How AI Overviews on Google Can Impact Your SEO

Google is always at the forefront of user experience, and one of the many things they have implemented to make Google a better one-stop-shop is AI Overview technology. Now, when you Google something, you will see an AI-generated summary, nearly eliminating the need to click through different websites to find your answer. While this certainly enhances the user experience, it can have some major impacts on your SEO and monthly metrics. If you’re starting to see numbers go down and are wondering why, and you want to get your website’s information to dominate the AI Overview section of your industry, we can help. Keep reading to learn more about Google’s new AI Overviews and the impact it can have on your SEO.

What Are AI Overviews on Google?

When you Google something, you will now see an AI Overview take over the top of the page. This will give you a quick snapshot, from multiple sources, of the information you seek, which helps eliminate the need for clicking through multiple websites to find your answer.

How Does Google Choose What Websites to Use in AI Overviews?

Google uses an AI tool to comb the internet and find the most relevant answers and information for the search query. Here is an explanation from Google themselves:

AI Overviews work very differently than chatbots and other LLM products that people may have tried out. They’re not simply generating an output based on training data. While AI Overviews are powered by a customized language model, the model is integrated with our core web ranking systems and designed to carry out traditional “search” tasks, like identifying relevant, high-quality results from our index. That’s why AI Overviews don’t just provide text output but include relevant links so people can explore further. Because accuracy is paramount in Search, AI Overviews are built to only show information that is backed up by top web results.

This approach is highly effective. Overall, our tests show that our accuracy rate for AI Overviews is on par with another popular feature in Search — featured snippets — which also uses AI systems to identify and show key info with links to web content.

Are AI Overviews on Google Accurate?

AI, in general, is still a relatively new technology that is developing quickly. While it can be very helpful and useful, it can also be detrimental in many ways. There can be some hilariously erroneous results, such as suggesting users to glue cheese to pizza, that there are health benefits to tobacco, and that gasoline is safe to use as an ingredient in a recipe.

As with the advent of any new technology or invention, improvements are being made as millions of users begin testing its limits. Some of these silly and inaccurate examples are things that were rarely Googled before since it is obvious that glue and gasoline should not be used in food and that tobacco does not offer any significant health benefits. As such, the information currently existing on the internet today doesn’t give the AI tool enough to work with, which leads to these silly, meme-worthy results.

What is Google Doing to Make AI Overviews Better?

Google has made multiple updates to its AI Overview tool to ensure accurate information. According to Google, some of the dozen updates have included:

• We built better detection mechanisms for nonsensical queries that shouldn’t show an AI Overview and limited the inclusion of satire and humor content.
• We updated our systems to limit the use of user-generated content in responses that could offer misleading advice.
• We added triggering restrictions for queries where AI Overviews were not proving to be as helpful.
• For topics like news and health, we already have strong guardrails in place. For example, we aim to not show AI Overviews for hard news topics, where freshness and factuality are important. In the case of health, we launched additional triggering refinements to enhance our quality protections.
• Staying vigilant in monitoring feedback and external reports.
• Taking action on the small number of AI Overviews that violate content policies. This means overviews that contain information that’s potentially harmful, obscene, or otherwise violative. We found a content policy violation on less than one in every 7 million unique queries on which AI Overviews appeared.

How AI Overviews Can Impact Your SEO

As Google works to give users the ultimate user experience and virtually eliminating the need for clicking after searching, you will see some major impacts to your SEO and metric reports. Some of these impacts include changes in organic traffic, lower click metrics, and the need for your brand to zone in on a niche. Alternatively, you may see a huge boost in these same metrics if you are featured in an AI Overview, especially if the content you specialize in requires a deeper dive than just a broad-stroke answer.

Changes in Organic Traffic

Thanks to AI Overviews, one of the most major impacts on your SEO is changes to your organic traffic. If you rely heavily on organic traffic or monitor this metric closely, you will see some big changes if you haven’t already. In fact, you may see a decline anywhere from 25%-60%.

There are three different information types that appear in AI Overview. Knowing which one of these information types you predominantly provide will help steer your SEO strategy. These information types include:

1. Direct answer. Websites that provide answers to direct and straightforward questions such as “How to tie a tie” or “How many species of spiders exist?” will see the largest impact in organic traffic, as Google’s AI tools will pull the information from your website and use it in the AI Overview.
2. Exploration. This type of information may have multiple answers or perspectives. Questions such as “How to fix a garbage disposal” may offer multiple answers based on your make and model, or “When is the best time of year to go to Europe?” may differ based on your preferences. These types of websites will see a change in organic traffic; however, there is still a clickthrough likelihood for the user to explore deeper if you give the answer they most resonate with.
3. Deep dive. If you give in-depth information on a certain topic, you will see the least amount of organic traffic decline. Fun summer activities, what it’s like to be a participant in a clinical trial, or specific behavioral health information are all things that people want to spend time researching and will rely the least on AI Overview.

Click Metrics

In your SEO reporting, you may begin to notice a decline in your click metrics compared to your search appearances. This is especially true if your content is heavy with direct answers to questions. If you are more of an exploration or deep-dive type of website, it could mean that you are simply not appearing in Google’s AI Overview for your industry.

Alternatively, you may see a huge increase in your click metrics. This could be because you are a deep-dive website being featured in AI Overview or that individuals want to explore your website further after seeing your authority at the top of the page. Either way, this is the goal!

How to Become Part of Google’s AI Overviews

If you’re noticing a decline in your organic traffic and want to become part of the AI Overview, there are several things you can do to help get your content up to par.

According to Google, they say that “Our systems automatically determine which links appear. There is nothing special for creators to do to be considered other than to follow our regular guidance for appearing in search, as covered in Google Search Essentials.”

Riiiight.

We suggest answering a question, summarizing your content at the top of every page, optimizing your website, and taking advantage of blogging.

Answer a Question

When developing the content for your website, make sure that you are answering questions throughout the process. Search queries that begin with who, what, where, when, why, and how always get the most hits, and this is also where AI Overview is dominating.

It is great to have a mix of information types throughout your website. Make sure you are answering specific, direct questions so that you consistently appear at the top of AI Overview whenever someone is Googling something relating to your business. This shows authority and implies trust, which will help your brand. You also want to make sure you offer deeper-dive types of content so that users will be inclined to spend more time on your website.

Summarize Your Content

Great SEO practices include developing rich content filled with keywords, relevant information, and sources. Word count is also important to ensure that there is plenty for Google to explore when ranking your website. One of the things to start implementing at the top of every page is a summary for Google to work with.

Offering Google (and your website readers) with a summary will make Google favor you. Not only are you allowing Google to not work as hard by offering a quick and easy summary, but you are also showcasing your website as a user-friendly experience. Backing up the claims in your summary with more in-depth content underneath is the best way to lure users to your website and keep them there.

Optimize Your Website

If you’re not already, it is time to start optimizing your website with Google’s SEO best practices. These include standard things, such as:

• SEO-rich titles
• Metadata
• Add both internal and external links
• Improve your website’s page load speed
• Optimize images with alt tags
• Build backlinks on other websites
• Use SEO tools to help you

Take Advantage of Blogging

The best way to get featured in AI Overview on Google is through blogs. Blogs are a great way to create rich content, give users a wide variety of information, position your brand as an authority and thought leader, and offer Google plenty of content to share on AI Overview. Want to know how to get started? Here is a blog we wrote filled with some blogging basics.

Become an AI Overview Authority with Navazon Digital

Ready to grab AI Overview by the horns? We are experts in that.

We are content creators who listen to our clients so that we can formulate ideas and strategies based on their unique goals and philosophies. Thinking through those goals with our analytics-based approach, we study not only their tendencies but also those of their competition and the market as a whole.

Navazon helps businesses increase profits through data-driven marketing that expands opportunities and reduces risk. As marketers and entrepreneurs, we understand the value of developing a memorable brand through creativity and consistency. This is accomplished through targeted graphics, videos, and websites that reflect our proven, time-tested methodologies and detailed analytics. It is an approach that’s proven effective for companies of all sizes, from start-ups and medium-sized businesses to large firms with an international presence.

Equipped with this knowledge, we develop a powerful plan, test it, and then roll it out on a modest scale. Once we arrive at the winning formula, we can scale up rapidly to meet even the most optimistic growth projections.

At Navazon, we do not believe in “one size fits all.” Every part of the marketing plan is customized to address your unique niche and positioning strategy. It’s how we excel. It’s why we succeed.

Schedule a free consultation with us now! Visit us at navazondigital.com for more information.