Matthew Widdop
Matty is a Junior SEO Executive at Intelligency, helping our clients to improve their digital performance. Matty is currently studying for his Level 3 Multi-Channel Marketer apprenticeship and has completed a Sport Journalism Degree at the University of Huddersfield.
Google introduced its latest new feature at its I/O developer conference on 14 May, AI Overviews, Google’s AI-generated search results. The feature has now been rolled out to customers in the US.
What are AI Overviews?
AI Overviews are AI-generated responses that offer a preview of a topic pulled from a variety of different sources on the web. Google has designed AI Overviews to combat AI Chatbots, such as ChatGPT, that have been rapidly growing in popularity by responding to queries with content rather than website links.
The idea behind AI Overviews is to make the content more digestible and readily available to the end user. Users will no longer need to dive into different sources to piece together information, making Google a more seamless experience.
How will AI Overviews affect SEO?
AI Overviews will appear at the top of the search engine results pages (SERP), pushing organic SEO-related content further down, which is likely to damage the click-through rate, as queries are answered without the need for link clicking.
However, AI Overviews will include links to relevant webpages to back up the AI-generated information as source material, meaning SEO will still have a role to play high up on the SERP and according to Liz Reid, Google’s VP, ‘’We see the links included in AI Overviews get more clicks than if the page had appeared as a traditional web listing for that query.
How will AI Overviews affect PPC?
Google has announced that AI Overviews will contain paid advertisements if they are relevant to the search query, however, conventional search ads will remain important as AI Overviews will not appear on all searches but only ones where Google feels a summary is helpful to the end user.
The Problem with AI Overviews?
Google has already rolled out the feature to customers in the US and there has been concerns with Overviews early into its release. The generated responses to some users search queries are both inaccurate and potentially harmful. For example, when asked ‘’How many rocks should I eat per day?’’, Google’s new software suggested to eat at least one rock a day.
When pulling information from all different sources of the web, Google runs the risk of gathering information from unreliable sources and spreading it to a wider audience. This is something that needs fixing urgently if AI Overviews is going to be a success in the future.
The Future of Google and AI Overviews?
AI Overviews are set to change the landscape of Google going forward, potentially impacting SEO and PPC efforts, for better or worse, and the industry professionals will have to adapt to these changing circumstances, to continue appearing high up in search rankings.
