Google released a ton of cool news at its annual I/O Developers Conference. But nothing got folks talking like their AI Overviews news.
Replacing Search Generative Experience (SGE), AI Overviews is expected to have a huge impact on organic traffic, particularly for publishers using an inbound marketing strategy.
Here鈥檚 what SEO experts are saying about it.
AI Overviews is a new search feature on Google that provides AI-generated responses to queries.
Instead of having to click on a website to get the answer you鈥檙e looking for, Google will craft an AI-generated response and provide links meant to answer your query. The organic search results still appear, but they鈥檙e pushed down further on the search results page.
Powered by Google鈥檚 AI model Gemini, AI Overviews has been rolled out to all U.S. users, with global expansion coming by the end of the year.
Google鈥檚 pitching this as a way to 鈥.鈥 And late last week, they reported higher user satisfaction after the release of AI overviews.
In a blog post, they said clicks are higher quality, meaning people are finding what they鈥檙e looking for and staying longer on relevant web pages.
That said, users have experienced .
They鈥檝e taken to Twitter and LinkedIn to share ridiculous answers they鈥檝e gotten to common questions, including one viral AI Overviews answer recommending that folks eat glue and swallow rocks.
探花精选鈥檚 SVP of Marketing, Kieran Flanagan, that he believes Google rushed to add AI to get ahead of growing competitors like Perplexity and OpenAI.
According to Flanagan and others, that decision is only hurting Google鈥檚 reputation.
鈥淚 recognize the decision was largely optics for holding court against competitors, but as you are calling out, they should only have led with the AI once it was free from misinformation,鈥 wrote one commenter. 鈥淏ut they couldn't wait 鈥 for fear of getting left behind.鈥
Google responded to this negative feedback, chalking most of those weird results up to good ol鈥 internet trolling.
However, they admitted that despite extensive red team testing, high usage did flag some areas of improvement. So, they鈥檝e pulled back the feature on certain queries until further notice.
As you can imagine, this release has kept marketers and SEO experts busy for weeks, as they scramble to come up with yet another defensive strategy against the most popular search engine.
It鈥檚 already hard enough keeping up with Google algorithm changes. Now, there鈥檚 this feature that many are seeing as a traffic siphon, despite Google claiming the opposite.
Danielle Coffey, the chief executive of the News/Media Alliance, that AI Overviews would be 鈥渃atastrophic鈥 to their traffic.
鈥淭he little traffic we get today will be further diminished, and with a dominant search engine that鈥檚 cementing its market power, we once again have to adhere to their terms,鈥 Coffey said. 鈥淭his time with a product that directly competes with our content, using our content to fuel it. This is a perverse twist on 鈥榠nnovation.鈥欌
Many experts fear small businesses will suffer the most. In an interview with , Google CEO Sundar Pichai said he disagreed. He argued that AI Overviews will have the opposite effect.
鈥淲hen you give people context, yes, there are times all people want is a quick answer and they bounce back,鈥 Pichai said. 鈥淏ut overall, when we look at user journeys, when you give the context, it also exposes people to jumping-off points, and so they engage more.鈥
One concern experts have raised is the ability to attribute clicks to specific SERP features, like AI Overviews and featured snippets in Google Search Console.
When asked about offering more visibility into that to validate that AI Overviews creates more traffic opportunities, Sundar gave a rather evasive answer about balancing transparency without creating loophole opportunities.
The consensus among SEO experts is clear: AI Overviews will require brands to shift their content strategy, particularly for informational, how-to posts.
In an X thread, says AI Overviews will 鈥渟wallow up most top-of-the-funnel queries like 鈥榳hat is,鈥 鈥榟ow to,鈥 and 鈥榳hy.鈥欌
Instead of panicking, you should start thinking about how you'll adapt your content strategy to appear for AI Overview because this new SERP only rewards the winner at the top while everyone else is fighting for scraps.
鈥 chima mmeje馃彸锔忊嶐煂 (@chimammeje)
These are the ones most vulnerable against AI Overviews while perspective-driven, data-backed content will fare well.
Beyond that, many SEO experts are simply monitoring and auditing their content, as it鈥檚 still early days.
There鈥檚 no cut-and-dry method that will work, as Google never makes it easy on its publishers. The best place to start will be:
Despite the current panic over this feature, experts like believe AI Overviews will operate more like a featured snippet, just another SERP feature.
鈥淎I Overviews are likely going to become a more dynamic replacement for featured snippets,鈥 wrote the . 鈥淚f you need to quickly convert recipe units, find out what the population of Singapore is or figure out how many hours you need to keep between paracetamols, it鈥檒l do fine 鈥 but Google already solved that pretty well without generative AI.鈥
He adds that for folks looking to dive deeper, they鈥檒l still rely on websites.
There鈥檚 still so much up in the air about how the search landscape will evolve, but it鈥檚 clear AI will be a huge part of it.
鈥淏usinesses will need to ride the wave. It will be a disruptive time for everyone who loves organic traffic,鈥 Flanagan on LinkedIn. 鈥淭he one guarantee I鈥榣l make is that we鈥檒l only see AI get more deeply woven into search, not less, regardless of how many funny memes are made about Google AI overviews' woeful results.鈥