After the launch of Google AI Overviews (AIOs), many ecommerce business owners have wondered whether it is worth ranking in the top Google results.

Businesses believe it will be tough to garner organic traffic to their website now that Google AIOs are in the picture. But is it true? Let’s find out.

According to the stats, only 8.71% of searches yield an AI Overview. Moreover, 84.72% of Google AI Overviews feature results from the top 10 domains. The second stat proves that the AIOs are chosen from the most accurate Google SERP.

One thing to understand here is that the scope of organic results is not over. If you align your SEO practices with the new Google update and follow some smart ways to prepare for Google AI Overviews, your results will be at the top. Let’s explore more on this subject.

What are Google AI Overviews?

Google AI Overviews are AI-generated responses provided by Google against the user's search query. These search responses enhance the user experience while featuring the most useful information on the web.

Google AI Overviews summarize all the valuable information at the top of the page. Here are some key features of Google AI Overviews:

• Google AI Overviews appear in the collapsed version. To lure users into clicking on the website, it is best to include concise and direct answers to user queries.

• Most of the Google AI Overviews appear against longer search queries. The longer your search query, the greater the possibility of provoking an AIO. As per research, a search query with 10 words can trigger an AIO in 19.10% of the cases, which is the highest.

• Some common niches that trigger AIOs more are relationships, food and beverage, and technology.

• Google AI Overviews aren’t always accurate. As Google forms the Google AIOs from the top SEO results, the information in the sources may be inaccurate.

“The best part of Google AI Overviews is that they encourage brands to change their content marketing strategy. This is especially important for informational and how-to posts,” says Justin Watkins, Founder of Battle Born Injury Lawyers. “Instead of panicking, focus on adjusting your content strategy for AI Overviews where AI will become a bigger part of search results.”

Google AI Overviews provide several other insights, which we will discuss in this blog. But first, let’s understand how these Google AIOs affect organic search.

The Influence of AI Overviews On Organic Search

AI overviews are paradigm-shifting in search results. They provide the best answers at the top of the page, which is helpful for users. However, Google AIOs can also impact organic search. How?

1. Google AI Overviews can increase zero-click searches.

Google AIO will increase the number of zero-click searches. Users may never visit the website providing the answer, but check it from the overviews, as they may not want to dig deep.

2. Quality content will always take the stage.

As AI Overviews prioritize quality content, the CTR for websites providing relevant content will likely increase. Businesses focusing on the updated Google SEO algorithms (E-E-A-T guidelines) are more likely to benefit from Google AI Overviews, even with organic search.

Despite their low budget, smaller websites providing relevant and high-quality content can benefit a lot from Google AIOs.

3. Informational queries are the ones that can trigger the Google AI Overviews.

According to stats, Google AIOs are triggered by queries with four or more words in 60.85% of cases. Most of these queries are informational, requiring content creators to write detailed answers while limiting the use of top-of-the-funnel keywords.

In short, Google AIOs will affect organic search, but not mostly negatively. A brand following Google SEO guidelines will receive more CTR with Google AI Overviews.

8 Smart Ways to Prepare Your Ecommerce Website for Google AI Overviews

So far, we have repeatedly mentioned that if you follow Google SEO guidelines and a handful of methods, you can get more traffic to your ecommerce website. These practices include improving content quality, enhancing technical features of the website, adding visual elements, and more. That will help you feature faster in the Google AI Overviews.

1. Understand User Intent

The intent with which a user searches the web is the key to targeting the Google AIOs. Users can search the web with various intents, such as buying a product or gaining information about it.

These user intents can be classified as:

• Informational intent

• Transactional intent

• Navigational intent

Creating content based on intent can increase traffic to your website via Google AIOs. For example, searching for “learning basketball” provides results that teach how to play basketball or offer tips and tricks. You should obsess over our customers and create regular surveys to determine their needs. This has been the go-to point for all our successful products, like our animal print and heart collections.

Hence, based on your niche, creating content around intent-related topics can lead to more traffic to your website. Moreover, larger companies can make the most of using AI in ERP and put user analysis on autopilot.

2. Optimize Your Content for Long-Tail, Detailed Search Terms

It is well-established that the more comprehensive or detailed the query, the better the output from an AI model, such as ChatGPT. Research shows that queries with a word count of 8 or more triggered the Google AIO 55.78% of the time.

Therefore, to prepare for Google AIOs, optimize your content for long-tail and detailed search terms. Here are some tips to effectively target long-tail search terms:

• Add primary keywords in the query.

• Build highly detailed web pages by covering every topic related to the main subject. Topic coverage can significantly affect SEO and, consequently, Google AIOs.

• Include answer-oriented sections using the best-answering services where quick and digestible information answers specific questions.

Keeping your content relevant to what people want to know will push you into the AI Overviews faster. Moreover, covering everything related to a topic in one content piece will help you improve your SEO ranking.

3. Optimize For Topics and Build Topic Clusters

Not many of you know, but Google loves topical authority. The latest Google algorithm updates require in-depth coverage of topics. Hence, content must be optimized for specific issues and topic clusters to be featured in the Google Overviews.

Creating content on and around a specific topic or subject can place you in the lead. For example, if you know about human resource management systems, you can create content including how-to guides, FAQ blogs, review blogs, best tools blogs, best practices, etc.

Interlinking these blogs with the pillar content piece helps create a cluster of similar content pages. Follow these tips for content creation:

• Use a conversational tone.

• Use long-tail search terms for optimization.

• Besides niche topics, you can link other related articles with the pillar content to create an informational hub.

Connecting cluster topics with the main topic generates users’ interest in the topic, which directly impacts your website's CTA and traffic. The more traffic, the better your chances of being featured in Google Overviews.

4. Consider Proper Formatting

If you have seen the results in the Google Overviews, they are usually in the form of well-formatted lists and tables. Google Gemini loves formatting. When your content appears in short paragraphs, lists, and tables, it becomes easier for Gemini to understand and extract it.

If we take the example of “how to learn basketball,” the results appearing in the Google AIOs are lists and headers, the same as in the references.

The list results at the end are in the same format as those in Red Bull's blog.

Ranking in Google AI Overviews is possible, but won’t happen instantly. The AI looks at specific factors to judge relevant and high-quality content. To rank well, you should create relevant and well-organized content while following SEO guidelines that meet Google's standards. It might be tough to rank on Google, but the AI Overview can help you reach the top search results.

Including headers and subheaders, FAQs, and product specifications data can help you prepare well for Google AIOs. The process will become easier and faster.

5. Enhance Your Technical SEO

Technical SEO can be your hidden hero. If your website is more straightforward to crawl, you can make Google crawl your content first, thereby increasing the probability of ranking in the Google AIOs.

Follow some tips to enhance your technical SEO:

• Check if the Googlebot is not blocked and if it can easily visit your website.

• Ensure the website pages are presented with the HTTP 200 status code. It means that the page works.

• Your page has all the valid and indexable file types that do not violate Google's spam policies.

• Refrain from sales and promotional pop-ups on the website.

• Reduce the number of JavaScript files and GTM containers based on their need.

• Create your website URLs with a clean structure for easy indexing.

Keeping your website's technical aspects up to date, as Google requires, can help you appear in Google AIOs. You can use Google Search Console to learn about and fix indexing issues.

6. Optimize Your Website’s Structured Data

A website's structured data helps Google understand your content. If your data is added correctly and structurally to the HTML code, Google can easily access it and provide it to the user based on the query.

“Your content always comes first. If the content related to structured data is good, i.e., it has tables, FAQs, lists, and answers to direct user queries. Google can feature it in the Overviews section. Structured data can directly improve the website's CTR and SEO”, said Michael Pines, Founder of Pines Salomon Personal Injury Lawyers.

7. Leverage Visual Media

Visual media is good for SEO and AI Overviews. Google AI uses computer vision technology to identify the visual elements on a page and provide them in the Google Overviews.

If we take the same example of “how to learn basketball,” you will see an image on the side. That is from a different source than the text. Because it is more relatable, it is featured at the top, increasing the visibility of the WikiHow page (image added below).

Hence, if you can explain your page content better through images or videos, it is best to include them. Visual elements like infographics, screenshots, GIFs, and videos can help you land a spot in the Google AI Overviews. You can create these visuals using a photo editor, allowing you to customize images to match your content. A well-edited image with a photo editor can make your page more engaging and increase the chances of being featured in search results.

8. Measure Your Website Appearance

Implementing these ways to feature in Google AIOs may seem lucrative, but it is useless if you are not monitoring your website’s appearance. There are several factors that you need to keep in check while monitoring your content's appearance in the Google Overviews, such as

• AI snippets

• Sources featured in AI Overviews

• AI snippets for the keywords

• Traffic from AI Overviews

You can use specialized tools to measure your website's appearance in the AI Overviews. But if you want to keep it simple, the key is to update the content on time and check what kind of content works for you. Keep in mind that this is not a one-day job. Just like SEO, it requires time and persistence.

Conclusion 

Google AI Overviews are the future of Google search results. So, it is best to prepare well for them. There will be no significant effect on organic search by Google AIOs, but if you can master the art of featuring in them, you can perform better than your competitors.

Currently, Google AI Overviews are experimental, so it is easy to experiment. However, once these features mature, competition will be stiffer, and it will become tough to get on top. The new Google update has further made it challenging for businesses not to focus on quality content.