There is a very short but significant article published in the Search Engine Land Journal that applies science and data to the question, “How does Google choose what sources to reference in their AI Overviews search response?”
(In case you missed it: Google AI Overviews are the shiny new evolution of search. These bite-sized summaries, powered by generative AI, appear at the top of search results for some (not all) search terms and aim to give users quick, concise answers to their queries.)
“75% of Google AI Overview links come from top 12 organic rankings”
The article’s headline says it all. And, it’s a strong statement.
The referenced study, published by Botify|Demandsphere, includes the caveat, “It is impossible to say that ranking in position 12 or higher is the reason why a page gets included as an AI Overview.”
But the study’s data also shows, “The closer your content satisfies the same consumer intent and need as the AI Overview’s summary, the more likely it is to be cited and linked.”
This data confirms what we know about SEO indexing and ranking today. Having a steadfast and disciplined commitment to SEO is the best way to get noticed and improve your chances of success… either through traditional SERP results or the newest evolution of AI Overviews.
Two other significant findings from the study:
“AI Overviews were present for 59% of informational queries and 19% of commercial queries.”
- Overall, Google divides keyword searches into four types of intent: Informational, Commercial, Transactional or Navigational. (Read our article “What is Search “Intent” in SEO?” to learn more.)
- This brings even more attention to customer’s search intent and the need to differentiate between the two (and have dedicated landing pages for each, if appropriate)
“AI Overviews and featured snippets combined to occupy 75.7% of screen real estate on mobile and 67.1% on desktop.”
- Search results are constantly and consistently evolving… Remember when AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) dominated the headlines? Think 2016… (nearly 10 years ago!)
- Traditional, organic search results are continuing to be displaced and pushed further down the page.
- It is even more important that websites are diversifying their targeted search result opportunities and those SEO-markers are firing on all cylinders.
The takeaway?
If you want to win in this space, you need to be more knowledgeable, more thoughtful, more strategic, more deliberate and more disciplined than your competitors.
It requires commitment and dedication in both time and financial resources… But the investment is foundational. And the dividends payout long-term.
Have more questions? Need help?
The web is always evolving and keeping up can be a challenge. The things that we learn never cease to blow my mind—But that’s what I love about it!
If you have more questions or need some help with your digital marketing, feel free to email me at ryan@fai2.com. I love to talk about this stuff (it’s sick, I know).