By Tihan van der Walt | 13 November 2026
Google's own line on AI search is short: "The best practices for SEO remain relevant for AI features in Google Search (such as AI Overviews and AI Mode). There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary." It adds that "AI Overviews are only shown when our systems determine that it is additive to classic Search, and as such, often don't trigger."
That's worth keeping in mind the next time someone tells you SEO is dead and you need "GEO" instead. Here's what has actually changed in South Africa, and what hasn't.
StatCounter's October 2026 figures put Google at 92.89% of search in South Africa and Bing at 6.28%. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode "surface relevant links to help people find the information they're looking for quickly and reliably, as well as to help them explore content they may not have discovered before", and that "With AI Overviews, people have been visiting a greater diversity of websites for help with more complex questions."
So yes, it's worth it, as long as you aim at searches where someone is choosing a business ("electrician for a COC in Randburg") rather than general questions Google can answer itself.
Google's May 2025 post said "AI Overviews are now available in more than 200 countries and territories and in more than 40 languages", and a later one said "AI Mode is also expanding to over 180 new countries and territories in English, so more people can use it for complex questions." Google describes AI Mode as "particularly helpful for queries where further exploration, reasoning, or complex comparisons are needed."
To be eligible, Google says "a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet", and "There's also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add."
Google's helpful-content guide is the best checklist going. It asks: "Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?", "Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond the obvious?" and "Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge (for example, expertise that comes from having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place)?" It also says "Google's core ranking systems look to reward content that provides a good page experience."
Locally, that looks like suburb pages with real prices in rand, plus a Google Business Profile that's filled in properly.
Google lists the warning signs itself. "Are you producing lots of content on many different topics in hopes that some of it might perform well in search results?" "Are you mainly summarizing what others have to say without adding much value?" "Are you writing to a particular word count because you've heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (No, we don't.)" And on automation: "If you use automation, including AI-generation, to produce content for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings, that's a violation of our spam policies."
So a package promising 50 blog posts a month is buying exactly what Google says it doesn't want. Five useful pages beat fifty filler ones, and ranking for "marketing" is pointless if your buyers search "signage company Midrand".
Google says AI features may use a "query fan-out" technique, "issuing multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources", to build a response, and that "Just because a page meets all requirements, best practices, and complies with the policies, doesn't mean that Google will crawl, index, or serve its content."
The full how-to is in how to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and Google AI in South Africa. Paid placements exist, such as ChatGPT ads in South Africa, but they sit outside the answer.
Google says sites in AI features "are included in the overall search traffic in Search Console", reported "in the Performance report, within the 'Web' search type." It also says "We've seen that when people click from search results pages with AI Overviews, these clicks are higher quality (meaning, users are more likely to spend more time on the site)", and suggests you "track conversions and time spent on your site in other tools, such as Google Analytics."
My measure is enquiries, counted with the setup in the GA4 and Google Tag Manager guide.
Hold the proposal up against Google's guide. It says "SEO can be a helpful activity when it is applied to people-first content, rather than search engine-first content", warns against "search engine-first content made primarily to gain search engine rankings", and asks "Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don't get as much attention or care?"
Then ask the agency what they'll do in the first 90 days, and how you'll see the leads.
Google's AI features page says "crawling can take anywhere from several days to several months, depending on how often our systems determine a page needs to be refreshed", and that "If you've made changes, you can request that Google recrawl your pages."
In my experience of how these things go, expect three to six months before it moves, and longer if the industry is crowded. As a rough guide, expect three to six months before rankings move, and longer if the industry is crowded.
Google says "The best practices for SEO remain relevant for AI features in Google Search (such as AI Overviews and AI Mode)."
Google said in May 2025 that "AI Overviews are now available in more than 200 countries and territories and in more than 40 languages".
A newer label for getting cited by AI tools. Google: "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary."
Google's line is about intent: "If you use automation, including AI-generation, to produce content for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings, that's a violation of our spam policies."
No. "There's also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add."
Sometimes an outside look says "you're fine, keep going". Sometimes it's three fixes and a rewrite.
Want SEO that brings in enquiries, not just rankings?
MinuteSteak is one of the big players in South African digital marketing, with about ten years of SEO, Google Ads and website work for clients including EasiGrass Group, SANParks, Brand South Africa, Redtech and Falco Appliances. Linbro Park, Sandton, by appointment only.
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