Google Confirms Standard SEO Still Reigns Supreme for AI Overviews
Google’s Gary Illyes recently made waves at the Search Central Deep Dive event in the Asia Pacific region. He assured the audience that when it comes to ranking in AI Overviews, sticking to basic SEO practices is all you need. Notably, he also mentioned that Google will not be utilizing the increasingly talked-about LLMS.txt files.
The Role of Normal SEO in AI Overviews
Kenichi Suzuki, who attended the event, shared insights on LinkedIn, stating, “To get your content to appear in AI Overview, simply use normal SEO practices. You don’t need GEO, LLMO, or anything fancy.” This approach makes perfect sense. For Google to fetch content for AI Overviews, it must first be crawled by Googlebot and indexed in Google Search. The process that Google Search employs for content ingestion is the same for AI Overviews and AI Mode. Essentially, it involves various methods used to rank content across Google’s platforms.
So, the takeaway is clear: stick to normal SEO if you aim to feature prominently in AI Overviews.
LLMS.txt: Not in Google’s Playbook
During the Q&A session at the same event, Gary Illyes reinforced that Google does not support or plan to crawl the LLMS.txt file. As Suzuki noted in his LinkedIn post, “Gary Illyes clearly stated that Google doesn’t support LLMs.txt and isn’t planning to.” However, this doesn’t imply that other AI systems won’t take notice of it. Ray Martinez shared a fascinating screenshot on X showing that OpenAI is checking his LLMS.txt file approximately every 15 minutes. He noted, “Log file analysis shows that OpenAI crawls my LLMs.txt file on various sites. It’s pinging our servers every 15 minutes looking for freshness.”
Interestingly, John Mueller from Google previously stated that no AI system, including theirs, is currently utilizing the LLMS.txt file. But in the fast-evolving world of AI, things can change rapidly.
Why This Matters
This information is crucial for anyone invested in Google’s ecosystem. It appears that conventional SEO continues to hold substantial importance. As Lily Ray pointed out, while AI search is gaining traction, SEO is far from obsolete. Practicing normal SEO remains vital for achieving good rankings within Google’s AI platforms. Whether this translates into actual clicks, however, remains to be seen.
Moreover, LLMS.txt has been a hot topic here, and it’s evident that Google isn’t planning to adopt this text file anytime soon.
