Google Just Expanded AI Overviews: This Is What Still Gets Clicked — Transcript

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1. 0:00Google's AI overviews are pushing
2. 0:02searchers into AI mode, drops show more
3. 0:05button. This is some SEO news that was
4. 0:07going viral last week and we got to talk
5. 0:10about it. It is introducing so much
6. 0:13fear, uncertainty, doubt in the
7. 0:15community. And so I'm going to come in
8. 0:17and do something a little bit different
9. 0:19and try to explain why you shouldn't
10. 0:21freak out.
11. 0:22Even if you're a publisher, even if you
12. 0:25are a publisher, why maybe you should
13. 0:27consider actually not freaking out. So
14. 0:29I'm going to read this post from Search
15. 0:31Engine Roundtable which explains the
16. 0:33update very well and then give my take
17. 0:36and share some things that the community
18. 0:38is saying. This is from Barry Schwartz.
19. 0:41The article says, "Google Search has
20. 0:43confirmed it is now pushing searchers
21. 0:45into AI mode from the AI overview by
22. 0:48default without having to click the show
23. 0:50more button. The new AI overview
24. 0:52experience that Google is testing shows
25. 0:54a much fuller AI answer like you would
26. 0:57get in AI mode and loads the follow-up
27. 0:59ask anything box by default. So it's not
28. 1:02that you're going directly into AI mode,
29. 1:04you still get the 10 blue links, they're
30. 1:06just pushed down and for queries where
31. 1:10Google thinks people would want a fuller
32. 1:12AI answer, that's what shows by default.
33. 1:14AI mode is not the default but you have
34. 1:17an AI mode-like experience for some
35. 1:20queries again with the blue links way
36. 1:23down lower on the page. This is from
37. 1:26Robbie Stein, who's a VP of product at
38. 1:28Google Search and he said to Barry
39. 1:30Schwartz, "AI overviews only dynamically
40. 1:33expand for topics where our systems
41. 1:35determine it would be most useful. If
42. 1:38you've already started scrolling, the
43. 1:40expansion stops to keep your place.
44. 1:42We're always testing and tuning these
45. 1:44experiences so we will continue to
46. 1:46refine based on user feedback." The
47. 1:48article continues to understand the
48. 1:50difference between how AI overviews used
49. 1:53to work, Google would load a snippet of
50. 1:55the AI overview and you would have to
51. 1:57click show more to see the full AI
52. 2:00overview response. But for some queries,
53. 2:02it now just loads the full AI overview
54. 2:05with the ask anything box already
55. 2:07opened, pushing down the organic search
56. 2:10results way below the AI answer. This is
57. 2:12not good for publishers, not good at
58. 2:14all, but I think we all expected this to
59. 2:17happen. I should note that if a user has
60. 2:19already begun scrolling and this is what
61. 2:21Robbie Stein said, if a user has already
62. 2:23begun scrolling to view content below
63. 2:26the AI overview, Google cancels the
64. 2:28expansion to prevent the user from
65. 2:30losing their reading position. So, first
66. 2:32let's get into the obvious. I'm going to
67. 2:34say why SEO is not dead even if you're a
68. 2:36publisher, but just the obvious, SEO is
69. 2:38not dead if you are selling your own
70. 2:40products and services. This is from Mike
71. 2:43Cappo on Reddit, the discussion for this
72. 2:46Google update on the SEO subreddit. And
73. 2:48this user said, "Bad news for blogging
74. 2:50is my conclusion, but seems okay for
75. 2:52tools where you will still need to go to
76. 2:54the website or app to use the tool. So,
77. 2:57this is what is confirmed to still work
78. 2:59exceptionally well. Scenario-based
79. 3:02targeting, so people have a scenario
80. 3:05that they are looking to fulfill. That
81. 3:07could be something like an AI voice
82. 3:09generator or something, or a daily
83. 3:11planner app, or they need their pipes
84. 3:13repaired. It's the middle of the night,
85. 3:15they need their pipes repaired, they're
86. 3:16turning to Google, they're doing a
87. 3:18prompt. It could be a type of clothes
88. 3:20that they want to buy. They don't know
89. 3:22the outfit, so they're putting in ideas
90. 3:25into Google in a scenario. Or maybe
91. 3:27somebody just wants a heavy fidget
92. 3:29spinner. I have two fidget spinners here
93. 3:31that I use for really long podcast
94. 3:32episodes. One is heavy, one is light, so
95. 3:34maybe someone is searching heavy fidget
96. 3:36spinner or heavy fidget spinner for long
97. 3:39calls. And these aren't just very long
98. 3:42keywords, they don't have to be
99. 3:43long-tail. They can be two words. One
100. 3:46word is typically going to be
101. 3:48informational intent, so they They be
102. 3:50two to two words or more. The
103. 3:52overarching principle for these things
104. 3:54that people are searching or prompting
105. 3:57is they know what they want, and I'm
106. 3:59always saying this, they know what they
107. 4:00want, but they don't know the brand that
108. 4:02is going to give them what they want.
109. 4:04And it's your brand, but they don't have
110. 4:05your brand top of mind. And so they're
111. 4:07putting in exactly what they are looking
112. 4:09to achieve. You find that language doing
113. 4:12keyword research, and then you target
114. 4:14that language making conversion based
115. 4:16SEO landing pages. Here's what else is
116. 4:18working despite these long AI overviews
117. 4:22that are only triggering for some
118. 4:23queries, by the way, not all of them.
119. 4:25But even if you do get a long AI
120. 4:27overview, alternative pages are
121. 4:29influencing them, comparison pages are
122. 4:32influencing them. Basically, everything
123. 4:34that I teach in my SEO course compact
124. 4:36keywords, which is about doing SEO for
125. 4:38businesses who want to make money. It is
126. 4:40using SEO to make money, targeting the
127. 4:43types of keywords I just talked about.
128. 4:44You're also putting up alternative
129. 4:46pages, comparison pages. I have
130. 4:48templates for all of these pages in the
131. 4:49course. Something else that works, deep
132. 4:52documentation. Basically, saying all the
133. 4:55different ways that your business
134. 4:57functions. One, this is good for
135. 4:58searchers, and two, this helps AI
136. 5:00understand what your business is
137. 5:02appropriate for. Believe it or not, a
138. 5:04lot of businesses think that search
139. 5:06engines or AI just know automatically
140. 5:10what their business is for. But unless
141. 5:12they know to do these things, especially
142. 5:14explicitly targeting scenario-based
143. 5:18keywords, the AI is essentially just
144. 5:20guessing. Something else, if you are
145. 5:22doing link building that is real
146. 5:23marketing, you are more likely to have
147. 5:26the types of brand mentions that AI want
148. 5:28to reference. Like a link on a website
149. 5:31that has terrible SEO. A lot of people
150. 5:33think just getting any backlink is good.
151. 5:36It's good for having a natural backlink
152. 5:37profile, but really you want to have
153. 5:40backlinks on pages that are indexed and
154. 5:43that people go to. And then, people who
155. 5:45understand SEO also do the best online
156. 5:48reputation management. And online
157. 5:50reputation management is enormous for
158. 5:52AI, and it's also enormous for
159. 5:54searchers. My way of SEO since I started
160. 5:57has always been holistic. I like to do
161. 6:00SEO that will build up a brand because
162. 6:02when you are simultaneously building up
163. 6:04a brand, you can get the types of
164. 6:06results that compound. You can get the
165. 6:08best backlinks, you can go after higher
166. 6:11volume keywords, you get more AI
167. 6:13visibility, you get more top of mind
168. 6:15awareness, just everything improves.
169. 6:18Everything becomes so much easier. So,
170. 6:20if you think about search engine
171. 6:22optimization like that while
172. 6:24simultaneously going after keywords at
173. 6:26the bottom of the funnel, I don't care
174. 6:29what layout Google has in search, you
175. 6:32are going to do great. I don't care if
176. 6:34it is traditional search, AI-enhanced
177. 6:37search, or just entirely a large
178. 6:40language model, you are going to do
179. 6:41great. Now, blogging. A couple of months
180. 6:44ago, I made an episode, episode 1074 of
181. 6:48this podcast, Blogging Isn't Dead, How
182. 6:50Niche Blogs Still Make Money with SEO,
183. 6:53and I was sharing stories of people
184. 6:56making money doing blog SEO. And I'm
185. 6:58just going to re-share the top post from
186. 7:01this because it was based on this thread
187. 7:04on the blogging subreddit from this guy
188. 7:06Michael Vinny, who said, Yeah, and this
189. 7:08was 3 months ago. Michael Vinny said, I
190. 7:10started making money from blogging when
191. 7:12I stopped listening to people who kept
192. 7:14saying, Blogging is dead, SEO is dead,
193. 7:16don't start a blog, blogs are trash,
194. 7:18it's impossible to make money blogging,
195. 7:20and all the other negative stuff that
196. 7:22gets repeated over and over. The funny
197. 7:24thing is, a lot of people saying these
198. 7:27things have never built a successful
199. 7:29blog themselves. I even have a friend
200. 7:33who couldn't sit down and write a single
201. 7:35article, but would go around online
202. 7:37yapping about how blogging is dead just
203. 7:40because he failed at it. Yes, I blog.
204. 7:43Yes, I make money from it. And it takes
205. 7:45a lot. I don't really feel the need to
206. 7:47validate that to anyone. For anybody
207. 7:49feeling discouraged, just keep going.
208. 7:51Blogging isn't easy, but discipline and
209. 7:54consistency are still the biggest
210. 7:56weapons you have. Most people quit way
211. 7:58too early, then blame blogging instead
212. 8:01of their lack of patience. And there's
213. 8:04the Google Preferred Sources button,
214. 8:05which yesterday's episode was on,
215. 8:07episode 1,156
216. 8:09of this show. Preferred Sources is not
217. 8:11just for news publishers. Google's own
218. 8:13docs prove it. And so, if you are a
219. 8:15publisher, the Preferred Sources button
220. 8:17makes it a lot easier for you to get
221. 8:19more visibility in AI Overviews, AI
222. 8:22mode, Google Discover, Top Stories,
223. 8:25traditional SEO. You put these buttons
224. 8:28all over your site. You also share them
225. 8:31on social media. I got so many people to
226. 8:33click on my Preferred Sources button
227. 8:36just by sharing them on LinkedIn and
228. 8:38Instagram and X and Threads and
229. 8:41Facebook. So, as you're getting
230. 8:43top-of-funnel traffic, which, you know,
231. 8:45I'm still not a huge fan of
232. 8:46top-of-funnel, but I don't believe that
233. 8:49people should be freaking out as much as
234. 8:51they are. And so, as you're getting
235. 8:52top-of-funnel traffic, you are also
236. 8:54turning people into essentially
237. 8:57subscribers on Google Search. It's like
238. 8:59subscribing on YouTube using these
239. 9:01Preferred Sources buttons. I think it's
240. 9:03really cool. So, I wanted to make this
241. 9:05episode because when I see a lot of
242. 9:08crazy reactions in the SEO community, I
243. 9:11like to come in and be this kind of
244. 9:13level-headed person. Think about what's
245. 9:15really happening and what the actual
246. 9:18consequences will be. So, if you're out
247. 9:20there doing SEO, don't give up and keep
248. 9:23at it one day at a time. I'm going to
249. 9:24recommend one more episode, actually,
250. 9:26that I really like. Episode 1,049
251. 9:30of this show, the fastest way to get SEO
252. 9:33results, slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
253. 9:36You will like that one and that is
254. 9:39everything for this episode of the show.
255. 9:41This episode 1,157
256. 9:44of the podcast, 1,157
257. 9:48days in a row doing this show. Just be
258. 9:49like me, one day at a time. I don't miss
259. 9:52days, I just try to get the quality out
260. 9:54every single day and I'm going up and up
261. 9:56and up and up and up. Last August was
262. 9:58actually my most listened month ever.
263. 10:01So, thank you everybody. If you watch
264. 10:03this on YouTube, thank you so much for
265. 10:05watching. If you listened on Spotify or
266. 10:07Apple Podcast, thank you so much for
267. 10:08listening. Check out compactkeywords.com
268. 10:10to get my method of bottom of funnel
269. 10:12search engine optimization and I will
270. 10:14talk to you again tomorrow. Bye now.