The Future of SEO? AI Overviews, Their Impact, and How to Optimize Your Website for Them

AI Overviews (AIOs) are changing the way we interact with search engines. This recently introduced Google Search feature utilizes generative AI to deliver quick, detailed responses to user questions. These responses often appear above traditional search results—even overtaking featured snippets, which used to be in “position zero.”

Getting featured in AI Overviews potentially opens new opportunities and challenges for websites. While initial Google tests indicate that links included in AI Overviews get more visibility and clicks, the comprehensive responses from AIOs could also result in zero-click searches and potentially reduce organic site traffic. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2026, search engine volume will drop by as much as 26% due to generative AI solutions like AI chatbots, which serve as “substitute search engines.”

What does the future hold for SEO, and how can businesses recalibrate their approach to leverage AI Overviews for growth? This article offers a guide to optimizing your website for AIOs and navigating this shift effectively.

What You Need to Know About AI Overviews

Launched in May 2024, AI Overviews leverage generative AI, such as Google’s Gemini model, to quickly provide comprehensive answers to search queries. The generative AI capabilities in Search let users ask a more complicated query, as in the example below. AIOs simplify these queries and cull information from various sources to give users detailed responses that often include summaries, lists, or actionable plans or recommendations.

The Benefits and Challenges of AI Overviews

Is it worth getting your website or content featured in AI Overviews? The short answer is yes. Getting featured can help you maintain visibility. Remember that traditional search results get pushed further down the page.

However, there are several caveats—you need to consider their dynamic nature and the type of traffic they attract.

AI Overviews generally attract informational traffic—users looking for detailed answers or insights without immediate intent to make a purchase. If your goal is to increase this type of engagement, modifying your strategy to suit AI Overview criteria is important. However, you also have to factor in transactional queries with purchase intent and craft a balanced content strategy that effectively balances both informational and transactional needs.

Furthermore, note that AIOs results are volatile. AIOs tend to change periodically—there’s no guarantee that you’ll get featured in AI Overviews.

Google determines which generative responses best address a particular search query and features these in AI Overviews. These responses come with links to relevant sources that support the information provided. This is especially beneficial for users who want to explore a certain topic further.

Hennessey Digital helps small businesses to get their expertise and results featured on their websites in such a way that AI-driven engines can access these pieces of information.

They understand that AI and search technologies are constantly evolving, which is why—to stay ahead of the curve—they work on bringing innovative solutions to their clients. For instance, they’re exploring groundbreaking solutions like SearchGPT, a prototype that’s designed to deliver more accurate results faster. It works by combining the conversational abilities of AI with real-time information from the web.

The Objectives of AI Overviews

AI Overviews are designed to provide better user search experiences. They’re equipped with more robust planning, research, and multi-step capabilities. For instance, AIOs can display numbered or bullet lists, text paragraphs with headings, and lists with images.

Use it to plan activities, brainstorm ideas, and use video to ask questions. AIOs simplify the search process—taking out the legwork so you can easily understand topics and uncover insights.

The generative AI in Search also simplifies how users find businesses and shop. It features comprehensive product descriptions with essential components like prices, product images, and reviews.

How AI Overviews Work

According to Google, AI Overviews use generative AI, which is designed to learn patterns using data.

However, because the technology itself is still evolving, it may provide users with inaccurate results. If you’re using AIOs and come across mistakes, Google recommends that you rate the overview and provide feedback. This allows Google to make improvements.

The Impact of AI Overviews on SEO

A new study reveals that Google’s AI Overviews appear in 47% of search results and it offers several key insights to consider for your AIO and SEO strategy:

• Search queries in question form are more likely to trigger the appearance of AI Overviews in SERPS
• The presence of AIOs varies depending on the industry—for example, 63% of healthcare-related keywords show AI Overviews, while 32% of keywords in the B2B tech industry show AI Overviews
• AIOs occupy a 20% smaller vertical space on SERPs, which implies that Google’s generative AI is getting better at providing more precise responses

Idea Hills research found that 68% of AIO links link to at least one domain from the top 10 results from organic search results. This indicates that AIOs feature content from sites that are already performing well for specific queries. Another study also found that links from the niches below have a higher intersection between links within AI Overviews and URLs from more conventional search results:

• Real Estate – 58.5%
• Fashion & Apparel – 49.4%
• Legal – 47.3%
• Entertainment – 46.9%
• Manufacturing & Industrial – 45.7%

What do all these numbers mean for SEO?

Generative AI in search is, honestly speaking, still very much unpredictable.

Since it’s still a relatively new feature, there are no metrics yet to measure its impact. What’s certain, as of writing, is that the technology is redefining how businesses navigate SEO. Instead of focusing on optimizing traditional searches, you also need to pay attention to AI-enhanced searches, including how they work.

As mentioned earlier, AIOs are compressed and take up smaller vertical space on SERPs. However, when a user clicks the “Show more” button to expand the results, the AI Overview ends up taking up more space on the screen. There’s also added competition from the Knowledge Panel, which features results that don’t necessarily match those that can be found in organic search results.

You’ll need to modify your content strategy. For instance, while crafting high-quality content is still crucial, you must also think about how to incorporate more long-tail keywords with low search traffic. That’s because AIOs are designed to answer complex queries, which take on a more conversational tone with informational intent.

Gianluca Ferruggia, managing director at DesignRush.com, says:

“Long-tail keywords stem from a user’s need to chart a path and progress further on that path to find solutions to pain points. This type of keyword aids more detailed searches and is a great tell that such users are more likely to interact with your business. Moreover, while long-tail keywords don’t drive as much traffic compared to their short-tail counterparts, they do drive relevant traffic and can help you get better rankings in SERPs.”

Ferruggia adds that an effective long-tail SEO strategy involves a mix of basic SEO principles. The twist is that you must have a niche focus. This means leveraging long-tail keywords with low search traffic that:

• Match audience intent
• Align with your brand
• Help you achieve your business goals

How to Optimize Your Website to Increase Visibility in AI Overviews

According to Google, creators don’t need to do anything special to get featured in AIOs. Google’s systems determine which links appear on AIOs. However, in search results featuring AI Overviews, you’ll notice that organic search results don’t appear as prominently.

Aside from adhering to Google’s guidelines for appearing in search results, following this actionable guide can help you get your content featured in AI Overviews.

1. Analyze AI Overview Patterns

Identify keywords that trigger AIOs in your niche and evaluate how AIO-featured websites are structured. Are they using FAQs, offering in-depth guides, or providing bulleted information? Examine how these sites address user intent and answer target audience questions effectively.

Victor Karpenko, the founder of SeoProfy.com, says:

“Content that aligns with what your target audience is searching for is more likely to rank well and drive traffic to your site. There are several ways to adapt to user intent. These include using Google Trends to track interest around a specific topic, regularly updating content to match the current intent of your visitors, and leveraging keyword research to uncover trends and identify new and potentially relevant keywords.”

2. Develop a Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Strategy

Make your content easily discoverable for AI-powered engines like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AIOs through generative engine optimization, which entails tailoring your content for large language models. This approach can boost content visibility by as much as 40% in generative engine responses.

Some of the targeted GEO adjustments you can make to improve content visibility in AIOs include:

• Craft informative content that answers complex questions, such as creating guides for advanced or niche topics.
• Provide data from credible sources to back claims.
• Add relevant citations and quotes from reliable sources.
• Apply a clear, confident, authoritative tone that resonates with your audience.
• Regularly evaluate content performance in the context of GEO using tools like HubSpot’s AI Search Grader.

Focus on Fluency Optimization and Readability (for website text) and Statistics Addition (particularly quantitative statistics). This combination outperforms other GEO strategies, such as citing sources or adding quotations, by more than 5.5%.

3. Focus on Providing Context and Nuance

One of the most pressing challenges with AI Overviews is the lack of context in summarized content. This could potentially make your content prone to being misrepresented in AI summaries. To ensure accurate representation in AIOs:

• Provide a clear and concise summary of your main points to address questions quickly. This also aligns with the intent of AIOs to provide users with brief but comprehensive answers.
• Add supporting details, like data or examples, clarifications, and visuals to add depth and minimize ambiguity.
• Include metadata and implement schema markup (discussed below) to enhance context.
• Regularly monitor how your content appears in AIOs and adjust as needed.

4. Tailor Content Structure for Machine Parsing

Make it easier for AI-powered engines to find, analyze, and contextualize your content by using structured data and clear formatting. Here are ways you can simplify content for AI algorithms:

• Use a hierarchical structure, bullet points, or structured data, like schema markup (FAQ, How-To, and Article schema) to organize content. Schema markup makes it easier for these engines to extract and feature relevant information for related queries.
• Adopt JSON-LD for structured data. JSON-LD is recommended for its scalability and ease of maintenance.
• Validate your structured data with tools like Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to ensure accuracy.
• Implement semantic optimization by incorporating related terms and concepts to provide AI engines with additional context to AI engines that can help them better understand queries, evaluate user intent, and connect your content with relevant queries.

Leveraging AI Overviews for Growth

Because they’re still relatively new, there are a lot of uncertainties surrounding AI Overviews.

How will we assess their impact on SEO? What metrics should we use to gauge their performance? Are they really that helpful? Will AI Overviews take over the internet?

While AIOs will play a much bigger role in redefining the future trajectory of search, they won’t be replacing featured snippets or, more importantly, organic search results any time soon.

To stay ahead of the curve, you need to focus on developing content that provides actual value. However, you also have to evaluate how your content performs across “traditional” platforms like social media networks and AI-driven engines like Perplexity and ChatGPT.

What are your thoughts on the rise of AI overviews? What changes will you be making to your SEO strategy?

Feel free to drop us a line at marketing@woorank.com, and let’s spark conversations that inspire game-changing ideas.