Remember when SEO was simple? Create content, target keywords, get backlinks, and rank on page one. Those “10 blue links” were our golden tickets to traffic…
If you’re like many, scratching your head as to why your organic traffic has tanked even though you haven’t been penalized by one of the recent Google updates, I recommend checking this interesting research done by Seer Interactive.
They found that Google’s AI overviews are having a massive impact on organic and paid ad clickthrough rates. And as you can see in the data, the visibility of organic content can go down to a measly 0.64%… Even if you were previously ranked at the top.
You’ve probably seen Google AI overviews before, but in case you need a refresher, they look like this, and they are being tested based on the search intent:
And in case you’re wondering about the impact for SaaS and B2B, Brightedge shared in their research that up to 50% of keywords feature AI overviews in Google search…
Google’s not just a search engine anymore – it’s becoming an answer engine. Instead of sending users to your website, it provides AI-generated answers on the search results page. Shopping recommendations, product grids, local listings, and instant answers keep users on Google’s platform.
Want to see what is coming next? 9-5 Google recently shared a screenshot of what appears to be a new “AI Mode” currently in testing with employees that offers an even more integrated chat interface powered by Gemini 2.0.
Here are my biggest takeaways from looking at the data:
1/ The types of searches that are most likely to trigger AI overviews include:
Informational and question-based searches (Queries starting with “what,” “why,” “how,” “when,” and “where” are frequent triggers.)
2/ On the flip side, I’ve found that these types of searches are less likely to trigger AI overviews:
-Local search queries (tend to show maps listings)
-Branded queries
-Transactional e-commerce queries (things like Nike running shoes)
However, one aspect to remember is that AI overviews are not all doom and gloom; some websites benefit from being mentioned, and this also presents a massive opportunity to win search engine results based on these new rules.
The “winners” tend to have the freshest and most authoritative answers. This also includes UGC websites such as Reddit, which are surfacing as common answers.
Another aspect to consider is that websites mentioned in AI overviews tend to rank in the top 6-12 results; the rest are lost in oblivion.
Lastly, brand now plays a much more significant role with regard to authority, and the more other websites reference your brand as a solution to a problem, the more likely you are to be mentioned in AI answers.
Another factor to consider is that Google is now trying to protect the data from its search engine to prevent competitors from taking away their search data advantage. As a result, many rank trackers were blocked last week from scraping search engine results.
This means AI models are more likely to start taking data from other search engines, such as Bing, to get fresh search results data, providing more opportunities to rank in the AI models by optimizing your Bing positions.
No-fluff tactics & AI trends for solopreneurs and startups to 10X your impact.