Ever since it was first released, Google’s latest innovation – its already-notorious AI overview – has hit the SEO world like a sky-high tsunami. Just after it was rolled out, we were all running around like headless chickens, as organic sessions and search intent for traditional keywords started to plummet.
On paper, Google would argue that this new feature is good for users. Because so many people search with a particular question in mind, now they will see a concise, relevant answer at the top of the results. But as this feature becomes more normalised and prevalent, marketers will need to adapt to this brave new world that we find ourselves in, where (most of the time, at least), no matter how hard we try, we will never be at the top of SERPs.
Understanding the AI Overviews is absolutely essential for anyone in the SEO game who still wants to remain visible in organic search. So, without any further ado, let’s take a look at how this new feature has shaken things up.
What Is Google’s AI Overview?
Following the successful launches of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude, LLMs quickly became the defining trend of the 2020s. So it was only a matter of time before Google introduced AI to its cash cow – its search engine.
So what exactly is this AI Overview? Well, it’s an AI feature that is capable of generating summaries of information in response to search queries – no matter how broad or how specific these might be. So now, instead of having a SERP that is just a list of different links, Google can give users a generated answer that pulls from multiple sources.
The whole point of the feature is to help users get quicker answers to their questions before then exploring additional sources. The AI Overview itself cites its sources for its generated summaries in the form of links to the websites that have contributed, which creates a new avenue through which websites and businesses can gain extra visibility.
The results for this are so far-reaching that we probably don’t yet have a grasp on all of them, but keep reading to understand a few of them a little more.
Increased Importance of Content Quality
One of the biggest effects of the AI Overview is how it rewards high-quality content. Google has always prioritised content that is accurate, trustworthy, and comprehensive, but now this has become clearer than ever.
EEAT (experience, expertise, authority, and trust) has always been a cornerstone of any good SEO strategy, and now, we can see that the AI Overview is often giving a boost to sites that demonstrate expertise and offer clear, more concise explanations. The primary features of these results are often an author bio that includes professional titles and/or qualifications, well-researched articles with backlinks to high-authority sources, and a direct answer to the query in the first paragraph, before the rest of the content expands upon the answer more as it goes on.
This shift is clearly trying to encourage businesses to create content that is genuinely useful to users, instead of trying to game the system with strategic keyword placements. Content like detailed guides, expert opinion pieces, and authoritative resources is becoming more and more commonplace at the top of SERPs.
Greater Focus on Topical Authority
Google’s AI Overview is rewarding websites that build up their authority around specific topic areas, instead of just relying on individual pages to rank independently. So as a result, websites are now making their online presences interconnected networks that are intentionally designed to answer search queries in a specific topic area. This is also great for the ‘expertise’ part of EEAT, as it also demonstrates a deep level of subject knowledge and, therefore, expertise.
Websites can measure topicality by using Majestic. Its Trust Flow metric is able to measure different topics that are the focus of any given website using its own authority score. For example, an e-commerce site that sells photo books might have a score of 31 – Shopping/Photography.
The AI Overview’s focus on topical authority encourages websites and businesses to prioritise relevance and expertise, with content that delves deeper into subjects than it has done in the past.
Changes in Search Language
Traditionally, people have used a specific language to search on Google. Typically very stripped back, simple and blunt words grouped together. But now, because of the AI Overview and the growing prominence of AI and LLMs as a whole, people are searching differently.
Now that users are becoming accustomed to interacting with AI, which talks back to them in a way that imitates a human voice, we’re all starting to use more conversational language when we search. Because of this, user intent around traditional keywords is decreasing almost across the board, and now websites will need to focus on inserting longer, more conversational phrases into content instead.
Conclusion
Google’s new AI Overview feature has had a massive, irreversible effect on the world of SEO. It’s impacted web traffic, encouraged sites to organise their content differently, and changed the way in which users are searching. Some of this is for the better, and some for the worse – but it really is too early to tell. This is just the beginning; we’ll have to wait and see what the future holds.
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