Google’s AI Overviews are picking up the pace in terms of growth as recent stats prove that they appeared in nearly 13% of all desktop searches carried out in the US in March. This is a major change as it marks a 102% rise in nearly two months.
The rollout for AI Overviews was one of the biggest since we saw the launch of featured snippets 10 years back. Today, it wouldn’t be wrong to admit that Google has changed forever and will never be the same again.
Before, it was the world’s most popular search engine, but now, it’s the most popular answer engine. You add a prompt and wait to get results in seconds based on AI. So that means gone are the days when you would literally explore pages and pages to get what you want. Now, you get a reply at the click of your fingertips.
Now that’s not making website owners happy as it really hurts their traffic and reduces CTRs for a plethora of pages. These AI Overviews tend to rise for low-risk, fact-based material. But Google is slowly but surely entering every conversation.
As per reports, 88% of all triggered questions relate to the information theme. Then 8.6% are related to commercial questions, and 1.4% are linked to navigational questions. It was proven that AI Overviews appear for low-risk material and those that are more fact-based. But we have to admit that Google is slowly and surely entering the chat territory.
Science and health are up by 20 to 22%, while people and society saw an 18% rise. Law and politics hit 15.2% while travel is again up by 14%. Real-time data had the least impact, and that suggests that Google is wary of publishing recent events using AI-based material.
Another plus point is how these posts show up as zero-click rates. When you compare similar keywords pre and post the AI Overview, this zero-click behavior declined a little. It fell to 36% last month from 38% seen at the year’s start.
This clearly suggests that AI Overviews don’t just generally cause a jump in zero-click behavior. Once you understand this, all others make sense. So yes, AI Overviews is here to stay, and Google shared a long time ago.
H/T: SEMRush
Read next: The Hidden Dangers of Default Passwords and Reuse: A Global Wake-Up Call for Online Security
The rollout for AI Overviews was one of the biggest since we saw the launch of featured snippets 10 years back. Today, it wouldn’t be wrong to admit that Google has changed forever and will never be the same again.
Before, it was the world’s most popular search engine, but now, it’s the most popular answer engine. You add a prompt and wait to get results in seconds based on AI. So that means gone are the days when you would literally explore pages and pages to get what you want. Now, you get a reply at the click of your fingertips.
Now that’s not making website owners happy as it really hurts their traffic and reduces CTRs for a plethora of pages. These AI Overviews tend to rise for low-risk, fact-based material. But Google is slowly but surely entering every conversation.
As per reports, 88% of all triggered questions relate to the information theme. Then 8.6% are related to commercial questions, and 1.4% are linked to navigational questions. It was proven that AI Overviews appear for low-risk material and those that are more fact-based. But we have to admit that Google is slowly and surely entering the chat territory.
Science and health are up by 20 to 22%, while people and society saw an 18% rise. Law and politics hit 15.2% while travel is again up by 14%. Real-time data had the least impact, and that suggests that Google is wary of publishing recent events using AI-based material.
Another plus point is how these posts show up as zero-click rates. When you compare similar keywords pre and post the AI Overview, this zero-click behavior declined a little. It fell to 36% last month from 38% seen at the year’s start.
This clearly suggests that AI Overviews don’t just generally cause a jump in zero-click behavior. Once you understand this, all others make sense. So yes, AI Overviews is here to stay, and Google shared a long time ago.
H/T: SEMRush
Read next: The Hidden Dangers of Default Passwords and Reuse: A Global Wake-Up Call for Online Security
