Adapting digital marketing for AI search engines & Google AI Mode

Approaches to optimization

Content optimization for AI answers: Create precise, thematically comprehensive and easy-to-understand content. Use structured data, clear headings and short paragraphs to make it easier for the AI to recognize and use your content.

• Example: Write FAQ sections about your products that answer typical user questions.

Offer exclusive information: Rely on your own analysis, studies or insights that no one else provides. AI prefers original content to mere summaries. Don’t just let AI-generated content be written for you, but create something meaningful that is loved by the AIs and admired by your competitors. If you have this under control, you will also make the leap to the top of the AI responses

• Example: Publish your own industry data or expert interviews.

Strengthen visibility: Build authority through social media presence to build mentions, backlinks and trade media. The more often your brand is mentioned as trustworthy, the more likely it is to be used as a source by AI.

• Example: Work with influencers or media collaborations.
• Example: Create posts on YouTube and Reddit. Video content is more important than ever. Reddit is a reliable source for AI searches, providing new, detailed, and unfiltered information that is created directly by users. If users discuss your products to be marketed on Reddit, the chances increase that this information will appear in AI results. Content moderation and fact-checking play a crucial role in this process.

Use multimedia content: Integrate images, videos and infographics, as AI searches are becoming increasingly multimodal.

• Example: Create explanatory videos on frequently asked questions or use Google Lens-optimized images.
• Example: Show charts, graphs, tables and videos. Isn’t that too excessive and expensive? No, because these can now be created much more easily with AI. See: Create videos with AI

Keep content up to date: Always keep your content up to date, as AI systems prefer to incorporate fresh and relevant information.

• Example: Update product pages immediately when there are changes or new features.

Approaches to optimization

Semantic optimization: Write for topics and contexts, not just keywords. AI understands complex issues better and looks for depth of content. So no more superficial articles, but real, concrete tips written by experts. If you don’t invest any effort in content, you won’t appear in free AI searches and will have to spend money on ads or live with fewer new customers.

• Example: Focus on helpful how-to articles. Not new in the SEO sector, but rarely commissioned by agency clients.
• Example: Analyze what questions and goals your target group has and answer them specifically. Develop content clusters (i.e. series of articles covering EVERYTHING) on common pain points of your customers.

Vary content formats: Offer different formats such as checklists, instructions or expert opinions.

• Example: Offer helpful graphics, checklists, calculators and more on product pages and landing pages.
• Example: Add infographics or podcasts to blog articles.

Incorporate interactive elements: Use tools, calculators or quizzes that offer users real added value and can be recognized by the AI.

• Example: Offer an interactive product finder.

Approaches to optimization

Address target groups individually: Don’t just use one landing page for all target groups. Create new touchpoints for important target groups and optimize them. Provide a lot of information depending on the target group’s life situation.

• Example: Create landing pages for each target group, e.g. young people, people interested in ecology, high earners, singles, couples, children and more
• Example: Young people with little money need information on how they can afford your offer (e.g. financing). Employees will be grateful if you provide tips on how to get around the city on your e-scooter and where to recharge.

No more SEA landing pages: Don’t differentiate between SEA and SEO landing pages, but standardize your web presence and address all target groups there. SEA landing pages are not interesting enough for AI search engines, as the same information is shown here separately from the actual website and is often technically hidden from search engines so as not to incur a duplicate content penalty. Fortunately, this will soon be outdated.

• Example: Integrate your SEA landing page content on the website. Not hidden, but usefully integrated in content blocks, dynamically expandable FAQs, target group subpages, linked in the navigation and more.

Use dynamic content: Rely on dynamic website elements such as tabbed content blocks (=content sections with clickable tab navigation) that adapt according to user behavior. This allows you to create really good pages that help users instead of lots of individual pages.

• Example: Show different offers for existing and new customers on your homepage. Both new and existing customers keep coming back to the website and need interesting offers depending on the situation, e.g. instructions, guides, calculators, etc.

Local optimization: Optimize for local search queries such as “liability insurance Hamburg” and Google My Business searches, e.g. for branches. Google wants to lead users directly to their destination via Google Maps instead of just showing articles. To achieve this, addresses must be findable and up to date so that users are not faced with closed doors. Google’s AI will recognize incorrect results and delete them from the AI results.

• Example: Maintain opening hours, reviews and local offers in your Google profile.

Approaches to optimization

Ensure measurability: Measure how many AI-based searches lead to your website and how users behave there. Users will be much more pre-informed about many topics through AI searches. After the AI search, users need clear, confirmatory information on the website. This can be measured and improved.

• Example: Use Sistrix to analyze how often your brand appears in AI overviews.
• Example: Measure your AI traffic on the website

Test AI-supported ad formats: AI searches will lead to new advertising formats. Use new Google Ads formats such as AI Overviews Ads or Performance Max. Use and create your own ad formats that integrate seamlessly with AI responses. Offer exclusive deals that are displayed directly in AI Overviews. Continuously experiment with new formats and channels. Test beta features of Google Ads or new AI partners.

• Example: Create targeted campaigns for products that frequently appear in AI overviews.
• Example: Automatically create different ad variants with AI.

Approaches for optimization

Chatbots for information: Help users with all their questions through chatbots and hotlines. AI agents will prefer providers that are available on all channels instead of just offering website texts and forms.

• Example: Offer an AI chatbot on your website. But please don’t place it in the bottom corner as an icon, but directly and helpfully in the central content.
• Example: Display the hotline telephone number transparently. AI searches will lead users to pages where they can find the best solution. AI agents will also be able to call hotlines themselves to arrange an appointment for the users searching. Those who do not want or cannot establish direct contact with their users will be at a disadvantage here.

Using voice agents to book appointments: Meanwhile, AI voice agents like ElevenLabs really already sound very real and can perform simple tasks such as making an appointment with the user independently. This makes it easy for users to make an appointment and clarify simple questions without having to wait on hold.

• Example: Offer a callback via AI agent to arrange an appointment instead of the usual callback service. In future, users will be increasingly open to being able to complete simple tasks with AI agents.