The way we search and consume information is changing at break-neck speed, and traditional SEO strategies are having to evolve and adapt alongside it. With the rise of conversational search, generative AI, and AI-first search engines, we’ve been rethinking how we approach SEO to keep content visible and competitive. Here’s what we’ve learned so far - and how I’m adapting to this new landscape.
Now we’re talking!* What you need to know about conversational search
*Gemini’s latest (as of the writing of this article) advertisement for its AI platform, Gemini, titled "Now We're Talking," highlights the platform’s capability to engage in natural, human-like conversations. It demonstrates scenarios where people interact with Gemini as if it were another person, exploring philosophical ideas or seeking motivational advice. An impressive feature showcased in the ad is the ability for users to interrupt Gemini mid-response, creating a more dynamic, conversational dialogue compared to the one-sided interactions typical of earlier AI systems.
This conversational search uses natural language processing (NLP) that allows you to speak to devices more naturally instead of the usual short, fragmented queries. Conversations with virtual assistants like Google Assistant, Alexa and Siri, can now include longer, more specific queries. But this goes way beyond the traditional assistants, with those conversations now happening in all manners of apps, within websites, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and anywhere where AI is becoming embedded. With such rapid advancements, search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies need to quickly adapt to evolving behaviours and preferences.
To keep up, we need to shift our focus to creating and optimising content for how people naturally speak, not just how they type. That means things like:
- Using long tail keywords that match conversational phrasing.
- Creating question based content that directly addresses what users are searching for.
- Anticipating follow-up questions, such as a natural language flow may develop.
If content doesn’t align with how people are searching today, it risks becoming invisible, and that’s not an option you should be willing to sleepwalk into.
Optimising for AI overviews and featured snippets in generative search results
Featured snippets - brief answers directly in the search results - have become a vital part of SEO, especially for conversational and voice searches. These snippets often provide the answers to voice queries, so appearing in them can make or break visibility. But with the rise of AI overviews in search engines, such as those seen in Google’s Search Results (provided via Gemini) and other generative platforms, the game has evolved.
These AI overviews go beyond snippets, synthesising content from multiple sources to provide comprehensive answers to complex questions. They tend to rely heavily on structured data and well-defined answers to identify and compile relevant information.
Because of this, websites that can give you direct and concise answers are far more likely to appear in snippets AND AI overviews. This is extremely important for conversational search, as these answers often are increasingly shaped by your voice rather than traditional keyword-based searches.
Optimising for AI results and featured snippets involves creating content that directly answers your and others’ queries; and is structured for easy interpretation by AI and search engines. By focusing on question-based content, improving people’s experiences, investing in structured data, and staying on top of trends, you can significantly improve your chances of appearing in featured snippets:
- Create content that directly and succinctly answers user questions
- Use schema markup to help search engines understand content and give it a good chance to be included in AI-generated summaries.
- Focus on user intent, specifically what users are truly searching for at a specific point in their research
- Providing comprehensive context, as while snippets favour brevity, AI overviews often pull from broader, well-rounded content. Structure your articles to offer both concise answers and deeper context, appealing to multiple search needs.
- Trends, tracking emerging questions, trending topics, and user behaviours is a good way to help your content stay relevant in both traditional and AI-powered search results.
The importance of structured data for generative AI engines
There’s an ongoing debate among experts about whether structured data is still essential. Some argue that with the advancements in AI’s ability to understand natural language and context, structured data might be less critical than it once was. While it’s true that AI is becoming more sophisticated at interpreting unstructured content, we believe structured data still plays a vital role.
Structured data allows both generative AI engines and traditional indexers to understand, interpret, and give relevant responses to their users. By improving the accuracy of search results, structured data serves as a base for AI-driven technologies to operate more efficiently.
And structured data doesn’t just help AI understand content, it provides a framework for consistency, clarity, and efficiency. For AI-driven engines, schema markup acts as a signal that highlights key information about your business, products, services, and even your topic authority. Schema ensures that it is accurately categorised and delivered in relevant ways. It reduces ambiguity and makes it easier for search engines to identify the most important details.
While AI may be evolving to interpret content without structured data, the reality is that schema provides a competitive edge. It ensures your content remains accessible, visible, and relevant. It demonstrates that your website is well structured, up-to-date, and sells its value to users and the intelligent systems that power search and the conversational experiences we want to target.
How video and multimedia content boost visibility in AI-first search
AI-first search engines try to deliver the most relevant and helpful results to their users. And that’s no longer just a list of web page URLs with short meta descriptions to help you pick your click. Videos and multimedia not only make results more visually appealing but also give more context and understandable info. In AI-first search, the importance of multimedia is continuing to grow because it acts as another piece of the jigsaw in helping AI engines understand and rank content more effectively. And AI-first search engines are increasingly prioritising multimedia content, making videos, images, and interactive elements essential for improving visibility and engagement.
But what does this mean to you? By creating appealing multimedia content - especially video - you will be boosting your ranking, visibility and brand engagement. Optimise it for SEO, improve user engagement, and your business will increase its chances of appearing in top search results for text and voice.
Here’s what we’ve seen is working well:
- Creating video content, like tutorials and explainers, to engage users.
- Optimising multimedia with proper titles, alt tags, and transcripts.
- Experimenting with interactive elements like infographics to add extra value.
- Make sure video files and thumbnails have stable, crawlable URLs. You can even submit a video sitemap to help search engines understand your video content.
- Use VideoObject schema to describe your videos, including details like titles, descriptions, thumbnail URLs, and content URLs
And as far as coming up with the content goes, keep in mind that AI search engines reward relevance and engagement value. Focus on a specific niche for your video content and maintain consistent lengths that suit your audience’s preferences (e.g., 3–5 minutes for tutorials). Work on your storytelling. It’s far better to spend more time crafting engaging stories that resonate with viewers rather than pumping out volumes of unrewarding and less useful content.
Build your website for evolving AI-driven search algorithms
As search engines continue to evolve in response to advancements in AI, it’s essential for your website to adapt. AI-driven search engines use machine learning, NLP, and other AI technologies to give more accurate search results. Understanding and optimising your website for these evolving AI algorithms will help you stay ahead of the pack and will give you the best possible opportunity to keep your content visible, engaging, and competitive.
Let’s try and sum this all up! To truly adapt to conversational search, you may well need to revisit your approach to your content strategy with the user’s natural language and intent in mind. Focus on creating content that doesn’t just answer individual questions but anticipates the flow of a conversation. Think about the “follow-up” queries a user might have and weave them into your content naturally.
Use structured data and schema markup to help search engines and AI understand your content’s context, and don’t underestimate the growing importance of multimedia in providing clear, engaging answers. Finally, remember that conversational search is about delivering value to real people, so clarity, engagement, and relevance should always be your guiding principles.
What's next
If you want to get your digital strategy ready, dive into our latest resources or contact us directly for guidance and expertise from one of our specialists. Whether it’s guides or tips, we’ve got what you need to keep up with how search is changing. See how our SEO services and AI content make your business stand out and stay visible. Let’s make it happen together.