Google appears to have pulled back further on AI Overviews following well-earned criticism about its AI-generated answers giving users incorrect, misleading and dangerous answers.
Let’s dive into new findings from two separate SEO platforms:
- SEOClarity looked at 2,700 keywords.
- SERanking analyzed 100,000 keywords.
AI Overviews reduction. Google is showing AI Overviews less often, though the analyses disagree on the percentage. AI Overviews show for:
- 8.71% of searches, according to SERanking. (Down from 64% – when it was still known as Search Generative Experience)
- 7.6% of searches, according to SEOClarity. (Down from 17.4% observed May 14-30)
This reduction is not surprising – especially after Google responded to criticism and explained how it would improve AI Overviews on May 30.
Citations. Reddit’s visibility dropped in AI Overviews, according to SERanking. It is no longer among the top 10 most cited domains. The top five domains most referenced websites in AI Overviews:
- runnersworld.com (1,200 times)
- healthline.com (1,114 times)
- linkedin.com (1,027 times)
- runrepeat.com (933 times)
- en.wikipedia.org (775 times)
By the numbers. Some interesting findings from SERanking’s analysis:
- 84.72% of AI Overviews link to at least one domain that also appears in Google’s top 10 organic search results.
- Featured snippets and AI Overviews appear together 45.39% of the time – and when this happens, citations match 61.79% of the time.
- AI Overviews are 4,342 characters, on average.
- Ads appear with AI Overviews 87% of the time.
- AI Overviews are most often present in Relationships (26.62%), Food and Beverage (24.78%) and Technology (18.11%).
More findings. Here are other interesting findings from SEOClarity’s analysis:
- AI Overviews appeared for 44% of Your Money Your Life (YMYL) keywords.
- Local keywords don’t trigger AI Overviews (this seems consistent with recent BrightEdge findings).
- AI Overviews are most often present in Home Warranty (25.22%), Technology (20.09%), and Social Media (23.96%) industries.
Why we care. Despite the early hiccups in these early days of AI Overviews, Google continues to evolve in the direction of AI Overviews. Google wants to become an answer engine rather than a search engine. As this shift from Classic Search to AI Search continues, some brands and businesses may be forced to adapt to a new reality with less organic traffic.
The reports. You can read them here:
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About the author
Danny Goodwin has been Managing Editor of Search Engine Land & Search Marketing Expo – SMX since 2022. He joined Search Engine Land in 2022 as Senior Editor. In addition to reporting on the latest search marketing news, he manages Search Engine Land’s SME (Subject Matter Expert) program. He also helps program U.S. SMX events.
Goodwin has been editing and writing about the latest developments and trends in search and digital marketing since 2007. He previously was Executive Editor of Search Engine Journal (from 2017 to 2022), managing editor of Momentology (from 2014-2016) and editor of Search Engine Watch (from 2007 to 2014). He has spoken at many major search conferences and virtual events, and has been sourced for his expertise by a wide range of publications and podcasts.
