The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the national governing body of tennis in Great Britain, recognised as the authoritative voice for the sport. By late 2024, their digital presence was strong, with high-performing content across rules, coaching, and participation. However, Google’s introduction of AI Overviews fundamentally changed the search landscape.
AI Overviews (AI-generated summaries appearing at the very top of search results) were beginning to answer tennis queries directly. For LTA, this posed both an opportunity and a risk:
If their content was cited, they could reinforce their authority and gain highly qualified traffic.
If excluded, they risked losing visibility despite ranking well in traditional results.
At that point, LTA content was appearing in just 80 AI Overviews (September 2024). With AI Overviews already present in nearly 30% of searches, LTA needed a strategy to ensure their expertise wasn’t sidelined and that their answers remained the ones people (and Google) trusted.
We designed and implemented a comprehensive strategy to maximise LTA’s visibility in AI Overviews. This was not about chasing shortcuts but about focusing on the fundamentals to make LTA the natural choice for Google’s AI-generated answers.
First, we restructured and clarified content across key pages. Each page was organised with clear, descriptive headings and a logical flow of information. Guides, such as those on serving techniques, were formatted in a way that allowed Google’s AI to extract accurate and digestible summaries.
We then expanded FAQ sections to provide concise, question-led answers to common tennis queries, such as “What are the tie-break rules in tennis?”. These were supported with FAQ schema to increase the likelihood of appearing in question-based AI Overviews.
Next, we strengthened LTA’s EEAT signals. Content was written or reviewed by recognised tennis experts, including coaches, players, and officials. Their names and credentials were clearly highlighted, ensuring authority and aligning with Google’s EEAT principles.
On-page SEO and internal linking were also prioritised. Metadata was optimised to reflect the intent of AI Overview-style questions, while internal links were updated to connect related resources. This not only improved topical depth but also meant that Google could sometimes surface multiple LTA links within a single AI Overview.
Finally, we worked on building topical authority and freshness. We identified and filled content gaps with new explainers, guides, and analysis pieces, while also keeping existing content up to date. This signalled to Google that LTA remained a reliable, authoritative source of tennis information.