Winning at Search: Gannett’s Approach to AI and SEO

How users find digital information is rapidly evolving. 

With the advent of AI-driven search technologies like SearchGPT and Perplexity, searchers now get direct answers to their digital queries, minimizing the need for traditional searching and filtering. 

Recognizing this search paradigm shift, Google launched AI Overviews, AI-generated summaries at the top of search results, crowding out yesteryear’s sponsored ad spots and top story recommendations.

They’re becoming a staple in search engine results pages (SERPs), appearing in up to 47% of queries, according to Search Engine Journal.

They’re even more prevalent for longtail keyword searches (eight or more keywords), according to a BrightEdge survey. Those hold immense value for publishers as they attract audiences with specific intent, making them a crucial component of any digital marketing strategy.

This tectonic shift in behavior has led to noticeable declines in Google referral traffic for some publishers, though Google Search continues to be a significant source of traffic for many.

In this environment, how can media brands adapt their search strategies to mitigate the impact of AI Overviews and other AI-based search tools to publish high-performing stories with quality and authority? 

To find answers, we recently sat down with Gannett VP of Product Jessica Davis, a former journalist who leads their SEO team, to get her thoughts on this changing landscape. Gannett publishes USA Today and runs 200+ newsrooms across the US.

Winning at search and the user journey

How can publishers survive and prosper in this environment? Do you see value in adjusting SEO workflows to get click-throughs, or is this all beyond our control and not worth focusing on?

Jessica Davis: Understanding that Google is reacting to shifts in user behavior is what we can anchor ourselves to.

It’s safe to say AII Overviews aren’t going away. Google announced last year that they’re rolling them out to more than a hundred new countries and territories and that they’ll reach more than 1 billion users monthly.

There is fear about this stuff.

We’ve positioned AI search as part of Gannett’s overall search strategy, coalescing around best practices as an organization and testing workflows. We don’t know a lot [about traffic from AI Overviews], but it’s understood that clickthrough is probably pretty small, [maybe] 20%. Google hasn’t yet provided metrics on how to measure the impact. 

It’s worthwhile to see if we can reverse engineer SEO to develop new search experiences. That’s one of the super strengths of the SEOs I work with. 

Is there a reset when thinking about customer journeys, the “rules of the road,” so to speak?

Jessica Davis: There’s a lot of skepticism that AI Overviews increase the time a searcher spends within Google because it’s easier than hunting through the 10 blue [ad] links. But there is a benefit to the user— increasing time to value.

My Boomer parents just discovered ChatGPT and are delighted. My mom told me, “Before, when planning my travel, I would see all these [search] ads, and I couldn’t get the information easily. And now, I can. Then I can look up very specific things.”

It’s changing how people start their search journeys and how they seek information.

As publishers, we need to consider their intent and where they are in those journeys. What does that journey look like? Is the information correct or not? It may be fast and convenient but steer you in the wrong direction. It puts [the onus] on the user to verify the information.

And when they do decide to click on a link, it may be deeper into their journey and more specific to what they need.

How do you stand out in this landscape?

Jessica Davis: It’s going deeper beyond the surface level, strengthening the value proposition of what information we offer compared to AI Overviews or chatbot experiences.

Empowering journalists in the SEO workflow

Regarding using or developing AI search tools like that, what’s your approach?

Jessica Davis: Does it create value for journalists or our audience? 

When we can answer [yes] to both, those are the great use cases. 

Talk about the AI-assisted summary you built to improve search.

Jessica Davis: We call it Key Points, the article highlights at the top of the story. It launched the same week as AI Overviews, and it’s been really successful for us.

In our workflows, journalists press a button in our content management system to generate a summary of the article they’ve written—hints and gems beyond the headline. 

Journalists like that they can review it, which we require to keep humans in the loop with AI. Then, they can publish, make changes, or scrap it. It’s very empowering for them. 

What were the results and takeaways for search? 

Jessica Davis: In our internal analysis, stories with Key Points, especially the AI-assisted ones, had higher engage time on average, which was beneficial for search ranking. 

We’re excited because it’s good for busy readers who can choose where they spend their time online. By giving them that little heads up, [they’re] actually consuming more of the story.

And for newsrooms?

Jessica Davis: If you want your story read, for people to spend time on the hard work you put into it, include them at the top of your article. It invites people in to go deeper with you.

Choosing the right AI tools and getting the newsroom on board

How are you thinking about building AI models or adopting functionality like our Content Helper, which can help journalists write better headlines for search, for example? 

Jessica Davis: Be open-minded about the opportunity and how it can benefit us. You don’t want to be on the sidelines for these tools. 

Anchor yourselves to your data—be data-informed. Understand your referral sources and challenge yourself to ask, “What do our users need from us?”

Once you have the data, whom are you sharing it with? What are you measuring? Are you looking at your predominant referral sources? 

For most publishers, that’s going to be organic search today. But as you look to diversify your referral sources, scenario planning can help.

For your newsroom, that could be as simple as including data in your internal newsletter. Holding time to talk about these topics is a great first step in eliminating that feeling of, “Oh my gosh, the tsunami of change is coming for us. We’re being disrupted.”

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