In May 2024, Google started rolling out a new feature called AI Overviews for user search. Here’s how the company’s official support pages define this new feature.
“Find what you are looking for faster and easier with AI Overviews in search results. AI Overviews can take the work out of searching by providing an AI-generated snapshot with key information and links to dig deeper.”
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Now, in theory this looks like anathema for the search engine optimization industry, which relies on organic search results to get more clicks and engagement for clients. With AI-generated overviews providing key information on the search page itself, it was expected that website click-through rates may witness a drop. However, just two months into the update, Google has quietly dialled down the feature.
A study by search engine industry expert Rand Fishkin has revealed that the launch of AI Overviews has coincided with a noticeable drop in mobile search volumes. The study analysed data from millions of Google searches in the United States and European Union. Fishkin’s analysis shows that while desktop searches saw a small increase, there was a big drop in mobile searches, which incidentally form over two-thirds of all Google search queries.
This might be due to users abandoning further inputs after seeing an AI-generated summary on SERPs.
Google also admitted this impact in an official blog post, published on May 30, citing inaccuracies in the AI Overviews which may have resulted in unhelpful results for the end users.
What’s next for AI-generated search results?
A report by SE Ranking says that the frequency of AI summaries in Google search has now gone below 8%, but when shown the overviews are now longer and more detailed. The report also finds fewer linked sources in the overviews when compared to earlier outputs.
Google says that they tested the feature extensively before launch and they are now looking into the matter of unhelpful results. A small number of these results were impacted due to the AI’s inability to correctly interpret the language on webpages. But the company also blames some “nonsensical new searches” which they say are being done solely for the purpose of generating erroneous results.
Despite the dip in mobile search queries, the overall search behaviour has not changed so far and the number of clicks per search on mobile devices has also increased slightly. This indicates that apart from those who abandoned the search, the ones who did engage with an AI Overview still clicked on a search result afterwards.
Yet, the study finds that Google search behaviour in the US and European Union does show some concerning trends:
- Low click through rates, with only 360 out of every 1000 searches in the US resulting in clicks on non-Google websites. For the EU this number stands at 374.
- Domination of zero-click searches, with almost 60% searches generating no clicks throughs.
- A bulk of traffic leading to Google’s self referral site, about 30% of all clicks happening in the USA.
This raises a question about the future of AI-powered searches and the next steps for search engine companies. Mimicking Google, many competitors are now showing their own version of AI Overviews.
Google says that they have made changes to improve the accuracy of the overviews by,
- Building better detection mechanisms to avoid showing AI-generated results for frivolous queries.
- Limiting the use of user-generated content for creating the AI Overviews.
- Adding a trigger to restrict AI Overviews for key phrases where the content has not been helpful or misleading.
- Emphasising on the freshness and factuality for important topics such as health and wellness.
Also Read: Google Begins Enforcement of Site Reputation Abuse Policy With Portions of Sites Being Delisted
So, for the moment it seems that AI-generated search results are here to stay. While the initial implementation of Google’s AI Overviews may not have worked out as desired, the company continues to invest in these features, and that raises very pertinent questions about the future of AI in search.
At DO COMMUNICATION we are constantly monitoring updates on this topic to understand and optimise our projects.
