Understanding how AI has impacted the way users search for information is key to staying ahead in today’s digital age. In this article, the Segment SEO team answers the following questions:
The way that users look for information is a major indicator of how much the search landscape has evolved over the last few years. Just a couple of years ago, you might have looked for healthcare services by typing, “direct primary care provider near me”, or something along those lines into Google. Now, you probably find yourself asking in a more intentional way such as, “who is the best direct primary care provider in Seattle?”
This shift in how to prompt Google for information represents a significant change in SEO. Once upon a time, search engines relied on aligning search queries with keywords in content. In 2025 (and beyond) search engines are using more sophisticated models to understand meaning, context, and intent. Google has been steadily introducing AI systems that fundamentally impact the search landscape for a while. In fact, it’s been an ongoing development over the last 10 years. Back in 2015, RankBrain was launched as Google’s first AI system. Fast forward to 2019, and we had BERT, which brought natural language understanding. Then in 2021, MUM was rolled out to process information across different formats and languages. All of these rollouts eventually led us to AI Overviews, providing comprehensive answers pulled from multiple data sources.
This steady shift made way for zero-click searches to dominate the digital landscape. Zero-click searches take up 58.5% of Google queries. This means users are able to find the information they’re looking for, without having to visit a site. So when someone searches for “who is the best direct primary care provider in Seattle?”, they are likely to get a list of practice recommendations, why they stand out, and even what to consider when selecting one - all right there directly in the search results. So how do zero-click searches impact businesses? There are a few ways it makes you evaluate your current SEO strategy, including:
As a business owner, this makes placing more effort on understanding your customer base paramount. Your content must be crafted in a way that answers their specific questions, with thorough and informative answers. Consider the conversations you have with existing customers. Make note of the following:
Asking yourself these questions helps you gauge how much value you’re providing to your customer base. This goes a long way when it comes to re-evaluating your content strategy with new customer acquisition in mind.
Working your existing content or creating new content around AI takes thinking outside of the box. Think of re-building your content strategy around AI as renovating a house, room by room. The room at the heart of the house is customer acquisition (through AI overview appearances). Surrounding that, you want to renovate the following rooms:
Approach to Topic and Keyword Research: Isolating keywords isn’t as effective anymore. Replace that strategy with mapping out topic ecosystems. AI systems explore information, so they know that related topics are interconnected. Make sure your content reflects that by building it around topic or keyword clusters.
Establishing Topical Authority: When deciding if you’re a credible source or not, AI systems review your content across your entire domain, not just one page. This means making consistent content updates (whether it be blog posts, resource pages, etc.) is vital. Mix up the content you produce. Try adding in tools such as calculators (with plenty of helpful descriptive text on the page), or additional solutions pages centered around a broader solution/offering.
Providing High Quality Content: Your content isn’t just about the value you provide to visitors any more - it’s also about your worthiness of appearing in AI overviews. Make sure the structure of your content is clear, authoritative, and written in a way that can be easily cited. AI systems place value on topical expertise that provides easily extractable information.
Implementing Structured Data: this serves as the bridge between machine understanding and human-readable content. Structured data provides context about types of content and entities. Make sure blog posts, resource pages, and solutions pages have the correct type of Schema Markup applied to them.
Writing With E-E-A-T in Mind: Because of the shift in optimizing for AI, showcasing your expertise has become extremely important. Make sure that your content includes citations or mentions from reputable sources, publication dates, credentials, and other signals that demonstrate trust.
When all of these rooms flow seamlessly into one another, your content has a better chance of earning an appearance in AI overviews. This shift in thinking directly addresses the way that search engines have evolved when it comes to evaluating and ranking sites. Take this as an opportunity to re-visit past blog posts, articles, and other content pieces to identify new ways of optimization that are aligned with today’s digital advancements.
Artificial intelligence in search engine optimization isn’t just the future of search - it’s the present. It’s been steadily unfolding for the last decade, and now has exploded as the preferred method for evaluating information. The longer you go without adapting to this shift, the more you fall behind the competition. Keep in mind, you don’t need a large budget to outperform your competitors when it comes to AI. A well thought out and organized piece of content is enough to outshine several thinner pieces of content that focus on a singular area. Re-think your approach to copywriting and the value you provide to your customer base. Writing with a “customer-first” mindset achieves AI mentions and wins new business.
If you’re ready for a strategy reset that ensures you’re set up for success, contact us for a free AI visibility report. We’ll show you where you currently sit in the AI landscape, and provide customized recommendations on how to improve your content for greater visibility.
