What are Google’s AI Overviews?

How they work and how to make your web pages appear on them

The conversation around AI continues, and like it or not, there’s really no escape—especially if you run an e-commerce business.

So what’s the hot new thing happening with AI these days? Google’s AI Overviews.

AI Overviews is a new feature officially rolled out by Google Search Engine on May 14th. It’s not yet available in Canada, but it’s on its way. The good news about AI Overviews is that, according to Google’s research, websites that get referenced on this feature end up getting more clicks!

So today let’s learn about what AI Overviews are, and how you can improve your chances of getting your web pages referenced on it.

In this article you’ll learn:

1. What are Google’s AI Overviews?
2. Key differences between AI Overviews and Featured Snippets
3. Benefits that AI Overviews could bring to your website?
4. How to improve your chances of getting on AI Overviews

What are AI Overviews?

Here’s a definition from Semrush:

‘Google’s AI Overviews are a new search feature that provides users with AI-generated answers to certain queries. And they appear above all other search results. For example, if you search “how to lose weight,” Google will automatically generate an answer for you.’

Source: https://www.semrush.com/blog/ai-overviews/

Not all queries would result in AI Overviews, and more complex queries would have a higher chance of generating AI Overviews—the logic being that taking information from multiple sources would generate a more well-rounded answer that better matches the user’s intent.

Here’s what an AI Overview looks like. Note that AI Overviews DOES reference the source web pages:

 

Source: https://www.semrush.com/blog/ai-overviews/

Wait, isn’t AI Overviews the same as Featured Snippets?

Google’s Featured Snippets feature has been in existence for years now and showing up more often in search results to help provide users with quick answers to their queries. AI Overview is different and will not be replacing snippets.

Here’s an example of what a Featured Snippet looks like:

Key Differences between AI Overviews and Featured Snippets:

	AI Overviews	Featured Snippets
Source of Information	Multiple sources	Single source
References	Source web pages shown	Source web page shown
Format of Search Results	Synthesized information presented in an AI generated answer (AI tells you the answer it its own words)	An excerpt from the source web page (text comes from the source page itself).

 

What benefit could AI Overviews bring to your website?

You could get more clicks!

According to Google’s research, in their testing of AI Overviews, “links included in AI Overviews get more clicks than if the page had appeared as a traditional web listing for that query.”

That’s because similar to being on Snippets, source web pages will be referenced in the AI Overviews answers, which boosts your visibility and credibility, and users can easily access your web page if they want to dig deeper into the topic they are researching.

Now that you understand what AI Overviews are, the next step is to get your web pages to show up on the feature when users enter relevant queries.

Read on to learn about the SEO best practices to help your web pages keep up with this new technology so that your site can gain more visibility and organic traffic.

What should you do to improve your chances of getting on AI Overviews?

According to Google, “Google's systems automatically determine which links appear. There is nothing special for creators to do to be considered other than to follow our regular guidance for appearing in search, as covered in Google Search Essentials.”

Here’s a snapshot of the Key Best Practices mentioned in Google’s Search Essentials (they sum it up so well!):

If your e-commerce website already follows these key best practices, you’re on the right track to boosting your chances of having your links appear on AI Overviews.

But if you’re feeling unsure about your content, here are 3 useful blogs that can help:

How to Write SEO Friendly Blog Posts
How to Increase Blog Traffic with Internal Linking for SEO
How To Create a Blog Content Strategy for Effective Content Marketing

Too busy to work on your content or SEO?

As always, I’m here for you.

If you want your blogs and SEO keyword research done right, but have trouble getting it all done on your own—reach out and book a call with me. I can help you with your SEO keyword research, blog content strategy and writing.

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