Here are the three main ways for the purpose of this article.
Image from BrightEdge, November 2024
Google AI Overviews
Google’s entry into this space with AI Overviews shows how traditional search is evolving.
These AI summaries appear at the top of search results, giving users quick insights while maintaining access to traditional search features.
AI Overviews summarize search results for users, often highlighting authoritative sources and presenting concise answers at the top of the search page.
Functionality: Google’s AI Overviews provide AI-generated summaries at the top of search results, offering quick insights into products and trends.
User Experience: Combines AI-generated summaries with traditional search results, providing users with comprehensive insights and direct links to various retailers and sources.
Advantages: Google’s extensive search database, local business information, and real-time index.
Perplexity
Its strength lies in how it weaves citations directly into its answers, creating quick summaries that users can trust.
Think of it as having a research assistant who finds information and shows exactly where it came from. This makes it incredibly useful for comparing different sources and gathering reliable information quickly.
Functionality: Perplexity AI is a conversational search engine that uses large language models to answer queries, generating answers using sources from the web and citing links within the text response.
User Experience: Delivers concise, AI-generated summaries with citations, aiding users in quick comparisons and information gathering.
Advantages: Efficient for obtaining summarized information with citations, making it easier for users to verify sources.
ChatGPT Search
Uses Bing’s live index to surface real-time results. It is now integrated into ChatGPT Search; its conversational approach and transparent citations allow users to find relevant, up-to-date information efficiently.
Functionality: OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search integrates real-time web search capabilities into its AI chatbot, providing up-to-date information on products, prices, and availability.
User Experience: A conversational response with direct links to sources facilitates an engaging user experience.
Advantages: Provides personalized assistance and detailed product information, enhancing user decision-making.
Learn More: AI Agnostic Optimization: Content For Topical Authority And Citations
4. Maintaining Technical SEO While Building Content For Authority
While AI and new technologies continue to reshape the search landscape, the fundamental technical principles of SEO remain crucial for success.
Making Content AI-Readable
The foundation of effective AI optimization will lie in implementing robust structured data and schema markup.
These technical elements are a translation layer between your brand, content, and AI systems. With schema markup, you’re essentially providing AI engines with a roadmap to understand:
Customer Q&As and help resources.
Detailed product specifications and features.
User feedback and testimonials.
Content creator expertise and qualifications.
Building Digital Trust And Authority
Success in AI-powered search requires establishing strong content credibility.
Modern AI search platforms evaluate authority through multiple lenses – not just traditional metrics like backlinks but also information accuracy and source reliability.
Establishing Source Credibility
AI search engines place significant weight on content from verified, authoritative sources. This shift means content creators must focus on building and maintaining their reputation as trusted information providers.
Image from BrightEdge, November 2024
Authority Building And Enterprise SEO
Expert-Driven Content Development: Partner with subject matter specialists to create in-depth, authoritative content. Highlight the author’s expertise through detailed biographical information and credentials.
Strategic Link Building: While the role of backlinks has evolved, they remain valuable trust signals. Focus on cultivating relationships that lead to natural link placement from respected industry websites and thought leaders.
Platform Integration: Align your content strategy with established authorities in your field. Whether it’s academic institutions for educational content or recognized medical resources for health information, ensure your material complements and connects with these trusted platforms.
5. Mastering New Visual Formats: The Rise Of Multimodal Search
Text-based search is no longer the sole player in the field. Multimodal search, which combines text, voice, image, and video, will become standard practice.
BrightEdge observed a 121% increase in ecommerce-related YouTube citations for AI Overviews.
Due to the multimodal nature of generative AI, this means that the AI is capable of “watching” a video and using the content in it to help formulate an answer.
Unlike traditional search, where transcripts or metadata around a video are necessary to ensure rankings, AI can seamlessly pivot between video and text.
Image by author (with sources from BrightEdge and Google Search), November 2024
Enterprises must expand their SEO strategies to include diverse content types and ensure their assets are optimized for video, visual, and voice-activated searches.
Speak Your Audience’s Language
As voice-activated searching becomes mainstream, content needs to mirror natural conversation patterns.
Instead of focusing solely on traditional keyword optimization, craft content that answers questions the way people actually ask them.
Think about the difference between typing “best Italian restaurants in San Mateo” versus asking, “Where can I find authentic Italian food near me in San Mateo?” Your content should address both.
Create More Rich Media Experiences
Get visual with your storytelling and transform your SEO and content strategy by incorporating compelling visual elements that enhance user understanding:
Professional photography.
Custom graphics that explain complex concepts.
Video demonstrations that showcase expertise.
Make Your Media AI-Friendly For Enterprise SEO Success
Help AI systems understand and properly index your multimedia content by:
Implementing detailed technical markup for videos and images.
Creating comprehensive media descriptions that provide context.
Ensuring all media elements support and enhance your main message.
Enterprise SEO Focus On The Now And The Future
While Google still dominates, marketers should continue to focus on balancing traditional search and AI Overviews while optimizing for high-growth alternative engines.
While multiple legal trials and cases across the whole search and AI landscape take place, as marketers, we need to focus on the now while always preparing for pivots.
In 2025, Enterprise SEO professionals need to focus on:
Managing enterprise SEO with all marketing disciplines – site-to-brand teams.
Internal governance and alignment on the use of AI for SEO and content.
Utilizing AI correctly for insights, creation, optimization, and scale automation.
CEO and CMO stakeholder management and help guide and understand search and AI changes and their importance to your site(s) and brand performance.
All to ensure your brand is cited and sourced as the authority in your domain regardless of the search or AI engine.
The complexity of modern enterprise SEO will demand a new organizational approach. Success requires seamless integration between SEO, content, technical teams, and AI specialists.
Monitoring, adapting, and growing are the three “keywords” to have a conversation around.
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Featured Image: tadamichi/Shutterstock