Did Google AI Overviews Just Destroy SEO? Find Out! đ±
Summary
TLDRThe video discusses the impact of Google's AI overviews on SEO, exploring whether it has negatively affected search rankings. It delves into the potential winners and losers in this new landscape, highlighting the importance of personal branding and backlinks. The script also addresses the limitations of current SEO tools in tracking AI overviews data and suggests strategies for optimizing websites to rank well despite these changes. The speaker emphasizes the need to adapt to AI overviews for better SEO performance.
Takeaways
- đ Google AI overviews have been met with mixed reactions, with many expressing negativity and seeking ways to disable the feature.
- đ The introduction of AI overviews has raised concerns among publishers and website owners, fearing it could reduce organic clicks by providing direct answers within search results.
- đ AI overviews are seen as potentially improving the quality of search results for complex queries, but the accuracy and usefulness are currently variable.
- đ« Users can prevent their content from appearing in AI overviews by using a 'no snippet' meta tag, but this may lead to exclusion from search visibility.
- đ Google has stated that link cards within AI overviews generate a higher click-through rate compared to traditional search results, yet they won't provide detailed click and impression data for AI overviews in Google Search Console.
- đ The winners in this AI overview landscape are expected to be high-authority websites with strong backlink profiles, personal brands, and YouTube channels.
- đ SEO tools may become less effective in the short term as they cannot track AI overview data, leading to a potential decrease in their usefulness for SEO analysis.
- đ« Smaller, independent publishers and those not focusing on backlink building are likely to be the biggest losers, as AI overviews favor established, authoritative sites.
- â Informational keywords are becoming less valuable for SEO efforts due to AI overviews' ability to provide direct answers, rendering traditional SEO strategies less effective for these types of queries.
- đ The advice for website owners is to focus on building backlinks, diversifying traffic sources, and leveraging personal branding to stay competitive in the AI overview era.
Q & A
What is the main concern regarding Google AI overviews among website owners and publishers?
-The main concern is that Google AI overviews might reduce clicks to websites as it provides a mini blog post directly inside the search result, potentially eliminating the need for users to click through to the website.
How does the introduction of AI overviews affect SEO ranking?
-AI overviews may lead to a 'winner takes all' situation where only the top-ranked results get significant traffic, making it more challenging for lower-ranked sites to gain visibility and traffic.
What is the current public sentiment towards Google AI overviews based on the script?
-The public sentiment towards Google AI overviews is largely negative, with many people expressing dissatisfaction and installing plugins to hide the feature.
How does Google's AI overviews impact the usefulness of SEO tools?
-SEO tools may become less useful in the short term because they cannot track the search data from AI overviews, which is separate from traditional organic search results.
What is the role of YouTube in the context of Google AI overviews?
-YouTube is expected to gain more visibility as AI overviews tend to feature YouTube videos more prominently, potentially increasing traffic to YouTube content creators.
Why might personal brands benefit from Google AI overviews?
-Personal brands may benefit from AI overviews because users often search for specific individuals they follow, which can lead to higher click-through rates and visibility for those personal brands.
What is the potential impact of AI overviews on smaller, independent publishers?
-Smaller, independent publishers may struggle with AI overviews as the feature favors high-authority and high-DR sites, making it difficult for low-DR sites to compete.
How can website owners prevent their content from appearing in AI overviews?
-Website owners can insert a 'no snippet' meta tag into their website to avoid their content from being scraped and used in AI overviews.
What type of websites or content is particularly at risk of losing traffic due to AI overviews?
-Programmatic sites that answer general conversion questions are at risk of losing traffic as AI overviews can provide these answers directly, potentially replacing the need for such sites.
What strategies are suggested to optimize a website for AI overviews?
-To optimize for AI overviews, focus on personal branding, building backlinks, utilizing YouTube, and diversifying traffic sources. It's also advised to avoid informational keywords and be cautious with SEO tools that may not accurately reflect AI overviews data.
Outlines
đ€ 'AI Overviews' Impact on SEO
The paragraph discusses the recent Google AI overviews feature and its potential impact on SEO. It highlights the mixed reactions, with many users finding it intrusive and installing plugins to hide it. The feature provides summarized information directly in search results, potentially reducing the need for users to click through to websites. This could affect website traffic and SEO strategies. The author also mentions that Google is not planning to provide detailed click and impression data for AI overviews in Google Search Console, making it difficult for website owners to optimize their content for this feature.
đ Winners and Losers in the AI Overviews Era
This paragraph delves into the potential winners and losers due to the AI overviews feature. It suggests that top-ranking websites in AI overviews may see increased traffic, while others might struggle. The author predicts a 'winner takes all' scenario where only the top results get significant traffic. YouTube is highlighted as a potential winner, as it is often featured in AI overviews. Big brands and personal brands are also expected to benefit, while smaller publishers and those focusing on informational keywords may suffer. The paragraph also touches on the challenges faced by SEO tools due to the dual ranking system introduced by AI overviews.
đ ïž Strategies to Adapt to AI Overviews
The final paragraph offers strategies for adapting to the AI overviews feature. It emphasizes the importance of personal branding, building backlinks, and utilizing YouTube to increase visibility. The author advises against focusing on informational keywords, as AI overviews can directly answer such queries. They also warn about the reduced effectiveness of SEO tools in the short term due to the changes in ranking dynamics. The paragraph concludes with a recommendation to diversify traffic sources and adapt SEO strategies to the new AI-driven search landscape.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄAI Overviews
đĄSEO (Search Engine Optimization)
đĄClick-Through Rate (CTR)
đĄGoogle Search Console
đĄBacklinks
đĄPersonal Branding
đĄYouTube
đĄBlack Hat SEO
đĄWinner Takes All
đĄNo Snippet Meta Tag
đĄTraffic Diversification
Highlights
Google AI overviews have been announced, causing significant discussions in the SEO community.
There is a debate on whether AI overviews have negatively impacted SEO and the ability to rank.
Many people are installing plugins to hide AI overviews, indicating dissatisfaction.
Publishers are concerned about the potential loss of traffic due to AI overviews.
AI overviews provide summarized information directly in search results, which may reduce the need to click through to websites.
Google Search Community feedback suggests the information from AI overviews can be inconsistent.
Google claims that link cards within AI overviews generate a higher click-through rate than traditional search results.
Google is not planning to provide detailed click and impression data for AI overviews in Google Search Console.
Website owners can use a 'no snippet' meta tag to prevent their content from appearing in AI overviews.
The implementation of AI overviews has been met with a largely negative reaction on social media and within the Google Search Community.
Google may have been compelled to introduce AI overviews due to competition from other AI-based search platforms.
AI overviews could lead to a 'winner takes all' scenario, where only the top results get significant traffic.
YouTube videos are prominently featured in AI overviews, suggesting a potential increase in traffic for video content.
Big brands and personal brands are likely to benefit from AI overviews as they are more recognizable and trusted.
Black hat SEO techniques seem to be thriving post-AI overviews implementation, contrary to smaller, independent publishers.
SEO tools may become less effective as they cannot track AI overviews data, and their accuracy might be compromised.
Low Domain Rating (DR) sites and those not focusing on backlinks may struggle to compete in the AI overviews era.
Informational keywords might become less valuable as AI overviews can provide direct answers, reducing the need for organic search results.
Diversifying traffic sources and focusing on personal branding are recommended strategies to adapt to AI overviews.
SEO is not dead; those who adapt to the changes brought by AI overviews can expect better results.
The presenter offers a free course with strategies to rank within the new search generative experience.
Joining the SEO Elite Circle is suggested for those looking to master traffic diversification and stay ahead in the SEO game.
Transcripts
crazy time since the Google AI overviews
was announced and today what we're going
to talk about is whether it's actually
destroyed SEO whether you can still rank
anymore who are going to be some of the
biggest winners who are going to be some
of the biggest losers and what we've
seen so far in terms of how to optimize
your site to make sure that you actually
can still Rank and get traffic and it's
absolutely crazy so obviously Google an
now see AI overviews recently this week
and I was scrolling through TW Twitter
trying to see if there was one positive
reaction to it it's pretty crazy if you
look at some of the negativity around it
for example you can see that actually a
lot of people are installing different
plugins to hide AI overviews you can see
that many people want to switch it off
right here if we just keep scrolling
down you can see that actually a lot of
people are not enjoying it at all you
can see that a lot of Publishers as well
are afraid about it so what does this
mean for you so far so let's have a look
at Google and Google AI overview so for
example if you say to Google right now
for example I don't know something like
very very in depth and complicated like
for example best gold chain will wrak
down a price carrot and golden length
right normally if you typed that into
Google you wouldn't get much information
what you can see with AI overview is
actually it gives you a pretty decent
result right and what you can see for
example if you type in something quite
complicated like find the best yoga or
Pates studio in Boston rated over 4.1
Stars within a half hour walk of Beacon
Hill it actually generates a half decent
result but the problem that most people
have if you check out the Google search
Community right here and you can see
where people posted is that some of the
information coming out of there is a
little bit Hit or Miss to say the least
so for example you can see some of the
feedback on AI overviews right here here
as well this is another one here's a
bunch more it's so brutal some of the
feedback that's coming back and a lot of
people are not happy with it that's the
thing really it's like the quality of
results improving or getting worse now
I'm sure the AI overviews are going to
improve in this kind of like a beta
future but you can see that there are a
lot of complaints right now about it
rolling out now one of the biggest
issues that a lot of people have with
this particularly website owners and
Publishers is you know as you can see by
this tweet from Rand fishkin people are
worried that this is going to remove
click now I talked in depth about this
quite a few months ago when I was
talking about how to rank research
generative experience and how
potentially it could reduce a lot of
clicks because for example if you type
in a search term like this and you look
at what actually pops up on the search
results you can see that most of the
information is kind of like included as
a almost mini blog post directly inside
AI overview which means that there's no
need to actually click through to the
website but if you take a look at this
article from search engine land right
here you'll see the AI overview Link
cards according to Google so you can see
a quote from the senior director of
product product search dtive experience
that link cards within AI overviews
generate a higher click-through rate
than traditional search results now I'm
going to come on to the winners and
losers in the section and what I expect
plus how to optimize your website for
this but what's quite interesting about
this is that Google is not planning to
break down Impressions and click data
for the AI overview inside Google search
console so that is very interesting
because for example right let's say
you're trying to rank Within AI
overviews you can't really check whether
that's working the other thing is if you
go on to keyword Explorer say on your
favorite a SEO tool it's not going to
give you the data of AI overviews it's
only going to give you the Ser data
right and there's kind of two different
forms of ranking now which means that a
lot of these SEO tools might not be as
useful as they previously were because
they can't track the search data Google
search console can't track the search
data and it's all a little bit messy if
you want to track search data basically
what you going to do is stick your
finger in the air and then just close
your eyes and see which way the wind
blows that's essentially how it goes but
like I said according to Google the link
cards generate a higher click-through
rate Google is not going to break down
the Impressions and click data inside
search console and what you can actually
do is prevent your content from
appearing in AI overviews right so let's
say you don't want to be featured inside
there you can insert a no snippet meta
tag into your website that avoid avoids
you showing up inside AI overviews which
means that your data from all your
content from your website is not going
to be scraped and then used as an AI
overview but the problem with that is
like you're going to be excluded from
search it's basically like no indexing
your content from AI overviews which
means if you don't do it you can better
it desar and therefore you're only going
to miss out in my opinion but it's crazy
to see so far how AI overviews has been
implemented the reaction so far has been
quite NE on on Twitter on Twitter and
Google search Community I actually don't
think that Google wanted to do this but
the hand was kind of forced right
because they were kind of dragged into
the party if you look at chat gbt and
the latest updates that they're
releasing the way they're working with
Reddit for example as well the
Partnerships that are going on the way
that gp40 is going to get released for
free to everyone it's only a matter of
time before people start using that as a
search engine instead and so I think
they were kind of forced into it we've
talked about how you can't actually
check your Analytics you kind of just
got to trust them there's a higher
click-through rate from Ai overviews and
so in a minute we'll talk about who's
going to get hit but for now let's talk
about the winners right so first of all
who are the winners I think if you look
at AI overviews he basically Winner
Takes all and what I mean by that is if
you're not in the top three up there
you're probably not going to get any
traffic and so I think maybe there's
going to be more clicks but all the
clicks are going to go to that first
particular ranking page because most
people are not going to scroll all the
way down to the organic I think that's
gone
for most queries and then additionally I
don't think most people are going to
swipe to the side particularly on mobile
just doesn't seem that easy to do so
when you look at this I mean I can only
estimate but from my first impressions I
would say potentially yes there might be
a higher clickr rate but mainly to the
number one ranking page which means that
as a winner takes all situation it's not
like where you can just rank eight for n
from the page and still get traffic for
that keyword additionally I think
YouTube is going to be shown more and
more directly inside search generative
experience inside the SEO Elite Circle I
actually have a six we road map based on
what helped me grow to 100,000
subscribers on YouTube but essentially
if you look at every single update
YouTube gets more and more traffic now
the cool thing about YouTube is if you
get traffic from there you're
Diversified from SEO number two you're
going to get more traffic from the
search engine within YouTube but then
additionally you're going to get more
traffic so for example if you look at
this Google search demp of experience
e-commerce study what you can see right
here is that 71% of the SG results
analyzed contained a YouTube video which
is pretty amazing when you think about
that because that is a massive jump and
every single update you know helpful
content update core update Etc you see
YouTube take a big jump additionally big
Brands when I've tested out in other
videos I tend to find that big Brands
work really well the other thing that I
think right is that personal brands are
going to work really well because a lot
of people they don't want to hear from
AI they want to hear from a person that
they follow specifically you see it the
same on YouTube right so for example if
you go on YouTube you type in Julian
Goldie and you'll see all these relevant
keywords to pop up related to content
that I create that people are actually
searching for right this is based on
people's search history which means that
if you're a personal brand people will
look for you specifically rather than
the AI overie and therefore you can
still get a lot of search traffic as you
can see right here now coming back to
that big Brand's example when I've been
checking who ranking number one usually
it's like dr50 minimum domain rating 50
minimum now that could change I still
think it's early days that gives you an
idea that backlinks are still some of
the most important ranking features when
it comes to ranking on Google and
finally black hats right so for example
if you look at the way that Google has
gone this year and I'm not saying this
is a good but I've noticed it right is
that black cap websites seem to be doing
really well while small Publishers
independent travel bloggers
people actually buying reviews and and
buying the products Etc getting hit
right and you can see for example with
blackout world for example their traffic
after the helpful content update and
also the much the fifth update have
taken a huge increase in traffic right
330k traffic right there and this is
literally a website teaching how to do
black hat SEO on the other end of the
spectrum right if you look at a website
that is a genuine product reviews
website backed by real test you can see
that house fresh have taken a massive
hit in traffic right so smaller
independent Publishers trying to do the
right things are the ones getting hit
the most and this is not the first
example I'm not going to show anyone's
website up here but this is not the
first time I've seen this many many
people have been hit by this basically
they get hit by the hcu and then they
drop down in traffic and then the core
updates seem to have an even bigger
impact now is interesting to see that
Google search liaison actually touched
on this earlier this week as you can see
and they basically said but for sites
like this that receive an algorithmic
penalty there's actually no way to
manually lift it right if it's the
algorithm you can't change that and so
if you look at it from Google's
perspective if they wanted to fix this
they have to keep tweaking the algorithm
and releasing new updates until it's
fixed but at the same time if they make
many more tweaks then that could hurt
more sites if it hurts more sites then
the results get worse right and so
there's so many second order consequenes
to algorithm updates that it's pretty
crazy to see that but because of that
situation this is what I've seen these
are the winners that I've seen so far
and these are the winners that I expect
to see continue now if we actually look
at the losers I think number one you're
going to see SEO tools become less
useful particularly in the short term
because if you got two sets of Surs
basically search gam of experience at
the top and then you've also got the
organic lists underneath what ranks at
the top in SG and AI overviews is not
what ranks NE necessarily within organic
additionally load our sites and people
not building backlinks I think they're
going to really struggle now because if
it's a winner takes all situation and
typically the winner at the top of AI
overviews from what I've seen so far
tends to be a very high authoritative
site and a high Dr site then low Dr
sites just can't compete from what I've
seen additionally I think the
programmatic sites right so for example
for example you know General sort of
conver verion questions like how many
millimeters in an inch or how many
millimeters in a centimeter Etc these
sort of keywords are just going to get
wiped out straight off the bat with AI
overviews because it can analyze that
sort of data and give you the answer
straight off and straight away kind of
like feature Snippets but I would say
even more so so just to recap we've
talked about the AI overviews and the
feedback so far why I think Google did
this so far how to check the data and
how you actually can't the winners so
far who's going to get hit and if you
want to combat it I would say focus on
personal branding build more back links
to your website make sure you're using
YouTube if you have the time and the
resources and if you've got no chance of
being in the top three for that keyword
at this point it might be too difficult
now the other thing that I would say
when it comes to the losers and keywords
to avoid informational keywords total
waste of time that why is that it's
simply because AI overviews can answer
that and the answers generated right now
might not be great but obviously that's
going to improve in the future which
means that just going for informational
keywords I've been saying it for months
but going for these sort of keywords to
waste of time now I've actually built
out a game plan based on ranking within
search generative experience you can
check out the free video inside my freeo
course links inside the comments
description but it basically shows you
some of the best strategies and tactics
to rank based on the data actually walk
you through that in the videos so make
sure you check that out that is inside
the free course and that's basically AI
over like I said SEO is far from dead
people are still going to get loads of
traffic and the people who really adapt
right now are going to get better
results than ever before now I would
just personally avoid getting wrapped in
the negativity that's happened before
look at the facts as they are and then
focus on right how can I be within this
group not within this group right and
it's quite obvious at this point that if
you don't want to get here make sure
you're building backlinks avoid
programmatic niches personally I would
do that informational keywords to waste
of time and also be care careful if
you're using SEO tools because right now
they might not be that accurate so that
is the game plan to rank with AI
overviews based on what I've seen so far
now I would highly recommend looking at
traffic diversification strategies as
well so if you actually check out my SEO
Elite Circle links inside the comments
description you will see a traffic
diversification Mastery section directly
inside there that shows proof with
screenshots and everything else how I'm
getting traffic from 11 different
sources additionally it comes with loads
of CES is like you can see coaching
twice a week and a community pretty
amazing and loads of other stuff there's
even a leaderboard where you unlock
loads of different gifts at each level
now if you do want to get a free SEO
strategy session about how to get more
leads traffic and sales to your website
feel free to book that in and we can
basically look at your site give you
some actionable tips and show you
exactly what you need to do to get more
SEO traffic the final thing I would say
is if you haven't joined the SE
boardroom make sure you do it actually
comes with an experiments lab and we'll
be looking at loads of different ways to
get more traffic to rank how to adapt
you'll probably see from my some of my
recent youTube Community posts that
there's a lot of people winning right
now if you follow the right actions so
thanks so much for watching appreciate
as always and I'll see you in the next
one bye-bye
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