How to Do Keyword Research for SGE & AI Search in 2025

The New Frontier of Search

For decades, SEO has been a game of guessing keywords and chasing “10 blue links.” That game is officially over. The seismic shift to AI-powered, answer-focused experiences—like Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) and AI Overviews—has fundamentally rewritten the rules of visibility. The goal is no longer just to rank; it’s to become the trusted source an AI model cites to construct its answer. This isn’t a distant future; it’s the new reality of search.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. With AI Overviews poised to capture a massive share of search interactions, brands that fail to adapt risk becoming invisible. The urgency isn’t just about keeping up; it’s about establishing the foundational E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) that these systems demand to validate your content. Your keyword strategy is the blueprint for building that authority.

So, is keyword research dead? Absolutely not. But its purpose has evolved from finding strings of text to understanding user intent, semantic relationships, and the questions that fuel generative answers. This guide will provide the specialized techniques you need to succeed, moving beyond volume metrics to a strategy built on three core pillars:

• Mapping Question-Based Intent: Uncovering the real queries that drive AI responses.
• Structuring for Entity Authority: Organizing your findings to build topical dominance.
• Prioritizing for E-E-A-T: Identifying opportunities where your unique expertise can win.

This is your playbook for moving from keyword rankings to becoming an undeniable entity. Let’s begin.

Why Traditional Keyword Research Falls Short in the Age of AI

For years, we’ve been conditioned to chase keywords with the highest volume and lowest difficulty, treating them as the golden tickets to the top of the search results. But what happens when there is no traditional “top” to reach? The rise of generative AI in search fundamentally breaks this model. AI Overviews don’t just link to a single source; they synthesize information from across the web to provide a direct answer. This isn’t a simple algorithm update—it’s a paradigm shift that renders traditional keyword metrics dangerously myopic.

The Illusion of Volume and Difficulty

Chasing search volume is a fool’s errand when an AI can answer a million monthly searches with a single, synthesized response. The very concept of “keyword difficulty” is upended when you’re no longer competing against other websites for a link, but against the AI’s own judgment for a citation. Your goal isn’t to rank for a high-volume term; it’s to become the most authoritative source the AI must cite to build a trustworthy answer. This shifts the competitive landscape from a battle for position to a battle for entity-level authority. If your strategy is built on volume and KD scores, you’re optimizing for a version of search that is rapidly disappearing.

From Keyword Matching to Conversational Understanding

AI search engines don’t just match keywords; they understand context, nuance, and intent. They process full questions, anticipate follow-ups, and seek to satisfy the user’s entire informational journey in one place. A user isn’t just searching for “best running shoes”; they’re asking, “What are the best running shoes for flat feet and knee pain on a budget?” Traditional keyword research might identify those individual terms, but it fails to capture the holistic, conversational nature of the query. Your content must now answer the entire question, not just contain its component parts. This requires a deep understanding of semantic relationships and user journeys, not just a list of high-volume phrases.

The E-E-A-T Imperative in an AI World

This is where the game truly changes. AI models are designed to provide safe, accurate, and trustworthy information. Their entire reputation depends on it. Consequently, they are programmed to heavily favor sources that demonstrably embody E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). This is critically amplified for YMYL (Your Money Your Life) topics, but it applies to virtually every sector. The AI isn’t just looking for a page that mentions a keyword; it’s auditing your entire digital footprint to answer a critical question: “Why should I trust you?”

Your content must now prove its merit through:

• Demonstrable Expertise: Citing original data, research, and firsthand experience.
• Authoritative Backing: Earning links and citations from other established entities.
• Unmatched Depth: Covering a topic so thoroughly that you become the obvious, comprehensive source.

If your keyword research doesn’t funnel into a content strategy built on these pillars, you are invisible to AI. You might still rank for long-tail terms, but you will be locked out of the most valuable, traffic-driving AI Overviews and answers. The future of visibility belongs to entities, not just pages. It’s time to build accordingly.

The Core Principles of SGE & AI-Optimized Keyword Research

If you’re still chasing high-volume keywords, you’re playing a game that’s already been lost. AI search doesn’t just serve a list of links; it synthesizes information from across the web to construct a single, definitive answer. Your goal is no longer to rank for a term—it’s to become the source the AI cites. This requires a fundamental shift in how you approach keyword research, built on three non-negotiable principles.

Target the “Source” Intent, Not the “Answer” Intent

The most significant mindset shift is moving from targeting answers to targeting sourceworthiness. In the age of AI Overviews, users don’t click through to find an answer; the answer is given to them. Your only chance for visibility is if your content is the one the AI model uses to build that response. This means your keyword research must now identify opportunities where you can create content so comprehensive, authoritative, and trustworthy that an AI has no choice but to cite it. Think of it as moving from answering a single question to authoring the textbook on the entire subject. But how can you ensure your content is the source AI chooses? It starts with a ruthless focus on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). Your content must demonstrate:

• Unmatched Depth: Go beyond a simple how-to guide. Provide original data, case studies, and unique frameworks that can’t be easily replicated.
• Verifiable Expertise: Use keyword research to find topics where you can showcase first-hand experience, not just aggregate information from others.
• Authoritative Structure: Format your content to be easily parsed by AI, with clear headings, data tables, and logical step-by-step processes.

Master Question Framing and Long-Tail Variations

AI search is conversational. Users are no longer typing fragmented keywords; they’re asking full, multi-layered questions just as they would to a human expert. Your keyword research must now prioritize these long-tail, question-based queries that are most likely to trigger a generative AI response. This is where you move beyond traditional tools and into the realm of semantic analysis. You need to understand the complete question ecosystem around your core topics. This means analyzing:

• Question Modifiers: How do questions evolve from simple (“what is X”) to complex (“how does X compare to Y for use case Z”)?
• Conversational Phrases: Research the natural language people use when verbally searching or engaging with AI assistants.
• Follow-Up Intent: Anticipate the logical next questions a user would ask after their initial query is satisfied.

Tools that analyze “people also ask” boxes, forum discussions, and even video transcripts become invaluable here. They help you map the entire user journey, not just its starting point, allowing you to create a single resource that satisfies a whole spectrum of related intents.

Understand the Dominance of Entity-Based Search

At its core, modern AI understands the world not through keywords, but through entities—the people, places, things, and concepts that are all interconnected. Your keyword research is useless if it doesn’t help you build a map of these entity relationships. When an AI model evaluates a topic, it’s assessing your content’s ability to comprehensively cover an entity and all its connections. For example, if your entity is “electric vehicle,” the AI expects you to understand and explain its relationships to entities like “battery technology,” “charging infrastructure,” “government incentives,” and “environmental impact.” Your keyword research should therefore focus on identifying:

• Core Entity Keywords: The fundamental topics that define your area of authority.
• Attribute Keywords: The features, specifications, and defining characteristics of your core entities.
• Relationship Keywords: The terms that connect your entity to others in the knowledge graph.

This approach moves you from creating isolated pages to building interlinked content clusters that collectively demonstrate a profound, authoritative understanding of your entire field. It signals to the AI that you are a comprehensive source of truth, making you a prime candidate for citation in its generated answers. This is how you build unassailable entity authority.

A Practical Framework for SGE Keyword Discovery

You understand the why—traditional keyword metrics are myopic. Now, let’s get into the how. The goal is no longer to find keywords with high volume; it’s to discover the questions and concepts that fuel AI-generated answers. Your new discovery process is a hybrid approach, blending manual analysis with AI-powered tools to map the semantic territory you need to own.

Mine the SERPs for AI Patterns

Your first and most crucial step is manual analysis. This is the new foundation. Go to Google and start searching not as a marketer, but as your most ideal, curious customer. Type in your core topics and scrutinize the SERP like a detective. What do you see?

• AI Overviews & Snapshots: Which queries trigger a generative AI response? These are your highest-value targets. Note the structure of the answer. What sources is it pulling from? Is it a definition, a list, or a comparison? Your content must be crafted to become one of those cited sources.
• People Also Ask (PAA): This is a goldmine of semantic relationships. Don’t just look at the questions; click every single one. Watch how the PAA box repopulates with new, deeper questions. This reveals the entire conversational thread and user journey you need to content-map.
• Featured Snippets: Identify which queries trigger “position zero” answers. These are often the building blocks for more complex AI Overviews.

This manual audit tells you exactly what Google’s AI deems worthy of a direct answer. Your mission is to create content that is so comprehensive and authoritative that it becomes the obvious choice for that answer.

Leverage Conversational AI for Semantic Mapping

Why guess at user intent when you can converse with it? Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude are your new research assistants. They excel at uncovering the long-tail, natural language questions that traditional tools miss. The key is using strategic prompts.

Don’t just ask for “keywords about project management software.” Instead, prompt for depth:

• “Act as a project manager at a mid-size agency overwhelmed with tasks. What are the 20 most specific questions you would ask about choosing new software to improve team productivity and client reporting?”
• “Generate a complete FAQ for a webpage targeting ‘what is [topic]’. Now, generate a more advanced FAQ for users who already know the basics and are ready to compare solutions.”
• “Analyze the semantic relationship between these three topics: [Topic A], [Topic B], and [Topic C]. What are the core questions that connect them?”

These prompts move you beyond a list of terms and into a web of user problems. The output isn’t a keyword list; it’s a content blueprint for a topic cluster that demonstrates deep expertise and first-hand experience (E-E-A-T).

Adapt Your Traditional SEO Toolkit

Your existing SEO platforms are still powerful, but you must use them with a new objective. Shift your focus from individual keywords to entity coverage and question-based intent.

• Parent Topics & Content Gap Analysis: In tools like Semrush or Ahrefs, analyze the “Parent Topic” for your core terms. This shows you the broader semantic field you need to cover to be seen as a true authority. Then, run a content gap analysis on competitors who are consistently featured in AI Overviews. What subtopics are they covering that you aren’t?
• Questions Reports: This is arguably the most important report now. Export every question for your seed keywords. Filter them by intent—informational, commercial, transactional. The informational questions are your priority for capturing generative answer features.
• Shift from Volume to Value: A question with 100 searches per month that triggers an AI Overview is infinitely more valuable than a broad term with 10,000 searches that doesn’t. Use these tools to qualify the opportunity of a query, not just its popularity.

By fusing these three approaches, you stop chasing keywords and start building a knowledge ecosystem. You’re not just creating content; you’re structuring data for AI consumption, ensuring your brand is recognized as the entity that provides the most trustworthy, complete answers.

Structuring Content to Become an AI Source

You’ve identified the semantic questions and conversational intents that fuel AI search. Now, the critical question is: how do you architect your content so that AI models not only find it but actively trust it as a citable source? The answer lies in moving beyond publishing articles to structuring your data for machine consumption. This is where you transform your website from a library of pages into a recognized knowledge entity.

The Pillar-Cluster Model 2.0: Building a Knowledge Graph, Not Just a Website

The classic topic cluster model is due for a significant upgrade. In the AI era, your pillar page can no longer be just a good overview; it must be the undisputed ultimate guide on the subject. This is your primary entity landing page. Its job is to authoritatively define the topic, establish your expertise, and, most importantly, map out the entire semantic field of related concepts. The supporting cluster content, then, has a new, non-negotiable mandate: it must answer every single possible satellite question an AI might need to draw from to construct a comprehensive answer. We’re no longer just targeting user intent; we’re preemptively answering the AI’s data needs. Your cluster should be a closed-loop system of information, leaving no conceptual thread hanging.

Mastering the Art of the “Citable Chunk”

Since generative AI often pulls and cites information in a manner similar to featured snippets, your content must be engineered to win these positions. This requires a writing style built on extreme clarity and directness. But how do you format for this?

• Lead with the Answer: The first sentence of any paragraph addressing a key question should be a clear, concise, and definitive answer.
• Employ Scannable Formatting: Use bulleted lists, numbered steps, and bolded key terms to break down complex information, making it effortless for algorithms to parse and extract.
• Contextualize the Snippet: Follow your direct answer with 2-3 sentences of supporting context or rationale. This demonstrates depth and provides the “why” behind the “what,” enriching the data you’re providing to the AI.

This approach doesn’t just help you win a featured snippet; it structures your content into easily digestible, authoritative “chunks” that AI models are primed to cite.

Incorporating Multi-Format Evidence to Cement Authority

Text alone is no longer sufficient. AI Overviews are increasingly multi-modal, blending text, images, videos, and data points. To be seen as the most comprehensive source, your content must mirror this richness. Supporting your written arguments with original, high-quality evidence is the ultimate trust signal. This means commissioning original research to generate unique statistics, creating custom infographics that visualize complex data, and producing short, informative videos that demonstrate a process. When an AI looks for an answer and finds a page that not only explains a concept in text but also provides a supporting chart, a relevant statistic from a original study, and a video tutorial, it has found a definitive resource. This multi-format approach doesn’t just increase your citation likelihood; it builds an insurmountable moat of authority that pure text-based competitors cannot cross.

Ultimately, this entire structure serves one master: E-E-A-T. By creating a deeply interlinked knowledge hub written with clarity and backed by undeniable evidence, you are not just optimizing for a algorithm. You are conducting a symphony of signals that proclaims your expertise, making your brand an indispensable source for both users and the AI models that serve them.

Measuring Success and Iterating Your Strategy

Winning in AI search isn’t a one-time campaign; it’s a continuous cycle of measurement, learning, and refinement. The old dashboard, obsessed with organic traffic and position #1 rankings, is no longer sufficient. If your key performance indicators (KPIs) haven’t evolved, you’re flying blind in the new search environment. Your strategy must now account for a fundamental shift: the goal is not just to rank, but to be cited as a trusted source by the AI itself. This requires a new scorecard built for the age of answers.

New KPIs Beyond Organic Traffic

Your first step is to redefine what success looks like. A drop in traditional organic traffic is not an immediate signal of failure; it could mean your content is being efficiently summarized in an AI Overview, satisfying the user’s query without a click. This is the new “zero-click” reality, and your metrics must adapt. Start tracking visibility, not just visits. Key indicators now include:

• Impressions in AI Overviews: This is your new top-of-funnel metric. It measures how often your content is presented as a source within a generative answer. A high impression count here means the algorithm recognizes your authority, even if it doesn’t always drive a click.
• Citation Rate: How often is your brand specifically named and linked as a source within an AI-generated response? This is a powerful direct measure of your E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) signal strength.
• Branded Search Volume: As users repeatedly see your brand cited as an expert source in AI answers, their trust grows. Monitor for an increase in searches for your brand name—this indicates you’re successfully building entity authority and top-of-mind awareness.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR) from AI Overviews: When you are featured, how compelling is your page title and meta description? A low CTR suggests you need to optimize your on-page elements to better convert that newfound visibility.

Tracking Visibility in Search Console

Fortunately, you don’t need a crystal ball to find this data. Google Search Console’s Performance report is your primary window into this new landscape. While the interface is still evolving, you can start analyzing it with an AI-first lens. Filter your performance data by clicking on the “Search appearance” filter and look for new segments that might indicate AI-driven traffic. More importantly, analyze the queries driving your impressions. A surge in long-tail, question-based queries gaining impressions—even without a proportional rise in clicks—is a strong signal that your content is being processed and considered for AI Overviews. This query data is pure gold; it tells you exactly which topics and questions the AI sees you as an authority on, guiding your next content creation efforts.

The Continuous Feedback Loop

This entire process is a massive test-and-learn environment. The algorithms are learning, and so must you. Your content strategy must become agile. This means running disciplined A/B tests on the content formats that AI seems to favor: try creating a definitive guide with a clear summary box versus a more narrative-driven article and see which one gains more impressions in Search Console. Regularly reverse-engineer your competitors’ success. When you see a rival brand consistently cited in AI answers for your target queries, deconstruct their content. How is it structured? What questions does it answer directly? What supporting evidence does it provide? Use these insights to refine and elevate your own approach. Remember, in the AI era, standing still is falling behind. Your strategy is never finished; it’s perpetually in beta, always being optimized based on the performance data that truly matters.

Conclusion: Building for the Future of Search

The fundamental shift is clear: the goal is no longer to simply rank for keywords but to become the undeniable entity that AI algorithms learn to trust. This requires a move from chasing traffic to building profound authority, structuring your content as a comprehensive source of truth for both users and machines. The tactics we’ve outlined—from conversational keyword discovery to intent-rich content clustering—are your blueprint for achieving this.

Your journey starts with a single, decisive action. Don’t try to overhaul everything at once. Instead, begin with a strategic audit:

• Audit Your Authority: Analyze your top three pages. Do they demonstrate E-E-A-T, or are they superficial?
• Research One Topic Conversationally: Use an AI assistant to map the entire question ecosystem around one core subject.
• Create One Comprehensive Asset: Build a single, multi-format pillar page that answers every question you uncovered, establishing your topical depth.

In a world saturated with AI-generated content, the ultimate differentiator will be authentic human expertise. Algorithms are brilliant synthesizers, but they crave the credible, nuanced, and experienced perspective that only your brand can provide. This isn’t the end of SEO; it’s the beginning of a more meaningful era where quality, depth, and trust are the only currencies that matter. The opportunity to lead is yours for the taking.