How to Use Keyword Tools to Enhance Content for AI Overviews

AI Overviews (AIOs) are not only becoming a staple in search engine results, they’re also expanding to support more difficult queries and might soon turn into real conversations as Google experiments with AI mode. Content teams need to understand how to keep their brand visible in this new format. 

But without dedicated tools to track AI-specific metrics, many marketers lack information as to which queries are driving impressions through AIOs, and more importantly, which opportunities are being missed.

AI-driven search relies more heavily on content that directly addresses user intent in a natural, conversational tone. If your content isn’t optimized for this experience, it won’t be found in AI-driven results. 

Luckily, keyword research can help bridge the gap. 

Read on to learn how analyzing user intent through keyword research can help your brand identify and optimize for conversational search, allowing you to gain more visibility in AIOs. 

Why keyword research is important for AIOs

Search engines are now interpreting user intent in real time, and thus user queries are shifting away from short strings of related words and more towards full sentences and conversations. 

This shift means that simply ranking for a keyword isn’t enough to be found. Generative AI platforms look for content that can be summarized into concise, authoritative, and contextually relevant answers.

AIOs then pull from that high-quality web content to generate results, without users needing to click through to a website to answer their query. 

To earn a spot in that limited real estate, your content must be strategically aligned with the way users are asking questions and seeking information.

That’s where keyword research comes in, as your keyword data remains your best source to understand the intent behind the queries you’re currently capturing, and to help predict what potential consumers will ask of AI platforms in the future. 

How to perform keyword research for AIOs?

Step 1: Analyze your current performance

Use your current keyword tools to identify groups of terms driving your website’s performance. Pay attention to:

• High-impression, low-CTR keywords: These may indicate content that shows up but doesn’t answer the query well.
• FAQ-style queries: Look for questions beginning with why, when, how, if, what, where, etc. These are the queries that would traditionally trigger featured snippets, and which AIOs now aim to answer. They will also indicate the intent behind your current traffic and impressions. 
• Longtail keywords: AI Overviews are more likely to show up for long, natural-sounding phrases (around 6–10 words).

This analysis will establish your benchmarks, highlighting where you’re being found today, and where there is potential for greater visibility. 

Aim to answer questions

AIOs favor content that answers direct questions in a clear and straightforward way, so focus on question-based queries: 

• Use tools like AnswerThePublic to uncover popular question-based queries. 
• Despite the shift to AIOs, “People Also Ask” (PAA) results remain a valuable SERP feature to analyze, especially if the sources reflected in an AIO aren’t the most trustworthy. PAAs reflect what users typically search for next, so understanding what a user’s next question will be allows you to proactively answer it in your content, giving you the opportunity to appear in both the original answer and in the follow-up. 

Leverage keyword suggestions and trending topics

Don’t stop at what you know. Use tools such as Google Ads Planner and Botify Assist (shown above) to find semantically-related keywords and their variations that can enhance your page relevance and broaden your reach.

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Combine this with tools that track trending topics, which will help you prioritize the keywords that will result in the most visibility.

Be strategic about keyword clustering

Group similar search terms using keyword clustering tools to surface key themes. For instance, if multiple users search variations of “where can I buy running shoes for flat feet?”, you need a page that comprehensively addresses that topic. 

Botify’s keyword grouping makes this easier by allowing you to create, manage, and automatically track these clusters.

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Step 3: Prioritize keywords for AIOs

Once you’ve identified your keyword opportunities, prioritize longtail keywords that reflect how people actually speak, rather than those made up of disconnected strings of words. 

Use your keyword tools to identify whether those queries are informational, navigational, or transactional, then tailor your content format and depth to match that intent.

Step 4: Match keywords to existing content

Now that you have your keywords, it’s time to map them. Locate where your new keywords naturally fit within your current content structure. You can then update your existing pieces of content with answers to those queries. 

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How to enhance content for AI answers

The pages you identify may need optimization to be AIO-ready. Make sure each page provides a clear, concise, and authoritative answer, with an easy-to-follow structure to make your content easier for AI bots (and humans) to parse.

Step 1: Write for AI-driven search

Start with the basics: use a conversational tone and write with natural language. Your goal is to sound like a helpful expert, not a robot attempting to keyword-stuff. 

Provide direct answers to your target query in the first few sentences. Concise paragraphs are your friend, and you can use bulleted lists or FAQs where appropriate to tackle multiple, related questions.

Step 2: Structure content for AI

Crawlers scraping content for AI-driven search need to “read” your page the way a human would:

• Use clear headings, subheadings, and bullet points to break up content.
• Add structured data, like FAQ or How-To schema, to help bots interpret your page structure.
• Ensure that on-page content isn’t hidden behind JavaScript elements or served when JavaScript is executed, as AI bots are still struggling to render JavaScript.

Step 3: Optimize technical SEO

Updating your content for AI-driven search won’t benefit your brand or be seen by users and agents if that content isn’t first found by AI bots. Luckily, the AI search funnel is very similar to the traditional search funnel. 

AI bots, like the bots from traditional search engines, must still crawl, index, and rank your content, so the technical health of your website still matters. Your content must be fast, mobile-friendly, and easy for those bots to navigate:

• Ensure your pages are optimized for Core Web Vitals and mobile usability.
• Ensure your content is at a shallow depth, accessible within only a few clicks.
• Regularly update your XML sitemap to capture new content. 
• Clean up your internal linking structure and check that those internal links aren’t broken or leading to canonical pages. 
• Use descriptive meta titles and meta descriptions that naturally include your target keywords. Tools like Botify Activation can help you do this automatically and at scale through SmartContent. 

Step 4: Take control of your indexation

In order to be found, you must first be indexed. Instead of waiting for bots to come and pull your content based on their schedules (which could take weeks) you can push content to those indexes as soon as it's updated: 

• Automating your XML sitemap updates can ensure they always capture new content as it's published.
• You can proactively submit updated content directly to multiple key search indexes used by AI platforms via IndexNow. 

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Use Botify SmartIndex to automate both XML sitemap generation and submissions to indexes at scale. 

Step 5: Leverage AI to help with site audits

Ensuring your website is optimized for AI-driven crawling and rendering is just as important as what your content says. Tools like Botify can automatically flag technical issues that prevent your content from being crawled, indexed, or properly interpreted, making it easier and quicker for you to address problem areas.  

How to monitor and iterate your AIO keywords

Step 1: Shift your KPI

In the AI search era, tracking individual keywords won’t cut it. Consider changing your key performance indicators to queries, keyword clusters, or intent instead. These metrics will help you keep your content aligned with how users are actually searching.

Step 2: Track performance over time

AI bots, like traditional bots, want to index the most relevant, most accurate, and freshest pages, so track metrics that speak to performance in those areas. 

Use tools like Google Search Console and Botify to establish your benchmarks and set goals now, then monitor changes in your rankings, impressions, click-through rates, and share of voice over weeks, months, and year-over-year. 

Create keyword groups to help track, and pay special attention to your long-tail keywords, as those will be the winners for AIOs. 

Step 3: Refine your strategy

As we know, search isn’t one-and-done. Brands will need to conduct keyword research and assess performance on a regular basis, in order to keep content up to date with new keyword opportunities and AI trends.

Use BigQuery or your analytics platform to monitor large-scale trends, analyze shifts in traffic sources, and identify new content gaps. Your goal should be to stay agile as AI search evolves.

Leverage keyword research to appear in AI-driven search results

By prioritizing user intent and focusing your keyword research on answering that intent, you can set your brand up to not only appear in AI Overviews, but to succeed in all new AI search platforms. Want to go deeper? Download our AI Overviews Study: Inside Google’s New Search Reality to understand how AI Overviews are transforming search, and what that means for your business.

Ready to take action? Book a demo to learn how Botify can help you uncover hidden AIO opportunities and optimize your site for the future of search.

Additional resources: 

What Are Google AI Overviews and How Do They Work? 

How to Optimize Your Website for AI Overviews

The Database of Human Intent: Using Google to Optimize for AI Search

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