Google AI Overviews: How It Affects SEO (+ How to Use it to Get Ahead)

Google AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries at the top of search results that highlight the most relevant information for that search — without clicking on a link. Authoritative content that offers clear and specific answers to questions is more likely to appear in these enhanced results.

The rollout of Google’s AI Overviews is Google’s shift to include AI-generated search results that summarize answers from multiple sources in the search engine results page (SERP).

As of 2025, AIO now appears in up to 100% more complex search queries than before for more than 1 billion global users every month.

And with Google’s expanded Circle to Search tool with some Android phones, users can access AI-driven summaries inside the app.

This is the first step in expanding AIO to Google’s visual searches, with more integration on the horizon.

Alissa DeGeorge, Google-certified SEO manager at HawkSEM, shares her expert insights on how AI overviews in search impact organic traffic — and how you can use it to get ahead.

What are Google’s AI Overviews?

Google’s AI Overviews place an AI-generated synthesis of the highest-quality and most informative search results and sources, before organic results.

Powered by Google’s Gemini, these generative AI features appear on every device, including iOS and Android, and every browser that uses Google, including Chrome — even AI assistants.

(Image: Google)

Is this the same as AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT?

This generative AI platform generates answers to queries from online sources in a conversational manner through natural language processing.

While ChatGPT offers convenience, the AI model sometimes risks accuracy with outdated sources. DeGeorge says they’re not the same — here’s the difference:

“The AIO pulls in information from live sources that you can click on and visit yourself to verify,” she explains.

Google’s AI-powered overviews are snapshots of information to help you access more diverse and comprehensive content quickly.

How Google’s AI Overviews affect rankings

There has been a noticeable decline in click-through rates (CTRs) because AI Overviews serve the user enough information that most don’t feel the need to click through to the actual article.

In fact, the top link in the overview receives a less than 10% click-through rate.

However, DeGeorge points to a necessary mindset shift around SERP performance from rankings to real estate.

Instead of thinking:

“I rank #1 for this keyword.”

Marketers should shift how they see performance to:

“How much of the SERP am I taking up and how often am I showing up?”

DeGeorge’s goal for clients is to achieve multiple placements in the organic search results and AIO.

“As the AIO combines information from various sources to present answers to users,” explains DeGeorge, “if multiple webpages from your site are consistently featured as primary sources in the Overviews, your website is perceived as the most credible authority on that particular topic.”

How to appear in AI Overviews

All the content and niche authority you’ve built won’t go down the drain just because of this updated SERP feature. You just need to optimize your content with AIO in mind, and DeGeorge offers tangible tips to do just that.

1. Make your content more specific
2. Beef up content with authoritative sources and reviews
3. Answer common questions for Google’s AIO on your website, Reddit, and Quora
4. Level up the conversation with video content
5. Ecommerce businesses: Optimize product description pages

1. Make your content more specific

Your customer funnel includes top-funnel (awareness stage), middle-funnel (consideration), and bottom-funnel (decision-stage) customers.

Brands use more strategic digital marketing tactics like PPC ads and personalized remarketing to promote a sale from bottom-funnel customers.

As for the top funnel, focus on sharing informational content to showcase niche knowledge and build brand awareness.

Middle-funnel content dives deeper into product features and competitor comparisons to move audiences into the bottom-funnel.

Thought leadership for top- and middle-funnel content will still be vital for your content strategy. But DeGeorge says Google will prioritize more high-quality, specific, and granular content that answers your audience’s questions:

“Companies should still produce thought leadership, more generalized pieces to showcase on their website or to promote their brand identity on social platforms,” says DeGeorge. “But the primary focus of their content strategy should be creating helpful, specific content that answers specific questions.”

Here’s an example for an ecommerce wetsuit company:

• Thought leadership content: General articles about scuba diving
• Specific SGE Content: How different wetsuits are designed to cater to specific water temperatures

But no matter your content, Google’s crawlers still expect clear proof of expertise.

2. Beef up content with authoritative sources and reviews

Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) already require brands to beef up their content with value to rank higher. DeGeorge says this is even more critical with Google’s AIO:

“There should be a dedicated author with an author bio on every post,” says DeGeorge. “For agencies like us who write content for our clients, adding “Reviewed By” with an author bio will be key.”

Our SaaS client Datadog exhibits this beautifully by highlighting the expertise and credentials of the perspective in this blog article:

We know the author is an executive within the company — and if readers want to learn more? Datadog also links to Garcia’s Twitter account in the top-right corner, and even includes a photo icon:

3. Answer common questions for Google’s AIO on your website, Reddit, and Quora

Google’s AIO results highlight snippets that answer common audience questions just like the organic search results. That means brands still need to offer helpful, accurate answers to long-tail queries if they want to earn those highlights.

But how do you make sure a competitor doesn’t steal the spotlight?

DeGeorge recommends competitive analysis to ensure your answers stand out:

“If competitors answer similar questions in their content, how can your response be better? Go the extra mile to provide a more intricate and helpful answer,” says DeGeorge.

Here’s what that extra mile might look like:

• Conduct message mining: Identify FAQs from user feedback and customer conversations, and answer them with your content.
• Include supplementary materials: Include infographic, data, and stats within your content.
• Verify your content: Have credible experts write or review your content and make sure they have author bios on your site.

DeGeorge takes it a step further and shares ways to answer audience questions beyond your website:

“Quora and Reddit have become increasingly popular on the SERP,” says DeGeroge. “Is there an opportunity for your business here? Are you utilizing social media to answer questions?”

If not, it’s time to start.

4. Level up the conversation with video content

One benefit of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in search is the enhanced user experience.

The average person might not have the time or expertise to assess so many Google search results at once to find the information they need, making the AI snapshot’s conversational summary helpful and efficient.

Guess what else shares information efficiently and conversationally? Videos.

That’s why Google’s Multitask Unified Model (MUM) helps identify relevant information in videos for new search queries, even if the video doesn’t share the query’s topic in its title or description.

And it’s made videos, especially YouTube videos, more prominent on the search results page than ever before.

Here’s what DeGeorge recommends for brand owners new to YouTube who want to increase their reach and authority:

Complete setup

• Use your Google account to set up a YouTube profile
• Fill out all required details
• Include a high-quality, professional header image and logo
• Tell viewers what to expect in your description
• Add links to your website and social platforms

Once you’ve got the basics down, she moves on to the actual content.

Create how-to videos

Time to fill up your content calendar. The good news? There’s no shortage of engaging, relevant video content topics to get a head start on the AIO.

DeGeorge recommends creating a content ideation log that launches from your existing content.

“Is there content on my website that would also serve as great video content? A great example of this would be how-to topics,” she suggests.

“Having a guide of step-by-step instructions with graphics for the user to reference, but also creating a video so the user can see it in real-time.”

NordVPN puts this advice into practice. The Virtual Private Network (VPN) provider shared an article about how to set up a secure home network:

And they demonstrate their guide in greater detail with this YouTube video tutorial:

The cherry on top?

“[You’ll get] brownie points for both SEO and user experience by embedding the video directly within the article and creating a backlink from the YouTube video to the article. It’s a win-win,” says DeGeorge.

Showcase your products

You can describe your products in a search ad, but why not help your audience picture their value even more with videos? You’ll appeal to the 62% of people who rely on video content to learn about a brand’s products, and Google’s AI in search.

DeGeorge especially recommends this tactic for ecommerce businesses:

“If you are [an ecommerce brand] and don’t have a lot of SKUs, make a video on each of your products detailing the key features, benefits, etc.,” she recommends.

“If you are a large enterprise and that isn’t an option, there’s the option to create videos on your top-selling products, or create more general category videos that highlight a few top-selling products in each of our main categories.”

Our client Vintage Tub & Bath highlights their gorgeous freestyle tubs and striking vanities in these videos:

But what if you don’t have any physical products to showcase? Take a page from SaaS brand Bardeen’s playbook with an animated product explainer video:

DeGeorge says while pricey, these video types are especially strong if you use them on both YouTube and your web content.

While long-form videos are the best medium for product explainers like the ones above, you can’t underestimate the power of a YouTube short in the right context.

Promote sales with shorts

Need to update your audience quickly? Maybe there’s a limited-time sale you want to put on their radar. Don’t hide the goods in a long-form YouTube video — get the word out with a viral YouTube Short instead.

Sephora does a great job with this effective, interactive video that promotes a 20% discount on fragrances:

YouTube Shorts are viewed over 70 billion times every day. But DeGeorge reminds us to be strategic:

“Shorts are disposable, and people are unlikely to watch them more than once,” DeGeorge explains. “Any video that is more important or central to your brand should be a long-form video.”

But using them for quick wins along the way? No short-changing yourself there.

Connect with your audience with brand videos

Sprout Social found that 64% of consumers want to feel connected to the brands they buy products from. DeGeorge says brand videos on YouTube are great windows to your brand’s soul, and help you forge a connection with your target audience:

“Who are you? What is your mission statement? What differentiates you? This can feature either the founder or CEO, chief marketing officer, et cetera,” says DeGeorge.

Here’s a HawkSEM intro video featuring our President, Rambod Yadegar:

Another example? Skincare brand Caudalie knows they have an international audience, so the brand created videos about the company vision in not just English, but many different languages to appeal to its diverse audiences:

5. Ecommerce businesses: Optimize product description pages

Although products were included in Google’s AIO before its massive expansion, it now offers a very detailed product comparison.

(Image: Product comparison on Google)

While some industry experts see this as a negative feature, the emphasis on product comparisons makes it pivotal for marketers to keep up with their optimizations regardless.

“This is another sign for ecommerce SEOs to ensure their product description pages (PDPs) are fully optimized,” says DeGeorge.

“I’d recommend doing both a competitor analysis and analysis of top ecommerce brands (think Wayfair and Walmart) alike for examples on how their product description pages are formatted.”

How to track your AIO position

AI Overviews has become yet another SERP ranking to prioritize, which means keeping track of your position is important for ongoing optimization efforts.

You can manually track your AIO position by simply performing searches for your targeted keywords in incognito windows:

However, we recommend using a tool like Semrush’s Position Tracking tool that enables you to track your site’s visibility on the SERP feature.

To do this with Semrush:

1. Create a Position Tracking project (identify your website and target keywords)
2. Navigate to the Overview tab
3. Filter for SERP features and find the AI Overviews in the drop down menu
4. The report will show the keywords in your campaign where Semrush found an AI Overview and whether your site was featured

The takeaway

Undoubtedly, Google’s AI Overviews is a game-changer for SEO. While this search feature can decrease online traffic, it also breaks open the door to achieve unprecedented visibility when navigated strategically.

Our staff of highly qualified and experienced SEO marketers know that no strategy continues to bring results when unchecked.

But if you want to stay on top of Google’s AIO and featured snippets? You’ll need a firm hand on your content strategy that prioritizes meticulous specificity in answering long-tail queries, creative video content, and authoritativeness.

Traditional search is the past, but the future of search is bright for audiences that level up their content.

Google’s AI Overviews can give your brand prime real estate on the SERPs when you position yourself as the leading authority in your industry. We can help you get there.

This article has been updated and was originally published in February 2024.