Google Search AI Overview: Influence on web traffic and SEO

Addis Software » Google Search AI Overview: Influence on web traffic and SEO

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Google, in its event on May 20, claimed its Google Search AI overview has a 10% increase in usage. This covers its biggest market, including the U.S. and India, as the tech giant stated, Google AI overview is going to stay for years to come. This AI tool was introduced back in May 2023. Google introduced the feature as Search Generative Experience (SGE) and renamed it in May 2024 to AI Overview.

Clicking through every website to get an answer to your queries is going to be eliminated, thanks to Google AI Overview. An answer to your questions is displayed at the top of the search page. Even though the answers lack depth, according to a case study analysing millions of search results, 78% of users were happy with the AI-generated answers. This is a pretty good sign that this feature is here to stay.

What is Google AI overview?

Google AI overview is a feature owned by Google that answers search queries in AI-generated summaries at the top of search results. The AI provides a concise, natural language response to your query by scouring through various sources across the web.

How does Google AI’s overview affect SEO and website ranking?

Google AI overview comes up at the top of the first page, and with a summarised answer for the search queries. Most of the time, the answers are enough to give the users what they need. Because of that, the searcher may not look further or check the website. Getting the search results summarised and fast will affect SEO, which will result in low traffic to your website.

Interestingly, 33.4% of the links that featured in Google AI Overviews are from pages that are ranked in the top 10 of organic search. So, it is doable to get featured. 

However, 46.5% of the URLs that appear in AI Overviews are from websites ranked outside the top 50. So even pages that aren’t ranking highly can still be included. But for those trying to grab organic traffic, SEO is going to be hard. The domains that show up most often on search pages with Google  AI Overviews are youtube.com , quora.com , wikipedia.org , and  reddit.com .

How to tackle and use Google AI overview to get more traffic.
The search queries, with a whopping 93%, are informational. Users seek answers, explanations, guides, definitions, or general knowledge.  With this in mind, content and solving problems for our searchers are as important as ever. However, after creating the content, we still need to optimise it. 

User-generated content,  from Reddit and Quora, and authoritative knowledge bases like Wikipedia and YouTube tutorials are prioritised by Google’s AI overviews. Participating in these platforms will allow you to gain more visibility.

When optimising content for Google AI overview, you can follow these guidelines :

  • Use Google’s recommendation. You can find further information from this link: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-overviews 
  • Always use strong and engaging intros and keep the content fresh and relevant.
  • Use descriptive headings (I.e use H1, H2, and H3 tags that are specific and can describe exactly what the content is about.
  • Bulletins and numbered lists are key: Artificial intelligence loves numbered and bulleted lists! About 40% of responses come from content that includes lists.
  • To keep users engaged, add videos, infographics, and quizzes.