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Two weeks after Google rolled out AI Overviews (AIOs), we can analyze early data to gauge the impact on organic traffic.
I wanted to understand the impact and implications of AIOs, especially after many reports of misinformation and sometimes harmful recommendations from Google’s AI answers.
I found that AIOs can hurt organic traffic, especially when queries indicate that users want quick answers. However, there might be a chance that some AIOs deliver more traffic to cited sites.
When AIOs Show Up
I used ZipTie to crawl the search results for 1,675 queries in the health vertical on May 22 to understand how, when, and maybe why Google shows AIOs.
I mixed ZipTie’s data with Search Console and Ahrefs to understand the implications for organic traffic, the influence of backlinks, and estimated domain traffic.
42% Of Queries Show AIOs
AIOs showed up 42% of the time (704/1,675 queries), which is much more than the 16% found in ecommerce by ZipTie or the 15% found by SEO Clarity.
The higher rate makes sense since Google announced to show AIOs for complex queries, which are more likely to occur in health than ecommerce.
I found a weak relationship with the number of words, indicating that longer queries are more likely to trigger AIOs. Yet, I’m surprised to find so many AIOs in a sensitive space like health, where wrong information is so much more risky.