Google AI Overviews
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Earlier this week, Google announced that AI Overviews, previously known as SGE (Search Generative Experience), is being rolled out to all users in the US.
The feature, which was previously only available as an experiment in Search Labs, will now be integrated into regular search results in the US and will continue to roll out to other regions throughout the year.
What are AI Overviews?
AI Overviews are answers generated by Google’s language model Gemini and appear at the top of the search results. The goal is to efficiently answer searches that previously required users to jump between different websites to piece together information.
The idea is to minimize the research phase as the AI overview can tailor an answer no matter how complex your query may be.
In the example below, in a demonstration from Google, the AI overview provides an answer to the query, “Find the best yoga or pilates studios in Boston and show me details on their intro offers, and walking time from Beacon Hill.”
How does AI Overviews work?
AI Overviews summarize information from web pages indexed in Google’s database. When a user asks a question, the AI searches through Google’s extensive index and generates a response based on the content it finds.
If your website is indexed by Google, information from your site can be included in these answers. The AI analyzes the content, extracts relevant information, and presents it directly at the top of the search result.
Why is the feature being launched?
As you’ve probably noticed, AI is a hot topic right now, and it’s more or less a race between companies regarding this technology.
According to Statscounter.com, Google lost 1.91% market share to other search engines such as Bing and DuckDuckGo between May 2023 and April 2024.
This may seem small, but knowing that there are around 8.5 billion searches per day, this is a substantial amount.
The launch is likely an attempt by the tech giant to prevent more users from choosing competing or alternative search engines like ChatGPT.
Whether the decrease is due to changes in the AI landscape is hard to say, but I definitely think it has been a contributing factor combined with the recent issues Google has had with poor search result quality.
How will it affect websites?
AI Overviews can have both positive and negative effects on websites. On the positive side, websites included in AI-generated answers may see an increase in credibility and authority.
If we take Google at their word, they have also measured that AI Overviews have led users to visit a greater variety of websites. If this is true, it could mean that websites reach a wider audience.
On the other hand, there may be a decrease in traffic as answers are provided directly on the search results page. Users then have less need to visit the original websites, which can lead to fewer clicks.
How to optimize for it?
To appear in this new placement, it will be important for websites to establish themselves as authoritative so that Google can feel confident referring to the content. This largely happens through off-page SEO.
On-page work will also remain critical, meaning the work that occurs on the website.
As users will be able to ask follow-up questions to the AI, I believe we will see more long-tail searches. By being the most relevant source for longer queries, you can increase your chances of appearing in the placement.
When will AI Overviews appear?
In a study by Onely, they analyzed 500,000 search terms to see if AI Overviews appeared more frequently depending on the industry. Note that the test was conducted when the feature was still an experiment in Search Labs and may differ from what we see in the actual search results.
They found that Beauty was the vertical where AI Overviews appeared the most, with 94.43% of the time. Searches related to finance triggered the fewest AI Overviews, with a percentage of 47.1%.
This is likely due to Google’s assessment of the risks of allowing an AI to answer search queries. Finance, classified as a YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) category, is a more sensitive topic compared to, for example, beauty.
Incorrect answers in finance can have more serious consequences, making Google more cautious about using AI for these questions.
When will AI Overviews come to Sweden?
The feature began rolling out in the US on May 14, 2024, and is planned to be available to over a billion people globally by the end of the year.
Currently, Google has not specified an exact date for the launch in Sweden, but given that Google plans an international expansion to over 120 new countries and territories, we can expect Sweden to be included in this rollout during 2024.
