AI Mode’s Thematic Search: Implications for content & visibility

The launch of AI overviews means that the approximately hundreds of millions of people who use Google to search daily can now search more niche and conversational queries, which has already left many search marketers rethinking their SEO strategies. 

AI Mode, which was recently launched, takes AI-driven search one step further, responding to more complex queries with advanced reasoning and enabling follow-up questions. One of the methods AI Mode utilises to achieve this is the Query fan-Out Technique. 

The Query fan-Out Technique triggers various searches related to your original query, collecting data from multiple different sources, summarising this content so that users can benefit from a well-rounded and in-depth view on a topic.

Here is a current example of what the search results in AI mode might display when searching “low intensity workouts”:

In December 2024, Google released a patent sharing information on Thematic Search, which closely resembles the Query Fan-Out technique but may offer additional clues into how AI Mode generates its answers.

In this blog, we’ll run through:

• What is Thematic Search?
• How does Thematic Search work?
• Implications for website visibility and tracking
• Tips to adapt to Thematic Search

Thematic search involves taking a user’s search query and identifying related search queries, categorising each one by theme, and providing a summary for each. This makes it easier for users to scan information that answers their original search query as well as additional related subtopics.

Thematic search means that one query can lead to multiple queries, all containing their own summary. The below points describe how Thematic Search generates summaries and displays itself in search results: 

• One main aspect of Thematic Search is its ‘summary generator’ capability. This can sometimes use a large language model to generate original summaries.
• It uses passages from search results to provide summaries for different themes, and may use context clues such as a page’s title and metadata.
• It can rank themes based on their relevance to the original search query. 
• The content within each theme is summarised from a variety of sources, which may make it difficult to track link attribution and visibility.
• These can be displayed in various formats, including horizontal and vertical carousels, lists, UI cards, etc.

The patent provides various examples of user interface displays. Below are two examples of what the user display may be according to the different methods of generating themes:

Source: Thematic Search patent document

Themes may be generated by selecting semantic keywords from their chosen sources and connecting them with related keywords. For example, when a user searches “moving to Denver”, results such as “pros and cons”, “cost of living”, and “neighbourhoods” may appear. It may work to map multiple keywords from these results, and then connect those keywords to similar ones from different additional sources to generate a theme.

It may be that due to the nature of how Thematic Searches produces its summaries, including collating multiple sources under one theme, that it becomes difficult to track your content’s visibility and potentially more difficult to garner visits to your website. 

While you may be ranking for a user’s first search query, if Thematic Search is triggered, a user may be satisfied with the summary that answers their initial question without needing to visit the site, and may instead visit a source addressing a different but related theme or user query. It’s essential to note that the rise of zero-click searches has been evident for some time and is not an obstacle, but rather an opportunity to be leveraged.

Google’s patent regarding Thematic search can provide search marketers with potential tips to adapt to the possibility of this approach: 

• Produce content that answers various user questions and intents, whether it’s in one page or creating additional pages to address related subtopics. 
• Create structured content with clear and descriptive titles and meta descriptions, providing Google with as many clues as possible about your content as this may be taken into account by the Thematic Search engine. 

If you need help benchmarking your presence in AI search, and mapping out how to boost visibility in AI tools, find out about our AI Visibility Frameworks.