AI in digital marketing is here to stay, and there’s little doubt that the world of search marketing is on track to be turned upside down by developments in generative AI.
Google’s AI Overviews (previously known as Search Generative Experience, or SGE) is still in its early phases but it’s already promising to upend standard concepts and approaches to search, and consequently to digital marketing as a whole.
Google’s utlimate goal is to better understand what you want, so that it can give you the perfect answer. And AI Overviews is how it displays that answer.
To provide insights into how AI Overviews works, Lindsey Schrant of Neil Patel Digital joined us to look at this new world of search.
What is AI Overviews
On May 10th 2023, Google announced that it was working on its AI-powered search results, one of the most uae phone number lead important visual changes to Google search engine results page (SERP) in many years. Like a highly advanced version of featured snippets, AI Overviews uses AI to generate detailed search results that aim to give users the exact information that they’re looking for (and then some).
Note: AI Overviews are being slowly rolled out across regions. Keep an eye on Google’s blog to see when your region is included.
AI Overviews in practice
So, does all this mean that AI Overviews replace the traditional SERP? No, there are still SERPs, but they will be much more detailed.
You can think of AI Overviews as an experience, a conversation with your search engine. You can ask it detailed, conversational questions and, using AI, it will generate detailed answers. That’s the search generative experience.
What this means in practice is that you can write long conversational queries, and AI Overviews returns detailed results, as well as links to help you conduct your own further research. In time, the search engine will better understand what you want, and it will better understand the content on the Web. This will enable AI Overviews to answer your questions much more comprehensively than ever before.
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What does AI Overviews look like?
What do you see when you enter a query into AI Overviews?
The response has several elements
Generative answer: This is the AI-generated answer to your query. Unlike the traditional SERP, it’s not a list of websites. It’s a narrative flow based on what AI Overviews was able to find bz lists on the Internet. (In this way, it is similar to the response that displays when you type a query into ChatGPT.)
Dropdown arrows display beside the generated text. Clicking these brings up the sources of the text, so you can assess the validity of the information.
Website carousel: A carousel of images displays a series of links to websites that provide you with further information about your query.
Follow-up questions: You can enter a follow-up question to dive deeper into your query.
Follow-up suggestions: If you cannot think of any pertinent follow-up questions to ask, AI Overviews provides a carousel of suggestions.
AI Overviews interface
AI Overviews query types
How does AI Overviews work for different query types
1. Informational queries
AI Overviews informational query
Informational queries meer winst minder werk 4 stappen om uw bureau te nicheren are simply queries where the searcher is looking for facts. They may take the form of a question (“What core workouts can I do at home?”) or a more general search (“core workouts at home”).
For an informational query, AI Overviews returns a page similar to a detailed featured snippet. The AI-generated text list (the response to your query) has the dropdown arrows linking to source websites. And the carousel displays links to other relevant websites.
Note: For informational queries, the results are sometimes so detailed that searchers might not even click to further websites. All the information they need might already be on the SERP! (Don’t forget, similar concerns were raised when featured snippets were rolled out a few years ago.)
2. Commercial queries
Commercial queries are when searchers are looking to buy something. For example, “Best dry dog food for an eight-year-old Labrador retriever”.
AI Overviews commerical query
The big difference from informational queries is that, with commercial queries, paid ads display above the generated text answers. These are ads that AI Overviews thinks are relevant to your query.
Like informational queries, you also get your text answer with dropdown links and your carousel to other websites. And it lists popular options, giving information on why these options are popular. This overview information includes information provided by brands and stores.
3. Branded commercial queries
What ab
