You rank on page one for your main keyword. You've been there for months. Traffic has been steady. Life is good.
Then you notice a dip. Not a crash, just a slow bleed. Fewer clicks, fewer visits, fewer leads. Your ranking hasn't changed. Your position is the same. But something else showed up above you.
Google AI Mode.
What Google AI Mode actually does
Google has been experimenting with AI-generated answers for a while. AI Overviews were the first version, those short summaries that appeared above search results for certain queries. AI Mode takes it further.
When a user activates AI Mode, Google generates a full conversational response to their query. It pulls from multiple sources, synthesizes the information, and presents a cohesive answer. It also suggests follow-up questions, keeping users inside the AI experience longer.
The key difference from traditional search: instead of giving you ten blue links and letting you choose, Google picks the sources for you. It decides which sites get cited, which information gets surfaced, and what the user sees first.
Your carefully optimized title tag and meta description? They might never appear. The AI reads your content, extracts what it needs, and presents it in its own format.
How AI Mode selects sources
Google's AI Mode doesn't just grab the top-ranking result and summarize it. It evaluates content across multiple dimensions.
Topical authority matters more than ever. If your site has deep, consistent coverage of a subject, AI Mode is more likely to pull from you than from a site that published one article on the topic. The AI is looking for reliable, comprehensive sources.
Freshness plays a role too. For queries where recency matters, AI Mode favors recently updated content. That evergreen post you published in 2023 might get passed over for something written last month, even if your content is technically better.
Structural clarity helps the AI extract information. Content that's well-organized with clear headings, specific claims, and data points gives the AI what it needs to build its response. Vague, fluffy content gets ignored because there's nothing concrete to extract.
And citations from other sources still matter. If other reputable sites reference your data, your frameworks, or your expertise, the AI recognizes that signal. It's looking for consensus and authority, much like traditional search but through a different lens.
The two-track visibility problem
Here's what makes this tricky. You now need to be visible in two fundamentally different systems at the same time.
Traditional Google search still exists. Plenty of queries still show regular results, especially transactional ones where Google makes money from ads. Your SEO fundamentals still apply there.
But AI Mode is eating into informational and consideration-stage queries. "What's the best CRM for freelancers?" or "How do I choose a project management tool?" These are exactly the queries where your potential clients are forming opinions. And increasingly, they're getting AI-generated answers instead of clicking through to your site.
You can't abandon traditional SEO. But you also can't ignore the AI layer that's forming on top of it.
What this means for your content strategy
The content that performs well in AI Mode looks different from typical SEO content.
Specificity wins. Generic "Ultimate Guide to X" posts are less useful to AI Mode because they cover everything superficially. The AI prefers content that makes clear, specific claims it can extract and cite. "Our analysis of 500 freelancer CRMs found that tools with built-in invoicing reduced admin time by 3 hours per week" gives the AI something concrete to work with.
Original data and unique perspectives matter more. AI Mode has access to thousands of pages saying the same thing. What makes it cite you instead of someone else? Having information nobody else has. Your own research, your own case studies, your own experience-based insights.
Entity clarity is critical. If the AI can't figure out exactly what your business does and who it's for, it won't recommend you for specific queries. Your site needs to communicate your positioning clearly, not just to humans but to AI systems parsing your content.
Think of it this way: you're no longer just writing for a human reader who lands on your page. You're also writing for an AI system that might never send anyone to your page but will extract your insights and present them with (hopefully) a citation back to you.
The citation game
Getting cited in AI Mode responses is the new version of ranking on page one. When Google's AI pulls from your content and links to you as a source, that's premium visibility. Users trust those citations because Google selected them.
But citations in AI Mode are harder to earn than traditional rankings. You can't just optimize a title tag and build some links. The AI is evaluating the substance of your content, not just its SEO signals.
Sites that publish original research, maintain strong topical authority, and have clear entity positioning tend to get cited more frequently. Sites that repackage existing information with better SEO rarely make the cut.
Tracking your AI Mode visibility
Traditional rank trackers won't tell you if you're being cited in AI Mode responses. They track positions in the regular search results, which is a different game.
You need to know: Is Google's AI citing your content? For which queries? How often? And how does that compare to your competitors?
This is where tools like Mentionable become relevant. Tracking your visibility across AI platforms, including Google's AI features, gives you a picture of where you stand in this new landscape. Without that data, you're optimizing blind.
Practical steps right now
First, audit your content for extractability. Can an AI system pull specific, useful claims from your pages? Or is your content too vague and generic to be worth citing?
Second, invest in original data. Run surveys, analyze your own customer data, publish findings. This is content AI can't get anywhere else, which makes it valuable as a source.
Third, strengthen your entity signals. Make sure your site clearly communicates what you do, who you serve, and what makes your perspective unique. Structured data helps, but so does consistent, clear messaging across your entire site.
Fourth, diversify your AI visibility. Google AI Mode is one platform. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and others are also answering the queries your clients ask. Focusing only on Google means missing the broader shift.
Google AI Mode isn't replacing traditional search overnight. But it's reshaping how users interact with search results, especially for the consideration-stage queries that drive business.
The shift is gradual, which means you have time to adapt. But the businesses that start adapting today will have a meaningful advantage over those who wait until their traffic numbers force the issue.
