AI Mode: what does it mean for SEO?

In 2025, Google rolled out a major update with the launch of AI Mode, which is already live in the U.S., UK, and India (as of 30th July). This new feature is shaking up how people search. Unlike the AI Overviews we’ve seen in the past, AI Mode is a separate tool that uses generative AI to give you detailed answers directly on the search page. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at how it works, what it means for SEO, and how businesses can adapt to this new way of searching.

1. How does Google’s AI Mode work?

AI Mode is powered by Google’s Gemini 2.5 model, a super advanced language model that is designed to give you detailed answers to complex searches. Instead of showing directly a list of web pages, AI Mode breaks down your search into smaller pieces of content (chunks), running parallel searches to get data from different sources and creating a single response. This answer appears directly on the search page, so you don’t have to click through to other websites.

What makes AI Mode different? 

The main difference it brings to the table is that it can handle different types of inputs, like text, voice, or even images. Users can upload a photo and ask follow-up questions, interacting with the AI in a more conversational way. Plus, the AI can adjust its responses over time based on your previous conversations. For example, if you ask a broad question and then follow it up with something more specific, AI Mode will refine its answer to give you more detailed info.

2. What does AI Mode mean for SEO?

AI Mode brings a new set of challenges for SEO professionals, especially when it comes to traffic and click-through rates (CTR). In traditional search, users are shown a list of websites to click on, but in AI Mode, users are getting answers directly on the search page. This could mean fewer clicks to external websites, as the AI can sometimes fully answer the query right there.

Some reports have shown a drop in CTR, since users can get the information they need without leaving the search page. However, this doesn’t mean you lose visibility entirely. Even if users don’t click through, your content can still be exposed if it’s referenced in the AI-generated answers. Plus, Google has noted that users are often spending more time on the search page, asking follow-up questions and diving deeper into topics. This could actually lead to more engagement in the long run. Besides, boosting brand awareness is a crucial element of any successful marketing strategy, and this presents a prime opportunity to gain an advantage. 

3. New SEO metrics to focus on

With the rise of AI Mode, some traditional SEO metrics like clicks and rankings don’t carry the same weight anymore. Impressions are now more important than ever. However, there are also new metrics to keep an eye on:

• Visibility in AI Search features: This metric tracks how often your content appears in AI-generated elements like Featured Snippets, Knowledge Panels, and AI Overviews. Tools such as Semrush and Ahrefs can help monitor these appearances, providing insight into your content’s reach within AI interfaces.
• Branded search volume trends: Monitoring the frequency of searches for your brand name helps assess brand awareness and the effectiveness of AI-generated content in driving recognition. An increase in branded searches indicates that AI systems are referencing your content while also enhancing your brand’s visibility.
• User engagement metrics: Metrics such as bounce rate, time on page, and interaction depth provide insights into user satisfaction. AI systems consider these signals when determining content relevance, making them crucial for understanding how users interact with your content.

These new metrics focus on user intent and understanding how well your content is engaging with people—rather than just focusing on clicks alone.

4. What do we do in Making Science to perform better in AI Mode?

To help you get noticed in AI Mode, we follow these proven best practices:

• Ensure crawlability and indexing: AI Mode relies on Google’s crawling and indexing system, so we have to be sure our content is easy to access and index by Google systems. This means checking for any crawl errors and ensuring we’re not blocking anything relevant with robots.txt.
• Create high-quality content: Content that is thorough, authoritative, and effectively answers users’ questions is more likely to be featured by AI Mode. Google systems still favor high-quality content, so we should keep focusing on providing value (maybe more than ever!) for them.
• Review and apply structured data: Structured data like schema markup can help Google have a better understanding of our content, especially when it comes to media like images or videos.
• Optimize for user experience: While AI Mode may reduce clicks, the overall user experience still matters. A fast, mobile-friendly, and easy-to-navigate site is key in our strategy.

Key takeaways

Google’s new AI Mode is essentially a smart chatbot built directly into the search page, designed to answer complex questions in conversation style. This is changing the game for websites because the AI often answers questions directly, meaning fewer people click on the traditional blue links.

For businesses, the new goal is to become a trusted source that the AI quotes in its answers. The best way to do this is by building a strong, reputable brand and creating genuinely helpful content that offers unique, real-world experience and insights that only a human expert can provide.