What are google’s ai overviews? and should you be concerned about them?
During the Google Marketing Live event in May, Google introduced its new AI-organized search results experiment called AI Overviews. Google stated at the time that it found people used search more with AI Overviews and were more satisfied with their results. However, since the rollout, people have been seeing fewer AI Overviews each month. That’s because not only has Google had some technical difficulties with AI Overviews, but they are removing more overviews each month from search queries. In this month’s blog post, the D4S team is taking a deep dive into what AI Overviews are and whether Google will adopt them permanently in the future.
What are Google AI Overviews?
AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries at the top of Google’s search engine results page (SERP) that are designed to answer search queries by summarizing content from multiple websites. This has been an intriguing feature for marketers who are interested in what SEO strategies should be used to show up in these overviews.
How do AI Overviews choose what link cards to show?
At the end of an AI Overview summary, there are typically two or three links or link cards showing where Google’s AI got its information. The AI chooses those links based on what is most relevant to the user or query. Therefore, brands have to keep that in mind when writing content. Answering specific questions that users are already searching for gives you a higher chance of being featured as a link card in the overview.
You can also adhere to Google’s standard SEO best practices to get a better chance of appearing in AI Overviews. Some of these best practices include improving your website’s experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, or EEAT, as well as optimizing for keywords and updating content regularly.
What constitutes an ad showing up in a Google AI Overview?
Soon after the introduction of AI Overviews Google mentioned it would test search and shopping ads in AI summaries. However, since the release of AI Overviews, we have mostly seen ad placements above AI Overviews or at the top and bottom of SERPs. Shopping ads have also rarely been seen together with AI Overviews and when they are, they always appear below the AI Overview. However, as stated before, the algorithm will determine if an ad shows alongside an AI Overview based on the query.
How have AI Overviews performed so far?
After the release of AI overviews, Google has had to make a lot of changes that they might not have expected. Soon after Google introduced AI Overviews in May 2024, people started posting screenshots of their automated search queries on social media, and it wasn’t pretty. The algorithm suggested people “eat at least one small rock per day” or that a good way to get the cheese to stick to pizza was to “mix glue into the tomato sauce.” These AI Overview results spread like wildfire on social media, which forced Google to release a statement about them soon after.
Google has also experimented with changing the space AI Overviews take up in the search results and has tested different positions for the link cards. In terms of performance, we have seen an estimated increase in search volume, while the average CTR for informational queries is decreasing. We’re also seeing this with organic listings being moved further down in the Google SERP due to the overviews and users not clicking on ads because the overview provided the information they were looking for. There is also speculation that CPC could drop because of more ad placements and that website traffic and rankings might shake up due to the overviews.
So, will We see More google ai overviews in the future?
Considering it has been a rocky road since the release of AI Overviews, it’s hard to tell right now if they will become prevalent in the future. According to multiple recent reports, Google has reduced the presence of AI Overviews since June 2024, with AI Overviews dropping from 11% to 7% of queries. As Google continues to improve AI Overviews, it might take a while before they become a thing of the future. However, Google has made it clear that AI Overviews aren’t going away and will continue to evolve, “resulting in more searches.”
Ads could benefit from AI Overviews in the future, including a possible increase in CTR with better-integrated overviews, enhanced ad appeal, and a possible decrease in bounce rate. As relevant AI Overviews increase, we could also see an influence on CPC for advertisers with more competitive bidding for ads displayed alongside these summaries. This would also affect the ad rank, as the AI Overviews would influence quality score components like expected CTR and ad relevance, and may lead to better ad positions. However, it’s going to take some time for Google to work out some of the kinks around AI Overviews before rolling them out more broadly. If you have any questions about Google Ads or would like to schedule a consultation, please email info@digital4startups.com.