your Content to Show Up in AI Search?
If you’re not sure whether your site is AI-ready or how to adjust your structure we can help.

Our AI Strategy Blueprint and AI Business Case Workshop were designed exactly for this kind of shift. We don’t just teach theory, we fix the visibility gaps, rebuild structure, and turn outdated SEO content into assets fit for today’s search.

Start by checking your AI readiness.
It’s free, takes five minutes, and gives you a clear map of what to fix.