For companies today, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is extremely important to invest in. Search engines utilize their own algorithms to determine which page is most relevant and trustworthy to consumers searching with keywords. But, SEO is no longer just about keyword rankings—it’s also about how your content performs in AI-generated search results. With the rise of tools like Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), content structure, clarity, and authority all contribute to your brand’s AI Share of Voice. That means how often your business appears in AI-generated summaries and answers. To help you get the most out of SEO, GROWL has put together some top tips to move you up in Google’s massive library of information.
Your Website URL is Vital
Ideally, the shorter the URL, the better. If your most important site URLs are under 60 characters, you’re solid. If you are creeping around 101+, you may want to rewrite to gain SEO value. Short URLs make it easier to copy and paste for visitors who may share your link on social media. They are also less clickable in the search results, as they will be cut off. Avoid long, hard-to-read URLs that look ugly by keeping them short and sweet. Short, keyword-rich URLs also help AI tools understand and categorize your content, especially when summarizing answers from multiple sources.
Include Major Keywords
Page titles are important to provide a glimpse of what to expect. Search engines want you to include keywords that define your content. You want your keywords relevant to what people are searching for so they have a better chance of finding your product. Research the language people are using regarding your product or company. This way, you can create content that drives them to your website. And then describe that content in your page title. Today, search engines and AI systems alike prefer naturally phrased, user-centric keywords that align with intent. Integrating semantic and conversational phrases into your content can improve both SEO performance and generative AI visibility.
Take Advantage of Multimedia Across Your Website
Successful websites today have more than just simple photos and text. In today’s high-tech world, websites are much more engaging with slideshows, videos, infographics, virtual reality, etc. These visual elements, in place, will engage the visitor to spend more time on your site and reduce the bounce rate. The bounce rate measures the number of people entering your site and leaving immediately. They don’t engage or click any internal links on the page. Creating fun, engaging content may also lead to visitors sharing what they’ve found with friends and family – resulting in additional visits, shares, links, leads, and revenue. Lastly, Interactive content may also increase your likelihood of being linked to or cited in AI summaries, especially when paired with clear written explanations and structured data.
Use Relevant and Descriptive Headers
Most of the time, headline tags are added automatically on platforms like WordPress. Although some settings may have changed the feature, be sure your coding is correct and gets the page heading it deserves. Keywords play a huge role in these “H1” headers, just as they do in title pages. Subheadings are known as H2, which should include at least one target keyword as well. These support your header and provide organization for more in-depth paragraphs of content. Descriptive headers and subheaders also improve AI readability. Many generative AI tools rely on your page’s structure to determine what information to display in search summaries.
Create a Mobile-Friendly, Well Designed Website
This might be the most important tip in this article. Mobile technology has been a part of our lives for more than a decade now. Mobile traffic has been exploding for years. And it makes sense: It is much simpler to pull out your smartphone and look up a website than to get on a computer. Google penalizes websites for not being mobile-friendly, which means they won’t come up on a mobile search at all. Google’s move toward mobile-first indexing means they will use the mobile version of the site for indexing and ranking. If your site is not mobile-friendly, it will surely encounter a loss of rankings, traffic, leads, and revenue. There are no signs of the mobile trend slowing down. In fact, it continues to grow every year.
Include Quality Outbound Links
Outbound links should be related to your site, which in turn will help Google track down the topic of your page. It will also show your site has quality information. It is natural to have links to other sites on the web and communicate to both Google and your prospects that you are a hub for information. Be sure to get authority to those outside sites linked to your website. Strategically chosen outbound links also provide helpful context for AI systems, improving how your content is associated with other trusted sources in the same topic ecosystem.
Plan to Use Internal Links
Internal links are important for many reasons: They direct visitors through your site and describe the relevance and authority of pages to Google. Remember to link to older posts when publishing new blog content. This helps both prospects and search engines find and weigh older posts as a sign of your relevance for a topic. Internal linking also strengthens topical authority across your site—something that AI-powered search tools heavily factor into what content gets featured.
Get Links From Other Websites
Google was the first search engine to weigh links from other sites as an important ranking factor. In fact, it is still the most important ranking factor – but now counting quality much more than quantity. Posting high-quality content is not enough by itself: Google counts links to your site as “votes.” Think about what sites should be linking to yours and what approaches might be needed to get those links. We can help you figure out this step and get those links!
If your SEO strategy hasn’t evolved for generative AI, now is the time to act. Request a free web assessment to evaluate how your site performs in both traditional search and AI-driven experiences—and get clear next steps to level up.