Have you noticed AI Overviews and those quick-answer paragraphs in your Google Search results lately? This matters to you because it effects how the content of your website gets ranked and presented by Google Search.
Those quick answers from websites are called “snippets” and the AI Overviews are from a new release called “Search Generative Experience” (SGE).
Even though quick answers are super convenient on the surface, Google still sings from the rooftops how it values and prioritizes “original, helpful, people-first” content in Search results.
Accomplishing this means you have to:
know who your people are (ideal audience and target market) that need that special thing that you offer
understand what they find helpful (directly say what the value and benefits are that your product or service gives them)
then serve them with quality content (informative web copy, blogs, videos, infographics, etc.)
on an optimized, user-friendly website.
That’s a lot of the magic inside organic (non-paid) search engine optimization, and it’s more critical to the health of your business than ever before. Stick with me now, and I’ll break it down.
Let’s take a closer look at snippets and AI answers. Without getting bogged down in tech speak, here’s a description of the two.
A snippet is a way for Google to present an answer to a user’s question in Search in the form of a highlight without having to click on any websites. It’s a fast answer viewed at-a-glance. The content used in a snippet already exists on a website and is not generated from Google’s AI. The source website is named right after the snippet.
SGE works in a similar way and is basically Google using an “AI Overview” to answer a question rather than pulling in text from a real website.
The AI Overview appears first at the very top of the Search results.
Scrolling down a tad, after the AI Overview, a user will then see a featured snippet.
AI Overviews are impressively fast and absurdly convenient. But if you think about it, there may be some negative consequences:
Guess what happens if a user is satisfied with the AI answer? Nobody’s real, actual website gets visited unless the user wants to explore further. True for snippets too, but at least the content belongs to a real person or company.
AI is helpful but not always accurate. All that it’s doing is rapidly reading information from the internet (which can and will include incorrect information sometimes), then mashes it into an answer. There’s even a disclaimer that says, “Generative AI is experimental”.
Not everyone is loving this AI Overview feature though, and Google has responded by adding a filter that allows a user to disable it.
Snippets, on the other hand, are based on original content that Google deemed relevant and trustworthy. The best way to have your website content appear in a snippet, and to be listed as high as possible in the Search results, is to focus on making sure your site provides quality content and a great user experience.
La Mejor Website closely follows these practices too and has seen a big jump in organic site traffic since we started blogging in January. We have observed how fine tuning our own web copy and providing originally written, information-rich blogs has widened our audience, which has increased sales.
We’ve recently expanded our services to include website copywriting and SEO Blogging because of how significant it has become to SEO success in this era of AI.
As an example, nearly all of my blog topics that I chose for La Mejor Website came directly from questions our clients have asked about:
I just got a call from somebody saying my website isn’t accessible and they mentioned using a lawyer. HELP! What is this?!
I’m not getting as many calls and my sales are going down. I’m getting worried. What should I do?
I just got a bad review. Is this going to hurt my business?
I hate asking for reviews. I feel like I’m being pushy. Seriously, do I really need to have them?
What do you actually do when you do SEO? Is it even real?
Do I really need to write content when ChatGPT can throw something together in 3 seconds that – honestly – sounds pretty ok?
I’m so sick of buying ads. I feel like I’m not getting anywhere. Should I keep doing it? Is something better than that?
I’m stuck in a contract for 6 more months with a freaking agency. I can’t get out of it and I literally haven’t gotten one call out of the thousands of dollars I’ve spent. It was a total mistake. Can you help?
Another way we try to help our audience is by staying in touch with trends, updates and problem areas so we can communicate those things and explain what the impact could be; like AI Overviews and snippets, in this case.
Blogging to bring more visitors to your website isn’t about pandering to competitive key words and phrases people use to search for things in Google. That’s low-quality content and isn’t something Google even considers offering its users. On the flip side, high-quality content is simply writing to share your fresh insights into any topics your ideal audience may find helpful. That’s the kind of content that gets used by Google Search to offer snippets and websites that best match their users’ searches. When you do this, it shows Google you are relevant, have expertise in your field, and keeps fresh, active content on your website, which helps your website to rank better. To bring all the points home now, that expertise and activity on an optimized website helps to increase the traffic of visitors to your site, which boosts your SEO results.
If you’re wondering where to even begin with a blog, I have a list of 7 Topics That Are Always on Point on the SEO Blogging service page. Or maybe you’re thinking about how to refresh the web copy you already have to better hook your visitors and entice them to check out your services. I’d love to do it for you, especially if writing isn’t your jam.
You can also check if your website needs a facelift in style and user experience.
Contact us for a free analysis and consultation. We will make an honest recommendation based on 15 years of experience. Need more social proof? Check out one of our 150+ Five-Star Google reviews.
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