The Impact Of AI Overviews On SEO [Analysis Of 19 Studies]

Conserving tempo with AI is exhausting and overwhelming – and so essential.

To quench my very own curiosity and make life simpler for you, I’ve spent hours studying 19 authentic analyses of AI Overviews (AIOs). I’ve summarized them and synthesized the insights into 5 key questions:

1. How usually does Google present AI Overviews?
2. What triggers AI Overviews?
3. How do AI Overviews affect click-through charges and search engine marketing site visitors?
4. How will you rank in AI Overviews?
5. How must you rethink content material creation for AI Overviews?

This information is ideal for you if you happen to:

• Need to get a complete overview of AI Overviews.
• Are uninterested in maintaining with AI information and desire a single supply of crucial info.
• Search a comparability of the outcomes from AI Overview research.

My purpose is to offer a “meta-analysis”: In (medical) analysis, a meta-analysis is a statistical methodology the place researchers mix knowledge from a number of unbiased research on the identical subject to provide a single, extra sturdy conclusion concerning the general impact, offering a extra complete image than any particular person examine alone might supply.

Basically, it’s a “examine of research” that analyzes and summarizes outcomes from varied analysis papers to determine traits and patterns throughout the information.

I at all times preach that “we’d like extra knowledge” to type stronger convictions. Now, we have now extra. Let’s type.

The Research

Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig

Get the spreadsheet with pattern sizes and publish dates: Sheet.

1. Google AIO Affect – search engine marketing & PPC CTRs in any respect time low
2. AI Overviews: What Are They & How Do They Have an effect on search engine marketing?
3. AI Overviews Research: Inside Google’s New Search Actuality
4. I Analyzed 300K Key phrases. Right here’s What I Realized About AI Overviews
5. We Studied 200,000 AI Overviews: Right here’s What We Realized
6. Google AI Overviews Research: 25+ Statistics from 405,576 searches
7. Search Intent and AI Overviews: Research Insights
8. AI on Innovation – Half 2
9. AI Overviews Analysis: Google Advertisements within the AIO-inclusive SERPs
10. AI on Innovation – Half 1
11. How Google AI Overview impacts 20 industries
12. Publishers report ‘negligible’ site visitors affect of Google AI Overviews
13. Affect of Google’s AI Overviews: search engine marketing Analysis Research
14. AI Overview Research for 8,000 Key phrases in Google Search
15. The Visitors Affect of AI Overviews
16. AI Overviews search engine marketing Affect Report [New Data]
17. ‘Devastating’ potential affect of Google AI Overviews on writer visibility revealed
18. AI Overview Traits: Insights from 5,000 HR and Workforce Administration Key phrases for SaaS
19. AI vs. search engine marketing: What does the Way forward for Search appear like?

How Typically Does Google Present AI Overviews?

Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig

The most important query, after all, is, “How a lot does this matter”? To my shock, the AIO-pocalypse has not but occurred. Not less than not in response to the information.

What number of key phrases present AIOs within the respective research:

• Press Gazette, 05/24: 23.7% out of three,300 information key phrases (US). [17]
• Progress Memo, 05/24: 42% of 546,000 queries. [15]
• AWR, 07/24: 12.4% of 8,000 key phrases. [14]
• SE Rating, 08/24: 12.47% of 100,000 key phrases. [9]
• Botify, 08/24: 47% of 120,000 key phrases. [3]
• DotDash Meredith, 08/24: 15% “of searches throughout our classes.”
• Ziff Davis, 08/24: “8% of most essential queries”. [12]
• Wealthy Sanger / Authoritas, 09/24: 21.1% of 11,000 key phrases. [7]
• seoClarity, 12/24: 4.5% of 120 million key phrases. [13]
• Semrush, 01/25: 6.7% throughout thousands and thousands of key phrases. [5]

Supply

The protection varies very a lot by business.

Trade Distribution

Supply

Press Gazette, 05/24: [17]

• Horoscopes: 62%
• Well being: 55%
• Geo places: 47%
• Purchasing: 43%
• Media & Tech: 36%

AWR, 08/24: [14]

• Well being: 67.5%
• Security: 46.1%
• Expertise: 23%
• search engine marketing: 17%
• Finance: 17%

Zapier, 08/24: [11]

• Relationships: 40.6%
• Meals & Beverage: 23.6%
• Enterprise: 18.5%
• Expertise: 17.2%
• Wellness: 15.6%

SE Rating, 08/24: [9]

• Relationships: 46.1%
• Meals & Beverage: 33.5%
• Enterprise: 23.4%

DotDash Meredith, 08/24: [12]

• Well being
• Expertise
• Finance

Semrush, 01/25: [5]

• Well being: 23.0%
• Science: 20.1%
• Web & Telecom: 11.7%
• Journey: 10.0%
• Computer systems & Electronics: 8.75%

Implications:

1. AI Overviews got here scorching out of the beta gate on Might 14, 2024. Since then, we’re seeing fewer key phrases displaying AI Overviews – no more. That’s counterintuitive to me. And a bit counter to my private expertise when utilizing Search. However that’s the information.
2. The most recent research share numbers between 4.5 and 6.7% in comparison with early research that discovered 12.5 – 42%. Evidently the TsunAImi I used to be fearful about hasn’t materialized itself but, and there are nonetheless loads of non-AIO key phrases left that may ship significant natural site visitors. Nonetheless, I’m wondering how effectively we actually monitor the longtail key phrases that present AIOs (extra in a second).
3. It’s additionally noteworthy that Semrush [3] discovered vital variations between cell and desktop AI Overviews: Essentially the most populated industries on the desktop are well being, individuals and society, and science, whereas cell exhibits most AIOs for individuals and society, science, and meals & drink.
4. YMYL industries like well being present probably the most AIOs. And I simply don’t perceive why. If I had been Google and launched LLM solutions which are vulnerable to hallucination, I’d begin in an area the place it’s much less consequential, like individuals and society or leisure. To be honest, some research present that Google invests in these “light-weight” verticals. However well being comes up most persistently on the high. I assume that Google has quite a lot of medical research that it makes use of to floor health-related AI Overviews.

What Triggers AI Overviews?

Supply

The widespread concept is that AIOs disrupt predominantly informational searches, and the information backs that up.

Search intent is essential as a result of, theoretically, even a low proportion of key phrases displaying AI Overviews might have a big effect if these key phrases are essential for enterprise and affect buy choices.

Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig

Each examine I checked out confirmed that almost all of AI Overviews present up for informational-intent key phrases like questions:

• Circulation, 06/24: 24% of AIOs present up for top-of-the-funnel and 5% for bottom-of-the-funnel key phrases. [18]
• AWR, 07/24: 34.7% of queries displaying an AOI embody the query phrase “how.” 21.3% of AIOs present up for informational key phrases, in comparison with 4% for industrial/transactional. [14]
• Botify, 08/24: 59% of informational key phrases set off an AIO, in comparison with 19% of business key phrases. [3]
• Wealthy Sanger / Authoritas, 09/24: 28.8% of key phrases displaying an AIO are informational in comparison with 11.1% industrial/transactional. [7]
• Ahrefs, 10/24: 99.2% of knowledge key phrases set off an AIO in comparison with 10% of business/transactional key phrases. [4]
• seoClarity, 12/24: 92.9% of key phrases displaying an AIO have informational intent. [13]
• Semrush, 01/25: 80% of desktop and 76% of cell AIOs focused informational key phrases. 35% of desktop and 32% of cell key phrases had been questions. Transactional key phrases confirmed AIOs solely 3% of the time. [5]
• Seer, 02/25: 31.6% of key phrases displaying an AIO are questions in comparison with 9.7% with out an AIO. [1]

Person intent is tightly related to question size. The longer, the simpler it’s to gauge what a searcher needs. And the decrease the search quantity.

Longtail Vs. Shorthead

Longer queries usually tend to set off AIOs:

• AWR, 07/24: Queries with 5 phrases (long-tail) set off AIOs 22.6% of the time in comparison with one with 0.9% and 10-word queries with 0.2%.
• Botify, 08/24: 73.6% of long-tail queries (+5 phrases) set off an AIO, in comparison with 8.9% for short-head queries. Additionally, 55% of queries < 1,000 month-to-month searches present an AIO. [3]
• Ahrefs, 10/24: Lengthy-tail key phrases usually tend to set off AIOs than shorthead key phrases. Search quantity for key phrases displaying AIOs is 193x smaller than for key phrases not displaying AIOs. [4]
• Semrush, 01/25: 82% of desktop and 76% of cell AIOs occurred for key phrases with lower than 1,000 month-to-month searches. [5]
• Seer, 02/‘25: The common question size resulting in an AI Overview was 4.29 phrases in comparison with 3.48 phrases for a question not presenting an AIO. [1]

Perhaps not a set off, however a powerful co-occurrence exists between AIOs and SERP Options.

Featured Snippets

Featured Snippets and AI Overviews have a tendency to indicate up collectively:

• AWR, 07/24: AI Overviews seem alongside Featured Snippets in 59.5% of key phrases. [14]
• Botify, 08/24: Featured Snippets and AIOs co-occur 60% of the time and canopy 67-76% of your display screen, relying on the machine. [3]
• Ahrefs, 10/24: Featured Snippets seem for 65.5% of key phrases displaying an AIO. Google is way much less more likely to present Information Panels and movies when AIOs are current, in all probability as a result of the Information Graph is the muse for AIO technology. [4]

Paid Search Outcomes

Supply

Google appears to draw back from displaying PPC advertisements when AIOs are current:

• SE Rating, 08/24: 13.5% of AIOs present up subsequent to advertisements on desktop. [9]
• Semrush, 01/25: 5% of key phrases displaying AIOs additionally confirmed PPC advertisements. [5]
• Seer, 02/25: Paid Search CTRs dropped throughout the board – with or with out an AIO, however they had been decrease comparatively when Google exhibits AIOs. [1]

Implications:

1. If there’s search engine marketing site visitors to be misplaced (attending to that shortly), it’s largely for informational searches, as we will additionally see the truth that Featured Snippets have a tendency to indicate up with AIOs. Business and transactional key phrases don’t present a excessive charge of AI Overviews, possibly as a result of that’s the place advertisements present up probably the most, and Google doesn’t wish to kill its click-through charges.
2. Alternatively, Google’s Information Graph does usually present up with AIOs. Why? Almost certainly as a result of the Information Graph is the muse for Google’s AIOs and doesn’t present internet worth within the search outcomes. Consequently, it’s best to verify whether or not your model has a information graph and what entities Google associates it with. It might affect how it’s best to up in AIOs.¹
3. AI Overviews usually tend to present up for longer queries with decrease search quantity. Is sensible as AIOs reply lengthy questions so significantly better than traditional search outcomes (Google by no means actually figured longtail get hold of), and longer queries are searched by fewer individuals as a result of they’re extra particular.

How Do AI Overviews Affect Click on-By Charges And search engine marketing Visitors?

We all know that AIOs won’t present up as usually now as they did recent out of the egg. They happen for informational longtail queries with decrease search quantity. However after they present up, what’s their affect?

Supply

AIOs push natural outcomes down considerably:

• Press Gazette, 05/24: On common, natural search outcomes dropped by -980 pixels when AIOs had been current. Within the buying vertical, the common was 1,205! Take into account that the information was gathered simply when AI Overviews first rolled out. Issues might and sure do look very totally different now. [17]
• AWR, 07/24: The common AIO is 912 pixels lengthy. [14]
• Botify, 08/24: AI Overviews take up 42% of the display screen on desktop and 48% on cell. [3]
• Wealthy Sanger / Authoritas, 09/24: AI Overviews push natural outcomes down by a mean of 202 pixels. [7]
• The truth that AI Overviews occupy a lot display screen actual property alone hurts the CTR for natural outcomes.

Natural Click on-By Charges

Supply

AIOs shrink CTRs and search engine marketing site visitors. Some industries that focus on high-intent key phrases report a smaller affect than others:

• Progress Memo, 05/24: A adverse affect of -8.9% on click-through charges on common. [15]
• Siege Media, 05/24: 3% enhance in CTR after AIOs went dwell. [16]
• DotDash Meredith, 08/24: minimal variations in CTR between search outcomes with and with out AI Overviews. [12]
• Sistrix, 11/24: Distinguished citations in AI Overviews result in extra clicks than Featured Snippets, however nonetheless a lot much less in comparison with traditional natural outcomes. [19]
• Seer, 02/25: AIOs lower natural CTRs in lower than half and have a tendency to indicate up for queries that already acquired fewer clicks earlier than (zero-click searches). When cited, websites get extra site visitors, and common CTR grows from 0.74% to 1.02%. [1]

Being cited issues, however how a lot room is there to win in citations?

Quantity Of Citations

Supply

Since we all know being cited in AIOs issues for natural site visitors, the subsequent query is how a lot “actual property” there’s, and the reply appears to be 5-8:

• AWR, 07/24: AI Overviews comprise 7.2 citations on common. [14]
• Wealthy Sanger / Authoritas, 09/24: The common variety of citations is 8.2, with small variations throughout person intent. [7]
• Surfer, 10/24: Google cites eight or fewer sources 90% of the time, with 5 on common. 99% of sources are solely cited as soon as. [6]

Implications:

1. AIOs have a adverse affect on CTRs. Instinct validated. “Rating in AIOs,” a.okay.a. being cited, needs to be the brand new purpose in search engine marketing after they’re proven within the SERPs.
2. The information validates that informational searches are dwindling in search engine marketing worth. So, theoretically, we must always see much more corporations dropping natural site visitors, although not essentially income from natural site visitors. However that doesn’t appear to be the case, at the very least to not the depth I anticipated. A potential motive might be that natural CTRs had been already low for queries that present AI Overviews, because the Seer examine exhibits. Perhaps the adverse affect of AIOs is a continuation of a development that has already existed for years, which is Google answering extra questions within the SERPs.
3. What’s nonetheless unclear is that if and when searchers click on on natural outcomes under AI Overviews and citations. I assume that person intent can also be the deciding issue right here, however we’d like extra knowledge.

How Can You Rank In AI Overviews?

Once we discuss “rating in AIOs,” we imply being cited. There’s much more to be found about how Google decides what pages to quote.

Primarily based on patents, plainly Gemini first creates the reply to a query after which seeks sources that might be a great match, although I’m unsure why it doesn’t merely floor the reply within the high outcomes.

Primarily based on the information thus far, we will agree on the next quotation elements:

It’s Not Key phrase Match

Supply

The variety of AIOs citing the precise key phrase is extraordinarily low:

• Botify, 08/24: Textual content (Cosine) similarity between the AIO and cited pages exhibits a powerful relationship, that means the nearer your textual content matches what’s proven within the AIOs, the upper your probabilities to be cited. [3]
• Surfer, 10/24: Solely 5.4% of AI Overviews comprise the precise search question. [6]

However your place issues as effectively.

Natural Rating Place Issues Considerably

Picture Credit score: Kevin Indig

Rating greater is healthier however not a requirement to get site visitors from AIOs:

• AWR, 07/24: 33.4% of AIOs cite pages that rank within the high 10 positions. [14]
• Botify, 08/24: 75% of cited web sites rank within the high 12 positions, however the median rank is 4. [3]
• Progress Memo, 09/24: 40% of AIO sources rank in positions 11-20 and solely 22% in positions 1-3. [8]
• Wealthy Sanger / Authoritas, 09/24: The highest two positions are included in citations 47.8 – 53.8% of the time. [7]
• Surfer, 10/24: 52% of cited sources rank within the high 10 outcomes. [6]
• seoClarity, 12/24: AIOs cited the highest 10 positions 99.5% of the time, and 80% of AIOs cite a web page that ranks within the high 3 natural positions. [13]
• Semrush, 01/25: The overlap between AIO citations and natural search outcomes is simply 20-26%. Over 50% of AI Overviews on desktop and 60% on cell didn’t hyperlink to the highest natural consequence. [5]

Implications:

• Right now, AI Overviews cite extra pages within the high 10 rating positions than after they initially launched.
• The perfect factor you are able to do to focus on AIOs is to run a Cosine similarity evaluation between your textual content and the AIO. Decide the web page that ranks finest for the goal key phrase and verify which components of the AIO it might give the very best reply to.
• In fact, robust technical fundamentals and good on-page search engine marketing matter, however extra to have a excessive rating place and enhance your probabilities to be picked as a quotation reasonably than as a tough criterion AIOs consider.

How Ought to You Rethink Content material Creation For AI Overviews?

Optimizing for AIO citations and mentions isn’t a 180-degree flip in comparison with traditional natural outcomes, however you need to remember the proper format and the place you publish the content material.

AIO Size

The common AI Overview is round 90-170 characters:

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

AIO Format

Most AIOs comprise lists:

• AWR, 07/24: 40% of AIOs are lists, 24% are paragraphs, and just a few have pictures. [14]
• Surfer, 10/24: 61% of AI Overviews are unordered lists, 21% comprise no listing, 12% are ordered lists, and 6% are ordered and unordered lists. [6]

Prominently Cited Domains

Supply

Youtube stands out because the area with probably the most citations:

• Wealthy Sanger / Authoritas, 09/24: YouTube and Wikipedia are cited most frequently in AIOs for info intent key phrases. [7]
• Progress Memo, 09/24: Essentially the most cited domains are YouTube, Wikipedia, and Google, which frequently rank in decrease positions. [10]

Implications:

1. 90-170 characters equal roughly 15-40 phrases on common – not quite a bit! So optimizing your content material for AIOs actually appears to be about easy solutions, no fluff, and a excessive diploma of perception. Much like optimizing for Featured Snippets, it appears AIO optimization is about tweaking small components of an article time and again till you get the quotation.
2. The outsized affect of YouTube on AIOs pushes content material technology additional away from web sites. I additionally discovered that LinkedIn is cited quite a bit in my analysis. So, social and content material platforms might be a part of fashionable search engine marketing. On the very least, run assessments on YouTube and LinkedIn.

Backside Line

As a group, we’ve made vital progress in understanding AI Overviews and their affect.

Regardless that it’s a transferring goal, we will conclude for now that AIOs occupy informational, long-tail queries with low search quantity and negatively affect click-through charges except you’re a part of the citations.

I hope to jot down a follow-up meta-analysis with new research in a couple of yr and be capable to reply questions like:

1. How usually do AI Overviews change?
2. How does Google resolve which merchandise to listing in ecommerce AIOs?
3. What are websites doing at scale to get extra AIO citations over time?
4. What new AIO codecs is Google testing, and the way are they totally different?
5. How do AIOs range between nations for a similar question?

Keep tuned for subsequent week after I publish my meta-analysis of AI Chatbots like ChatGPT or Perplexity and their affect on Search.

I additionally plan to publish at the very least three extra authentic knowledge research about AI Overviews this yr. Subscribe to remain updated!

¹ AI Overviews and your web site

Featured Picture: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal