What does Google’s biggest change in 25 years mean for wineries?

Google’s biggest change in 25 years signals AI search is here, does this mean we’re waving goodbye to traditional SEO?

In short, no. We spoke about the introduction of AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) to the SEO landscape in our client trends webinar in January. What further research has uncovered is that SEO still reigns supreme, with AI-generated search still drawing on the principles of SEO to surface results and recommendations. Of course, Google’s biggest change in 25 years, which landed in May, has delivered some tweaks to best practice. Combined with February’s “Hidden Gems” update, the change actually good news, particularly for smaller wine brands. Why? Because Google’s search change is actively rewarding specific, localised content written by real people. This means there’s a real opportunity for Australian wine brands to have a digital presence by being helpful. Google’s update has signalled a move from commodity content into rewarding more creativity and specific and clearly human-authored content.

In most instances, it means just a few tweaks to your existing copy and blogs to make them more likely to be picked up by traditional and AI-mode search. Here are a few ideas that you can action in around 30 minutes:

Think about your story when describing your venue location. It may be that you can add specific, local landmarks to the first paragraph of your ‘Visit Us’ page to give more context.

“Easy walking distance from {insert local landmark here}”

Highlight the local hidden gems with a personal touch

“We source our bread from Apex Bakery, a Tanunda institution where the wood-fired oven has been burning continuously since 1924”

Specify the human author

Connect your blogs with real people, add an author line and link it to your team bios.

Add regional connection and your credentials to your About Us page

Are your founders or key staff members active participants in local committees or other groups? What are their favourite local hot spots? Don’t forget awards, qualifications and other category recognition.

Why does this work?

Your content demonstrates high Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (EEAT) via specific detail that can only come from a trusted human (not Ai).

It creates a direct connection between your digital presence and your physical location.

Plus a note about website structure:

Schema Mark-up is the structure that allows Ai-agents to read and quickly verify your content on your website. Without it, your great content may get missed as the Ai engines don’t know what the content is about without a guide. There are lots of options available to assist:

Plugins like Yoast SEO, Rank Math or AIOSEO will easily guide you through the steps

It’s a new and constantly evolving space and we’ll keep bringing you some tips as we see the results in practice.