Google AI Overviews: What Are They & How They Impact SEO

You see that big bold red box and the content in it? That’s what we call Google AI Overviews. 

Everytime you make a search, Google gives you an answer directly without you having to visit any links and sites. 

Sounds pretty amazing from a user’s perspective, right? 

I, as a user, loved it! But I, as an SEO expert working with one of the SEO companies in the market, got really worried. My clients had some queries too like- 

How will it impact our traffic? 

How will Google AI overview affect my leads? 

Is SEO not relevant anymore? 

Will my business crash without SEO? 

Do we need to shift focus from SEO to AI optimization? 

And more… 

I am sure you have these questions as well and I took it upon myself to answer all these queries so that is exactly what we are going to do today. 

Google AI overviews - What, when, and how 

AI overviews, formerly Google SGE were launched in the US on 24th May 2024 (SEO pros might as well call it the doom day). Post that it was rolled out in 6 more countries 3 months later including India, UK, Japan, Indonesia, Brazil, and Mexico. 

Google AI Overviews were the update of the decade that has the potential to change the marketing game altogether. Users were happy with the update but businesses, not so much. 

Overall AI overviews took the internet by the storm, there were large Reddit threads discussing their impact and usage and LinkedIn was filled with experts and influencers giving their opinion. 

But cut to 6 months later aka now, AI overviews are not exactly all that we assumed them to be. 

From what I see, Google is just stealing data, paraphrasing it, and presenting it to you. Many have even reported how their hard researched content was stolen just like that without giving due compensation. 

“Last week, an AI overview search result from Google used one of my WIRED articles in an unexpected way that makes me fearful for the future of journalism.”

• Reece Rodgers, Service Writer at WIRED, on June 5, 2024 

Just like Reece, AI overviews in Google, are stealing the original work of many media houses and journalists. 

Is it fair? Absolutely not.

But can we do anything about it? Not really! Because Google has a monopoly in the search engine market. 

So what exactly can we do? 

Simple answer, adjust with the changing Google policies and find the best ways to keep your business still flourishing - because your customers are at Google so you have to be there as well. 

Keeping that in mind, let’s find out how AI overviews are transforming search experience, how to use Google AI overview, and how to proceed with SEO and content marketing going forward. 

How is Google AI overview changing the search results page? 

The above image is what the Google Search results page used to look like earlier. It had 3-4 elements and the top result was organic if no ads were being run on that keyword. 

Below is what the Google Google Search results page looks like now. [emoji] 

On top we now have AI overviews. This is indeed disappointing if you have put in time and effort in completing your content and now it has been stolen by AI overviews and your target audience can get the information needed without clicking. 

In short, you are losing clicks! 

But what we see in the current anatomy of the Google page is that the source links have been given on the right hand side of the AI overviews. So if the user wants information in detail they can always click. 

So how is the new anatomy affecting your business - let’s find out. 

Google AI overviews impact on SEO - How is it changing the market? 

Let’s be real, Google AI overviews are going to cause some loss in your traffic and click metrics but in your business not so much. 

I am sure that by now, after 6 months of introduction of AI overviews you might have found this out. So here are details of what your business might lose and it will not in the upcoming months with AI overviews. 

You will lose vanity traffic, but leads, not so much 

If you are a media outlet or someone whose business model is dependent upon ‘informational’ kind of content - then you will be the one bearing the most losses. 

Top of the funnel content covering topics like - ‘what is business’, ‘what are sales’, ‘benefits of marketing,’ will now not be getting as much traffic and clicks as it used to. Users are getting answers directly through Google AI overviews so they don’t really have the need to open an entire article. 

“So is this traffic loss going to cost me business loss as well?”

Absolutely not! People looking for top of the funnel content are nowhere close to your sales cycle, so you are not losing any leads. 

For instance, if you are selling a tool that assists in marketing, will your ideal customer be searching for ‘benefits of marketing’?

I believe you have your answer. 

So there would be loss of vanity traffic. The quality traffic that brings you leads will still be there, because the customers who want to buy your products will reach your website either way. 

Top of the funnel content is also often the duplicate content as the same content is written in just different ways. The market is saturated and thus competing for it is tough as well. 

So from what I see AI overviews have only made it easier for you and your business as you do not have to work extensively on content that gets you no real customers. 

Transactional queries are still standing strong 

Good thing about AI overviews is that they are not yet smart enough to sell the products directly. To make transactions happen, users still have to visit your website to make a purchase. Also, for transactional queries AI overviews are not coming up, so that's good news. 

Checkout a few examples of transactional queries here and the results that are coming up. 

Clearly, none of the above snapshots have AI overviews. So SEO is still very much relevant for transactional queries and that is the only way to rank for them. 

So your SEO content and marketing strategy will need a shift from top of the funnel content to bottom of the funnel content. 

Quality content is still valuable 

One thing about Google AI overviews is that they are very smart! Every information that you get through them has been picked up from other content. But the missing piece here is the quality of the content. 

It is definitely not picking information from poor content. The most rich content pieces with top-tier quality are its sources of the information. Just like Google picks up quality content to rank, AI overviews is doing the same as well. 

So now, well-researched and content rich in information is more crucial than ever. But the problem with the term ‘quality content’ is that it is open to interpretation and everyone has their own quality checks. 

So to make your work easier, here are Content Quality Guidelines® by ZeroAdo that we use ourselves for all our content pieces. These guidelines are used by our clients as well and by utilizing these, all of them have seen a surge in their content’s performance. 

We have curated these guidelines with a collective experience of 15 years in the industry and with the expert opinions in SEO and the content world. 

Backlinks are even more crucial

“The likelihood of a search result document appearing in an AI Overview depends on its SERP position. A link ranked first has a 53% chance of being featured, while content ranked tenth has a 36.9% chance. This trend holds for related and reformulated queries as well, with higher-ranking documents more likely to be included.” - A research by Rich Sanger 

As per a detailed research, your chances of getting picked up by AI overviews for summary are enhanced if you are already ranking on top with SEO. 

But in SEO as well, along with content there is a ton of work that goes behind the curtains that helps your content rank. A good proportion of that work goes into building SEO backlinks, which help your content rank better. 

So backlinks are even more crucial now, because they are not just a vote of confidence for your content, they also help you rank higher in the search engines. That is exactly what you need to not get your business impacted by AI overviews. 

AI overviews are still problematic and constantly updating so SEO is standing strong

Google AI overviews are revolutionary, but they are still problematic. Google still says that they are experiential and they are getting updated every now and then. 

They are inconsistent at the moment and no real guidelines have been shared by Google on how to approach them as a business. In this circumstance, what we see is that SEO still stands strong. AI is also using SEO as the bedrock to pick up summaries.

SEO will still keep getting you leads as it did earlier, the only loss you will see will be in ‘vanity traffic.’

How to rank in AI overviews 

Sometimes, Google is really shady, especially when it comes to giving answers to the businesses. So if you as a business owner want to know how to rank in an AI overview, then I hate to break it to you that Google did not specify any guidelines. 

It just asked to focus on the overall content creation guidelines that you have been using to rank your SEO content as well. Moreover, you will never know what is the traffic that you are getting from ranking in AI overviews and which traffic or leads are from SEO. 

Google said there would be no separate data for AI overviews clicks and traffic it will all be clubbed under one common window as it is at the in Google Search Console. 

Create content following Google guidelines 

Google has plenty of guidelines when it comes to creating various types of SEO content. There are no hard and fast rules to create content but Google has very slyly released an article with ‘suggestions’ on how to create ‘good’ content. 

Since there are no specific rules to rank in AI overviews, this guide on how to create good content from Google could be your holy grail. The guide focus on the following mentioned points: 

• Create content according to your audience and their needs. 
• Find topics related to your niche and add related words that your users might search for aka keywords. 
• Make your content value adding and create it from the perspective of - ‘why should people care?’
• Add life to your content with multimedia.
• Research well, be you, and give content a new perspective from the POV of your research. 

All these pointers sound like a good starting point, yet they are very vague which is as we all know the regular Google behavior. 

Here is an example of good content as per Google. This kind of ‘good’ content pieces have the potential to rank in search results which means that their possibility of ranking in AI overviews increases as well. 

Build quality links  

Backlinks are your best friends when it comes to ranking in AI overviews. They are votes of confidence for your website from other highly ranking websites by increasing your domain rating. 

These votes prove that your website is credible and is being validated by other credible websites. So along with your content being rich in information and research, it also has to be backed by other websites. 

More backlinks means your website is a trusted platform and thus, the possibility of your content being picked up by AI overviews to show for summary section increases. 

But does this mean that you need to focus on just the volume of links? Absolutely not! 

It is great to have a ton of links backing your content but the quality of links holds more value than the quantity. 

A quality links is the one which is - 

• From a website relevant to your content and domain. 
• From a content piece which is related to the content you are adding a link of. 
• Contextually built link. 
• Appropriate anchor text as per the link. 
• From a website with good DR. 

And a few more checks to ensure that you are getting it from a good website. Sounds a bit much? Well, you can always hire the best link building agencies to do it for you. All you will have to do then is put your link building on autopilot mode and wait for your content to rank in AI overviews. 

Experiment with variety of content - especially videos 

“The most frequently linked URLs included YouTube (3.88% from youtube.com and 2.59% from m.youtube.com), Wikipedia (3.76%), and less frequently, Southern Living (1.53%).” - A research by Rich Sanger 

If you ask me, then videos are the underdog that every brand can leverage to flourish and a research by Rich Sanger on Google AI overviews is an evidence of that. 

Yes text based content is doing wonders in the AI world but visual content is the one that actually hooks the audience. Imagine what it would have been like reading this blog without videos and images. 

Not so cool! 

AI overviews understand the need of the audience and thus, 3.88% URLs in the summaries were from YouTube. 

However, it wasn’t just any video, it was the videos with clear and descriptive titles and detailed descriptions which included target queries organically. That means that YouTube SEO is now even more crucial because it not only helps you rank on Google but also in Google AI overviews. 

Pick long tail keywords

If you want to rank in AI overviews then along with all the mentioned points, include another one, which is writing content for long tail keywords. 

Long tail keywords are the ones which are usually longer than other keywords and contain 3-5 or more words. These keywords are difficult to create content for as the content not only has to be of great quality but also descriptive. 

Long tail keywords are demanding and often not of extremely high volume, but that is what makes them the ideal contender for you to rank in AI overviews. 

The competition to rank is less and a quality piece of content will increase your chances of ranking as well. 

Leverage E-E-A-T in content

I let Google AI overview itself tell us why E-E-A-T is crucial if you want to rank for them. 

E-E-A-T refers to Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Earlier it used to be E-A-T, in 2022 Google updated their content guidelines to add an extra E for experience. 

These content guidelines are established to make sure that creators are creating people first content and not search engine first content. The more people friendly and E-E-A-T following your content the better are your chances of getting ranked in AI overviews. 

So create expert content from the experience, build trust for your website and topical authority through your content and watch how fast your content ranks. 

I know it does not sound easy but it can be if you hire content marketing agencies. They can help you curate content that rank on SERPs and also in AI overview summaries by creating a detailed strategy. 

Structured Content

A structure piece of content is one one which has: 

• Descriptive headings with appropriate heading tags. 
• Headings in chronological order as per the need of the content. 
• Headings structured as per the keywords. 
• Headings should be giving away the crux of what is next to come. 

Why is it important to structure your content to rank in AI overviews? 

Because structured content makes your content easy to read and scan through and more crawlable. The easier your content is to crawl the better it will be able to rank in AI overviews because at the end of the day AI is just a robot.

Checkout the image below, you will find out that the content presented in AI overviews as well is structured and picked up from other structured content pieces. 

But, it is important to note that structured content does not mean robotic content. Content always has to be easy to understand and written from people's first perspective. 

Schema Markup

Checkout the image above, you see these questions in the people also ask section? These can also be called FAQs. But how are they ranking here? 

Through schema markup. Schema markup are the attributes in the code which tell what part of the content is this. For instance for FAQs there is different schema markup. For logos as well there is different schema markup. 

Schema markups make it easier for the search engines to understand the segments of content and rank them accordingly. Thus using schema markups increases your chances of ranking in AI overviews because AI is just another robot. 

The more clarity a robot has, the better it is! 

AI overviews + SEO - The next big thing

The above image from Gartner showcases the number of times AI over views have appeared in search results in the month of April vs in the month of August. 

The percentage has significantly declined of how often AI overviews appeared in search results. That itself showcases that AI overviews can definitely not surpass SEO for another decade. Because the bottom line is that SEO is what is getting you business while AI overviews are the ones that can get you vanity traffic. 

So to maintain a balance, the best thing to do right now is focus on SEO trends, the better your SEO will be the more your chances of ranking in AI overviews would be as well. 

“But how to do that?”

Well, hire an Agile Growth Accelerator aka ZeroAdo, and enjoy the benefits of both SEO, AI overviews, and more!