Should Google's AI Overviews Affect Your SEO Strategy?
The last two months have been a tumultuous time in the world of SEO. Coming hot off the heels of a number of drastic algorithm updates—including the March 2024 core update, one of the biggest algorithm updates yet—Google rolled out their long-awaited AI Overviews (AIOs). And one thing that Google didn’t intentionally roll out: an algorithm leak that revealed a number of ranking factors.
A lot has changed in a very short amount of time. But should it change your content SEO strategy?
AI Overviews: How Will They Change Search?
We’ve been paying close attention to Google’s AI Overviews ever since their first iteration—search generative experience (SGE)—launched a little more than one full year ago, in May 2023. From the start, we at Masthead have been certain that the influence of AI on search would have huge impacts on organic clicks and impressions (AKA click-through rate, or CTR), and thus require a dramatic shift in content SEO strategy.
AI Overviews officially rolled out in mid–May 2024, but unfortunately, it’s too early to know the exact kind of impacts you can expect, or the extent of those impacts. Google is still tweaking the feature a lot—including rolling back some changes after inaccuracies and errors—and we can expect AI Overview’s presence to fluctuate over the next few months as Google decides exactly how AI Overviews will integrate with search.
In terms of metrics, we’ve seen a lot of volatility in May and June. Sites that rely heavily on informational queries, like “What time is McDonald’s open?” or focus on high-level evergreen articles on topics that can be easily impacted by AI have seen bigger impacts. And we’ve definitely seen fluctuations in rich results, especially Featured Snippets, which are ripe for replacement with an AI Overview.
What we expect to see moving forward—with the caveat that we don’t have a crystal ball, and can’t (to our knowledge) predict the future—is the increasing presence of AI Overviews on high-volume evergreen keywords. The exact CTR impact of AI Overviews is yet to be determined, although there are a number of SEO researchers trying to determine the exact impact.
One study from Kevin Indig found nearly a 9% drop in CTR for URLs cited in the AI overview—a frightening drop, if true. More information will come out as the AI algorithm settles, but if your content strategy focuses on high-volume evergreen keywords, you can expect a drop in organic traffic.
So what kind of keywords should publishers be targeting? We recommend thinking about searches where the searcher wants a human. Even if there is an AI Overview on a query, it doesn’t always provide enough information to be useful to most searchers—and some queries, particularly finance-related queries, are more likely to lead to expert-informed articles. Identifying your brand’s unique expertise will help find the queries where searchers want you.
How Do Recent Google Algorithm Leaks Affect Your Strategy?
Even though last month marked the launch of Google’s long-awaited AI Overviews, another revelatory bit of news stole the show: Google’s search algorithm leaked. The leak outlines more than 14,000 possible ranking factors, including attributes like clicks, site authority, and page visits logged via Chrome. If this feels incredible and somewhat shocking, you’re not wrong—but not for the reasons you think.
The primary takeaway from the leak? Google hasn’t always been 100% honest about how it ranks websites. This is no surprise to seasoned SEOs: We’ve long suspected that Google uses information like bounce rate, site authority, and Chrome data in evaluating websites… even though they’ve said they don’t. In fact, documents from the antitrust lawsuit already revealed some of this information in much broader terms.
Beyond that, the leak is interesting but not particularly actionable. It doesn’t include information about how the different factors are ranked. Are clicks super important, or just a small ranking factor? We simply don’t know. And if you’ve been practicing human-first SEO, it just proves you’re already in good shape.
Focus on user engagement. Even if details are unclear, the leak makes clear Google’s emphasis on user engagement. And considering Google’s push for helpful, reliable, people-first content, is this really that surprising? At least we can feel confident that metrics like click-through rate, time spent on page, and bounce rate hold bonafide weight in Google’s algorithm. This reinforces the importance of creating high-quality, informative content that resonates with your audience.
E-E-A-T remains vital. The leak confirms Google’s focus on experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) as a core ranking principle. Focus on building your brand authority and creating content that searchers can trust.
Don’t obsess over every factor. There were a ton of ranking factors leaked. Don’t waste your time obsessing over every single one! Prioritize great content, not content tailor-made for one factor or another.
Stay informed, but don’t panic. The SEO landscape is constantly evolving—2024 is proof that! While it’s essential for brands to stay updated on SEO best practices, it’s clear that best practices are coalescing around quality, user-oriented content. If that’s your brand’s guiding star, you’re in great shape.
Google’s algorithm offers interesting insights into ranking considerations for search. But while the revelations themselves are, as mentioned, interesting, they only reinforce SEO best practices: Prioritizing E-E-A-T and helpful content.
