How AI is Changing SEO Best Practices

Digital marketing is dynamic by nature, constantly adapting to changes in technology and consumer behaviour. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the latest force driving its evolution. In the short space of a few years, AI has managed to significantly impact most industries. As both AI tools and search engines continue to evolve, marketers increasingly need to be aware of AI SEO best practices.

Artificial intelligence search engine optimisation (AI SEO for short) is a practice that blends machine learning, natural language processing (NLP) and large language models (LLMs) with best practice SEO strategies like keyword research and content creation. According to recent research, 84% of marketers believe in using AI for SEO, making it an important factor in SEO best practices for 2025.

Google has already been using AI to power its search engine strategies and algorithms for years, and every year, the company makes thousands of algorithm adjustments. Google’s AI overviews are changing how users search the Internet, providing them with the information they need before they even click a single link.

AI SEO best practices are methods that blend traditional, time-tested SEO principles with AI’s generative-first approach. AI SEO uses predictive analysis and crunches data in real-time to bring you faster results.

If you’re wondering how to integrate SEO best practices for 2025 into your own marketing campaign and how AI overview will change SEO (and what you can do about it), Anchor Digital can help.

AI Impact on SERPs

Traditionally, SEO involved a keyword-focused, somewhat routine approach: identifying sought-after keywords, including them naturally throughout webpage content and building backlinks. AI SEO best practices reflect the broader changes that have occurred with search engines in general. While Google has in recent years utilised NLP to understand the deeper meaning behind queries, AI SEO also determines content through context rather than simply through keywords.

Search engines have incorporated advanced AI technologies, including RankBrain, BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), and AI Overviews and Search Generative Experience (SGE).

AI Overviews is connected with the rise in zero-click searches. The zero-click search is the most obvious example of how AI Overview will change SEO and is already doing so. Zero-click searches, which provide web users with the answers they need without requiring them to click through to a single website, now account for almost 60% of Google searches. Brands and marketers need to focus on adapting to these SEO practices, including optimising for these featured snippets.

AI is helping search engines provide more accurate and personalised results for web users. By using AI SEO best practices, you can help your brand reach more of the people who would benefit most from it. AI systems can provide faster data processing, more precise results that reflect a user’s intention rather than just the words they use, and adaptation that’s proactive rather than reactive.

There are some best practice SEO principles that still hold firm, and you can adapt them for this new stage in search.  

Adapting SEO Practices for AI

There are several ways you can integrate AI into your traditional search engine practices. These tips make your content more suited to AI-generated responses while making it even more valuable to your audience as well:

Optimise for natural language

Voice assistants like Siri and AI chatbots have made search a lot more conversational. Long-tail keywords align with the kinds of queries people search for and the way they naturally speak. Voice searches are generally longer than typed ones and more likely to begin with question words like “how” and “why”. FAQ sections provide answers to questions phrased in the informal way that most users ask them, and well-structured content anticipates the follow-up questions users typically ask after the first query.

Prioritise clear and structured content

AI models extract information from web content and summarise it. Therefore, your content should be easy to summarise and so well-organised that users (and AI models) can immediately skip to the most relevant sections. Include detailed topic clusters with clear headings and keep key information close to the top of the page. Keep the tone conversational, and include informative tables and lists.

Present a balanced perspective

AI models are trained to avoid biases, and tools like ChatGPT typically summarise both sides of a controversial topic. So when it comes to your own content, it helps to present a balanced perspective or weigh up the pros and cons of a product or service.

Focus on technical SEO

While AI models don’t crawl your website like traditional search engines, they do depend on it being well-structured, with easy-to-find information. Pay attention to the technical aspects of your SEO approach, including schema markup, internal linking structure and loading time.

Optimise for the AI Overview Tips

AI SEO best practices include optimising for the AI Overviews at the top of Google’s search results that provide short summaries of the search topic, often with multiple links. Optimising for AI Overviews can put you in the most prominent position of the SERP, a position that increases your click-through rate (CTR) and builds your brand authority.

Here are some tips for optimising for AI Overviews:

Prioritise user experience (UX)

Like UX, AI Overview prioritises the users’ wants. You can do this by focusing on the search intent of queries (and providing clear answers), organising the content in a logical fashion for easy reading and optimising technical website SEO aspects like page speed and responsiveness.

Help Google with context

While Google is good at understanding the nature of websites and their intent, you can make things easier for the search engine by implementing strong internal links, using schema markup and earning backlinks from relevant sites. Google Search Console (GSC) is a useful tool for testing Google’s understanding of your website.

Create in-depth content

Google’s AI Overviews often display a range of links and drop-down menus, allowing users to click through and learn more. To optimise your site so it shows up in these link cards, manually search your keyword on Google. If the term turns up an AI Overview, look at the other links in the cards and find other keywords they target and where they link. This will give you a strong idea of how you should approach your different search terms, user intents and types of content.

Manage your online reputation

Google’s AI Overviews draw on content from all over the Internet. This means it’s not only the quality of your own website that matters, but what other people say about you as well. You can manage your overall online presence by getting your team to be active on social media and in online communities, working with influencers and managing online reviews.

Get the Latest SEO Best Practices with Anchor

With over a decade of experience in the industry, Anchor understands how to combine effective SEO best practices with cutting-edge knowledge of the latest trends and developments. We take an integrated approach to services like content marketing, link building and social media with deep keyword research and a focus on human readers rather than search bots.

Our content marketing services cover both the words and the strategy behind good content, focusing on engaging and informing rather than selling. With services that include copywriting, content marketing for social media and paid ads, and campaign strategy, we help you figure out where you want to go and how to chart the course to get there.

Ready to make AI an effective ingredient in your own SEO strategy? Contact the Anchor team online.