Did Google AI Overviews Just Destroy SEO? Find Out! 😱

Summary

The 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

• 😀 Google AI overviews have been met with mixed reactions, with many expressing negativity and seeking ways to disable the feature.
• 🔍 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.
• 📈 AI overviews are seen as potentially improving the quality of search results for complex queries, but the accuracy and usefulness are currently variable.
• 🚫 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.
• 📊 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.
• 🏆 The winners in this AI overview landscape are expected to be high-authority websites with strong backlink profiles, personal brands, and YouTube channels.
• 📉 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.
• 🚫 Smaller, independent publishers and those not focusing on backlink building are likely to be the biggest losers, as AI overviews favor established, authoritative sites.
• ❌ 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.
• 🔗 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

00:00

🤖 '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.

05:00

📈 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.

10:01

🛠️ 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.

Keywords

💡AI Overviews

AI Overviews refers to a feature by Google that provides summarized information directly on the search engine results page (SERP) for certain queries. It is designed to give users quick answers without needing to click through to a website. In the video, AI Overviews is a central theme as it is discussed as a potential disruptor to traditional SEO practices, with concerns that it could reduce clicks to websites by providing information directly on SERPs.

💡SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is the practice of optimizing websites to rank higher in search engine results, thereby increasing organic traffic. The video discusses the impact of AI Overviews on SEO, suggesting that it may change how SEO is approached, with a focus on being featured in AI Overviews and traditional organic rankings.

💡Click-Through Rate (CTR)

CTR measures the number of times users click on a link divided by the number of times they view it. The video mentions that AI Overviews may generate a higher CTR compared to traditional search results, which could impact how websites are optimized for search engines.

💡Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps website owners monitor and troubleshoot their website's performance on Google Search. The script mentions that Google is not planning to break down impressions and click data for AI Overviews in Search Console, which could make it difficult for website owners to measure the impact of AI Overviews on their traffic.

💡Backlinks

Backlinks are links from one website to another. They are an important factor in SEO, as they can influence a website's ranking on SERPs. The video suggests that high Domain Rating (DR) sites with many backlinks are likely to rank higher in AI Overviews, indicating that backlink building remains crucial in the AI Overviews era.

💡Personal Branding

Personal branding refers to the practice of marketing oneself as a brand. The video posits that personal brands may benefit from AI Overviews, as people often search for content from individuals they follow or trust, potentially leading to higher visibility in search results.

💡YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing platform and a significant source of traffic for many websites. The video suggests that YouTube videos are frequently featured in AI Overviews, indicating that optimizing for YouTube could be beneficial for SEO in the context of AI Overviews.

💡Black Hat SEO

Black Hat SEO refers to the use of aggressive SEO tactics that violate search engine guidelines, aiming for short-term gains. The video notes an observation that black hat websites seem to be performing well post-AI Overviews implementation, suggesting a potential loophole or temporary advantage in the new system.

💡Winner Takes All

In the context of the video, 'Winner Takes All' refers to a scenario where the top-ranking site in AI Overviews captures most of the traffic, leaving less visibility and clicks for other results. This concept is used to illustrate the potential concentration of traffic towards top-ranked sites in the new AI Overviews format.

💡No Snippet Meta Tag

The 'no snippet' meta tag is a piece of HTML that can be added to a webpage to prevent it from being featured in AI Overviews. The video discusses this as an option for websites that wish to opt-out of AI Overviews, although it may lead to being excluded from search results entirely.

💡Traffic Diversification

Traffic diversification is the strategy of acquiring visitors from multiple sources to reduce reliance on a single traffic channel. The video suggests that in light of AI Overviews, website owners should consider diversifying their traffic sources to mitigate potential risks associated with changes in search engine algorithms.

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