AI Overviews and SEO: what do you actually need to know?

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seo and ai

If you’re an SEO expert feeling lost in the flood of information about AI Overviews, you’re not alone. There’s a lot of talk about how they’ll impact search traffic, rankings, and visibility—but what really matters?

We’ve sifted through the best articles, studies, and expert insights to highlight the most important (and less obvious) takeaways. In this article, we break down what’s actually changing, what you should focus on, and how to stay ahead.

And just to be clear—while AI helped summarise this, we put in the work to find the most valuable insights, in no particular order whatsoever. Enjoy our SEO notes!

1. Google’s AI Overviews – No Special Action Needed

According to Google:

“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.”

2. Mentions Schema & Structured Data

Using Mentions Schema, you can declare that your page refers to a specific topic and connect it to sources like Wikipedia. This improves content recognition. It looks like LSI SEO or entity SEO may be having a comeback. We will see!

Tip: AI can help kickstart your research. For example, ask GPT-4 to:

“Provide a list of likely search intents for someone searching Google for [cotton dresses],”
and it will generate useful ideas.

Tip 2: Try tools such as contentsprout.ai. Apparently, it is super cool.

3. AI’s Impact on Search & SEO Adjustments

  • AI answers most question-based queries, but not all direct keyword searches.
    • Example: Searching for “email database” returns normal results.
    • Searching for “how to buy an email database” triggers an AI response based on top articles.
  • This means we need more informational, long tail content that Google can use for AI-generated answers.

4. AI Overviews – Availability & Impact

  • Currently available in over 100 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and India.
  • Supports multiple languages, including English, Hindi, Indonesian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
  • Available to users aged 18+ in supported regions. (This means Google account logged-in users, unless Google has other means of establishing age.)”
  • Reduces website traffic: AI Overviews provide direct answers, potentially decreasing organic clicks and harming online visibility.
  • AI-driven ads:
    • Since October 2024, Google has integrated ads into AI Overviews.
    • Example: A search for “leather couch cleaning” might show a summary alongside a sponsored ad for a cleaning kit.

6. Giving Feedback on AI Overviews

If you want to provide feedback on AI Overviews:

  • Use the Thumbs Up (Good Overview) or Thumbs Down (Bad Overview) icons.
  • If an overview is inaccurate or unhelpful, click Report a Problem and select a category.

Can we directly manipulate Google results by doing this? Let’s find out!

7. Google’s Business Interests & Monetisation

 

  • Google won’t completely remove links to sources because Google Ads drive revenue.
  • AI Overviews prioritise sponsored ads while still resembling organic search results.

If only Google Ads were cheaper..

8. SGE & AI-Generated Answers – What to Expect

 

  • Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) pulls content from the top 2 organic results for its AI-generated responses.
  • Schema markup can help boost visibility in AI-driven search.
  • The impact on organic traffic will be significant, even if rankings remain unchanged.
  • Paid ads aren’t safe either—AI Overviews take precedence over all search results (organic, paid, or featured).
  • Google wants users to stay within search results instead of clicking away (nothing new here…)

9. SEO Strategy for AI Search

  • Backlinks, reviews, and trust remain strong ranking factors. (In our humble opinion)
  • Content accessibility is critical—use lists, structured formatting, and clear language.
  • By 2026, search volume is predicted to drop by 25%, with AI chatbots replacing traditional search. Shit!

10. How to Rank in AI Overviews

  • Position matters:
    • Pages ranking #1 have a 53% chance of appearing in AI Overviews.
    • Pages at #10 drop to 36.9%.
  • Quality content matters:
    • Use rich media like images, infographics, and videos to increase engagement.
    • More backlinks = better ranking chances. But not neccesseraly. It depends. Ha!

11. AI’s Impact on Search Traffic

  • AI-driven search could cause a 20%–50% drop in organic traffic, especially for informational queries.
  • Despite this, getting featured in AI Overviews is still beneficial—Google isn’t turning back.

12. Targeting the Right Keywords

  • Informational keywords win over transactional ones.
    • Example: “How to grow white strawberries” is more likely to be featured than “white strawberries for sale.”
  • AI favours step-by-step, process-driven content.
  • B2B sites are shifting towards clear, conversational language instead of technical jargon.

13. SEO Best Practices for AI-Driven Search

The best-performing content:
✅ Clearly defines the topic.
✅ Explores different angles of a subject.
✅ Includes direct experience or unique insights.
✅ Highlights clear benefits and value propositions.

14. Competitor Analysis for SEO & AI Search

To evaluate competing search results effectively:

  • Assess Contextual Value – Compare competitors’ content to yours in relevance, usefulness, and impact.
  • Analyse Key Metrics – Check organic traffic, CTR, conversion rates, engagement, and backlinks.
  • Outline Steps & Costs – If applicable, explain the process, pricing, and ROI.
  • Track Benefits with Metrics – Show measurable benefits (e.g., leads, visibility, efficiency).

15. AI Search Trends & Future Impact

  • AI Overviews appear in 47.4% of searches.
  • AI and featured snippets together occupy:
    • 75.7% of screen space on mobile.
    • 67.1% on desktop.
  • Trigger rates for AI Overviews:
    • 55% for keywords with under 1,000 searches/month.
    • 73.6% for long-tail (5+ word) queries.
    • 19.4% for commercial intent searches.
    • 58.7% for informational queries.

16. Final Thoughts & Action Steps

  • Analyze AI Overview summaries to identify key similarities with your content.
  • Prioritize the top 12 ranking positions—Google is diversifying citations, so ranking alone isn’t enough.
  • Social media & video content (YouTube, LinkedIn) now influence AIO citations.
  • AI regulations in the EU may slow adoption—Google and other tech companies may hesitate to introduce AI search features in Europe.

17. Understanding AI Overview Formatting

To increase your chances of appearing in AI Overviews:

  • Target list-style, comparison, “what is…,” and “how to…” formats.
  • Optimise semantic similarity between your content and AI-generated summaries.

Our Opinions & Observations

  • Backlinks, reviews, and trust are still essential.
  • Content needs to be more structured and accessible to stand out in AI-driven search.
  • Search results are becoming unpredictable/dynamic with so many variables and changes every day, so Google Search Console may be more useful than fancy SEO tools (angrily looks at SEMrush, which was supplying wrong search volume data for the  last five months!)
  • Scaling back on unnecessary tools and focusing on fundamentals (clear content, trust-building, schema markup) is a smarter strategy.
  • Testing conversational, human-friendly writing is critical—AI-generated content tends to be overly repetitive.
  • Testing is critical.

Thanks! We used the following sources for our notes:

These resources provide valuable insights into SEO, search marketing, and AI-driven search trends.