AIO

TL, DR: Google's changing how we search, and it's kind of a big deal. AI Overviews and Google AI Mode are about to be everywhere, and those familiar blue links? They're getting run over by AI-generated answers and chat-like search experiences. If you want customers to find your brand, you need to know how to show up in AI search results.

This explainer breaks down the differences between Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, then shares the foundational knowledge that marketing teams need to show up in Google's AI search engines.

AI Overviews and AI Mode are the future of Google Search

Despite Google's assurances, there is more than just a signal to suggest that AIOs are stealing clicks from organic search. New research from Ahrefs and Amsive reveals that AI Overviews have eaten away at click-through rates (CTRs) for traditional organic listings by 15% - 34%.

In the last three months of 2024, AIOs in Google search results increased from 34% to 43%. While featured snippets and ad packs may also be contributing to the drop in CTRs, it's reasonable to correlate the decrease in clicks with the increase in AI-generated search responses.

After all, why click when you don't have to?

As AI Mode in Google Search reaches more customers, brands can expect that trend to continue, if not spike.

The difference between Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode

An AI Overview is an evolution in Google Search. Instead of showing customers a series of blue links or a Local Pack (that may or may not contain the answers to a customer's query), AIO presents concise, conversational, and direct answers to customer questions. Typically, these answers are summaries prepared by generative AI. AIO, first called Search Generative Experience (SGE), launched in summer 2024. Since it launched, AIO has shifted from experiment to everywhere.

AI Mode is another Google Search feature. AI Mode uses Google Gemini's LLM to communicate more in-depth, conversational answers that can handle complex queries right in Search. AI Mode, like other AI search experiences and AI agents, also invites customers to ask follow-up questions directly in the search interface (vs. an external platform like Google Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, etc.).

AI Mode is not the same as Google Gemini (yet). Unlike Gemini, interactions in AI Mode are part of the broader Google Search experience. So, unless your customers use incognito mode or turn off other account settings, customer data can be used for ad personalization and monetization.

Because AI mode is a multimodal (read: searches via text, voice, audio, image, video, etc.) and interactive, it's also reshaping the way customers ask questions and expect brands to respond.

Here are a few examples that explain the differences between traditional search and AI Mode:

Instead of keying in a traditional search for "local coffeehouse near me", customers can speak to Google in AI Mode and say, "Show me the top 4 independent coffee houses within a 15-minute drive of my house. Limit your search to shops with gluten-free baked goods, please. Must be open by 7am. Bonus points if they're open past 6pm."

Instead of a typical healthcare keyword search for "blood draws near me", patients can ask AI Mode, "I need to make an appointment this month for a blood draw. Show me a list of three labs, preferably within 20 minutes of home, where I can make an appointment online. Must take UnitedHealthcare insurance." Then, once the search results come forward, the patient can continue their search with AI Mode, trusting it has full context for the follow-up questions like, "I'm getting my iron levels tested. Do I need to fast before the draw?" or "How much time should I allow for blood draws for liver, metabolic, and thyroid tests? And is there anything I can do to prepare so the phlebotomist doesn't have to stick me too many times?"

What is AI-organized SERP, and how is it related to AIOs and AI Mode?

In addition to AIO and AI Mode, Google is running multiple tests for how AI can improve the search experience. Google's Local Search results are now being curated using artificial intelligence. For instance, when a customer searches Google on their phone for "laptop friendly cafe near me," AI-organized SERP curates an editorial response to questions.

This editorial response is actually full of curated sets of recommendations from Google, like "Cafes with fast wifi" and "Quiet cafes for working." While customers may still see a map, star ratings, and links, Google appears to be using AI to synthesize reviews from its own and third-party sites to curate its recommendations related to your search (much like how Airbnb curates listings for "A-frame cabins" and "Historical homes").

How to create content that's visible in AI Overviews and AI Mode

What does Google like and prioritize in AI Overviews and AI Mode search results?

Google likes what your customers like: clear, credible, helpful information. So offer unique, valuable information and perspectives designed to satisfy customer curiosity and their search intent.

Google also likes when that information is communicated in a variety of context-rich formats, from text-based content to YouTube videos, podcast audio, and helpful images (with high accessibility scores).

As you refresh, enhance, and keep building out your web, social, and listings, think about creating unstructured content (also known as unstructured data). For instance, as you put together your content strategy and start creating posts, pages, videos, etc., ask yourself and your team questions like these:

• Is the content accurate (fact-based and verifiable)?

• Is it authoritative (thought leadership with original ideas, reporting, or analysis)?

• Does it comprehensively cover the topic at hand, and is that coverage something your customers actually care about?

• Does the content offer interesting ideas that go beyond the obvious?

• Is it written, hosted, or recorded by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well?

• Do the titles and descriptions, including H1s and subheadings in text-based formats, summarize the content without descending into clickbait?

• Is this web page, blog post, video, or other resource the type of content you'd want to bookmark or repost?

Google's AI search results prioritize brands with a better backend and a highly performant website

AI search optimization isn't about keywords and backlinks. It's not just about domain authority or relevance, prominence, and proximity, either.

Google AIO and AI Mode prioritize content that delivers a great page experience for customers. After all, AI is your customer now, too.

What makes for a great page experience? Here are some tips on how to design and build your website for AI and search everywhere optimization:

Build, test, and manage your site for low latency

Make sure pages load quickly so AI models aren't turned off by laggy load times. Not only does latency turn off machines, but if customers using those machines have to wait, it's likely they'll pivot to a new prompt (or platform) that may not surface your brand's information.

Build your site for multimodal search, not just mobile-friendliness

Develop content for customers using every type of device (phone and mobile, desktop, voice assistant). Develop it in every format, with high accessibility standards, too (video, audio, text, voice, photos, etc.). This breadth signals authority to AI. It also gives AI more data to generate responses from, so your brand can interact with customers using the words, images, and videos that are most compelling to them.

Structure your data using schema markup

Structured data in schema markup makes the information about your information machine-readable. AI models and tools use it to interpret your data and generate interactions with customers.

Manage your structured and unstructured data in a knowledge graph

A knowledge graph centralizes all your brand information so you can keep it organized, up-to-date, and synced, building trust and credibility everywhere Google and AI search engines pull from.

Control what you share, so you're crawlable and indexable, but not undercutting your authority

Be clear and intentional about what you want Google to crawl, index, and pull from in generative search results. You don't want duplicate listings, outdated pages, or other low-quality content to distract from your core authority.

Keep your Google Business Profile, reviews, and other local data clean and up-to-date

In branded and unbranded searches with local intent (like "pet-friendly patio near me", AI search appears to be prioritizing brands with strong, well-managed Google Business Profiles (GBPs). Keep your GBP data accurate and your reviews fresh and well-managed.

Manage brand visibility with preview controls

Digital marketers (and other website stakeholders) can control what appears in Google's listings, including AIO and AI Mode. Use nosnippet, data\-nosnippet, max\-snippet, or noindex to set your listing display preferences. These preview controls impact how much of your brand and website content is displayed in search, AIO, and AI Mode.

For example, the nosnippet meta tag prevents search engines from displaying any text snippet, video preview, or rich snippet for your page in search results. It tells the search engine only to show the page title and URL. In traditional search, brands might have tagged this way to tease content and get users to click through for all the information. With the conversational answers AI search generates, using nosnippet can decrease your page's visibility and lower your CTR.

When using the max\-snippet meta tag, brands can control the maximum number of characters that a search engine can use in the text snippet for the page. In the past, lower max\-snippet characters could prevent you from landing in a Featured Snippet. Today, they might make it that much harder for AIO or AI Mode to surface your content, because the AI model may want to give customers more context than your max\-snippet tag allows.

Tools and metrics to assess performance in AI Overviews

Think beyond traffic and measure signal

When customers get direct answers in AI Overviews, AI Mode, or any AI platform, those results compress the funnel. Awareness, consideration, and conversion can happen all at once. That's why it's so important to align your "search everywhere optimization" strategy across brand, content, local, and SEO. Together, they boost visibility and make non-linear customer journeys the new normal.

Flex your stack with a search visibility booster like Yext Scout

With the shift to AI search, you have to measure if and where you're showing up, not just where you rank. Traditional SEO tools don't deliver these insights. They won't tell you if, when, and where your brand is showing up in AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini (or any of the AI tools) — because they can't.

Enter Scout. Scout monitors brand visibility everywhere. And we mean everywhere.

With Scout, marketers can analyze their brand's digital presence and gauge true sentiment across Google, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, and other AI search platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. Scout also benchmarks your search visibility against competitors, uncovers what's driving their success, and provides insights to help you take the lead in both AI and local search.

Measure conversion time and quality

If you're still focused only on clicks, you're overlooking the overall value of the visits you're getting from search. Less might equal more — if clicks are down but engagement and conversions are up. This engagement can indicate you're attracting higher-quality, higher-intent customers. That's always a good thing.

Adapt, adapt, adapt because Google Search will keep changing

What's true for search today may not be true tomorrow, but brands have to keep adapting anyway. After all, as the saying goes, when one door closes, a new door opens. Right now, even though it feels like the door to organic traffic may be closing some, it may simply be that the door is welcoming in a more concentrated number of customers who, literally, mean business.