JEFF PAYNE COMPANY / BLOG / WHY AI OVERVIEWS TRUMP ORGANIC RANKING

Why AI Overviews Trump Organic Ranking

By Jeff Payne

THIS ARTICLE IS
HUMAN AUTHORED

Human Authored content draws from personal experience and creative intuition that AI cannot replicate, resulting in work with greater authenticity, emotional depth, and original perspective.

In 2020, I wrote an article How To Rank on Page 1 of Google in 2020. It is clearly outdated and obsolete for the most part.

The SEO landscape has changed significantly since my article in 2020. Google’s Gemini AI has introduced AI Overviews, which are now one of the most successful features in Search in the past decade. These AI Overviews appear at the top of search results and have contributed to a more than 10 percent increase in usage for queries displaying them.

Daniel Goodwin, Provident 1031 - Houston, TX

I want to thank you personally for your leadership, insights and knowledge which allowed us the confidence to trust you as our fractional Chief Marketing Officer.

Because of you and your team our business has more than doubled over a relatively short period of time and so has my personal income.

I can’t tell you enough how grateful we are for what you have been able to accomplish for us and we want to continue to add to our marketing cost because our formula has been that

for every dollar we spend with you we are putting at least 5 back into our pocket AFTER we subtract what we spent.

That’s an amazing cost/benefit that I have never received before in any of our previous marketing endeavors. Feel free to use me as a reference.

I am happy to share our experience with anyone who is fortunate enough for you to take them on as a client.

Daniel C Goodwin

Provident 1031
Chief Investment Strategist
July 4, 2025

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Why AI Overviews matter more than traditional rankings

AI Overviews are used by over one billion people and have become one of Google’s most popular search features. They are powered by Gemini 2.0 and are displayed more frequently for complex queries.

Gemini 2.0 - AI Overview - Example - SMART 1 Implants - Burbank Dental Lab

Data shows that the link in AI Overviews received more clicks than if the page had appeared as a traditional web listing, making optimization of AI Overviews crucial for search traffic.

How to Rank in Google’s AI Overviews in 2025

  1. Focus on E-E-A-T and original content
    Google Gemini mentions and cites brands that demonstrate Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). Evidence suggests Google references an “OriginalContentScore” – customer reviews, original research and unique insights will be your secret weapons.
  2. Answer complete questions
    Instead of searching with phrases like “best dental labs,” users are searching with questions or statements like “what are the best dental labs in the USA for dental implants” I highly recommend writing content that directly answers these conversational queries, making sure you include an “FAQ” in your Schema Markup, and that it passes Google’s Rich Results Test.
  3. Maintain strong traditional SEO
    Based on thousands of AI search engine optimization campaigns, websites practicing quality SEO regularly perform better in Gemini AI responses than companies without an SEO program — hands down.

    AI Mode is based on Google’s essential quality and ranking systems, which is crucial for understanding SEO in 2025. I will discuss this in detail later in the article.
  4. Improve content experience and readability.
    Content that is enjoyable to read has proven to rank better in answer engines, including Gemini, ChatGPT, Manus, and Claude. You should structure your content with:

Clear headings
Tables for comparison
Meta Data for images
Simplified languarage
Short paragraph structure

Quality images
Short titles
Good SEO descriptions
Internal links
Quality backlinks

This is one of the best written, most informative email newsletters I’ve ever read!

Thank you for sharing your expertise, and hope you’re doing well.

Beth Zimmerman

Pets for Patriots
Founder, Executive Director
July 3, 2025

What “Core Quality and Ranking Systems” Actually Means

AI Mode brings together advanced model capabilities with Google’s best-in-class information systems, built right into Search, allowing access to high-quality web content plus fresh, real-time sources like the Knowledge Graph, info about the real world, and shopping data for billions of products and services.

Here’s what Google’s “core systems” include:

  1. Traditional ranking systems are still applicable
    Google’s core ranking systems include PageRank, Reviews, Helpful Content systems, and various spam-fighting systems like SpamBrain SeoGoogle. These automated ranking systems look at many factors and signals about hundreds of billions of web pages to present the most relevant and useful results.
  2. Quality Assessment Framework
    Google’s ranking systems aim to reward original, high-quality content that demonstrates E-E-A-T: expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. AI Mode uses novel approaches with the model’s reasoning capabilities to improve factuality, but when they don’t have high confidence in helpfulness and quality, the response will be a set of web search results.
  3. The “query fan-out” process
    This is where it gets really interesting. AI Mode uses a “query fan-out” procedure, issuing multiple related searches concurrently across sub-topics and multiple data sources and then brings those results together to provide an easy-to-understand response.

    Here’s how this works practically:

    Step 1: AI receives your question.

    Step 2: It breaks down your question into multiple sub-queries

    Step 3: Each sub-query runs through Google’s traditional ranking systems

    Step 4: AI synthesizes the top-ranking results from each sub-query

    Step 5: It presents a comprehensive answer with citations.
  4. The quality confidence threshold
    Google aims to show an AI-powered response as much as possible, but in cases where they don’t have high confidence in helpfulness and quality, the response will be a set of web search results. This means AI Mode essentially acts as a quality filter – it only generates AI responses when it can confidently cite high-quality, authoritative sources that already rank well in traditional search. Though it is not perfect and many claim results are not always accurate you can expect this to only be refined and improved over time.
  5. Why this matters for your SEO strategy
    85% of websites that appear in AI Overview results already rank on page one for that keyword, meaning your website has only a 15% chance to appear in Google’s AI Overview if it isn’t ranking on page one.
National Organic Rankings - SMART 1 Implant - Burbank Dental Lab - May 24, 2025
Chatgpt - Ranking - SMART 1 implants - Burbank Dental Lab

AI Mode doesn’t replace Google’s ranking systems – it builds on top of them. You can apply the same foundational SEO best practices for AI features as you do for Google Search overall: technical requirements, Search policies, and creating helpful, reliable, people-first content.

This is why traditional SEO fundamentals remain crucial. AI Mode essentially takes the best content that would already rank well organically and presents it in a more conversational format. However, your content still needs to earn its way into consideration through the same quality and relevance signals Google has always used.

Top SEO Ranking Factors for 2025

  1. Quality content and search intent
    The #1 factor in Google’s algorithm remains consistent publication of satisfying content.
  2. Quality Backlinks
    Google’s link evaluation system is now more sophisticated, prioritizing quality backlinks over sheer volume of links. Links from authoritative and topically relevant sources carry the most ranking power.

    Backlinks serve as signals of credibility and trustworthiness. Quality backlinks from authoritative sites inform Google that your content is valuable. Incoming links from other websites help your popularity and Google likes the most popular.

    After quality content, backlinks are the second most important factor in rankings. Backlinks work best when combined with exceptional content, strong technical SEO, and user experience optimization. Link quantity is irrelevant — it’s about earning high-quality, relevant links that genuinely validate your content’s authority.
  3. Niche expertise
    Niche expertise in SEO refers to demonstrating deep, comprehensive knowledge and authority within a specific topic area or industry. It’s closely tied to Google’s E-E-A-T framework:

    Experience: First-hand knowledge of the subject
    Expertise: Deep understanding and qualifications
    Authoritativeness: Recognition as a leader in the field
    Trustworthiness: Reliability and accuracy of information

    Google favors websites it considers to be trusted experts on subjects. Two important factors that support E-E-A-T are comprehensive, high-quality content, and backlinks from trusted domains.
  4. Freshness
    When analyzing client data, websites that regularly refresh content for time-sensitive keywords see 47% higher click-through rates and 31% longer average session durations—metrics that further reinforce their ranking positions. Fresh content introducing new perspectives, data, or analysis receives priority over repetitive or aggregated information.
  5. Technical performance
    Page speed is now part of Google’s Core Web Vitals and is vital for user experience.
  6. Mobile-first experience
    Google expects mobile visitors to be the primary target of web design.
  7. Trustworthiness
    Trustworthiness is now a prerequisite – you can’t rank well without it, regardless of other factors.

    Trust strengthens your brand reputation, fostering loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals. Conversely, a lack of trustworthiness can result in lower rankings, decreased traffic, and diminished brand credibility.

    Your brand’s reputation impacts the perceived trustworthiness of your content and site overall. So, try to get positive online exposure. Encourage reviews. Showcase achievements. Highlight awards and certifications. Google has made trust the foundation of all other ranking factors, and businesses that don’t prioritize trustworthiness will find themselves increasingly marginalized in search results.

Action Steps for Ranking in 2025

  1. Audit for AI Overviews
    Check which of your target keywords trigger AI Overviews.
  2. Create conversational content
    Write content that answers complete questions users ask AI.
  3. Optimize for multiple formats
    Gemini acts like an always-on assistant, helping streamline workflows while aligning content with what Google actually wants to see.
  4. Build topic authority
    Focus on comprehensive coverage within your expertise areas.
  5. Monitor performance
    AI Overview citations and organic rankings seldom overlap, so track both.
  6. Measure Trust Success
    This isn’t about quick fixes or technical tricks—it’s about demonstrating real value to both users and search engines. When you focus on creating content that genuinely helps your audience, showcases your knowledge, and establishes your credibility. This will lead to improved rankings that will follow naturally.

The shift from traditional SEO to AI-optimized search represents the biggest change since mobile-first indexing. Your 2020 strategies around quality content and user experience remain valuable, but they now need to serve both human users and AI systems that synthesize and present information.

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