Google AI Overviews only show for 7% of queries, a new low

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the recent changes and trends observed in Google's AI Overviews, a search feature that provides summarized information directly on the search results page. The key findings from the analysis by BrightEdge, an enterprise SEO platform, are presented.

🙋 Q&A

[01] AI Overviews Drop

1. What is the key finding about the presence of AI Overviews?

• Google's AI Overviews now appear less than 7% of the time, down from 11% previously.
• There was a slight increase in AI Overviews in mid-June before the big drop.

2. In which industries did the presence of AI Overviews remain stable?

• The presence of AI Overviews remained stable in many industries, but not in education, entertainment, and ecommerce.

3. How has the size of AI Overviews changed?

• AI Overviews are now 13% smaller on average, taking up less pixel space on top of Google's search results.

4. What change has been observed in the duplication between AI Overviews and Classic Search results?

• Google is less frequently citing the same sources in AI Overviews that appear in Classic Search, as it is focusing on bringing in information that anticipates relevant follow-up queries.

5. How does search intent play a role in the appearance of AI Overviews?

• Search intent plays a role in whether AI Overviews appear.

[02] Changes in AI Overviews Content

1. What happened to the visibility of user-generated content (UGC) in AI Overviews?

• Reddit and Quora lost a significant number of AI Overviews citations, with 85.71% and 99.69% decreases respectively in June. Google may have recognized these popular user-generated sites as unreliable sources of trustworthy information for AI Overviews.

2. What changes were observed in the types of content shown in AI Overviews?

• Google cut in half the number of product comparison tables shown in AI Overviews.
• Product viewers and carousels, which were previously common features in AI Overviews, now appear "significantly less" often.
• Ordered and unordered lists, which were once the most common SGE module, now appear "less often" in AI Overviews.

3. What new type of warning has been added to AI Overviews?

• Google increased the number of financial warnings by 10% in June, similar to the healthcare warnings it already had in place.

[03] Significance and Implications

1. Why is the evolution of AI Overviews important for SEOs, publishers, and content creators?

• AI Overviews continue to be an area of extreme interest because the search feature upends the traditional model of Classic Search, making it harder or near impossible for some websites to get organic search traffic.

2. What is the expected future of AI Overviews, according to the article?

• Even though AI Overviews are less visible overall, the article suggests that they are not expected to go away, as Google has stated that it will continue to evolve in this direction and that it is resulting in more searches, though it has not provided data to support this claim.