Search has evolved. Has your strategy?

Google has always been true to it’s core and objective – helping users finding the information on any and every topic and that too in so many languages and that’s the key for Google dominating the search space since so long.

Part 1: Google introduced about a year back AI overview; as is there was Featured snippet wherein the user gets the information they were looking for right at the top of the page and the user doesn’t even have to click on any of the blue links appearing on the page. AI overview has now changed the complete structure of Google SERP. You can learn more about this shift in Google AI Overviews Impact: How They Affect SEO. It’s the new battlefield for marketers—our goal is to appear at the top, or risk being invisible.

Google SERP has AI overview on the top coming in for most of the content you will search for, with informational or even transactional intent keywords. E.g. 1) “What’s Agentic AI?” or 2) “Which is the best company for Agentic AI in India?” Where does the AI overview form it’s answer from? Well, no secrets there, on the right side of the AI overview, you will find the links which were considered for forming the answer it is showing you. This will change further for India, once you have the AI mode being activated on Google. On Mobile screen, this might take 1 to 1 ½ screens to cover and if your answer is long, then you have a long scroll. And more than 50% of the users do not go beyond this. Period – No opportunity for your link to appear or clicks, no traffic.

What does it mean for Marketer - Why do you think, these sites ranked – well they come from pages, people who have authority on the page and have genuinely shared the knowledge without stuffing in relevant keywords – so if you get featured here, your role as a marketer is partially done. Remember you are not getting any traffic or clicks but you are influencing the AI to share your viewpoint.

Part 2: Now comes the second part and the only Money-making attribute on the Google SERP – Paid advertisements. Depending on your bid for the keyword, you will rank amongst the first 2-3 links on top of the page or somewhere at the bottom of the page. But even if you are paying, your Ad will appear maybe on the 2^nd or 3^rd scroll.

 

What does it mean for Marketer – Even when you are spending money and you are on top of all the links/ clicks appearing on the page, chances are you will not even be seen. This would not be applicable for ecommerce businesses where the PLA (Product Listing Ads) come on top followed by other sponsored links/ ads. For b2b business, this would be a big challenge.

Part 3: First Organic listing of the page. So after 3 scrolls you reach the first organic link; which most likely would have been covered within the Sources of AI overview. This is followed by People also ask area.

 

What does it mean for Marketer – Your digital marketing team did amazing job and got you as the first link on SERP, you still might not get viewed and lesser clicks. But on the positive side, when you are appearing here, your content and viewpoint is being used by the AI overview while giving the response to the query. Further, now if you want to appear in the ‘People also ask” part, start sharing useful content which brings out the EEAT concept on top of SEO again. Build your authority and share useful content which helps the user.

“People also ask” will help you with the keyword research for what are people looking for and the intent.

Part 4: Now comes the 2^nd and 3^rd organic listing, which will typically be on the fourth or fifth scroll. This is immediately followed by “People Also Consider”.

 

What does it mean for Marketer – You will have to continue your working as of nothing has changed and cross your fingers that you get views and clicks sending traffic to your website. Further “People also Consider” section is something which will give you ideas in terms of the popular keywords. Focus your energy on these.

Part 5: 4^th and 5^th organic ranking list on the page. So after 6^th/ 7th scrolls you reach these links; which most likely people might see or not see depending on the interest or seriousness of the information being sought.

 

What does it mean for Marketer – You will have to continue your working as of nothing has changed and cross your fingers that you get views and clicks sending traffic to your website.

Part 6: This is the section wherein you are introduced to the videos section related to the topic, how to do organic promotion of the videos – Click here for detailed guide.

 

What does it mean for Marketer – You will have to focus your energies on creating good media rich videos, wherein you have the right tactics used for organic promotion to get views on Google as well as YouTube. YouTube is the second largest Search mechanism in the whole world.

Part 7: This covers the 6^th, 7^th, 8^th & 9^th listing of the organic results.

 

What does it mean for Marketer – You will have to continue your working as of nothing has changed and cross your fingers that you get views and clicks sending traffic to your website. Learn how to reduce your bounce rate with data-backed strategies to make the most of every visitor.

Part 8: Volla, you have the 4^th paid/ sponsored link available here but again it’s too down the page to get views/ clicks.

 

What does it mean for Marketer – You will have to keep a strict check on the Google Adwords panel to see your bidding and compare it with the ones which got covered at the top of the page after AI overview. Learn how to improve your ad strategy in Google Ads in 2025: Tips & AI-Driven Bidding Strategies. Followed by “People also Search for” section is something which will give ideas in terms of the popular keywords. Focus your energy on these keywords, if these makes business sense to you.