Google has published its official guidance on ranking in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Here is what it actually means for Melbourne business owners — and what you can ignore.
Google has published official guidance on how to optimise for their AI search features — AI Overviews and AI Mode. This is not a rumour, a theory, or an SEO consultant’s interpretation. It is the direct, official word from Google Search on what matters.
The document is worth reading if you can get through the technical language. If you cannot, this article translates it for a business owner: what it means in practice, what is a waste of time, and what you should actually be doing.
The short version: nearly everything you have been told about “AEO” (Answer Engine Optimisation) and “GEO” (Generative Engine Optimisation) is either unnecessary or actively misleading. And the thing that actually works is the same thing that has always worked — being genuinely useful and demonstrably expert on the topics your customers care about.
How Google AI Search Actually Works
The most important thing to understand is this: AI Overviews and AI Mode are not a separate search index. They use the exact same core ranking systems as regular Google Search.
Google’s official documentation is explicit: these features use “retrieval-augmented generation” — which means the AI does not just make things up. It retrieves pages from Google’s search index based on the same quality and relevance signals as a normal search result, then synthesises information from those pages into a response.
The practical implication: if your website ranks well in regular Google Search, you are already in the pool of content that AI search features draw from. If your website does not rank well, adding llms.txt files or restructuring your content for AI is not going to change that.
Your priority is still ranking in regular Google Search. The AI features build on top of that, not independently of it.
What Google Says Actually Matters
1. Create Content That Is Not Commodity
Google’s own language on this is striking. They explicitly contrast two types of content:
Commodity content: “7 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers” — based on common knowledge, available from anyone, produces no unique insight. Could have been written by anyone, including an AI.
Non-commodity content: “Why We Waived the Inspection & Saved Money: A Look Inside the Sewer Line” — specific, experience-based, a real perspective that cannot be replicated from generic sources.
Google’s AI systems are specifically designed to surface non-commodity content. Information that is available from dozens of sources — the generic “what is cybersecurity?” article, the “5 reasons to upgrade your IT infrastructure” listicle — is less likely to appear in AI responses because it adds nothing that is not already available.
What this means for a Melbourne IT services business (or any professional services firm):
Every piece of content should answer a question based on real experience with real clients in real situations. Not “what is managed IT?” but “what we found in a typical 40-person Melbourne professional services firm when we audited their IT — and what it cost to fix.”
Not “why cybersecurity matters” but “the three things Melbourne businesses consistently get wrong with their Essential Eight alignment, and why each one is understandable given how the compliance requirement is written.”
The opinion, the case study, the lived experience, the specific Melbourne context — this is what AI search rewards. Generalities are what it replaces.
2. Technical SEO Still Matters — Fundamentally
Google is clear: a page must be indexed and eligible to appear in regular Google Search before it can appear in AI features. The technical basics are non-negotiable prerequisites:
- Your pages must be crawlable — no blocking in robots.txt, no noindex tags on content you want found
- Your pages must load correctly, including JavaScript-rendered content
- Your site must provide a good page experience — mobile-friendly, fast, content not buried behind popups or walls of banners
- Avoid duplicate content that wastes crawl budget and dilutes relevance signals
- Verify your site in Google Search Console to diagnose issues before they compound
None of this is new. None of it is specific to AI search. It is the same technical foundation that has underpinned Google rankings for years.
The relevant question for most Melbourne business websites is not whether they have technical SEO problems — they almost certainly do — but which technical problems are most limiting their visibility and in what order they should be fixed.
3. Structured Data Is Still Useful, But Not Critical for AI
Google’s guidance is precise here: “Structured data isn’t required for generative AI search, and there’s no special schema.org markup you need to add.” However, it continues to be valuable as part of an overall SEO strategy — particularly for rich results like review stars, FAQ snippets, event listings, and product information.
If you are a local service business, the structured data that matters most is your business schema (name, address, phone number, hours, service area) — and more importantly, your Google Business Profile, which feeds directly into both local search results and Google’s AI understanding of your business.
4. Images and Video Increase Surface Area
Google’s AI search features can surface images and video alongside web page links. If you are publishing useful content, adding relevant, high-quality images and video to that content creates additional opportunities to appear in AI responses — not just as a text link but as a visual result.
For a professional services business, this means: the case study with photos of the outcome, the explainer video on a complex topic, the team photo that makes the “about us” page feel real rather than generic. These are not SEO tricks. They are the assets that make AI-generated responses richer and more trustworthy to the person reading them.
What You Can Ignore
Google is unusually direct in debunking several widely-promoted “AI SEO” tactics. Here is the list of things their official guidance explicitly says you do not need:
llms.txt files: “You don’t need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown to appear in generative AI search.” Google may crawl an llms.txt file if it finds one, but it does not treat it specially.
“Chunking” your content: The advice to break content into short, digestible pieces for AI consumption is not supported by how Google works. “Google systems are able to understand the nuance of multiple topics on a page.”
Rewriting for AI specifically: AI systems understand meaning and context, not just keywords. You do not need to add every variation of a keyword or restructure your writing style for machine consumption.
Seeking inauthentic mentions: Some consultants advise manufacturing backlinks or forum mentions to boost AI visibility. Google’s systems specifically work to identify and discount inauthentic activity.
Obsessing over schema markup for AI: No special schema is required. Continue using structured data for the legitimate rich result benefits, but do not add markup in the hope it will boost AI visibility.
If someone is selling you services based on any of the above, they are selling you something Google has explicitly told you is unnecessary.
The Real Competitive Opportunity
Here is the honest picture of where opportunity sits.
The majority of Australian business websites publish generic, commodity content — articles that answer general questions with general answers. They are indistinguishable from each other. They look similar, they say similar things, and they offer no reason for Google (or a reader) to prefer them over anyone else.
Google’s AI systems are built to identify and surface the content that is genuinely different. Content from businesses that are actually experts. Content that documents real projects, real clients, real outcomes. Content that holds a specific point of view on contested questions. Content that provides Melbourne-specific context that a generic national provider cannot replicate.
This is the standard that is being set. And most businesses are nowhere near it yet.
The businesses that respond to this shift by creating more generic content — more AI-generated summaries, more keyword-stuffed service pages, more articles that say what everyone else is saying — will find themselves increasingly invisible.
The businesses that respond by publishing their genuine expertise — the lessons from real projects, the opinions formed from years of experience, the specific knowledge that their team has and that no AI can fabricate — will build an enduring, compounding advantage in search visibility.
What to Do This Quarter
If you want to improve your visibility in both regular Google Search and AI features, the priorities are:
1. Fix technical barriers first. Set up Google Search Console if you have not already. Identify pages that are not indexing correctly, have mobile usability issues, or have significant load time problems. These are the floors before any content investment pays off.
2. Audit your existing content for commodity vs non-commodity. For each article, ask: could this have been written by someone with no specific experience? If yes, it is commodity. Identify your five most important service pages and ask whether they contain genuine, specific expertise or generic descriptions.
3. Plan content around real experience. For the next quarter, commit to publishing content that comes from actual work — client scenarios (anonymised), specific technical problems solved, lessons from real projects. One article a week based on genuine expertise is worth more than ten generic articles.
4. Complete and maintain your Google Business Profile. For local Melbourne service businesses, your Business Profile is the single highest-ROI thing you can maintain. Regular posts, complete service descriptions, responding to reviews, accurate category selection. This feeds both local search and AI responses about your business.
5. Add images and video where you can. Not stock photography for the sake of it — real photos from real work, explainer videos on topics you know deeply. These differentiate you from the sea of identical content and create additional surface area in AI responses.
The guidance from Google is unusually clear on this: the businesses that win in AI search are the businesses with the most genuine expertise, the most useful real-world content, and the cleanest technical foundations. None of that is a shortcut. All of it compounds over time.
CX IT Services provides website design, SEO, and content strategy for Melbourne businesses looking to build genuine search visibility — not temporary tactics, but durable digital presence.
