Google’s AI Overviews: What You Need to Know
In the rapidly evolving world of search engine optimization (SEO), Google’s AI Overviews offer a new way to get quick answers to your online questions.
Still in its early stages, this feature uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate concise, informative summaries right at the top of the search results. In this post, we’ll explore what Google’s AI Overviews feature is, discuss its pros and cons, and give practical advice on how you can optimize your written content and benefit from this emerging technology.
What Is Google AI Overviews?
Google’s AI Overviews uses generative AI to answer your search query without requiring you to move from your search results page.
You may well have recently seen it in action: You enter your query as usual, but rather than seeing the search results in the typical format – a featured snippet, People Also Ask, some sponsored links, then the organic search results – Google includes a new section above the featured snippet. It might look something like this:
This new first section is Google’s AI Overviews. It’s like a featured snippet, but instead of showing an answer taken from one page, it uses large language models (LLMs) to sift through vast amounts of web content and generate a quick overview (hence the name) of the available information.
These overviews are designed to help you find answers more quickly and efficiently by reducing the need to scroll and click through multiple links to piece information together.
For now, AI Overviews is simply an additional layer in the results, offering you a quick glimpse of relevant content. However, you can see from the example above that the overview includes a list of sources and associated links. We’ve expanded the section here and highlighted the list of sources:
You can also see that each information overview section includes a link symbol. Clicking on this will produce a new summary box of sources within that segment.
If you are a writer, you will want your content featured on these lists.
As with every innovation, particularly those involving AI, there are pros and cons. Let’s have a look at the main ones.
Pros of Google’s AI Overviews
When you are searching for information online, Google’s AI Overviews offer several benefits:
- Faster access to information: AI Overviews can save you time by providing instant answers. Instead of clicking through multiple links, you can quickly scan an AI-generated summary.
- Streamlined searches: By condensing information from multiple pages into a single snippet, AI Overviews is intended to simplify the search process. This is helpful if you’re only looking for a straightforward answer without having to read full articles.
- Mobile-friendly results: Since we increasingly rely on our smartphones for online search results, AI Overviews summaries can present relevant information without having to scroll through long articles on small screens.
- Higher quality results: Google aims for AI Overviews to prioritize accurate and concise information, reducing the amount of misinformation or low-quality content that can sometimes appear in search results. (But remember that this technology is still in its infancy, and note the related drawback below.)
Cons of Google’s AI Overviews
As with other uses of generative AI, Google’s AI Overviews is not without its shortcomings. Here are some problems that you may encounter, whether you’re creating content or searching for information:
- Potential for inaccuracy: AI-generated content is prone to hallucinations, which can produce inaccurate, misleading, or downright nonsensical search results. You’ll still need to check the facts before relying on them, and this can negate any time saved.
- Reduced website traffic: Not everyone will have time to check the sources. If you find the information you need directly in AI Overviews, you may not feel the need to click through to the source website. This could lead to a decline in traffic for you as a content creator, which may affect your ad revenue, lead generation, and overall visibility.
- Lack of depth: AI Overviews are summaries by design. While this works well for simple queries, more complex topics may suffer from oversimplification, leading to a lack of nuance or important context.
- Bias and limitations: AI models can sometimes repeat the biases found in the data they’re trained on. This can result in overviews that reflect incomplete or skewed perspectives on specific topics. Additionally, AI may struggle with niche or highly specialized subjects, leading to less helpful overviews.
How to Optimize Your Content for AI Overviews
Although Google’s AI Overviews is still in its early stages, there are some steps you can take now to boost the chances of your content being referenced as a source. Although you might be skeptical, the good news is that whatever happens with AI Overviews, these are all best practices for general SEO.
1. Prioritize E-E-A-T
Google’s guidelines emphasize the value of content that demonstrates experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) in its search results.
To increase the likelihood of your content being featured in an AI Overview, focus on creating high-quality, well-researched articles that demonstrate your in-depth knowledge of the subject matter. Incorporate real-life examples, case studies, and expert opinions.
2. Write Clear and Concise Introductions
AI Overviews are summaries, so a strong, clear introduction can help ensure that Google’s algorithms capture your key points.
Effectively summarizing your content in the first few sentences increases the chances of it being featured in the list of overview sources.
3. Structure Your Content
Using a clear structure can improve the chances of your content being selected for an AI Overview, as structured data makes it easier for AI to identify relevant information.
Use header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) – you may be familiar with these from word-processing tools like Word and Google Docs – so that the algorithm recognizes the structure of your content.
4. Answer Common Questions
AI Overviews don’t pop up for every search; they currently focus on providing answers to common questions.
You can discover the questions you should be addressing with a bit of research. Then, tackle those common questions in your content. For example, you might want to incorporate an FAQ section.
5. Optimize for Mobile
We discussed how one of the aims of AI Overviews is to make searching more smartphone friendly. So take the lead on this and ensure your content is optimized for mobile searches by using short paragraphs, bullet points, and clear headings to enhance readability on smaller screens.
If you’re publishing your own content, use a responsive design that automatically adapts to different screen sizes. You don’t need to be an expert in coding. Just look for a what you see is what you get (known as WYSIWYG) website builder.
6. Create Engaging Meta Descriptions
While meta descriptions are not directly used for AI Overviews, they may still play a role in search visibility.
A compelling and concise meta description can help improve your click-through rate, which may indirectly influence how AI perceives your content. You can even make use of AI to write your meta descriptions.
7. Stay Updated on Industry News
As this feature is still in its early stages, you should expect new guidelines and best practices to emerge.
Stay informed by following updates from Google and SEO industry leaders, and be ready to adapt your strategies accordingly. Keep an eye on our writing tips blog, too!
Becoming A Freelance Writer
If you are a freelance content writer, AI Overviews presents challenges and opportunities. While this technology can streamline how information is delivered in search results – this may be useful when you’re researching your article – it also has the potential to oversimplify complex topics and reduce website traffic to the actual content you’ve created.
Follow SEO best practices to give your work the best chance of being featured as a source for the overview. Whatever the future may hold for AI Overviews, taking those steps will benefit your content.
To learn more about optimizing your content for search engines, as well as keeping your readers engaged once they find it, why not enroll in our Becoming A Freelance Writer course? If you’re unsure whether it’s right for you, you can try two lessons for free.
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