Impact of the Google AI Overview update on SaaS search
This month, Google announced the launch of AI Overviews. These AI summaries are created by Google’s Gemini LLM and shown in search results as part of a wider use of generative AI in search by Google. They’re designed to provide the user with a quick answer when they don’t have time to “piece together all the information” they need, according to Google.
This has raised alarm bells in the SEO industry which has witnessed various updates over the years that resulted in a decrease in the amount of traffic Google sends. Many presume that if users don’t need to piece together the information, they don’t need to visit the sites where the information comes from.
Despite the obvious contradiction, Google has claimed that “
In this article, we provide a quick overview of what we’ve seen so far, how it has affected SaaS—focusing on the telecoms industry as an example, what’s likely to happen next, and what actions we recommend for SaaS businesses.
What do AI Overviews look like?
They initially take about as much space on the SERP as a featured snippet. They show a summary and an option to “show more”:
Desktop view
Mobile View
They consist of the following elements:
Summary: immediately available (see images above)
Show more navigation: immediately available (see images above)
Sources page snippets and links: These show the favicon, page title, and a published date where available. Between two and eight snippets are shown in carousel format. Generally, the sources are also found within the first ten organic results for the term, with occasional exceptions.
Desktop view
Mobile view
Additional information:
‘Extend’ navigation: Chevrons next to each additional information section allow sources for that section to be revealed and hidden.
What has the initial impact been?
We’ve investigated keywords for the internet and telecoms industry. The percentage of SERPs affected is currently small and has decreased significantly since launch, as demonstrated in the table and graph below::
| Internet & Telecoms | Desktop | Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| 17 May 2024 | 1.54% | 1.85% |
| 20 May 2024 | 0.4% | 0.44% |
Data from SEMRush
Data from SEMRush
Through extensive manual searching into the impact of AI overviews on these SERPs, we’ve discovered the following:
- AI Overviews affect only United States results so far. Google has stated that a wider release will follow.
- The user must be logged in (when logged out, AI Overviews do not show)
- Search terms generally have informational intent. We’ve not been able to find any brand, brand-hybrid or transactional terms that trigger AI Overviews
- It’s also worth noting that potentially sensitive terms (YMYL – money / health) do not trigger AI Overviews
What’s next for AI Overviews?
- We know that Google will roll out the functionality to other countries shortly
- Since launch, we’ve witnessed a significant reduction in AI Overviews in telecoms SERPs
- We’re also seeing fluctuation in the pages that Google is referencing, even shortly after a previous search for the same term
- We’re assuming that Google is caching results for around an hour before generating a new Overview. This would reduce the server resource required for the functionality but keep the Overview consistent with results on the page.
- Google has stated that “soon”, you’ll be able to simplify the language in the Overview or break it down in more detail
- No AI Overview data has been provided yet in Google Search Console. However, Google typically doesn’t update this regularly.
How should your SaaS react to AI Overviews?
Immediate actions
Google continually introduces new features to search results. Often they’re later found to be not as useful as first thought and are used less or retired completely.
Typically, it pays not to spend a massive amount of time or resources trying to combat or exploit every change. Instead, SaaS businesses should pursue long-term plans to provide users with search journeys that fulfill their intent and trust that Google’s search engine will place high-quality, optimized content in front of its users.
It’s normal for Google to adjust the extent of a new feature over time. So far, we’ve seen a modest rollout that has been reduced further in the first few days. As time goes on and Google becomes more confident with AI Overviews, they may increase the coverage.
Regular monitoring remains vitally important. Recognizing benefits and drawbacks as early as possible will help you to capitalize on any opportunities and mitigate any loss of traffic.
Longer-term actions
We’re continuing to study how AI Overviews work. Currently, the sources reflect what Google’s regular algorithms have considered the best pages to fulfill user intent. This is also what we optimize for, so there should be no need to change direction. At accelerate agency, we’re keeping an open mind about this as we collect and analyze more data.
