SEO has been in a tough spot the past year.
AI Overviews took over the SERP. Traffic dropped across the board. For a while, it looked like Google was slowly closing the door on the open web altogether.
However, in July 2025, Google launched Web Guide in beta—and it might be an update SEOs can actually feel good about.
In this post, we’ll explain what Web Guide is, how it works under the hood, and what it means for SEOs, content teams, and the entire web ecosystem.
Let’s start.
What Is Google Web Guide?
Google Web Guide is an experimental feature that uses AI to find, surface, and organize results from across the web.
When you search for something, Web Guide acts as a research assistant who understands your query, scans the entire web, and brings back organized insights instead of just links.
Here's what a Web Guide result looks like:
It’s a hybrid of generative AI and the traditional search experience. You get an AI-generated answer for your query and a curated collection of relevant webpages you can explore.
As of December 2025, Web Guide only shows up if you opt in through Google Search Labs. Web Guide can appear for any informational queries. Initially, it was only available under the “Web” tab, but now it can also show up in the “All” tab.
Under the hood, Web Guide is powered by a custom version of Gemini (Google’s AI model) that's been specifically trained to parse search queries and organize web content into thematic clusters.
How Does Google Web Guide Work?
Web Guide uses something called query fan-out—a technique where an AI search system breaks your search query into multiple related sub-queries, then explores them simultaneously and generates a comprehensive response.
Consider the search query "how to start freelancing as a designer." Instead of providing a standard list of results, Web Guide might organize them into clusters like:
- Building your portfolio
- Finding your first clients
- Setting your rates
- Essential tools and software
Each cluster is generated by AI based on what users typically need to know about the topic and what relevant content exists across the web.
How Is Web Guide Different from Traditional Search Results, AI Overviews, and AI Mode?
Web Guide sits somewhere between Google's traditional search results and its newer AI-powered features.
Here's how it compares:
Traditional search results are a ranked list of pages based on relevance and authority. You click through pages one by one to find what you need.
AI Overviews synthesize information from multiple sources into a concise summary at the top of results. The goal is to answer your question directly without requiring clicks.
AI Mode offers a conversational experience where you can ask follow-up questions. It provides responses in a chat-style interface. Again, users don't have to visit external websites to get answers.
Web Guide takes a hybrid approach. Instead of just generating an answer or ranking pages by authority, it groups results into thematic clusters—creating a guided path to explore relevant content on the web.
Think of it this way:
Traditional search ranks content. AI Overviews summarize it. AI Mode converses about it. Web Guide organizes it.
If you’re curious about how your content performs in Google’s AI-driven experiences like AI Overviews & AI Mode, use the AI Visibility Toolkit by Semrush. It’s our brand-new solution for monitoring visibility in AI search and chatbots.
How Does Google Web Guide Impact SEO?
Google Web Guide could actually be good for SEO—or at least better than what we've been dealing with lately.
Here’s how it impacts SEO:
- Could reduce zero-click searches. Unlike AI Overviews, which answer questions directly and keep users on Google, Web Guide is built around surfacing and showcasing webpages. Users still need to click through to get the complete information, which means traffic could flow to websites instead of stopping at the SERP.
- It creates opportunities for new players. Web Guide doesn't just rely on traditional ranking signals. Because it organizes results by subtopics, well-written content from smaller sites can appear alongside major publishers if it clearly addresses a specific subtopic or angle within a broader theme.
- Topical coverage matters more than ever. Sites that build comprehensive content clusters around related topics—rather than targeting isolated keywords—are more likely to surface across multiple Web Guide results, increasing their overall visibility even if they don't rank #1 in a traditional sense.
We’re Excited for the Web Guide
Over the past few years, Google has made significant changes to search—most of which were bad for publishers. It seems like Web Guide is different, and it might actually bring back some of the traffic we've been losing to zero-click searches.
Time will tell whether Web Guide eventually rolls out to all users. Fingers crossed. But for now, it's nice to see Google experimenting with features that can actually benefit the open web.
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