Web Strategists Predict How AI Overviews and Other Search Changes Will Impact Traffic (New Data)

More than 300 marketing professionals told us whether their worst fears or wildest dreams have come true since the launch of Google’s AI Overviews (formerly SGE) in May 2024.

The much-hyped and much-criticized event, which Google immediately rolled back after AI Overviews (AIO) fed users false and potentially harmful information, marked the broad launch of AI-generated search on the world’s largest search engine.

Now that Google has patched up its early missteps and SEOs have had time to observe traffic changes, we conducted a survey to see if the AI ​​fear is supported by evidence.

We’ve got the numbers on AIO’s impact on traffic, what SEO changes to watch out for in the coming year, and pro tips from SEO experts on how to adapt and optimize your web and content strategies.

Table of contents

What is AI Overviews?

During the beta phase, Google’s AI-powered search was called SGE (Search Generative Experience). It is now commonly referred to as AI Overviews and is Google’s answer to this AI-powered search engines like Perplexity, Brave and Microsoft’s Copilot.

It runs on Google’s AI model called Gemini, formerly Google Bard.

However, regular old Google search still uses a three-step process Google notes that not every side gets through every phase. Google Search first crawls websites and downloads text, images and videos. It then indexes this information and stores it in a database. Finally, it provides the user with search results.

AI Overviews (AIO) integrates generative AI capabilities into Google search results. Using natural language processing (NLP), AIO can effectively repackage search results as answers to your questions, rather than just a page of links.

Not every query triggers an AIO response – a Google spokesperson reiterated to me that AIO is designed to show up when it’s helpful beyond the usual SERPs. And as web content changes and evolves, AIO is dynamic too.

If you don’t see AIO, make sure you’re signed in to your Google account and check Google’s growing list the countries in which it is available.

As of October 28, 2024, Google has added more than 100 countries and territories to the AIO list, including the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. If you are in Spain, France, Germany or Ireland you will still only see the traditional SERPs.

Here is an example of how AIO differs from the usual SERPs. When I search for “world without gravity,” AIO answers the questions I probably have with source links for each item:

Image source

Unfortunately, Google couldn’t have predicted how much anxiety this search just caused me, but as far as search intent goes, it did a pretty good job.

A number of popular science websites were found that addressed the question (see right), and this information was used to organize natural language questions and answers.

The more popular SERPs still appear below the AIO:

Image source

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What other changes are coming to Google Search?

It’s likely we’ll see more changes as Google refines AIO, especially as other AI-powered search engines gain traction among users.

Braden Beckera former HubSpotter who is currently the global SEO lead at Fairbegan with an important caveat about the impact of evolving AI in search, generally speaking: “I would say it depends on the industry. I think that’s one thing I don’t hear enough about – it’s not going to affect everyone equally.”

Some industries may already be feeling the impact, while others may not see noticeable traffic changes for years.

Amanda SellersManager of EN blog strategy at HubSpot, says: “AI’s increasing ability to enforce EEAT standards could lead marketers to create content that is richer, more nuanced, more specific, and better responsive to search intent.”

Aleyda Solisinternational SEO consultant and founder Oraintiadds that Google is currently in a difficult position.

It needs to make some decisions about how it operates in the AI ​​search landscape, and it needs to match the quality, speed and user satisfaction of these new players in the AI ​​search game. The paradigm shift could pose a real threat to the search giant for the first time ever.

In other words, if users abandoned Google and turned to other AI-powered search engines, that would of course be bad for Google — but it would be just as bad if (Google) suddenly tried to compete with ChatGPT or completely changed its search interface .” . They can’t do that because they’re in the game; They have a lot of advertising to show. So they’re trying to respond accordingly (to AI searches) without harming their business model, which is an additional challenge.”

Google seems to be rising to the challenge. In October 2024, Google has announced a handful of updates This suggests that the focus should be on alternative search channels such as video and voice.

In short: If you use the Google app on a mobile device, you may see these updates:

• Generative AI now works with Google Lensso you can point your camera, ask a question and get an AIO answer.
• Video comprehension functions and language questions: You can ask a question while taking a video or photo to get an AIO answer.
• Buy what you see: Take a photo of a product you like and Google’s AI models and the Google Shopping Graph will identify the item.
• Circle to search: This is available on Android devices and allows you to identify songs without having to switch apps.
• Search results pages organized with AI: Google promises that this will return “relevant results organized just for you.”

So how will AI overviews will change in 2025?

The better question might be: “How will AI overviews change? marketing in 2025?”

Most SEOs I’ve spoken to this year have noticed some patterns emerging from last year’s algorithm updates, and they generally see the need for content marketers to make the following considerations:

Renew your focus on search intent and follow-up queries.

Continue writing content for your audience – not search engines – by considering user intent and follow-up requests.

Sellers says, “Google is such a big distribution channel for primarily text-based content. And that means they are often the driver of best practices on our websites. But Google emphasizes that we shouldn’t write content for Google – We should write content for our audience.”

Evaluate where your content reaches your customers and whether this best suits your interests as AI search increases.

If you are in an industry where people even think Your product or service is replaceable by AI – even if it’s wrong – “You have to pay attention and adapt,” says Becker. “You definitely need to support your product-market positioning with how you use top-of-funnel content,” he says, “to illustrate how you’re different and why you’re still valuable.”

On the other hand, if you’re in “an extremely congested market where people are likely to research their options a little differently using AI, Tofu content – top-of-funnel content – may no longer be your biggest lever.”

In such cases, Becker says, “you might think about investing more in middle-of-the-funnel content and trying to reach people when they’ve already done the bulk of the research.”

Beckers see this as a welcome change. “I think it ultimately reduces content overload and forces companies to take a closer look at who they really want to market to.”

Evaluate the specificity and usefulness of your content.

Ultimately, creating as much content as possible for a very general audience won’t benefit your brand unless you consider whether your content is actually helpful.

Oh, FrostSenior director of global growth at HubSpot says to take “experience” seriously in Google’s EEAT quality rating guidelines. “It really needs to explain why you or the author are in a unique position to give advice,” she says.

A biography of the author is a good starting point, but ideally these explanations should be integrated into the content itself. (And that’s why I interview experts for my own articles.)

How do AI overviews work? Impact on web traffic?

Since AIO launched in May 2024, SEOs everywhere have been closely monitoring web traffic.

Good news: Overall, publishers are reporting minimal changes in traffic. Dotdash Meredith (DDM), which owns more than 40 digital properties (including People, Food and wineAnd Travel & Leisure), reported a “negligible” impact on traffic.

In its Q2 report to shareholders, DDM’s parent company, IAC, wrote (emphasis mine):

“Since Google began rolling out AI Overviews in mid-May, the impact on our traffic has been negligible. Referrals from Google searches generate less than half of our trafficand based on our analysis, AI-generated answers are provided for approximately 15% of searches in our categorieswith the highest frequency in health, technology and finance. The differences in click rates between pages with and without AI overviews have so far been smallbut it’s still early and products are changing quickly, so the past is not prologue.”

In a HubSpot survey of more than 300 marketers whose roles include SEO, website management, web strategy and/or web analytics, 42% told us they had no reason to believe AIO or other AI-powered searches had impacted their traffic. In fact, 41% said they succeeded more Traffic since AI search was introduced.

One way to stay on top of your AIO/SEO game is to evaluate the types of content you publish.

In our survey, here are the types of content that our respondents believe will perform best as generative AI search becomes even more integrated (note that they can select up to three, bringing the total to one Number well over 100 results in):

• How-to guides, step-by-step guides, and other educational content (45%)
• Review/comparison content (e.g. product reviews, comparing top hiking trails, etc.) (37%)
• Opinion pieces or thought leadership content (27%)
• Content that reflects personal stories/experiences (24%)
• Trending/new content (19%)
• Templates/cheat sheets (16%)
• Websites or posts with videos or images (16%)
• Case studies (13%)
• Content with original data unique to your website/blog (12%)
• Expert interviews/profiles (12%)
• Listicle style content (12%)
• Websites with interactive elements (9%)
• E-commerce or product listing sites (8%)
• Gated/paywalled resource landing pages with lead generation forms (2%)
• Other (1%)

Of course, it’s always possible that as time passes and data accumulates, we’ll see further traffic shifts (and when and if that happens, we’ll keep track of it!). And as Becker told me, when and how your company will feel the impact of AI search depends largely on what industry you’re in.

Until then: continue to focus on adding personal experiences to your content. Consider increasing certain types of content, such as how-tos and reviews. and keep an eye on these traffic analytics.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in July 2023 and has been updated for completeness.