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10 Things You Need to Know About Google’s July 2025 AI Mode Update
Published: 29/07/25 - Updated: 30/07/25
Google’s new AI Mode rollout in the UK marks a significant shift in how search results are delivered. It introduces an LLM-powered chat experience that moves search even closer to conversational AI, resembling ChatGPT more than traditional Google Search.
Here are 10 key things you need to know to prepare your site and content for success in this new AI Mode. All tips come from Google’s own guidance, refined and expanded for clarity and impact.
1. Focus on Unique, Valuable Content for People
Google prioritises content that meets people’s needs with originality and depth. Content should be non-commodity, helpful, and satisfying for readers. This principle remains the foundation for ranking, both in classic search and AI Mode, where users ask longer, more specific questions and follow-ups.
2. Provide a Great Page Experience
Content alone isn’t enough if your page is cluttered or difficult to navigate. Ensure your pages display well on all devices, load quickly, and allow users to easily find the main information. Good page experience is essential for both traditional and AI-driven search results.
3. Ensure Google Can Access and Index Your Content
Meeting Google’s technical requirements remains crucial. Your pages must be crawlable, return a successful HTTP 200 status code, and contain indexable content. This covers visibility across all Google search formats, including AI Mode.
4. Manage Visibility with Preview Controls
Use tools like nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet, and noindex to control how your content appears in search listings and AI formats. Restrictive settings can limit how your content is featured in AI Mode.
5. Make Sure Structured Data Matches Visible Content
Structured data helps Google understand your content in a machine-readable format, making pages eligible for rich features. Ensure all structured data corresponds exactly with visible page content and validate your markup to avoid errors.
6. Go Beyond Text for Multimodal Success
Google’s AI enables multimodal searches that combine images, text, and questions. Support your textual content with high-quality images and videos. Keep your Merchant Center and Business Profile updated to maximise visibility in these richer AI experiences.
7. Understand the Full Value of Your Visits
AI Mode’s enriched results provide users with more context and supporting links, often leading to higher-quality clicks and longer site engagement. Focus on the overall value of visits, sales, signups, engagement, rather than just raw click counts.
8. Evolve With Your Users
Search is constantly evolving to meet user needs: from mobile-friendly designs to voice and multimodal queries. Google’s AI Mode is the next step in this evolution, so stay agile and ready to adapt your content strategy accordingly.
9. Keep Content Clear and Well-Structured for Conversational AI
AI Mode thrives on conversational, well-structured content that can directly answer nuanced questions. Format your content to address natural language queries clearly, using concise headings, bullet points, and logical flow to help AI understand and surface your content effectively.
10. Adapt to the New Link Landscape in AI Mode
Here’s the big shift: AI Mode removes traditional blue links. Unlike AI Overviews, where links are still prominent, AI Mode relegates all links to small citations. This reduces the likelihood of direct traffic to your site unless users deliberately explore those citations and dig deeper.
Bottom line: Most of what works for SEO today will work in Google’s AI Mode. The fundamentals of unique content, great user experience, crawlability, and clear structure remain critical. But you should also tailor your approach to this conversational, multimodal AI landscape and adapt to its new way of handling links and citations.
Staying informed and adjusting your content strategy accordingly will position your brand to succeed in this evolving search environment.
Want help adapting to Google AI Mode? Get in touch – contact@kaizen.co.uk
Kamile Kupryte
Kamile Kupryte is a Marketing Manager at Kaizen, where she leads brand and content strategy. She specialises in combining creative storytelling with data-led performance across SEO, content, events and digital presence. Her work focuses on driving visibility, authority and sustained organic growth through insight-driven marketing.