SGE has finally launched with a new name, AI Overviews. Sounds better in my opinion.
For searchers, this all seems exciting—I can finally get my answers without navigating through links. For brands and marketers relying on Google for traffic, this is something to watch and optimize for.
In this article, we’ll talk about what’s new and what marketers need to know, as well as feature some examples and what you can do to optimize your site.
What are AI Overviews
AI-generated answers
Google is now using AI to provide quick summaries and overviews in response to search queries. These AI Overviews are generated through machine learning models that synthesize information from across the web into concise answers.
So instead of just listing website links, AI Overviews aims to directly answer queries while giving you the option to dig deeper into articles you find relevant.
Powered by Google Gemini
AI Overviews uses the new Gemini model as shared in Google’s announcement this week.
“This is all made possible by a new Gemini model customized for Google Search. It brings together Gemini’s advanced capabilities — including multi-step reasoning, planning and multimodality — with our best-in-class Search systems.”
Gemini can piece together relevant details from multiple online sources to construct a helpful overview tailored to the user's query.
When to expect them
AI Overviews are now visible in the US search results, with a global rollout planned for billions of users by the end of 2024.
They appear as large "link card" results, taking up significant screen space.
However, Google says they will be selective about displaying AI Overviews only when they can genuinely enhance the search experience beyond regular web links.
Many new features are still in “coming soon” status and will first be rolled out in the US in English.
What’s new with AI Overviews
New AI capabilities for complex queries
Before the official launch, there’s a search bar at the bottom of each SGE result where you can ask follow-up questions.
The new AI Overviews doesn’t have that. Instead, it can handle the most complex queries that involve caveats and nuances.
From an example from Google, you can include many factors to your search, like:
“find the best yoga or pilates studios in Boston and show me details on their intro offers, and walking time from Beacon Hill.”
Adjustable language complexity
You can soon be able to adjust the language complexity of AI Overviews' summaries.
This will make it more accessible to individuals with different language capabilities and topical knowledge.
If you’d like to explain something to a 7-year old, you can simplify the language. If you’re new to certain topics, you can break it down into something that you can understand more easily.
AI-powered organization and planning
The new AI Overviews experience goes beyond just summarizing topics.
It can help with planning activities like meals and vacations by creating initial plans that users can customize with Google’s help.
You can even export it to your documents or Gmail once you’re happy with the result.
AI-organized results
This new capability categorizes results under AI-generated headlines, with diverse perspectives and different content types like video, images and text.
This is helpful for when you are looking for new ideas and need inspiration. Google can brainstorm with you and give you a good starting point to develop your ideas.
Video search capabilities
Users can soon search with video content. If you face a problem with your camera and need help, you can simply take a video of it and tell Google what’s wrong with it. Google will analyze and search the web for possible solutions.
Now, I can finally find out what’s wrong with my Nokia phone.
What Brands and Marketers Need to Know
Google’s Budaraju shares that the CTR for AI Overviews is higher than traditional search, which is pretty clear that it’s going to be the case from the start.
But there are a few other things that marketers should know.
- AI Overviews appear for limited queries: Google says that they’ll only show AI Overviews if they feel that it adds value to what is already available. The percentage is unknown. But we know that AI Overviews will show up even if ads are displayed.
- Ads can appear before or after AI overviews: We did some rounds of testing and found this to be the case as well. This should be covered in more detail in next week’s Google Marketing Live event.
- Data is available on Google Search Console: You’ll be able to see the number of clicks and impressions on GSC. But they’ll be lumped together, which means you can’t tell if your clicks and impressions came from AI Overviews or regular searches.
- Sites can opt out of AI Overviews: If you don’t want your site to show up on AI Overviews, you can. Google has a help guide here to tell you how.
- Featured Snippets will still be around: Featured Snippets can appear alongside AI Overviews. But it looks like they’ll take the second place.
What Does This Mean For Brands and Marketers?
AI Overviews take a ton of screen real estate. Literally the entire space above the fold, unless ads are displayed.
That means SERPs are going to be pushed off the screen and traffic will take a hit.
It may sound scary. But there’s an opportunity here. Some articles, even though they’re not ranking or ranking poorly on SERPs, show up on the link card. And that’s because they simply had the best answers to the question.
This shows how important it is to continue putting out content that matches the intent and satisfies queries in different angles.
The move towards more complex searches offers a good chance to capture traffic from long-tail keywords. The more ground you cover and the more perspectives you provide, the better.
The best way to find these content ideas is still going back to the fundamentals of marketing. Understanding your customers’ pain points and needs, what problems they need to solve, and what burning questions are in their heads.
Brands need to answer these queries, anticipate unspoken follow-up questions and include them in the same piece of content.
It’s like being the most thoughtful version of yourself, stepping into the shoes of your customers and answering questions before they’re being asked. It also means understanding your customer journey well.
Hypotenuse AI’s blog writer is designed to help you do just that. On top of analyzing keywords and competitors for the best way to angle your content, our advanced customizations also give you space to provide additional information about your product and what you’ve gathered from your customers.
Examples and Analysis of AI Overviews
We did some searches to test out AI Overviews in its current launch state. What we found was that it didn’t appear for bottom-of-the-funnel searches like “t-shirts that don’t wrinkle easily” or “furniture for smaller spaces”. Those triggered Google Shopping cards like they usually do.
It’s only when I moved up the funnel that I got some pretty good AI-generated answers.
A one-week trip to Australia
As I was considering a trip to Australia, I entered 2 different queries and got interesting responses for both:
- Is it worth going to Australia for a week
- Plan a one-week trip to Australia
Is it worth going to Australia for a week
The AI Overview starts with how much it would cost to tour Australia for a week or two, tailored to a variety of travellers. It understands that I’m concerned about price when I asked that question.
But it didn’t stop there. It gave recommendations on a good length of travel time, then proceeded to offer itinerary suggestions and even the best time to visit the country.
Every link includes an answer to the question and expands into follow-up recommendations. The first link, for example, provided advice for if you had one week, 10 days or even 2 weeks or more
Plan a one-week trip to Australia
This query triggered a more direct response with mostly places to visit. It also goes one step further to share the potential cost of this trip.
The planning capability has not launched yet, but I’m pretty excited given that this is the baseline of what AI Overviews can offer.
Tackling sleep issues
Again, I entered 2 queries that are similar but angled differently:
- Why do I wake up at 2am and can't go back to sleep
- How to sleep through the night without waking up
As this touches on a YMYL topic, both queries are more careful and present answers from reputable medical sources and have higher traffic.
If your brand operates in these industries, this is something you should take note of.
One thing to note is that Google highlights the sections where it found the answers. Here’s an example.
How to Optimize Your Site for AI Overviews
Without a doubt, AI Overviews is going to impact site traffic. Here are some tactics we can adopt to increase our chances of landing a position on the link card.
Structure content as questions and detailed answers
As we’ve seen in earlier examples, AI Overviews answers user queries directly. But it doesn’t stop there. It carries on to provide recommendations by anticipating what searchers are looking for in the next step.
Create content that gives clear answers, then branch out into relevant talking points that might pop up after the question is answered.
Create comprehensive overviews or guides on topics
Given that AI Overviews is able to process very complex queries with nuances and various angles, it would be good idea to include different perspectives and use cases.
Work on technical SEO
Google’s AI model still relies on understanding the page content to come up with answers in the link card.
Improve your technical SEO to help Google understand what your page is about. That includes organizing your site structure for easier crawling, linking to relevant sources and working on your meta tags like your meta titles and descriptions.
Track queries where AI Overviews show up
Even though there are many ways to ask questions and so many long-tail keywords to consider, there will still be similar queries.
Start with the ones that have a higher search volume and analyze the answers provided by AI Overviews to guide your page content.
Conclusion
AI Overviews is still in its early stages. As they start rolling out their planned features, there are going to be a lot more ways we can optimize, which we'll share as it comes.
But the fundamentals remain the same—think from the perspective of the searcher and your users. That way the type of content you produce will always be relevant, no matter what Google morphs into.
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