It has been a tumultuous year for SEOs as they scramble to understand the future of search. With the rollout of AI search tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, AI overviews, and unrelenting algorithm updates, it has taken some time to truly parse out the data and understand specific impact.
Here we have broken down the impact of AI overviews on our clients for the past 7 months. We set out to answer the question all of our clients were asking: Is it better to be in an AI overview or not?
Study Methodology
My research centered around understanding the effects of AI overview when it came to organic traffic. I wanted to understand if ranking in AI overviews was beneficial to clients, or if it would be better to rank outside of an AI overview when it came to driving traffic.
The research pool consisted of 7 B2B clients across a multitude of industries. These clients ranged in size from small businesses to enterprises.
I combed through the results using SEMRush’s AI Overview tool and spot-checked for confirmation since we have noticed some inconsistencies in SEMRush’s reporting. If a page appeared in the AI overview at all, it was removed from being considered for positions 1-5 and vice versa.
We made sure to remove any content that was recently published in June to not skew the numbers in the AI overviews favor. All of this content had been on clients’ sites for at least 3 months before being considered a part of this study.
With that criteria in place, it left us with the following data set:
Results in AI Overviews:
- 103 Keywords
- 55 Pages
Results in Positions 1-5
- 92 Keywords
- 44 Pages
So in total, 195 keywords and 99 pages were analyzed in this study. We recognize it is a smaller subset of data and have hopes to conduct this again one day with an industry focus and even more data.
Based on these findings, here is what we recommend.
Is It Better To Be In An AI Overview?
Yes. For most of our clients, it was better to appear in an AI overview than it was to rank in position 1-5 with an AI overview present. Clients appearing in AI overviews averaged 22% more organic traffic in January than they did in June before AI overviews launched.
The clients that detracted from this theme were clients whose pages ranked in AI overview had more than 100 sessions. It seemed the smaller the business, the bigger the lift an appearance in an AI overview gave them when it came to traffic.
The graph below illustrates how much organic traffic the pages that now rank in AI overviews were getting in June, vs what these exact same pages were getting in January of this year, which is a full 6 months of AI overviews being present.
This bar chart here also does a good job illustrating the jump from June (pre AI overview) to January (6 months of AI Overviews)
Do Businesses Lose More Traffic Being in Positions 1-5 with AI Overview Present?
Yes, clients did lose more traffic overall if they remained in positions 1-5 but were not present in the AI Overview. Pages that appeared did not appear in an AI overview but did appear in results 1-5 received 26% less traffic than they did back in June before AI Overviews appeared.
The graph below illustrates how much traffic the pages that now rank in positions 1-5 were getting in June, vs what these exact same pages were getting in January of this year, which is a full 6 months of AI overviews being present.
This bar chart here also does a good job illustrating the jump from June (pre AI overview) to January (7 months of AI Overviews)
AI Overview Best Practices
Businesses should continue to follow SEO best practices, while integrating with GEO best practices to ensure they are getting the most out of the new organic search landscape. Search engines will continue to evolve, but here are some best practices to rank in AI Overviews.
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Create High Quality, Authoritative Content
This recommendation should not be unfamiliar, as it has been at the core of SEO best practices for years. Algorithms love EEAT ( (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) content. This is why interlinking strategies are so important, and why pillar page strategies can be so impactful
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Use Question and Answer Format
Gone are the days of long intros and metaphors. Users have questions, and they want answers. Format your headlines like the queries you imagine your users having, and provide an answer quickly and concisely.
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Use Structured Data and Schema
Implement structured data and schema markup to help search engines understand your content better. This practice can improve the visibility of your content in AI-generated summaries.
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Only Use One Date
Search Engines prefer recent content, but we have seen a trend where using both “Date Published” and “Date Updated” can create confusion for crawlers. Make sure you are only using one of these in your coding and choose the one that is most recent.
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Update Content Regularly
As mentioned in the bullet above, search engines (and users) want fresh and relevant content. Do not be afraid to prune old content to reduce bloat and maximize the chance of fresh content being updated.
How Obility Can Help
Obility specializes in helping B2B companies enhance their digital marketing strategies through comprehensive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) services. Learn more about our expertise and get certified in GEO.
