The State of AI Overviews in 2024: Research Insights and Future Forecasts

Now that 2024 is finally coming to a close, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the transformations we’ve seen this year. For SEO, 2024 fundamentally reshaped how users interact with search results. This prompted the SE Ranking team to do extensive research and continuous learning. We conducted five comprehensive research studies where we analyzed AI Overviews (AIOs) from multiple angles. We also launched our robust AI Results Tracker to help SEO professionals monitor and analyze AIOs on their own.

We compiled everything we learned into a final 2024 report. This article looks at the current state of AI Overviews, compares it to our earlier findings, and reflects on what these changes could mean for SEO and the industry in 2025.

Let’s dive right into it!

General AI Overview trends in 2024

After an explosive 2023, when Google first introduced SGE and began experimenting in Search Labs, the integration of generative AI into Google search kept its momentum going throughout 2024. We’ve seen:

• The official release of AI Overviews for US users in real search.
• Rising concerns about the reliability of AI-generated content.
• Google’s improvements to refine their algorithms and minimize misinformation.
• The first wave of AIO expansion to the UK and other countries.
• The grand expansion of AIOs to 100+ countries and languages.

We studied AIOs throughout the year, focusing on their frequency in search results, the types of keywords that triggered them, the niches they appeared in, and more. After observing all kinds of fluctuations, we are ready to share what we’ve found.

AI Overview frequency exceeds early 2024 peak

Our first SGE study in February 2024 recorded 18,455 keywords triggering AI snippets (18.45% out of 100,013 keywords selected for the research). However, data collection at that time was limited to accounts participating in the Search Labs experiment. Following this, we observed a sharp decline in the frequency of AI Overviews, dropping to 8.71% in June and 7.47% in July. By August 2024, the percentage increased to 12.47%, and our latest data shows it has exceeded the initial level, reaching 18.76% (18,767 out of 100,013 keywords).

AI Overviews nearly doubled in length since mid-2024

The length of AI-generated responses fluctuated significantly throughout the year. We recorded the lowest average character count in July at 2,633 characters, while August peaked at 6,142 characters.

The latest data shows a moderate decrease to 5,337 characters, though its length remains pretty high.

Long-tail queries with low search volume and CPC trigger AI Overviews more frequently 

All five studies conducted this year revealed a consistent trend: longer search queries were more likely to trigger AI snippets, with 4+ word queries resulting in 60.85% AIOs in November. While our latest study shows the highest percentage, this is mainly due to the increased number of AI Overviews recorded during data collection.

We also noticed that low-volume keywords are strong triggers for AIOs. Keywords with a search volume between 0 and 50 triggered AIOs most frequently across all analyses. This trend strengthened throughout the year, though the most recent data shows a slight decrease to 35.42% from its peak of 38.06%.

Keywords with lower CPC values demonstrated higher AIO trigger rates than higher-priced queries. On average, search terms with CPCs between $0 and $0.50 resulted in AIOs more than 50% of the time throughout the year. 

The Relationships niche leads in AI Overviews while YMYL topics are gaining ground

Throughout the year, the Relationships niche remained the nearly undisputed leader in triggering AI Overviews, with the latest data showing its highest result—54.84% of AIO-triggering keywords.

The top five niches consistently included Food and Beverage, and Business, with Technology joining the leaders in June. In November, Self-Care and Wellness also made the list, with 29.58% of keywords triggering AIOs.

August marked a significant shift when the Legal niche saw its first major increase in keywords triggering AIOs, jumping from 0.64% to 22.30%. This led us to conduct a separate study focusing on AI Overviews for YMYL niches such as health, politics, finance, and legal. The analysis revealed that 50.33% of YMYL keywords (604 out of 1,200 queries) triggered AI Overviews. The Legal niche led with 77.67% of AIOs, followed by Health (65.33%), Finance (41.67%), and Politics (16.67%).

Our most recent data shows further growth in the Legal niche (28.32% of keywords triggered AIOs in November). Additionally, sensitive topics like Finance, Insurance, and Healthcare are gradually triggering AI snippets more frequently. This suggests Google is becoming more confident about presenting AI-generated content for these topics while also relying on disclaimers that encourage user discretion. However, Google remains conservative with News and Politics queries, generating few AI responses in these areas.

Throughout the year, the Career and Jobs niche consistently underperformed, joined at various points by Real Estate, Cars, Pets, News, and Politics. The most dramatic declines occurred in Ecommerce and Retail, and Fashion and Beauty. Although both were initially among the leaders, they dropped from 25.76% to 1.34% and from 25.28% to 0.84%, respectively.

An AI Overview analytics gap led to the emergence of new monitoring tools

AI Overview data isn’t tracked separately in Google Search Console. While impressions and clicks from AI Overviews are included in GSC data, they’re combined with all other metrics—similar to featured snippets—without a dedicated filter for AI-specific performance.

AIO impressions are counted in GSC if the link is scrolled or expanded. If someone clicks on your link from within the AI Overview, it is counted as a click. AIO snippets occupy a single position on the SERP, and all website links from within AIOs occupy the same position. AIO data from the Search Labs is not recorded in GSC.

This makes research studies valuable sources for general analysis and understanding AI Overview performance in search. 

To offer more practical data, SEO tools began developing relevant solutions, and SE Ranking was one of the first to introduce comprehensive AI Overview tracking capabilities. First, we integrated AIO SERP feature tracking in our Rank Tracking tool. This allows our users to track which keywords trigger AIOs and whether their website is referenced among the sources.

We’ve expanded this functionality to our Competitor Analysis Tool and Keyword Research Tool. We also launched an AI Overviews Tracker that provides in-depth analysis of AI snippets for tracked keywords, monitors sources and competitors in AI Overviews, stores cached SERPs for future analysis, and offers additional advanced features.

Key insights into AI Overview growth and niche performance 

After initial fluctuations, the number of AI Overviews has begun seeing growth since July and reached 18.76% in November. It has exceeded the results obtained during the first study. AIOs have also become longer, with over 5,000 characters. 

AI Overviews are becoming more common in YMYL topics such as Legal, Health, and Finance. This shows Google’s increased confidence in AI’s capacity to handle sensitive subjects, especially now that it uses cautionary disclaimers to cushion against potential backlash.

Meanwhile, the sharp decline in AIO presence for Ecommerce and Fashion-related queries suggests that Google limits AI-generated content for transactional searches. Instead, it focuses on informational queries that demand comprehensive, authoritative responses.

The data reveals a clear preference for long-tail queries with lower search volumes and CPCs. This suggests that AI Overviews prioritize niche and intent-driven queries. It also suggests an opportunity for businesses to create more specific, detailed content when targeting these queries.

AI Overview sources and how they changed in 2024

Google has been experimenting with source layout in AI Overviews

Earlier this year, we observed source card carousels appearing on the right side of an AI snippet or under thematic blocks within the AI-generated response. We noticed later that side carousels were being replaced by cards under thematic blocks.

A significant milestone happened in mid-August when Google unveiled a redesigned right-hand link display for AI Overviews. This design is available both on desktop and mobile. To see sources on mobile, tap the icons on the upper right.

Clicking the link icon reveals the sources referring to the statement in the AI-generated text.

During this time, Google began testing direct link integration within overview text, and on October 3, 2024, Google globally rolled out in-text links within AI Overviews.

AI Overview link counts fluctuated throughout the year

Previously, we categorized AIO links as either visible before clicking the Show More button (pre-click links) or after (post-click links). Our July data showed that AIOs typically include 1 pre-click and 4 post-click links. However, with changes in the appearance of AI snippets, modifications to link layouts, and the introduction of in-text links with anchor text in AI-generated answers, we decided to revise our data collection model. Now, we calculate the average number of links in AIOs. 

According to our data in November, AI Overviews have 6.82 links on average. The highest number of links per AIO observed is 25 links. 

The top six niches with the highest average number of links in AI Overviews are:

• Career and Jobs: 7.43 links
• Fashion and Beauty: 7.38 links
• Relationships: 7.29 links
• Business: 7.26 links
• Travel, Education: 7.22 links

AI Overviews pull from big and authoritative domains and ignore Reddit and Quora

The sites linked in AI Overviews are constantly changing. We found in our research studies that the most frequently cited websites, based on niche results, are large and authoritative resources. Since July, the undisputed leader has been YouTube.com, which had 3,800 links in AIOs as of November.

Wikipedia.org was also among the top-linked sites throughout the year, dropping only to seventh place in July. Sites like Healthline.com and LinkedIn.com frequently appear in AI snippets, though LinkedIn was not in the top 5 during the last three studies.

Websites like Quora and Reddit, which made it to the top 10 during our first analysis, are no longer featured in AI Overviews, even though Google uses content from Reddit to train its AI. During our latest research, we noticed a slight increase in links to these two websites but this was nothing compared to other domains.

AIOs typically link to large websites that rank for many keywords organically and have big backlink profiles. According to SE Ranking SEO platform data, the 20 top-linked websites have:

• 6.7K to 25.1M referring domains.
• 86.2K to 38.3B backlinks. 
• 108.3K to 10.5B clicks.
• 1.4M to 1.4B keywords.

Check out this file for our most recently updated list of the top 10 linked websites in each niche.

AI Overviews often link to pages and domains from the organic top 10

Our latest research shows that out of 18,767 keywords that triggered AIOs, 17,333 (92.36%) resulted in AI-generated responses linking to at least one domain ranking in the top 10. There have been dips in dynamics throughout the studies, but the trend remains stable.

During our research in November, we detected 127,985 links in AI Overviews, which is 2.5 times more than in July when we discovered 51,745 links in AI-generated answers. 

Our latest data also shows that in 61.90% of cases (79,223 out of the 127,985 links), AI Overviews pull from pages that rank in the organic top 100 for the same keywords. Also, 63.19% of links go to the top 10 pages (50,062 out of 79,223). By comparing these numbers with our July data, we can see an increase in links matching the organic top 100 from 56.50% to 61.90% and a decrease in links matching the organic top 10 from 73.01% to 63.19%. Keep in mind, however, that these observations only relate to the total number of links identified in each study.

Below are the niches with the highest intersection of links between AI Overviews and the top 10 search results for the same query:

• Food and Beverage: 34.24% of niche links go to pages from the organic top 10
• Finance: 32.89% of niche links go to pages from the organic top 10
• Self-Care and Wellness: 31.25% of niche links go to pages from the organic top 10
• Education: 30.80% of niche links go to pages from the organic top 10
• Technology: 30.65% of niche links go to pages from the organic top 10

The following industries have the highest ratio of total links in AI Overviews to links leading to the top 100 organic search results:

• Food and Beverage: 52.42% of niche links go to the organic top 100
• Sports and Exercise: 49.56% of niche links go to the organic top 100
• Technology: 48.48% of niche links go to the organic top 100
• Relationships: 48.33% of niche links go to the organic top 100
• Education: 47.95% of niche links go to the organic top 100

We also noticed a link match between AI Overviews and featured snippets. When both appear in the SERP (30.80% of the time), the link in the featured snippet matches one of the links in the AIO 66.03% of the time. This gradual but stable increase began from 61.79% in June and continued into July at 63.63%.  

Key insights into AI Overview sources

Early experimentation with source carousels and thematic blocks transitioned to a more consistent right-hand link display and, eventually, the introduction of in-text links in October 2024. This demonstrates Google’s efforts to make source information more prominent and accessible to users while adding more seamlessness to source attribution.

AI Overviews overwhelmingly favor large, authoritative domains with extensive organic visibility and robust backlink profiles. This trend suggests that to appear in AIOs, a site must establish itself as a trusted authority in its niche through high-quality content, strong backlink strategies, and broad organic keyword coverage. Emerging websites or those with niche appeal may struggle to gain visibility unless they focus on building authority and relevance in their fields. 

The overlap between AIO links and organic results points to the continued relevance of organic SEO strategies. To be included in AI Overviews, high-ranking organic performance must be prioritized, as this is the primary gateway to earn visibility.

Google Ads and AI Overviews in 2024

Text and shopping ads made it to AI Overviews 

Ads began accompanying AI Overviews as soon as AI-generated answers appeared in search results. These consisted mostly of traditional text ads at the top or bottom of the SERP (or other relevant places) and shopping ads (carousels of products).

In May 2024, Google started testing search and shopping ads inside AI Overviews for US users. The idea was to include ads for relevant queries, put them into a dedicated section with AIOs, and label them as “Sponsored”.

During our August research, we noticed several instances in which AI Overviews contained product cards with prices, store information, and other merchant data. They weren’t marked as ads by Google.

Starting on October 3, 2024, ads began appearing within AI Overviews for relevant queries in the US for mobile users. Ads like these, which appear inside AIOs, will be labeled as Sponsored, like promotions in search.

Ads continue to appear outside AI Overviews but less often across all niches

Since July 2024, we have seen a gradual increase in ads appearing on AIO-containing SERPs, from 9.47% of searches in July to 13.51% of searches in August. However, the latest study shows a decline to 8.77%.

Note: The table and chart above display how often ads appear in SERPs with AI Overviews. This includes instances where multiple ad types were present on a single SERP. We used a different calculation method in our earlier studies. This explains why the numbers in our current research may not match previously published data.

We see a similar decrease across most niches compared to August data. However, there are some exceptions. The following niches saw an increase in the number of times ads accompany AIOs. For example:

• Entertainment and Hobbies: 4.88% in August to 6.30% in November.
• Education: 11.41% in August to 18.46% in November
• Travel: 19.31% in August to 27.21% in November
• Career and Jobs: 2.38% in August to 10.44% in November
• Real Estate: 15.19% in August to 19.29% in November

Out of 1,646 instances where ads accompanied AI Overviews, we detected 1,228 cases (74.61%) in which only one ad type appeared with AIOs and 418 cases (25.39%) in which different ad type combinations appeared with AIOs. 

• Text ads appeared at the top of the SERP 534 times (43.49%). Ads appeared above AIOs in all instances. This is a big increase compared to August’s data, where text ads appeared at the top of the SERP only 6.16% of the time. 
• Shopping ads appeared 118 times (9.61%), with product carousels typically appearing below AIOs.
• Text ads appeared at the bottom of the SERP 576 times (46.91%).

The most widespread combination of ads appearing in a single SERP with AIO is text ads at the top and bottom of the results page. This is consistent with our August data.

Key insights into ads and AI Overviews

Google has reduced how many ads appear outside AI Overviews, dropping from 13.51% of searches in August to 8.77% in November. This decline could be partially attributed to the rollout of ads within AIOs. Google is strategically redistributing how and where ads appear. Another possible reason could be the antitrust lawsuit against Google, which pushes Google to reconsider its ad policy and possibly reduce the number of ads in search. The results may also depend on other factors, including time of day, day of the week, etc. 

Niche-specific trends reveal growth in ads accompanying AIOs in sectors like Travel, Education, and Real Estate. However, Google’s decrease in ads across other niches could mean it intends to make ads more relevant and balance monetization without overwhelming users with excessive commercial content.

AI Overviews expansion and UK research results

Google expanded AI Overviews to more than 100 countries

On August 15, 2024, Google announced its expansion of AI Overviews to the UK, India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil while presenting them in the local languages of each.

The end of October marked Google’s rollout of AI Overviews to more than 100 countries and territories around the globe. This helped Google reach 1B+ users globally every month. Google also extended language support to countries included. So if your country supports AI Overviews, you can get them in local languages (English, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish).

AI Overviews in the UK are just as widespread as in the US

We followed Google’s lead and began researching AI Overviews in other countries. We chose the UK as our starting point for analysis.

When researching AI Overviews in the UK, we checked the same 100,013 keywords previously analyzed in the US location. The results show that AIOs appear in UK SERPs 19.23% of the time (19,236 keywords). There were no AI-generated answers in search results 78.63% of the time while technical errors occurred at a 2.13% rate.

As for niches triggering AI Overviews the most, what we see in the UK is similar to what we see in the US. The Relationships sector also leads here with 50.50% of queries resulting in AI-generated snippets in search, followed by:

• Business (37.48%)
• Food and Beverage (37.06%)
• Technology (32.32%)
• Sports and Exercise (32.28%)

The top underperforming niches in the UK are similar to those in the US:

• News and Politics (0.50%)
• Fashion and Beauty (0.78%)
• Ecommerce and Retail (1.40%)
• Career and Jobs (4.40%)
• Pets (5.85%)
   

The average length of texts in AI Overviews in the UK is 4,965 characters, making responses comprehensive and detailed. This is expected because long-tail keywords trigger AI Overviews the most in the UK. Queries like these are typically informational and require nuanced answers.

Keywords triggering AIOs in the UK have similar search volumes and CPCs to those in the US. Keywords with search volumes from 0 to 50 trigger AIOs 71.25% of the time, while those with CPC from $0 to $0.5 led to AIOs 71.42% of the time.

The average number of links in UK AIOs is 6.34. This is slightly less than the US results, but the gap isn’t that big and the general trend still holds.

In 93.78% of cases, links in AI Overviews match at least one domain ranking in the top 10 for the same query. Links in AIOs in the UK also lead to pages ranking in the top 100 organic searches for the same keyword 64.94% of the time. Most of these links (64.32%) match pages from the top 10 organic results. 

The top five linked websites are primarily large international websites, with the exception of one local governmental website:

• YouTube.com: 2,911 links
• Wikipedia.org: 2,692 links
• Indeed.com: 2,221 links
• Healthline.com: 2,002 links
• Gov.uk: 1,964 links

Featured snippets accompany AI Overviews in UK searches 39.39% of the time (7,578 out of 19,236 keywords triggered both). When appearing together, featured snippets link to the same source as AIOs 60.39% of the time, among other links.

In the UK, ads accompany AI Overviews in 34.30% of searches. This is a significantly higher percentage compared to the US, where ads show up alongside AIOs in just 8.77% of searches. Our research also indicates 64.04% of cases when AIOs were accompanied by a single type of ad, while 35.96% included a mix of different ads following AI-generated answers.

The most common type of ad accompanying AIOs in the UK is text ads at the top of the SERP (50.70%). In our data sample, all top text ads appeared above AIOs. Ads appeared at the bottom of the SERP 38.98% of the time and shopping ads showed up in SERPs at a 10.32% occurrence rate.  As in the US, the most widespread type of ad combination accompanying AI Overviews in the UK are text ads at the top and bottom of the SERP (93.17%). 

Pets, Fashion and Beauty, Travel, Education, and Cars are the top niches. These have the most keywords triggering AI Overviews and ads in individual SERPs.

Key insights into AI Overviews in the UK

The massive expansion of AI Overviews demonstrates Google’s commitment to making AI-generated answers a standard, worldwide search feature. The initial data we pulled from the UK market shows similar patterns to the US in the number and type of keywords triggering AIOs, and niches with the most and least AI-generated responses. This suggests a consistent algorithmic approach across English-speaking markets.

The presence of local authoritative sources (such as gov.uk) in the UK’s top linked sites highlights the importance of regional context. Businesses targeting UK users should consider localizing content, building partnerships with authoritative regional sites, and optimizing for local search queries.  

Optimizing for AI Overviews

According to Google, you should be able to qualify for inclusion in AI Overviews just by following its Search Essential guidance. However, the SEO community mentions some specific strategies that could help your website get featured. We analyzed the opinions around the web, added our observations from the SE Ranking Blog, and compiled a list of approaches to help you get the most out of AI Overviews.

We highly recommend that you perform regular SEO to rank in the top 10. Our blog performance data shows that for 70% of keywords where our blog pages rank in AI Overviews, they also rank in the top 10 organic search. 40% of them rank in the top 5.

Anastasia Kotsiubynska

SEO Team Lead at SE Ranking

We started to analyze AI Overviews to understand how our traffic is changing with the growing number of AIOs in SERPs. We also wanted to examine whether our content gets clicks when it appears in AIOs for our targeted keywords. Right now, it looks like our pages don’t get many clicks, even if our content ranks in the top positions in AIOs, but we are experimenting because we still want to be visible and capture this limited but valuable traffic. I recommend that you start incorporating this kind of analysis into your SEO routine. Evaluate your rankings in regular organic results, combine them with your positions in AIO snippets, and merge this with the traffic data from Google.

Create comprehensive content

Google’s goal with AI Overviews is to give users complete, detailed answers. Make sure your content provides deep context. This increases its chances of being selected as a source in AIOs. Here’s how:

• Create content clusters. Create interconnected groups of content around main topics. For example, if you’re targeting “canonical tags guide,” create articles about common canonical tag issues, canonicals vs 301 redirects, and canonical vs hreflang. This is what we did on the SE Ranking blog. This approach positions your website as a well-rounded resource which the AI system may favor. It’s also recommended to cover related subtopics from within the same article, but be careful. You don’t want to dilute the search intent behind the user’s query.
• Present different points of view. AI Overviews favor well-rounded content that presents various perspectives. Present the subject from multiple angles. Discuss widely accepted viewpoints and add depth with unique or individual opinions.
• Include supporting data. Make your content more credible by backing up claims with recent statistics, research findings, and expert quotes. 

Structure your content properly and make it scannable

Content structured well is easier for users and AI systems to process and understand. Here is what to do when optimizing texts:

• Break information into digestible chunks: Two to three sentences per paragraph is ideal and improves readability.
• Use lists to present information or related points: This format is often directly used in AIOs.
• Implement proper H1-H6 tags: This creates a logical content flow and helps AI systems understand content relationships.
• Include relevant images, videos, and infographics: This supports text content and provides additional context.
• Add a <strong> tag: This highlights key elements.

Also, structure your content to deliver primary answers up front. Place direct answers to the article’s primary question in the first few paragraphs of your content. This approach helps AI systems immediately identify essential information and then embed it into AI-generated responses in search. 

We also noticed that definition sections rank well in AI Overviews. On our blog, we use an <h2> with the question “What is” and provide a clear answer in 2-3 short paragraphs. Here’s an example:

This AIO references the information from this section of our article. It also links directly to our blog. As of November, the average position on this post in AI Overviews is five.

Include summary (or takeaway) sections to provide quick overviews of the main points. These summaries can be placed directly onto search results as featured snippets or into an AI Overview with a link to your article.

Here’s an example of an AI Overview linking to an article on the SE Ranking blog about canonicals vs. redirects on the SE Ranking blog. It embeds a key point from our Key Takeaways section.

Keep your content fresh

Regularly updating older content shows topical relevance and signals freshness to Google. While AI Overviews still pull from many older pages, keeping your content up to date with a recent publish date can also positively impact your CTR.

In one of our previous AI Overview studies, we reviewed the most frequently cited content in AIOs. Out of the six articles we checked, two were from 2023, while three were from 2024. According to our blog data, 9 out of 40 articles featured in AIOs are from 2023 and 31 are from 2024.

Here’s what we recommend: 

• Set up a regular schedule to review and refresh older content. 
• Add recent statistics, studies, or industry developments. 
• Add unique insights or previously untapped perspectives.

Prioritize your EEAT and online reputation

AI Overviews often feature links from sources that Google considers authoritative. That’s why improving your EEAT and reputation is essential. Here are a few key areas to focus on: 

• Fact-check content: Ensure your content is accurate, well-researched, and offers valuable insights. Consider mentioning who reviewed and verified your content, along with the author.
• Demonstrate author expertise: Highlight the authors’ qualifications and experience with the subject. Include author profiles on your website with short bios and links to their social media. To build trust, switch to real author names instead of “Written by [Company Name] team” or similar attributions.
• Do digital PR: Regularly pursue guest posts, partnerships, and link-building opportunities to gain mentions from reputable sites. This builds your reputation online.
• Showcase your brand expertise: Build a strong online presence through thought leadership and active industry engagement. Share insights on social media, do interviews with media outlets, participate in conferences, and contribute to studies.

Don’t underestimate technical optimization

Proper technical optimization helps Google’s AI systems effectively crawl, understand, and extract information from your content. Structured data plays a key role in ensuring AI can interpret your content accurately. Implement relevant schema markups, such as Article, FAQ, HowTo, and Reviews, to provide clear and structured information that AI systems can easily parse.

Other important elements include image compression, browser caching, HTTPS security, and mobile optimization.

Optimize for Featured Snippets, People Also Ask, and other Google SERP features

AIOs tend to appear alongside other SERP features in search results. For example, our research shows that Featured Snippets accompany AIOs in 30.80% of searches, and in 66.03% of searches, the Featured Snippet link matches one of the AIO sources. Our blog analysis also revealed that AIOs tend to accompany the People Also Ask box. This makes sense, as AI Overviews often favor direct answers to related questions, aligning with the PAA feature.

This suggests that if your content is featured in Google SERP features, it is likely to also appear in an AIO. And even if your link doesn’t appear in an AIO, your page can still benefit from being mentioned prominently on the SERP.

Here are some recommendations to follow:

• Format your content to match common snippets and feature types.
• Provide concise definitions or explanations.
• Use bullet points or numbered lists when making step-by-step guides.
• Present data in tables.
• Incorporate question-based headings (e.g., “What is…?” or “How to…?”) followed by succinct answers.  

Run experiments and track AI Overview content preferences

AI Overviews are still a relatively new SERP feature, with evolving selection criteria and behavior patterns. Like any new search element, achieving success around it means continuously monitoring and experimenting to understand what works and what doesn’t.

For example, we got interesting results from our experiments with AI-generated content: 3 out of 6 AI-assisted articles from our blog were featured in AI Overviews. While we agree that fully automated content creation isn’t recommended, this experiment suggests that certain AI-written patterns may increase the likelihood of being referenced in AIOs.

SE Ranking’s AI Results Tracker stores cached versions of SERPs containing AI Overviews to help identify patterns. By analyzing these snapshots, you can track which content elements and structures commonly appear in AIOs, guiding your content optimization strategy.

The outlook for AI in search in 2025

The SEO industry experienced significant transformations in 2024, many of which were driven by advancements in GenAI and evolving search engine algorithms: 

• Google’s AI Overviews show its deep integration of generative AI into its search results.
• Microsoft’s Bing has also leaned into generative AI by integrating Copilot.
• Perplexity offers a different experience by providing an ad-free answer engine. 
• OpenAI introduced SearchGPT and integrated this feature into ChatGPT, enabling real-time information retrieval within conversations. 

And this is only the beginning. GenAI is here for good.

Mick Amelishko

VP of Engineering at SE Ranking

Google has come a long way from a limited test of AI Overview (then known as SGE – Search Generative Experience) over the course of a year, to a fast and ambitious rollout to 100+ countries and 1 billion monthly users. Competition from ChatGPT and Perplexity pushed Google to move fast and they were able to roll it out to a wide audience a solid 3 months ahead of the launch of ChatGPT Search. What’s noticeable is that organic results get much less screen space, leading to decreased attention and a decline in organic traffic in some niches and I think they’ll continue this trend. I expect that next year Google will further expand the Generative AI capabilities of the search to discourage their users from turning to ChatGPT and other LLMs for day-to-day tasks. With their strong distribution channels through Search and Android, there is still a strong chance for Google to score the lead in Generative AI among the less tech-savvy users.

While the advancements in GenAI are exciting, they also present major challenges. Google is struggling with content quality issues, particularly related to AI hallucinations and misinformation. Furthermore, the rise of AI-generated content has led to what experts call an “internet slop” problem—where low-quality, AI-created content clogs up search results. There are also ethical and legal concerns, including issues around copyright and intellectual property

It’s hard to predict how things will pan out for the SEO industry and search in 2025, but here’s what our analysis points to.

Bogdan Babiak

CMO at SE Ranking

This year has been a major milestone for Google’s rollout of AIO. The technology has made considerable progress, and despite numerous changes along the way, it now feels much more polished and is clearly here to stay. Looking ahead, I anticipate a significant shift in the SEO landscape, with the informational market contracting as AIO becomes the default for most topics. It seems like Google intents on evolving AIO into a tool capable of delivering detailed responses to nearly any informational or prompt-based query. At the same time, they’ll face the challenge of balancing AIO’s functionality with ad revenue, particularly in commercial sectors.

• Search will become more conversational

AI will continue to shift user behavior toward natural language queries. Instead of keyword-driven searches, users will rely on conversational prompts, expecting AI systems to understand and respond contextually. Users will ask complex, multi-layered questions as if speaking with an intelligent assistant. 

AI Overviews already appear in search results for voice queries, and users can get AI-generated responses when asking questions with their voices while using Google Lens to take a photo. That’s why incorporating voice search SEO into your optimization strategy is a smart move. Voice searches are often longer, more specific, and phrased as natural questions. To succeed, SEOs should focus on crafting content that uses conversational language, targets long-tail keywords, and answers common question phrases like “how,” “what,” or “why.”

• More traffic from alternative AI search engines and diversified optimization

2025 is likely to see an increase in traffic from other search engines like Perplexity, SearchGPT, and more (many have yet to emerge). This shift will require broader optimization strategies that consider these platforms’ unique algorithms and features. Businesses and SEO specialists will need to look beyond Google and apply multi-engine optimization approaches.

• Greater emphasis on experience and additional value for users

User experience will extend beyond technical aspects like site speed and mobile friendliness. The focus will shift to delivering positive, user-centered experiences. With AI delivering quick answers, you’ll need to find a way to streamline how visitors find information on your website. Moreover, you’ll need to offer unique value that AI can’t replicate. This includes sharing personal experiences, providing exclusive statistical data, interactive tools, etc.

• Zero-click searches will impact organic traffic and conversions

AI Overviews and other GenAI-powered features are reducing the need for users to click on individual links to find answers. This is good for user experience but not for brands, as it can lessen their share of organic traffic. With a growing number of zero-clock searches, brands will have to use different approaches to become more visible in search. They will even need to consider additional traffic channels beyond traditional SEO. 

Additionally, brands will need to rethink their approach to the type of traffic they aim to attract. Top-of-the-funnel traffic may become less important as AI can quickly answer general queries. Instead, the focus might shift to bottom-of-the-funnel content that addresses specific questions and provides in-depth insights.  

• Topical authority will become the new gold standard for content strategies

Search engines will increasingly prioritize websites and content creators who show a deep understanding of their subject area. This means going beyond traditional keyword optimization and creating interconnected, in-depth resources that explore topics from multiple angles.

• Optimizing for user intent will be more important

User intent optimization means truly understanding the motivations, context, and potential follow-up questions behind a search query. It involves mapping user journeys, anticipating informational needs at different stages, and creating content that addresses multiple levels of inquiry.

Research methodology

This study analyzes how AI Overviews evolved over the course of 2024. We aimed to explore changes in their frequency in search results, the keywords that triggered them, their sources, associated ads, and other key aspects. Our goal is to provide SEO specialists and website owners with actionable insights into AIO performance and expectations for the coming year.

We analyzed 100,013 keywords in total. Our sample included terms with different search intents, search volume values, and word counts.

We investigated 20 niches, reviewing approximately 5,000 search queries in each. The niches we observed include:

• Business
• Career and Jobs
• Cars
• Ecommerce and Retail
• Education
• Entertainment and Hobbies
• Fashion and Beauty
• Finance
• Food and Beverage
• Healthcare
• Insurance
• Legal
• News and Politics
• Pets
• Real Estate
• Relationships
• Self-Care and Wellness
• Sports and Exercise
• Technology
• Travel

For this analysis, we created projects for each niche within the SE Ranking platform and used its AI Overview tracking feature to capture AIOs in desktop searches. We focused on two countries:

• USA
• UK

We used the following parameters for the USA:

• Search Engine: Google
• Location: USA
• Region: New York, New York
• Language: English (en)

We used the following parameters for the UK:

• Search Engine: Google
• Location: UK
• Region: London
• Language: English (en)

We collected US data using Google Chrome on an Ubuntu PC without authorization. UK data was collected using Google Chrome on an Ubuntu PC through authorized Google accounts, with all personalization features disabled. 

The primary data collection for this study occurred as a one-time check on November 19, 2024, for the US and November 12, 2024, for the UK. Additionally, our research includes data gathered during the following periods to provide a comprehensive view of AIO trends:

• January 30, 2024
• June 3, 2024
• July 11, 2024
• August 23, 2024

Wrapping Up

In this study, we’ve summarized the key AI Overview trends of 2024 and discussed what to expect from AI-generated answers and search in 2025. One thing is clear: the best strategy is to keep tracking AI Overviews to understand their impact on your site and identify areas for improvement. 

Our AI Overviews Tracker is the perfect tool for this. It lets you monitor AI Overviews for your keywords, see which sources are linked in AIOs, discover new AIO-related keyword opportunities, analyze your competitors’ performance in AIOs, and much more. Start a free trial today to see how this tool can take your SEO results up a notch in 2025 and get ready for more research studies in the next year.

Written by

Yevheniia Khromova

Yevheniia is a content marketer and copywriter at SE Ranking. She is a fan of SEO, digital marketing, and content creation. Yevheniia believes simplicity is key as it helps reduce the clutter in our heads and focus on what matters. This is the principle she uses in her writing. She also enjoys cooking, learning new spices and flavors, traveling, and playing board games.