New research by enterprise search marketing company BrightEdge reveals dramatic changes to sites surfaced through Google’s AI Overviews search feature and though it maintains search market share, the data shows that AI search engine Perplexity is gaining ground at a remarkable pace.
Rapid & Dramatic Changes In AIO Triggers
The words that trigger AI Overviews are changing at an incredibly rapid pace. Some keyword trends in June may already changed in July.
AI Overviews were triggered 50% more times for keywords with the word “best” in them. But Google may have reversed that behavior because those phrases, when applied to products, don’t appear to be triggering AIOs in July.
Other AIO triggers for June 2024:
- “What Is” keywords increased by 20% more times
- “How to” queries increased by 15%
- Queries with the phrase “”symptoms of” increased by about 12%
- Queries with the word “treatment” increased by 10%
A spokesperson from BrightEdge responded to my questions about ecommerce search queries:
“AI’s prevalence in ecommerce is indeed increasing, with a nearly 20% rise in ecommerce keywords showing AI overviews since the beginning of July, and a dramatic 62.6% increase compared to the last week of June. Alongside this growth, we’re seeing a significant 66.67% uptick in product searches that contain both pros and cons from the AI overview. This dual trend indicates not only more prevalent use of AI in ecommerce search results but also more comprehensive and useful information being provided to consumers through features like the pros/cons modules.”
Google Search And AI Trends
BrightEdge used its proprietary BrightEdge Generative Parser™ (BGP) tool to identify key trends in search that may influence digital marketing for the rest of 2024. BGP is a tool that collects massive amounts of search trend data and turns it into actionable insights.
Their research estimates that each percentage point of search market share represents $1.2 billion, which means that gains as small as single digits are still incredibly valuable.
Jim Yu, founder and executive chairman of BrightEdge noted:
“There is no doubt that Google’s dominance remains strong, and what it does in AI matters to every business and marketer across the planet.