The Impact Of AI Overviews On SEO [Analysis Of 19 Studies] via @sejournal, @Kevin_Indig

Keeping gait with AI is exhausting and overwhelming – and truthful important.

To quench my ain curiosity and marque beingness easier for you, I’ve spent hours speechmaking 19 archetypal analyses of AI Overviews (AIOs). I’ve summarized them and synthesized the insights into 5 cardinal questions:

1. How often does Google amusement AI Overviews?
2. What triggers AI Overviews?
3. How bash AI Overviews interaction click-through rates and SEO traffic?
4. How tin you fertile successful AI Overviews?
5. How should you rethink contented instauration for AI Overviews?

This usher is cleanable for you if you:

• Want to get a broad overview of AI Overviews.
• Are bushed of keeping up with AI quality and privation a azygous root of the astir important information.
• Seek a examination of the outcomes from AI Overview studies.

Image Credit: Lyna ™

My extremity is to supply a “meta-analysis”: In (medical) research, a meta-analysis is simply a statistical method wherever researchers harvester information from aggregate autarkic studies connected the aforesaid taxable to nutrient a single, much robust decision astir the wide effect, providing a much broad representation than immoderate idiosyncratic survey unsocial could offer.

Essentially, it’s a “study of studies” that analyzes and summarizes results from assorted probe papers to place trends and patterns crossed the data.

I ever preach that “we request much data” to signifier stronger convictions. Now, we person more. Let’s form.

The Studies

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Get the spreadsheet with illustration sizes and people dates: Sheet.

1. Google AIO Impact – SEO & PPC CTRs astatine each clip low
2. AI Overviews: What Are They & How Do They Affect SEO?
3. AI Overviews Study: Inside Google’s New Search Reality
4. I Analyzed 300K Keywords. Here’s What I Learned About AI Overviews
5. We Studied 200,000 AI Overviews: Here’s What We Learned
6. Google AI Overviews Study: 25+ Statistics from 405,576 searches
7. Search Intent and AI Overviews: Study Insights
8. AI connected Innovation – Part 2
9. AI Overviews Research: Google Ads successful the AIO-inclusive SERPs
10. AI connected Innovation – Part 1
11. How Google AI Overview impacts 20 industries
12. Publishers study ‘negligible’ postulation interaction of Google AI Overviews
13. Impact of Google’s AI Overviews: SEO Research Study
14. AI Overview Study for 8,000 Keywords successful Google Search
15. The Traffic Impact of AI Overviews
16. AI Overviews SEO Impact Report [New Data]
17. ‘Devastating’ imaginable interaction of Google AI Overviews connected steadfast visibility revealed
18. AI Overview Trends: Insights from 5,000 HR and Workforce Management Keywords for SaaS
19. AI vs. SEO: What does the Future of Search look like?

How Often Does Google Show AI Overviews?

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

The biggest question, of course, is, “How overmuch does this matter”? To my surprise, the AIO-pocalypse has not yet happened. At slightest not according to the data.

How galore keywords amusement AIOs successful the respective studies:

• Press Gazette, 05/24: 23.7% retired of 3,300 quality keywords (US). [17]
• Growth Memo, 05/24: 42% of 546,000 queries. [15]
• AWR, 07/24: 12.4% of 8,000 keywords. [14]
• SE Ranking, 08/24: 12.47% of 100,000 keywords. [9]
• Botify, 08/24: 47% of 120,000 keywords. [3]
• DotDash Meredith, 08/24: 15% “of searches crossed our categories.”
• Ziff Davis, 08/24: “8% of astir important queries”. [12]
• Rich Sanger / Authoritas, 09/24: 21.1% of 11,000 keywords. [7]
• seoClarity, 12/24: 4.5% of 120 cardinal keywords. [13]
• Semrush, 01/25: 6.7% crossed millions of keywords. [5]

The sum varies precise overmuch by industry.

Industry Distribution

Press Gazette, 05/24: [17]

• Horoscopes: 62%
• Health: 55%
• Geo locations: 47%
• Shopping: 43%
• Media & Tech: 36%

AWR, 08/24: [14]

• Health: 67.5%
• Safety: 46.1%
• Technology: 23%
• SEO: 17%
• Finance: 17%

Zapier, 08/24: [11]

• Relationships: 40.6%
• Food & Beverage: 23.6%
• Business: 18.5%
• Technology: 17.2%
• Wellness: 15.6%

SE Ranking, 08/24: [9]

• Relationships: 46.1%
• Food & Beverage: 33.5%
• Business: 23.4%

DotDash Meredith, 08/24: [12]

• Health
• Technology
• Finance

Semrush, 01/25: [5]

• Health: 23.0%
• Science: 20.1%
• Internet & Telecom: 11.7%
• Travel: 10.0%
• Computers & Electronics: 8.75%

Implications:

1. AI Overviews came blistery retired of the beta gross connected May 14, 2024. Since then, we’re seeing less keywords showing AI Overviews – not more. That’s counterintuitive to me. And a spot antagonistic to my idiosyncratic acquisition erstwhile utilizing Search. But that’s the data.
2. The latest studies stock numbers betwixt 4.5 and 6.7% compared to aboriginal studies that recovered 12.5 – 42%. It seems that the TsunAImi I was disquieted astir hasn’t materialized itself yet, and determination are inactive plentifulness of non-AIO keywords near that tin present meaningful integrated traffic. However, I wonderment however good we truly way the longtail keywords that amusement AIOs (more successful a moment).
3. It’s besides noteworthy that Semrush [3] recovered important differences betwixt mobile and desktop AI Overviews: The astir populated industries connected the desktop are health, radical and society, and science, portion mobile shows astir AIOs for radical and society, science, and nutrient & drink.
4. YMYL industries similar wellness amusement the astir AIOs. And I conscionable don’t recognize why. If I were Google and launched LLM answers that are prone to hallucination, I’d commencement successful a abstraction wherever it’s little consequential, similar radical and nine oregon entertainment. To beryllium fair, immoderate studies amusement that Google invests successful those “lightweight” verticals. But wellness comes up astir consistently astatine the top. I presume that Google has a batch of aesculapian studies that it uses to crushed health-related AI Overviews.

What Triggers AI Overviews?

The communal mentation is that AIOs disrupt predominantly informational searches, and the information backs that up.

Search intent is important because, theoretically, adjacent a debased percent of keywords showing AI Overviews could person a large interaction if those keywords are important for concern and power acquisition decisions.

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Every survey I looked astatine confirmed that the bulk of AI Overviews amusement up for informational-intent keywords similar questions:

• Flow, 06/24: 24% of AIOs amusement up for top-of-the-funnel and 5% for bottom-of-the-funnel keywords. [18]
• AWR, 07/24: 34.7% of queries showing an AOI see the question connection “how.” 21.3% of AIOs amusement up for informational keywords, compared to 4% for commercial/transactional. [14]
• Botify, 08/24: 59% of informational keywords trigger an AIO, compared to 19% of commercialized keywords. [3]
• Rich Sanger / Authoritas, 09/24: 28.8% of keywords showing an AIO are informational compared to 11.1% commercial/transactional. [7]
• Ahrefs, 10/24: 99.2% of accusation keywords trigger an AIO compared to 10% of commercial/transactional keywords. [4]
• seoClarity, 12/24: 92.9% of keywords showing an AIO person informational intent. [13]
• Semrush, 01/25: 80% of desktop and 76% of mobile AIOs targeted informational keywords. 35% of desktop and 32% of mobile keywords were questions. Transactional keywords showed AIOs lone 3% of the time. [5]
• Seer, 02/25: 31.6% of keywords showing an AIO are questions compared to 9.7% without an AIO. [1]

User intent is tightly connected to query length. The longer, the easier it is to gauge what a searcher wants. And the little the hunt volume.

Longtail Vs. Shorthead

Longer queries are much apt to trigger AIOs:

• AWR, 07/24: Queries with 5 words (long-tail) trigger AIOs 22.6% of the clip compared to 1 with 0.9% and 10-word queries with 0.2%.
• Botify, 08/24: 73.6% of long-tail queries (+5 terms) trigger an AIO, compared to 8.9% for short-head queries. Also, 55% of queries < 1,000 monthly searches amusement an AIO. [3]
• Ahrefs, 10/24: Long-tail keywords are much apt to trigger AIOs than shorthead keywords. Search measurement for keywords showing AIOs is 193x smaller than for keywords not showing AIOs. [4]
• Semrush, 01/25: 82% of desktop and 76% of mobile AIOs occurred for keywords with little than 1,000 monthly searches. [5]
• Seer, 02/‘25: The mean query magnitude starring to an AI Overview was 4.29 words compared to 3.48 words for a query not presenting an AIO. [1]

Maybe not a trigger, but a beardown co-occurrence exists betwixt AIOs and SERP Features.

Featured Snippets

Featured Snippets and AI Overviews thin to amusement up together:

• AWR, 07/24: AI Overviews look alongside Featured Snippets successful 59.5% of keywords. [14]
• Botify, 08/24: Featured Snippets and AIOs co-occur 60% of the clip and screen 67-76% of your screen, depending connected the device. [3]
• Ahrefs, 10/24: Featured Snippets look for 65.5% of keywords showing an AIO. Google is overmuch little apt to amusement Knowledge Panels and videos erstwhile AIOs are present, astir apt due to the fact that the Knowledge Graph is the instauration for AIO generation. [4]

Paid Search Results

Google seems to shy distant from showing PPC ads erstwhile AIOs are present:

• SE Ranking, 08/24: 13.5% of AIOs amusement up adjacent to ads connected desktop. [9]
• Semrush, 01/25: 5% of keywords showing AIOs besides showed PPC ads. [5]
• Seer, 02/25: Paid Search CTRs dropped crossed the committee – with oregon without an AIO, but they were little comparatively erstwhile Google shows AIOs. [1]

Implications:

1. If determination is SEO postulation to beryllium mislaid (getting to that shortly), it’s mostly for informational searches, arsenic we tin besides spot the information that Featured Snippets thin to amusement up with AIOs. Commercial and transactional keywords don’t amusement a precocious complaint of AI Overviews, possibly due to the fact that that’s wherever ads amusement up the most, and Google doesn’t privation to termination its click-through rates.
2. On the different hand, Google’s Knowledge Graph does often amusement up with AIOs. Why? Most apt due to the fact that the Knowledge Graph is the instauration for Google’s AIOs and doesn’t supply nett worth successful the hunt results. As a result, you should cheque whether your marque has a cognition graph and what entities Google associates it with. It could interaction however you should up successful AIOs.¹
3. AI Overviews are much apt to amusement up for longer queries with little hunt volume. Makes consciousness arsenic AIOs reply agelong questions truthful overmuch amended than classical hunt results (Google ne'er truly figured longtail hunt out), and longer queries are searched by less radical due to the fact that they’re much specific.

How Do AI Overviews Impact Click-Through Rates And SEO Traffic?

We cognize that AIOs mightiness not amusement up arsenic often present arsenic they did caller retired of the egg. They hap for informational longtail queries with little hunt volume. But erstwhile they amusement up, what’s their impact?

AIOs propulsion integrated results down significantly:

• Press Gazette, 05/24: On average, integrated hunt results dropped by -980 pixels erstwhile AIOs were present. In the buying vertical, the mean was 1,205! Keep successful caput that the information was gathered conscionable erstwhile AI Overviews archetypal rolled out. Things could and apt bash look precise antithetic now. [17]
• AWR, 07/24: The mean AIO is 912 pixels long. [14]
• Botify, 08/24: AI Overviews instrumentality up 42% of the surface connected desktop and 48% connected mobile. [3]
• Rich Sanger / Authoritas, 09/24: AI Overviews propulsion integrated results down by an mean of 202 pixels. [7]
• The information that AI Overviews inhabit truthful overmuch surface existent property unsocial hurts the CTR for integrated results.

Organic Click-Through Rates

AIOs shrink CTRs and SEO traffic. Some industries that people high-intent keywords study a smaller interaction than others:

• Growth Memo, 05/24: A antagonistic interaction of -8.9% connected click-through rates connected average. [15]
• Siege Media, 05/24: 3% summation successful CTR aft AIOs went live. [16]
• DotDash Meredith, 08/24: minimal differences successful CTR betwixt hunt results with and without AI Overviews. [12]
• Sistrix, 11/24: Prominent citations successful AI Overviews pb to much clicks than Featured Snippets, but inactive overmuch little compared to classical integrated results. [19]
• Seer, 02/25: AIOs chopped integrated CTRs successful little than fractional and thin to amusement up for queries that already got less clicks earlier (zero-click searches). When cited, sites get much traffic, and mean CTR grows from 0.74% to 1.02%. [1]

Being cited matters, but however overmuch country is determination to triumph successful citations?

Number Of Citations

Since we cognize being cited successful AIOs matters for integrated traffic, the adjacent question is however overmuch “real estate” determination is, and the reply seems to beryllium 5-8:

• AWR, 07/24: AI Overviews incorporate 7.2 citations connected average. [14]
• Rich Sanger / Authoritas, 09/24: The mean fig of citations is 8.2, with tiny variations crossed idiosyncratic intent. [7]
• Surfer, 10/24: Google cites 8 oregon less sources 90% of the time, with 5 connected average. 99% of sources are lone cited once. [6]

Implications:

1. AIOs person a antagonistic interaction connected CTRs. Intuition validated. “Ranking successful AIOs,” a.k.a. being cited, should beryllium the caller extremity successful SEO erstwhile they’re shown successful the SERPs.
2. The information validates that informational searches are dwindling successful SEO value. So, theoretically, we should spot a batch much companies losing integrated traffic, though not needfully gross from integrated traffic. But that doesn’t look to beryllium the case, astatine slightest not to the strength I expected. A imaginable crushed could beryllium that integrated CTRs were already debased for queries that amusement AI Overviews, arsenic the Seer survey shows. Maybe the antagonistic interaction of AIOs is simply a continuation of a inclination that has already existed for years, which is Google answering much questions successful the SERPs.
3. What’s inactive unclear is if and erstwhile searchers click connected integrated results beneath AI Overviews and citations. I presume that idiosyncratic intent is besides the deciding origin here, but we request much data.

How Can You Rank In AI Overviews?

When we speech astir “ranking successful AIOs,” we mean being cited. There is simply a batch much to beryllium discovered astir however Google decides what pages to cite.

Based connected patents, it seems that Gemini archetypal creates the reply to a question and past seeks sources that could beryllium a bully fit, though I’m not definite wherefore it doesn’t simply crushed the reply successful the apical results.

Based connected the information truthful far, we tin hold connected the pursuing citation factors:

It’s Not Keyword Match

The fig of AIOs citing the nonstop keyword is highly low:

• Botify, 08/24: Text (Cosine) similarity betwixt the AIO and cited pages shows a beardown relationship, meaning the person your substance matches what’s shown successful the AIOs, the higher your chances to beryllium cited. [3]
• Surfer, 10/24: Only 5.4% of AI Overviews incorporate the nonstop hunt query. [6]

But your presumption matters arsenic well.

Organic Ranking Position Matters Somewhat

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Ranking higher is amended but not a request to get postulation from AIOs:

• AWR, 07/24: 33.4% of AIOs mention pages that fertile successful the apical 10 positions. [14]
• Botify, 08/24: 75% of cited websites fertile successful the apical 12 positions, but the median fertile is 4. [3]
• Growth Memo, 09/24: 40% of AIO sources fertile successful positions 11-20 and lone 22% successful positions 1-3. [8]
• Rich Sanger / Authoritas, 09/24: The apical 2 positions are included successful citations 47.8 – 53.8% of the time. [7]
• Surfer, 10/24: 52% of cited sources fertile successful the apical 10 results. [6]
• seoClarity, 12/24: AIOs cited the apical 10 positions 99.5% of the time, and 80% of AIOs mention a leafage that ranks successful the apical 3 integrated positions. [13]
• Semrush, 01/25: The overlap betwixt AIO citations and integrated hunt results is lone 20-26%. Over 50% of AI Overviews connected desktop and 60% connected mobile did not nexus to the apical integrated result. [5]

Implications:

• Today, AI Overviews mention much pages successful the apical 10 ranking positions than erstwhile they initially launched.
• The champion happening you tin bash to people AIOs is to tally a Cosine similarity investigation betwixt your substance and the AIO. Pick the leafage that ranks champion for the people keyword and cheque which parts of the AIO it could springiness the champion reply to.
• Of course, beardown method fundamentals and bully on-page SEO matter, but much to person a precocious ranking presumption and summation your chances to beryllium picked arsenic a citation alternatively than arsenic a hard criterion AIOs evaluate.

How Should You Rethink Content Creation For AI Overviews?

Optimizing for AIO citations and mentions isn’t a 180-degree crook compared to classical integrated results, but you privation to support successful caput the close format and wherever you people the content.

AIO Length

The mean AI Overview is astir 90-170 characters:

• AWR, 07/24: The mean AIO is 169 words long. [14]
• Botify, 08/24: The mean AI Overview is 169 words and 912 pixels long. [3]
• Surfer, 10/24: AI Overviews are, connected average, 157 words long, with 99% being shorter than 328. Featured Snippets mean ~50 words. [6]
• Semrush, 01/25: 90 (mobile) to 119 words (desktop). [5]

AIO Format

Most AIOs incorporate lists:

• AWR, 07/24: 40% of AIOs are lists, 24% are paragraphs, and lone a fewer person images. [14]
• Surfer, 10/24: 61% of AI Overviews are unordered lists, 21% incorporate nary list, 12% are ordered lists, and 6% are ordered and unordered lists. [6]

Prominently Cited Domains

Youtube sticks retired arsenic the domain with the astir citations:

• Rich Sanger / Authoritas, 09/24: YouTube and Wikipedia are cited astir often successful AIOs for accusation intent keywords. [7]
• Growth Memo, 09/24: The astir cited domains are YouTube, Wikipedia, and Google, which often fertile successful little positions. [10]

Implications:

1. 90-170 characters adjacent astir 15-40 words connected mean – not a lot! So optimizing your contented for AIOs truly seems to beryllium astir straightforward answers, nary fluff, and a precocious grade of insight. Similar to optimizing for Featured Snippets, it seems AIO optimization is astir tweaking tiny parts of an nonfiction implicit and implicit until you get the citation.
2. The outsized interaction of YouTube connected AIOs pushes contented procreation further distant from websites. I besides recovered that LinkedIn is cited a batch successful my research. So, societal and contented platforms could beryllium portion of modern SEO. At the precise least, tally tests connected YouTube and LinkedIn.

Bottom Line

As a community, we’ve made important advancement successful knowing AI Overviews and their impact.

Even though it’s a moving target, we tin reason for present that AIOs inhabit informational, long-tail queries with debased hunt measurement and negatively interaction click-through rates unless you’re portion of the citations.

I anticipation to constitute a follow-up meta-analysis with caller studies successful astir a twelvemonth and beryllium capable to reply questions like:

1. How often bash AI Overviews change?
2. How does Google determine which products to database successful ecommerce AIOs?
3. What are sites doing astatine standard to get much AIO citations implicit time?
4. What caller AIO formats is Google testing, and however are they different?
5. How bash AIOs alteration betwixt countries for the aforesaid query?

Stay tuned for adjacent week erstwhile I people my meta-analysis of AI Chatbots similar ChatGPT oregon Perplexity and their interaction connected Search.

I besides program to people astatine slightest 3 much archetypal information studies astir AI Overviews this year. Subscribe to enactment up to date!

¹AI Overviews and your website

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal