If you’re a CMO, you already know Google likes to reinvent search every few years, just to keep us guessing. The latest evolution is SGE, or AI Overviews. But what is Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) and does that mean for your brand’s visibility on Google?

Here’s a quick low down on what’s happening, and what it means for SEO strategy, your Digital Marketing approaches and, most importantly, your brand’s visibility.

Read time: 2 minutes

The shift from blue links to Generative Answers

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is the platform’s push to weave generative AI into search results. Instead of simply showing links, for many informational queries Google will now generate a concise, context-rich answer (an AI Overview) that synthesises content from multiple sources and usually surfaces follow-up questions.

These snippets appear at or near the top of the results, before the classic ten blue links. They also include citations; clickable links to original pages that help form the answer and provide access to deeper context.

Google’s aim? Reduce friction in search, surface deeper context more quickly, and let people ask follow-up questions conversationally.

What SGE means for SEO

Google’s SGE doesn’t kill SEO, but it does change what ‘visibility’ means. These are the high-level impacts:

• Fewer clicks from informational queries
  Because the AI Overview often fully answers simple or educational queries, users may not click through to any site. Some analysts project organic traffic drops of 20–60% for certain queries
• Citations, not rankings, become signals of trust
  Getting cited within an AI Overview becomes one of the new highest-value outcomes — arguably more valuable than ranking at position 2 or 3
• Rich media and visuals matter even more
  AI Overviews increasingly support images and video in responses — having strong visual content tied to your pages can help reinforce relevance.
• Keyword discipline shifts
  Because SGE parses meaning and intent, content structured around how users ask, including follow-up, branching questions, becomes so much more valuable
• Analytics and attribution is fuzzier
  You may see fewer last-click conversions from organic traffic. Traditional SEO metrics like rankings can be misleading.

SGE is shifting the game for SEO. The prize isn’t just ‘ranking higher’, it’s being part of the answer itself. For CMOs, that means shifting your investment toward authority, content clarity, visual richness, and diversifying traffic sources.

About the author

GEO Expert & Frontier15 Founder

Jo Robb

• LinkedIn
• WordPress

Jo is the founder of Frontier15, where she helps brands stay visible in the age of AI search. With 25 years working in digital and over a decade focused on writing and strategising for technology and brand clients, she’s become obsessed with how content performs in generative search… and what that means for the future of brand visibility.

What we do

Frontier15 helps brands achieve visibility in the era of AI search, creating content strategies that make your expertise discoverable and trusted by both people and machines. Get in touch and ask us how we can map a GEO-informed content strategy that helps future-proof your brand.

Further reading

• How can I measure my brand’s visibility in AI search?
• Can I test how my site appears in ChatGPT, Claude, Co-Pilot, Perplexity or other LLMs?
• What Is Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) — and How Does It Change SEO?
• When will generative AI search overtake traditional organic search?
• What is the difference between traditional SEO and AI-driven search optimisation?