What Does the AI Overview Mean for Your Business
Published on April 22, 2025
If you've done a Google Search recently, you may have seen the AI Overview at the top of the page, giving you comprehensive answers and explanations that closely answer questions and queries you've searched. The AI Overview is a new feature on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) that is designed to address informational searches. As the updated SERP has been rolled out, businesses are seeing their positions rise, conversions fluctuate, and website traffic from Google starts to decline. As Google and other major search engines continue to make changes to the appearance and layout of the SERP, businesses need to adjust their search engine optimization strategies and PPC marketing. The introduction of AI Overview is already shifting how people search, requiring digital marketing strategies to become more agile. Working with smart and skilled digital marketing agencies like Xi Digital can help you accommodate the AI Overview, so it works better for your business.
To learn more about how the AI Overview can influence your 2025 digital marketing strategy, read on.
Why Is This Happening?
The AI Overview was designed to compete with AI chat models that skyrocketed in popularity by early 2025, allowing Google to provide tailored answers to even the most obscure informational searches. This introduction will enable Google to try to compete with OpenAI and other search competitors to restore some of its market share.
The AI Overview is mainly used to respond to informational searches, giving users in-depth answers to their queries by pulling snippets and ideas from the most relevant content online, including your service pages and blogs, and those of your competitors too. As a result, searchers don't have to click through on informational searches, they can get the information they're after in just a few seconds. While Google does link its sources, users often find what they need directly in the overview and move on, leading to a noticeable drop in organic traffic for many websites.
For content creators and business owners, this means even your best-performing blogs may see a reduction in direct traffic despite still ranking well.
What Does This Mean for Your Website?
For commercial or transactional queries, such as service bookings, product purchases, or quote requests, searchers still rely on traditional search results from Google, which means they still need to click through to a site. That's where your search engine optimization strategy becomes more critical than ever. Informational searches will display results differently, and your business will need its website to show up in the right spot. Because of the AI Overview, it's not just about ranking anymore; now, it's about how and where you appear in the new SERP layout, which requires strategic search engine optimization services and aggressive PPC marketing.
With organic space becoming more competitive and sometimes less visible, paid advertising gives you the advantage of staying on top, regardless of how AI-generated results shift attention.
How You Can Adjust Your SEO Strategy for the AI Overview
As with the rise of ChatGPT, the rollout of AI Overview is prompting businesses and marketers to reassess their digital strategies and websites to get an extra push with subsequent algorithm updates that would inevitably follow a significant change to the SERP.
Here are some of the ways you can pivot your digital strategy with expert digital marketing services from Xi Digital.
Strengthen Topical Authority
In the AI Overview, Google pulls content and information from websites it deems authoritative. To stay relevant in this new search landscape, businesses must ensure they are committed to building clusters of high-quality, related content. When your content is strategically developed around the right keywords for search engine optimization and to answer high-traffic, relevant questions, it shows Google that your site is a go-to resource on your niche topics.
Leverage PPC to Compensate for Lost Rankings
Whenever Google or other search engines announce a new or updated SERP, rankings can fluctuate to accommodate algorithm changes and new priorities on the top page. Depending on the content on your website and your expected domain authority, some rankings can increase significantly while others drop. While you or your digital marketing agency work to produce content that gets your brand visible on more important informational searches, you can use PPC marketing to improve visibility on high-value searches while volatility in the other rankings stabilizes.
Reinforce Your Brand Visibility
Even if users don't click through immediately, your brand can still make an impression. Ensure your meta titles and descriptions are compelling. Consider schema markup to enhance your visibility in search results and stand out in AI summaries. You can also optimize your Google Business Profile, which will support better local search engine optimization results and give your brand a designated space on the SERP without the need for any click-through. If your business has provided helpful information that supports the results in the AI Overview, Google will include a link to your website in addition to others.
You can also reinforce your brand and your reputation as an authority on the SERP by introducing content from blogs and FAQs to images and galleries that will also be featured on the SERP, giving your brand more opportunities to be clicked on and maximize your chances of being remembered in the future.
Focus on Conversion-Oriented Pages
Pages designed to convert, whether they be contact forms, service pages, pricing, etc., will be critical in maximizing performance now that the AI Overview has been released. Work with a leading website development and design company to ensure these pages are mobile-optimized, fast-loading, and offer clear calls to action. Presenting a conversion-rate optimized service page or landing page will help maintain lead generation by increasing the chances that anyone who does click will have to convert.
Impacts on Digital Marketing Strategy
This shift is a reminder that digital marketing services must now be more flexible and forward-thinking. While organic traffic might decline in some areas, there's potential for increased quality of traffic and better conversions if your strategy is refined accordingly.
Agencies offering comprehensive digital marketing services like content strategy, search engine optimization, analytics, and PPC marketing will help you track what's working and adjust accordingly. Instead of focusing purely on traffic volume, marketers will need to start prioritizing engagement, conversion rates, and long-term brand presence.
How PPC Marketing Is Becoming More Important
As AI Overviews occupy prime real estate on the search results page, PPC marketing becomes even more vital. Paid ads can still secure top visibility, giving you the control and predictability that organic efforts alone may no longer guarantee.
What's more, combining PPC marketing with updated SEO strategies creates a strong, dual approach to visibility. When done right, these efforts work in tandem to ensure your brand remains top-of-mind whether or not users engage directly with the AI Overview.
Maintain Your Digital Marketing Strategy with Xi Digital
At Xi Digital, our team of skilled and agile digital marketing strategists stay on top of changes in algorithms, search engine results pages, and user behaviour to help you adapt seamlessly. To learn more about how experts can help you maximize your PPC marketing efforts and search engine optimization just get in touch with us.
