If you’re used to thinking about search engine optimization (SEO) as a race to the top of Google’s search results, that mindset needs an update. Search is still where discovery begins, but how that discovery works has changed.

Parents are still searching for schools. They’re still using Google, but now, more of those searches are answered by AI-generated summaries, not direct links. Since their rollout in 2024, Google’s AI Overviews' presence in search results has surged by more than 490%.

This shift affects how families learn, research, and engage with your school, or whether they even reach your website at all.

From Clicks to Comprehension

In the past, search was (fairly) simple. A parent might type “private schools near me,” skim the first few listings, and click through to school websites to gather information. Those top links were prime real estate. Everything from your metadata to your site speed could influence where you landed on the page, and if a family clicked.

Fast forward, and search results are no longer a list of links. They’re dynamic, visual, and often AI-generated. On both desktop and mobile, users see summaries, overviews, reviews, FAQs, and videos, sometimes before they see a single clickable result. With tools like Google’s AI Overviews, users can get a full answer without ever visiting a site.

The competition has shifted from rankings to visibility in AI, and instead of SEO, we’re hearing more terms like AIO (Artificial Intelligence Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).

Parents Are Still Searching, but the Journey Looks Different

Think about how you use Google now. You might ask a full question instead of typing keywords, or you might skim the AI-generated answer at the top of the page and move on without clicking anything. Families do the same, and they’re asking full questions like:

• “What are the best schools for STEM in Massachusetts?”
• “Which schools offer strong support for students with ADHD?”
• “How do boarding schools prepare students for college?”

The answers they see may not come directly from your site. Instead, Google pulls content from across the Internet. That includes your website, yes, but also directories, articles, review platforms, and even YouTube videos to generate a summary.

Sometimes that content includes your school, and sometimes it includes your competitors. And often, the AI doesn’t attribute the source at all. By one account, 99% of AI Overviews were sourced from the top 10 web results.

Matthew Prcotor, CEO at Narrative Bent, phrased it well when he posted:

“When you ask the AI a question, it fans out and performs a bunch of searches, combines that against its own training data, and generates a completely unique response right then and there. If your brand is recommended everywhere, it becomes part of the model. If it’s not, no tool or hack will save you.”

Is your school one of the voices being summarized, or are you invisible?

AI and SEO for Schools: What’s Changing and How to Stay Visible

Unfortunately, pages featured in AI summaries often receive fewer clicks.

According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, Google users who encountered an AI‑generated summary (AI Overview) on the results page were much less likely to click on links to websites.

• When an AI summary appeared, only about 8% of visits resulted in a click on a traditional search result link — compared with 15% when no summary appeared.
   
• Some reports have found a 34.5% drop in click-through rates for the top position, thanks to Google's AI search results.

That means even if your SEO is strong, you might be fighting for a smaller slice of visibility in AI platforms, and if your school isn’t represented in the AI response, you’re not even in the race.

While broad traffic may decrease, Google is quick to point out that the visitors who do click are more intentional and that “AI Overviews drive 'higher-quality' clicks.”

That is a possibility, and that's why understanding how to get your school to show up in AI search results matters. SEO still plays a major role, but now it must support something bigger: building a brand that AI recognizes, trusts, and includes in its responses.

What’s Actually Happening in AI Search?

Search is changing fast. At first glance, it still looks like a typical search: type a question, get an answer. But tools like Google’s AI Overview and ChatGPT are reshaping how people discover and evaluate schools online.

AI Search is not SEO Search

When a parent uses Google’s AI Overview or interacts with ChatGPT, the result they see depends on how the platform generates its answers—and that varies. For ChatGPT and similar large language models (LLMs), responses typically come from a pre-trained dataset that ended at a specific cutoff date.

These tools don’t access live websites or newly published pages unless browsing is explicitly enabled. They're referencing a compressed version of what they already know based on the content available when the model was trained.

Google’s AI Overview works differently. It draws on Google’s real-time web index and uses AI to summarize that information. So while it's powered by generative models, it still reflects the current state of the web. If your school’s content is well-structured and present in trusted directories or review sites, it has a stronger chance of being featured.

In both cases, visibility hinges on whether your school was/is present in the ecosystem—either in the training data or indexed sources—before the search ever happened. That’s a shift from traditional SEO.

Traditional SEO is Dynamic. AI Search Is Predictive.

In traditional SEO:

• You publish a page.
• Google crawls it, indexes it, and ranks it based on experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, also known as “EEAT.”
• You can improve rankings over time by updating content, earning backlinks, and following SEO best practices.

That process is ongoing and responsive. If you make changes, you can often see results in days or weeks. You can optimize your metadata, add schema, create new blog content, and slowly climb the rankings, and that’s why so many school marketing strategies still rely heavily on SEO—and rightly so. It works!

AI-generated results, on the other hand, behave differently:

• LLMs like ChatGPT don’t discover new schools—they resurface known entities based on patterns from past data.
• Google’s AI Overviews summarize indexed content, but inclusion depends on how well your school is represented across the web—not just on your website.

Whether the query is branded (“Is [Your School Name] good for STEM?”) or non-branded (“Best STEM high schools in Connecticut”), the answer is pulled from a limited set of known, relevant entities. If your school appears, it’s likely because it’s already been cited, reviewed, or associated with that topic across multiple trusted platforms.

What This Means for Your School

You can’t optimize your way into AI visibility with a single blog post or a few keywords. Instead, you need to build a consistent reputation over time—one that AI platforms recognize and resurface as authoritative. That includes maintaining your site, contributing helpful content, earning mentions across third-party sites, and participating in the broader conversation around education.

If ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overview lists your school as a strong fit for something like “top boarding schools with outdoor leadership programs,” it’s likely because:

• Your school was already recognized in the model’s training data
• You were cited or linked by other trusted sources
• You’ve built a reputation in relation to the topic being asked

It’s the result of repeated, high-quality signals confirming that connection.

AI Models Don’t “Find” You — They Already Know You (or They Don’t)

When AI platforms generate summaries or responses, they aren’t "discovering" new schools. They’re referencing organizations that already hold authority in that category.

This is true for both branded and non-branded queries. Even when a parent asks a broad question like “What are good schools for visual arts?”, the AI tool isn’t exploring every single option, but it’s drawing from a set of entities known to be relevant to that subject.

Search is Still Search, but the Game Has Changed

This doesn’t mean SEO is dead. In fact, strong SEO practices are still how your school’s content gets discovered, cited, and eventually included in AI training datasets, which vary widely by model, organization, and how “live” the system is designed to be.

You may see AI Overviews in Google referencing directory listings, Niche profiles, third-party blog posts, or even YouTube videos more often than your school’s homepage. That’s why it’s so important to control your message across multiple platforms, not only your website.

Think of it as optimizing for future AI visibility.

Implications for Schools

If your school isn’t showing up in AI-generated results, it’s not because you didn’t use the right keyword in your blog last week. It’s likely because the model didn’t recognize your brand as a trusted source at the time. To get mentioned, you need to start working to be part of the broader conversation about schools like yours.

That means:

• Building brand reputation online
• Being referenced by others (not just yourself)
• Publishing content that’s structured, factual, and helpful
• Owning your presence across directories and review platforms
• The strategy has shifted from optimization to recognition.

If ChatGPT lists your school in response to a question about “top boarding schools with outdoor leadership programs,” it’s because your brand has enough public footprint, credible mentions, and consistent associations with that category to be recognized as relevant.

It wasn’t a one-time blog post that made that happen; it was a pattern. Congrats!

What Gets Your School Mentioned in AI?

You can’t hack your way in—but you can build your way there. This shift means your communications and content strategy should focus more on:

• Clear Brand Identity
  • Your school needs a well-defined mission and value proposition that's easy to understand and repeat.
     
• Structured, Search-Friendly Content
  • Use Q&A formats, short summaries, and headers. Format matters.
     
• Directory Listings & Reviews
  • Get your school on third-party directories and review sites like Niche, GreatSchools, Private School Review, etc. These often get pulled into AI Overviews.
     
• Third-Party Mentions
  • You don’t control the model’s output, but you can influence what others are saying about you. Think guest posts, press coverage, awards, and community collaborations.
     
• Thought Leadership
  • Collaborate with known voices in your space. AI tools weigh reputation, so schools mentioned by experts are more likely to be referenced.
     
• Participate Publicly
  • Being active in relevant conversations (on social, in webinars, in community groups) contributes to your school’s share of voice.
     
• Helpful, Factual, Evergreen Content
  • Answer the questions parents are asking: tuition, outcomes, programs, day-to-day experience. Blogs, guides, and FAQs— they all count and they’re still important!

Key Takeaway

Many schools are investing in SEO (as they should), but that’s only one part of the visibility puzzle now. To have your school show up in AI search results, it must already have earned recognition across the Internet. While you can’t go back in time, it means your brand needs to be clear, consistent, and helpful across multiple platforms and channels.

Want help improving your school's online presence? Finalsite’s team of school marketing experts can help you build a brand that stands out—in search results and AI.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Connor has spent the last decade within the field of marketing and communications, working with independent schools and colleges throughout New England. At Finalsite, Connor plans and executes marketing strategies and digital content across the web. A former photojournalist, he has a passion for digital media, storytelling, coffee, and creating content that connects.