Google continues to update AIO rankings and increase the presence of larger shopping-related panels and ads that place organic search results further down the page. The good news for search marketers is that AIO volatility in shopping queries is stabilizing and AIO rankings are becoming increasingly consistent with sites that typically rank in organic search.
- Arguably the most significant change is the addition of advertising in AI overviews, which results in organic search results appearing further down the page.
- Citations to sites within AIO for general inquiries have increased over 300% since August, with the largest increase (200%) occurring in September.
As of November 1, 2023, BrightEdge tracks a consistent set of searches, representing billions of searches across nine industries. The key point is that they track the same queries every month using their unique technology, the BrightEdge Generative Parser (TM). The BrightEdge Generative Parser detects and tracks AIO formats, analyzes AIO search results, and provides insights into daily trends.
AIO and top organic products have increasingly agreed since September
BrightEdge noticed a trend starting in September where AI overviews increasingly showed links to sites that matched organic search results. This means that traditional ranking factors that push a website to the top of organic search results should pay dividends in citations in AIO.
AIO stability continues to improve
BrightEdge data showed an 8% improvement in daily stability and less than 1% variation in pixel size of AIO panels. This means that AIO search results were less volatile and more reliable. Volatility in shopping-related searches decreased by 37% (from the beginning of August) to 26% (as of the end of September). The lower volatility suggests that rankings should be more consistent, a trend that will hopefully carry over into the holiday shopping season beginning in November.
More precise AI overview results
This stability was accompanied by a 15% reduction in keywords using AIO, demonstrating an increase in search query accuracy for website topics and may be due to greater use of natural language in search queries.
Bright Edge noted:
“By serving ads, Google can more accurately determine where AIOs are most helpful.”
This trend toward more precise and concise AIOs began in August and continued through September. At this point, Google AIO reduced unordered lists by an additional 14.6% compared to the previous month. Collapsed, unordered lists show a concise answer in the visible portion and reveal additional information when users click to see more. This trend continued in October, with the proportion of disorderly people collapsing increasing by a further 20%.
While that sounds like a lot, perhaps the most dramatic change was the frequency with which the AIO product carousel is triggered. There has been a 300% increase since its launch.
The trend toward larger AIO capabilities suggests that shopping-related AIO results with ads included could increasingly displace organic content.
According to BrightEdge:
“As Google adds advertising to AIOs in October, two features have seen a significant increase. Product carousels in particular offer direct opportunities for advertisers. Since these don’t take up more space, this suggests that these ads are likely to displace an organic listing if this trend continues. All of these trends point to a holiday shopping season in which AI will play a larger role than ever before, but perhaps not in the way we originally expected.”
YouTube quotes increased in AIO
YouTube citations related to e-commerce within AIO increased 121% through September, possibly reflecting users’ preference for watching videos when researching products. This draws attention to the importance of video influencers and also considers multimodal strategies that integrate video content for shopping topics (where the intent makes sense).
AIO for Shopping didn’t just see growth in September as searches on specific topics triggered fewer AI overviews.
The following topics showed fewer AIO results:
- “Requests for specific products: -7.2%
- Furniture and home decoration: -2.7%
- Clothing and fashion: – 2.2%
- Searches for “best”: – 1.7%
- How-to and how-to shopping searches: -1.6%
Early stage research intention
Another AIO trend discovered in October was an increase in search queries and intent in the research phase. Publishers that rely on search should be on the lookout for traffic declines that may be related to an increase in AIO search results related to research-stage queries.
Ecommerce AIO trends in October
- “81.1% offer comprehensive knowledge exchange
- Only 1.4% provide step-by-step instructions
- AIOs prioritize educational content over instructional content
- Content structure for early travel
39.8% use list structures for easy scanning- Strong preference for comprehensive explanations
- Content organized for information gathering
- Emphasis on comprehensive understanding”
Types of answers shown in AI overviews
BrightEdge data shows that discovery and research requests drove the most AI reviews in October.
The three most common types of answers shown in the AI overviews were:
- Definitions and overviews
- Explanation of the causes
- Data points
BrightEdge explains what it all means:
- “The data clearly shows that AIOs are optimized for early-stage research and discovery.
- It’s more helpful to cite educational content with expert guidance on trends or critical data points than specific guidance.
- Success means aligning your content with that top-of-funnel focus – comprehensive, educational content wins out over transactional how-to guides that could be replaced by ads.”
Most common answer type in AI overviews
Takeaways
BrightEdge’s research provides many insights into the types of content Google’s AI Overviews prioritizes and how they prepare for the holiday shopping season, which begins with Black Friday. If traffic patterns change, it may be due to updates to the types of searches that trigger AIO and an increase in advertising, which combined with larger AIO panels could lead to a decline in organic results.
It is important to emphasize that organic results have not been the norm for well over ten years and at this point it is anachronistic to still think in terms of ten blue links. This is why BrightEdge data is important because it shows what’s going on in search results.
Key insights
- Ads now appear in AI overviews
- Volatility in shopping-related searches is stabilizing, resulting in better predictability
- Google is becoming more and more precise about what triggers AIOs
- Product Carousels Increased 300% in October
- Reduced unordered lists that require users to click to view more information increased by 20%
- Requests for specific products are less likely to trigger AIOs
- Inquiries and intent in the research phase are increasingly the key triggers for AIO
Read the latest research from BrightEdge
New AI Overview Trends: What to Expect on Black Friday and Cyber Monday (PDF)
Featured image from Shutterstock/Cranium_Soul
