At Google I/O on 14 May, Google announced that it is now rolling out the SGE experiment from Search Labs as "AI Overviews" in the search results. Google is starting with English-language search queries in the USA - other countries are to follow shortly.
About a year ago, Google launched the SGE (Search Generative Experience) experiment in the USA (and other countries), in which generative AI (Google's LLM Gemini) was used to directly display answers to search queries above the organic search results (more information in our article "SGE: Google's answer to Bing's ChatGPT integration in search").
These summaries were only available to users who had consciously activated participation in SGE in Google Search Labs and were logged into their Google account. This is now changing: starting with the USA and English-language search queries, the "AI Overviews" are to be rolled out for all users - other countries are to follow in the course of the year. Currently, AI Overviews only appear to be displayed for users who are logged into their Google accounts.
It is still not clear when AI Overviews will also appear in the SERPs in Germany. The SBU experiment is not yet available in Germany or other European countries.
For which search queries does AI overviews appear and which links are displayed there?
With the AI overviews, Google wants to offer a preview of a topic and, above all, help with more complex questions. According to Hema Budara (Sr. Director of Product, AI Overviews - Google Search), the AI overviews are used to answer search queries where Google believes that the generated texts can offer added value beyond the search results.
In the SBU experiment, Google also played out AI summaries including product suggestions for shopping search queries, creating a kind of separate category page within Google Search for products. These search queries no longer appear to be affected by the AI Overviews for the time being - at least not in this form.
Research shows that YMYL search queries also trigger AI Overviews - however, they contain a disclaimer.
The AI overviews contain links to the URLs that were used as the source for creating the overview. According to Google's announcement, these links would receive more clicks than if the pages had appeared as a traditional search result for the respective search query.
Google also clarifies that they will continue to focus on sending valuable traffic to publishers and content creators. To appear as a link in the AI overviews, Google says there is nothing special to consider, except to follow the known basics of ranking in Google Search.
If you do not want to be shown as a link in the AI overviews, you can prevent this with the "nosnippet" meta tag. Please note: This also affects the display of the snippet in the organic search results.
Ads will continue to be displayed - according to an announcement at the
Google Marketing Live 2024 on 21 May, soon also within the AI Overviews.
How often and for which industries will AI Overviews appear?
Google has not yet officially commented on the percentage of search queries for which AI Overviews will appear. However, there are some studies from the USA that have analysed this for the SBU experiment - including by Onely & ZipTie.dev. According to this, in the SBU experiment in February 2024 (before the AI Overview rollout), 90% of the search queries examined in the USA had an AI-generated result (66% of which had to be triggered by clicking on a "generate" button). In May (shortly before Google's rollout announcement), this figure dropped to 42% (of which only 14% were automatic SGE results). It is possible that this is also the percentage of how often AI Overviews are now displayed live for search queries.
Tool providers such as Sistrix and Semrush have been tracking the presence of an AI overview for keywords in the USA since the rollout. The Semrush sensor can be used to analyse the presence of AI overviews in different industries (and countries). According to this, AI Overviews in the USA are currently mainly displayed for search queries in the areas of health, science, people and society and computers and electronics.
In future, clicks and impressions from AI overviews will be included in the Google Search Console. However, according to John Müller, there will be no extra filtering for impressions and clicks from the AI overviews (similar to how the clicks and impressions from featured snippets are summarised with those from the organic results).
Future functions announced
Google also announced at Google I/O that an AI-organised results page will soon be rolled out in the USA for idea or inspiration searches, which will include different perspectives and content types. Google is starting with inspiration on the topics of food and recipes. Films, music, books, hotels, shopping and more are to follow.
In Search Labs, Google will soon be testing improvements for AI Overviews for English-language searches in the USA:
AI Overviews that are customisable for the searcher, e.g. to rewrite an answer in a way that is easier to understand (selectable with buttons)
More complex search queries (e.g. yoga studios with a short walking distance from location x)
Planning function e.g. for meal plans or holiday plans, with customisation option and export function. This year, the planning function will be added for parties, appointments and workouts.
Stefanie Münch
