Google's New AI Mode, Why Reviews Matter & How to Handle Broken Links
SEO TL;DR #62 10/03/2025
SEO X AI
Google AI Mode: The Next Evolution of Search
Google has officially rolled out AI Mode, an opt-in experiment within Google Search Labs powered by Gemini 2.0.
AI Mode is a dedicated AI search experience which sits in a separate tab and provides advanced reasoning and multimodal search (text, voice, and images). It uses real-time web citations with a new “query fan-out” technique, issuing multiple related searches across different data sources to provide deeper answers.
Gemini 2.0 allowed for faster, more in-depth responses with more links appearing in AI-generated summaries. You can opt-in by going to google.com/aimode, but you must be from the US (a VPN works) to join the waitlist.
💡 Takeaway. As much as publications may wish for it, AI isn’t going anywhere. Websites relying on traffic from informational intent queries (how, what, where, why, etc.) are seeing the biggest traffic losses thanks to AI Overviews, GPT and Perplexity. Unfortunately, there’s no way to opt out other than blocking AI access entirely via nosnippet or max-snippet - but that also removes your chance of being cited.
You can’t control AI Overviews, but there are things we know:
AI engines reference a lot of third-party, affiliate sites (AKA ‘earned media’)
AI engines prefer direct questions and answers. They don't understand nuance, so if you want to rank in the AI overviews for “what is voltage rating”, creating a page called “what is voltage rating” is typically better (for AI at least), as demonstrated in this post by .
AI Overviews are incredibly volatile - more so than organic search. Answers and links can change daily, so always treat any links within AIOs as an added bonus to your overall organic growth strategy.
Above all else, you should be looking to diversify your traffic. Don’t rely solely on Google to drive your traffic; take an omnichannel approach, incorporating email, paid and social channels.
General
Google Handles Over 5 Trillion Searches Per Year
Google has revealed that it now processes over 5 trillion searches annually - a massive jump from 2 trillion in 2016 and 1.2 trillion in 2012. This was noticed by Glenn Gabe and highlighted on Search Engine Roundtable.
It shows how search continues to evolve, especially with the introduction of AI-powered features like AI Overviews, Circle to Search, and Google Lens. It demonstrates just how many opportunities there are to reach users now, especially with AI expanding the types of questions people ask.
Google is still the dominant gateway to online discovery, but how people search and what they see is evolving fast.
SEO X CRO
Reviews Still Matter, But Consumer Behaviour Is Changing
A new study by BrightLocal revealed that while reviews still influence consumer decisions, how people interact with them is evolving.
Consumers no longer expect flawless 5-star reviews and see them more as vanity metrics than true quality indicators.
75% of U.S. adults have written a review in the last five years, showing that people are happy to share feedback when given a reason.
While Google remains the top review platform, consumers also turn to YouTube, TikTok, and local news sites for more authentic insights.
💡 Takeaway. This data shows how important it is to be present on multiple platforms. Video content and social media now influence purchasing decisions as much as traditional review sites. The data also shows that people are willing to leave reviews if prompted at the right time.
It's also important to focus on building authenticity, which can be as simple as responding to reviews - good or bad - to build trust and credibility.
SEO X PPC
Google Ads Now Triple Serving on the Same Search Page
Google has been seen displaying the same ad from the same advertiser up to three times on a single search result. Ads have been found appearing at the top, in the local pack, and at the bottom.
This comes off the back of Google’s recent update on how the Google Ads auction works - which essentially explains that Google will run different auctions for each ad location.
Organic visibility is facing more challenges than ever, with AI search features and now aggressive ad placements pushing traditional results further down. This only stresses the need for a multi-channel approach to marketing for maintaining visibility and traffic.
Technical SEO
Should You Redirect all 404s to the Homepage?
In another Google Search Central short video, Martin Splitt answered the question:
Can redirecting all 404 pages to the homepage with 301 redirects have a negative effect on rankings or overall website performance in search?
In short, the answer is yes, it can have a negative impact. Firstly, Martin addressed how annoying it is to the user. A 404 is a clear signal that a webpage, whether a product or a page, no longer exists. Clicking on a link expecting one thing and then being directed to the homepage is annoying.
Martin also clarified that this is a problem for crawlers, who can end up getting stuck in a loop when trying to follow links back to the homepage.
So Why do SEOs do This?
Mainly, it’s done to preserve domain rating - something many SEOs are terrified of losing - even if it is just a vanity metric. There’s also this concept that if a user is sent to a 404 page, there’s no chance they will convert, but if you send them to the homepage, there’s always a chance they’ll be funnelled into your sales cycle.
My opinions on this have changed over the years. Firstly, while 404s are technically OK, I don’t believe they’re ever a good thing to have on your website. There are two main types of 404s
Internal 404s - where your own website links to a page which no longer exists - more control.
External 404s - where a third-party website links to your 404 page - less control.
Regular crawls can help identify internal 404s on your site. In most cases, you should update these links to point to pages which exist. For example, if you’re linking to a pair of blue jeans from a blog, swapping the image/link to a similar pair of blue jeans makes sense. If you can’t do this, then removing the link is probably best.
In the video, Martin states that redirects should only be used for like-for-like content and not what you think is the closest match. There’s nuance here for external links as sometimes a redirect is your only tool.
Actively sending people to your 404 page by not adding a redirect can sting a bit, especially if the link is from a high-traffic article. You can always reach out to the site that linked to your content and ask them to update it, but from someone who has managed 100s of website migrations, this is often a waste of time.
If like in the jeans example above, someone features one of your old products in their blog, I don’t see the harm in redirecting to a similar product. I think this is a better user experience than the person just landing on your 404 page, and it has a much better chance of converting.
Either way, improving your 404 page by including links to your most popular sections can encourage users to continue browsing. I’ve seen bounce rates improve by up to 50% by making a few tweaks. This way, you’re still signalling to people and crawlers that the content no longer exists, but you're being a bit more helpful by guiding users to other areas of the site that might be of help.
Content SEO
SEO-Driven Content Architecture
In this Whiteboard Friday, Adriana Stein asks the question: does all of your content come together in a structure that allows it to be scaled? Adriana shows how to accumulate organic traffic, clicks, keyword rankings, and drive conversions by creating SEO-driven content architecture.
Check out the full article/video here - it’s worth a watch!