Time to read: 5 minutes
In what might be the biggest shake-up to search since the beginning of Google, AI Mode is here, and it’s more than just another feature on the search engine. It’s Google’s new answer to the ever-changing digital landscape since AI platforms like ChatGPT have become common tools users turn to for answers.
Given this, it leaves marketers no other choice but to abide by the age-old phrase: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
To Recap: What Is AI Mode?
Google AI Mode is a new tab that will appear for users of the search engine. It was announced in early March and released in beta to lucky users for testing in certain markets. On May 20, Google announced at I/O that the feature will soon go live across the world to all users.
Powered by Google’s own large language model (LMM), Gemini, AI Mode will act as a replacement for traditional search, offering conversational experiences to answer complex questions. This will be similar to ChatGPT and Perplexity, but answers will be pulled directly from Google’s data and results.
Key Things to Know About AI Mode
A lot of information is still emerging about AI Mode, but we’ve compiled key insights on what we know so far that we think are beneficial.
AI Mode Is Not Like Traditional Search
While traditional SEO strategies can help improve your brand, they won’t act as a blanket approach to help AI Mode cite your business more. This is because AI Mode generates results from multiple sources and answers questions using information gained from different queries and results. If you want to learn more about how exactly AI Mode works, be sure to read this fantastic breakdown by Mike King of iPullRank.
Brand Mentions Will Matter More
In a recent study by Ahrefs, researchers found that in AI Overviews (AIOs) – the Google platform that also uses Gemini to gather results – the most prevalent factor that led to brands being featured was the presence of online mentions. Other top factors included links with anchor text for the business name and the search volume connected to the business name.
There Are Minimal Links to Websites
Currently, if you search for queries like “best places for coffee near me” or “software to help with taxes” the results link to search results for businesses, list articles Google pulls answers from, or Google Business Profiles, rather than the websites of the brands it suggests:
Tracking AI Mode Will Be Limited
After a bug that made marketers assume we wouldn’t be able to track AI Mode traffic at all, it has been confirmed that Google will include impressions and clicks from AI Mode. This data will be included under the Organic section in GA4 as well as in Google Search Console’s Performance Report. However, you won’t be able to segment the data out and separate it from regular search results. You can read more on how Google plans to show us data on not only AI Mode, but AI Overviews as well in their guidance documents.
Ads Will Also Show in AI Mode
Google is currently testing ads in AI Mode as well, after the company announced that more ads will appear in AI Overviews results. For example, if you search “how to build an iPhone app with a limited budget,” results will likely include some type of guide with step-by-step instructions, but you may also see ads for relevant application developers.
Marketers Worry About Traffic
It’s already been shown that since the implementation of AI Overviews into search results, clicks to websites via search have gone down significantly, and some sites have lost as much as 50% or more of their previous click-through traffic. This means that if you are seeing your impressions improve, but clicks decline, you are not alone:
What to Do Right Now
As AI Mode is just starting to become an option for users in the U.S., it’s a good time to take a step back and analyze your online presence. This will help you see what you can do to put your business in the best position possible to not only appear in AI results, but also get more clicks.
- Google yourself – Do an exact match search for your brand name on Google and take a look at what types of results appear. You can do this by typing in your business name with quotations, i.e., “Sixth City Marketing.”
- Have a strong homepage – In a recent study, Siege Media found that LLMs and AIOs pull the most information about brands from their homepages, with recent traffic to homepages increasing more than 10%. So, it’s likely that your homepage could see the most boost from AI Mode, too.
- Do more digital PR – To help continue building your online brand mentions, create accounts on popular digital PR or link building platforms like Featured, Qwoted, and others, and start replying to relevant questions for topics you’re an expert in.
- Act as your customers – Start putting yourself in your customers’ shoes and do some relevant searches on Google’s Gemini to see what types of sources they cite. For instance, if you’re a plumber and Gemini’s results reference sites like Yelp or Angi, you’ll want to evaluate your profiles on those websites and similar directories.
- Keep an eye on traffic – As more people gain access to AI Mode, it will be important to keep an eye on how your traffic changes in GA4 and in Google Search Console. It may be a good idea to add an annotation in your analytics profile for May 20 so you can easily visualize data after AI Mode’s expansion.
