AI has made a sweeping entrance into all of our lives, helping to automate tasks and research information. But, how has it impacted SEO and the wider search landscape?
Google released its AI Overviews (A/O) search feature back in May as part of its Search Labs experiments. This was their entry into the world of AI search - which they called the Search Generative Experience (SGE). After several months and having been fully integrated into search, it’s now widespread across many keywords, changing the way users interact with Google search results.
This article explores Google’s AI Overviews in depth and how it has impacted SEO. We’ll dive into what AI Overviews are, how to optimise for them, and what you can do to maintain your presence on Google.
(I’ve been watching the show ‘Victoria’ on Netflix ok…)
The impact on your website’s SEO is unclear at the moment. There are conflicting studies on the outcome of click-through rate (CTR) from results appearing in AI Overviews.
One study found CTR improved as a result of AI Overviews, another said the opposite. Saying this, the latter study was better designed and was performed when A/O was more developed.
From a theoretical point of view, it’s difficult to say how AI influences CTR. On one hand, users are getting all of their information for a search presented to them immediately. On the other hand, users don’t fully trust AI at the moment and results are so-so on some searches, so it makes sense to click the sources and check the information.
As Google Search Console doesn’t specify clicks and impressions that come from A/O, you can’t assess the performance of your pages when they appear inside. Still, there has to be some benefit to achieving a spot in A/O as you’ll effectively appear twice on the first page!
The best way to assess if AI Overviews works for you is to try and get in the snippet and measure the results. For that, you’ll have to know how to optimise your content to have a chance of ranking inside.
What are AI Overviews?
AI Overviews (A/O) are AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of Google search results, providing quick, concise answers to search queries. These overviews can show up in various formats, like mini-articles, lists, or tables, and may appear before or after paid ads depending on the query. They can also include clickable link cards that guide users to the sources of the information or to related topics. AI Overviews can provide answers to both simple and complex search queries. They can even provide interactive answers where users can customise their answer with buttons and additional options. Here’s what they look like (you may have seen them already):
(I’ve been watching the show ‘Victoria’ on Netflix ok…)
How are they generated?
For the most part, Google is using the top ranking results (the first page) to generate the information in the AI Overviews snippet. This means if you have a top ranking for a given search term, you have a good chance of making it into the snippet. Some studies have indicated the links in AI Overviews are taken from the top 10 results 99% of the time. But studies appear to be mixed, with some claiming the feature only appears just half of the time. One thing is clear though, AI Overviews favours authoritative sites. Most of the sites referenced include the likes of Wikipedia and Youtube. There was a situation when A/O was using Reddit and Quora results, but this is no longer the case. A welcome surprise given how much Reddit is preferred over most sites in the current state of search.What is the current state of AI Overviews?
Since releasing, Google has experimented with AI Overviews a fair bit. They released the feature slowly, but now it is widespread for many different searches and search intents. For the time being, AI Overviews only appear to be showing for informational search queries. That is, they are only appearing for searches like “how to tie a shoe lace” or “best cities to visit in France”. This was confirmed in a study by seoClarity:This doesn’t mean they’re not appearing in commercial search either, however. There have been some reports of Google experimenting with commercial AI Overviews for product and review-related searches. This only appears to be a slim number of cases though. Here’s the original Tweet:CONFIRMED: AI Overviews still almost entirely INFORMATIONAL in intent
We looked at over 1 million keywords from our @seoClarity Research Grid (US) and found that over 96% have informational user intent. AIOs show in purely transactional queries only 1.2% of the time. pic.twitter.com/I4rlpkdplM — Mark Traphagen 🏳️🌈 (they/them) (@marktraphagen) September 17, 2024
What this means for site and business owners is you can expect to find AI Overviews ranking at the top of search results for any information queries related to your industry. This includes searches with prefixes like “how”, “what”, “when”, etc. Google isn’t coming after your commercial keywords just yet. But it looks as if they’re experimenting, so keep an eye out.🚨 Alert Retailers: Product Carousels in AI Overviews are back for Commercial Queries 👀👇
I've identified product carousels getting again triggered for product focused queries with a mix of commercial/informational intent, which are right now ranked by a mix of guides and… pic.twitter.com/ab3sfsrYdG — Aleyda Solis 🕊️ (@aleyda) September 9, 2024
How do they impact your SEO?
The impact on your website’s SEO is unclear at the moment. There are conflicting studies on the outcome of click-through rate (CTR) from results appearing in AI Overviews.
One study found CTR improved as a result of AI Overviews, another said the opposite. Saying this, the latter study was better designed and was performed when A/O was more developed.
From a theoretical point of view, it’s difficult to say how AI influences CTR. On one hand, users are getting all of their information for a search presented to them immediately. On the other hand, users don’t fully trust AI at the moment and results are so-so on some searches, so it makes sense to click the sources and check the information.
As Google Search Console doesn’t specify clicks and impressions that come from A/O, you can’t assess the performance of your pages when they appear inside. Still, there has to be some benefit to achieving a spot in A/O as you’ll effectively appear twice on the first page!
The best way to assess if AI Overviews works for you is to try and get in the snippet and measure the results. For that, you’ll have to know how to optimise your content to have a chance of ranking inside.
Just be wary of hallucinations
Getting a top spot in Google AI Overviews might seem like a high priority, but there are still some teething issues being experienced with the feature. The most obvious one is AI hallucinations. In the simplest terms, a hallucination is where AI will make up the information in order to provide a result. This means, if your brand is present in the snippet, there is a (small) chance Google could get the information wrong and reference you as a source. This could frustrate users and even have a negative impact on your brand image if you’re associated with that misinformation. Unfortunately, you can’t stop Google from using your content in AI Overview yet without excluding your site from their index altogether. Just make sure to keep an eye on how Google is answering questions in your industry and assess whether the AI Overviews feature is one you want to be in.How to optimise for AI Overviews
At the moment, Google hasn’t released any official documentation on how to rank in AI Overviews. But there have been some studies from the community that show how you could achieve a placement. It’s been made pretty clear (as detailed in some of the studies above) that you need a first place ranking to achieve a placement in A/O. So, before considering anything else, ensure you are on the first page for your target keyword. This means you should follow the same strategy you have currently - don’t change anything. When you reach the higher rankings on the first page (5 and above), then start considering specific tactics to land a A/O placement. For those tactics, there are few. However, SEO Cryus Shepard showed you could get into the AI Overviews feature by writing your content so it aligns with the existing AI results. Here’s his original Tweet:By mimicking what Google has already created in the AI Overviews snippet, you have a better chance of being a featured link. This does come with a drawback though. As Cryus notes in his experiment, although he achieved an AI Overview position, he lost the featured snippet for the keyword. Likely resulting in a net decrease in clicks to his page.Mini SEO Case Study: Getting a site ranking in multiple Google AI Overviews
• Simply updated the webpage to closely match the text of the AI Overview🤷 • If the site was ranking in the top 10, it typically won a reference link • Easy come, easy go. These things change A LOT pic.twitter.com/erNniVr3SV — Cyrus (@CyrusShepard) May 30, 2024