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If a prospect asks Google a long, messy question and gets a complete answer on the results page, what is left for your website to do?
That is the real question behind this week's news. On May 20, 2025, at Google I/O, Google began rolling out AI Mode to all US users, with no Labs sign-up needed.1 It is not a tweak to the old blue links. It is a different way to search, and for experts who rely on content to bring in buyers, it changes the job.
What is AI Mode, and how is it different from AI Overviews?
AI Overviews (I covered them in AI Overviews Are Here) are the summaries that appear above regular results for some queries. AI Mode is a separate, more conversational experience. Google describes it as its most powerful AI search, with stronger reasoning and multimodal input, the ability to ask follow-up questions and links to web sources.1
How it finds answers
- Your questionLong, messy, conversational
- Fan-outSplit into subtopics
- Many searchesRun at once across sources
- AnswerOne response with links to web sources
Google says AI Mode breaks a question into subtopics and issues many searches at once, a technique it calls query fan-out, so it can explore the web more deeply than a traditional search.1 Google's own documentation says both AI Overviews and AI Mode may use this technique, issuing multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources.2
What else Google announced
Google also described a Deep Search capability inside AI Mode that runs hundreds of searches and produces a fully cited report in minutes, noting that it was still in development. It showed an AI Mode shopping experience with agentic checkout and agentic features for tasks like buying tickets.1 Those details may change, so treat them as direction, not product.
What does this do to expert traffic?
Honestly, nobody outside Google knows yet. AI Mode is days old. What we have is early evidence from AI Overviews, and it points in one direction.
The early click data
In April 2025 Ahrefs studied 300,000 keywords, half with an AI Overview and half informational keywords without one. For position-one results, it found a 34.5% lower average click-through rate when an AI Overview was present, compared with a modeled expectation.3
34.5%
Read the study carefully
Ahrefs is clear about the limits. The 34.5% is a correlation, the comparison relies on a modeled forecast rather than a true control, the data is desktop only and it covers informational keywords.3 Google, for its part, reported that in the US and India AI Overviews drove over a 10% increase in Google usage for the query types that show them, based on its own internal experiment.1
Both can be true. People may search more, and click less on any one result. For an expert, the practical conclusion is not panic. It is that being the top blue link is worth less than it used to be, and being the source the answer is built from is worth more.
What does Google say you should do?
Google's guidance for site owners is refreshingly plain. It says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.2
The eligibility rule
To be eligible as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet. There are no extra technical requirements, though appearing is never guaranteed.2
The content rule
Google says to focus on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content.2 It also notes that AI features are included in overall Search traffic and reported in Search Console's Performance report under the Web search type.2
How do you write content a machine can quote?
My approach is to make each page answer one question cleanly, so a person or a model can lift the answer without rewriting it. This is a writing discipline, and it helps human readers too.
Answer first, then explain
Start sections with the direct answer in one or two sentences, then add context. Compare:
| Hard to quote | Easy to quote |
|---|---|
| Opens with a long story before the point | Opens with the answer in two sentences |
| Vague headings like "Thoughts" | Headings phrased as the question people ask |
| Claims with no source or number | Specific claims with a named source |
| One giant block of text | Short paragraphs, lists and clear definitions |
Put your own experience on the page
A model can summarize what everyone already says. It cannot summarize what you have actually done. Original process, real examples (only true ones), your own frameworks and clearly stated opinions are what make a page worth citing and worth visiting. In my own writing, the parts that matter most are the parts that only come from doing the work, the reason generic copy fails in The AI Copy Tell.
Structure that helps readers
Summaries at the top, clear question headings and a short FAQ are not tricks. They make a page easier for people to scan. If it also makes the page easier for a machine to parse, good. Just do not expect formatting alone to carry weak content.
How do you keep the click when AI answers first?
Assume some searchers will get their answer and leave. Design for the ones who want more, and make "more" obvious.
- Give the answer, hold back the application. Explain the idea fully, then show the tool, template, checklist or review that applies it to their situation.
- Make your offer page do work a summary cannot. Real proof, a clear process, specific outcomes, honest limits and a way to talk to you.
- Build a path off Google. Google is not the only answer engine either (see ChatGPT Search Is a Traffic Source). A newsletter, a community, a short email course. If Google sends fewer visits, you want to capture the ones it does send.
- Be findable by name. Brand searches and direct visits are less exposed to this shift than generic informational queries.
- Track what matters. Watch conversions and booked calls from organic search, not just impressions and clicks.
If your content is only information, a machine can deliver it. If it carries your judgment, people will still come for you.
Where should a site owner start?
Pick your five best-performing informational pages. Check each one: does it open with a clear answer? Does it state something only you could say? Does it lead the reader to a next step worth taking? Fix the weakest one first.
Then open Search Console and note your current organic traffic and conversions so you have a baseline for the next few months.
If you want an outside read on how your content, offers and follow-up connect, reach me here.
Keep building.Ekai
Questions people ask
What is Google AI Mode?
AI Mode is Google's conversational AI search experience, offering stronger reasoning, multimodal input, follow-up questions and links to web sources. Google began rolling it out to all US users on May 20, 2025, with no Labs sign-up required.
Do I need special SEO for AI Mode?
Google's guidance says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special optimizations are necessary. A page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, and Google recommends helpful, reliable, people-first content.
Do AI Overviews reduce clicks?
An Ahrefs study of 300,000 keywords found that when an AI Overview was present, the top-ranking page's click-through rate was 34.5% lower than the modeled expectation. It is a correlation based on desktop data for informational keywords.
What is query fan-out?
It is the technique AI Mode uses to split a question into subtopics and run many related searches at once. Google says this lets it explore the web more deeply than a traditional search.
Sources
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