People are talking about answer engines now more than Google. Google is still searched, but the results now are no longer ten blue links. To flex its AI muscles, Google rolled out AI Overviews — so your question gets answered before you have the opportunity to scroll down to websites.
"We aren't optimizing for Google anymore. Today, we're optimizing for Google's AI overviews and answer engines — including AI voice search."
The shift from keywords to structured data is because AI is an LLM (Large Language Model), i.e. a machine. Your website was built in html for visitors, and not or AI systems. AI systems/LLMs need to scan underneath the design for structured data that explains what you do, how you help people, and when you should be recommended.
Before
A beautiful website is great for humans, with all the images to catch their eyes, but AI doesn't look at your website, it looks for code behind the scenes and will skip you if you are not optimized for visibility.
After
These machine-readable visibility files are installed on the root directory of your website. They are voluminous, and tell AI exactly what it needs to recommend you to your prospects in your area. Ranking keywords only helps Google do this if it is based on your service + the area you serve.
We translate your information into what AI actually understands, and build content around your services and locations to train AI to answer your prospects' questions. In fact, we research questions people are actually asking online about your services, and provide every possible variation along with every city you serve, which turns into hundreds of FAQs, QA sets, and help articles. Answer engines want to answer questions. They were built for this purpose and want to help. So, we go a step further and format them so they also qualify for Google's AI Overviews and AI Voice Search, and not just the answer engines.
Once that layer is in place, and your site is crawled by different AI bots, and your site moves from invisible to citable — and referenced when people ask questions about your services.