Google’s AI Overviews: The Future Is Upon Us With the Search Generative Experience
The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (or AI) has brought the world yet another revolutionary technological innovation. For many businesses, marketing professionals, and consumers, there are two questions that have been top-of-mind over the last year or so: “Will AI affect the way you conduct searches on the Internet? If so, how?” In the last few months, the outlook became clearer while Google started rolling out a new way to search that is beginning to have a significant effect on the entire search landscape. It’s called AI Overviews (formerly referred to as the “Search Generative Experience, or “SGE”), and it marks one of the biggest and most important advances in search since the advent of “SEO.”
What Is an AI Overview?
AI Overviews encompass a new paradigm for the Google search engine that represents an enormous leap forward in terms of how we access and find information online. Essentially, the concept integrates some of the latest AI advances directly into Google’s search capabilities, allowing the search engine to better-understand inquiries and create responses to them that sound more human. AI Overviews are powered by “Gemini,” which is Google’s custom large-language model. By design, AI Overviews represent AI-generated content for responses to search queries, which can include a summary of information and answers to direct questions at or near the top of the first results page. These are typically accompanied by resources from specific websites with additional information, and the more traditional list of website links follows on the first page and subsequent results pages.
Google’s AI Overview capabilities have been developed via machine learning models based on the trove of data available on the worldwide web. They are capable of answering more complex questions, allowing the viewer to field a more nuanced search term instead of having to break the term up into several different searches. AI Overviews can also serve as a planning aid, helping the searcher put together ideas for a project or an activity by aggregating and summarizing information from a range of internet resources.
AI Overviews are available for some search terms, but they are not available for all of them. Google’s U.S. rollout for AI Overviews began in May of 2024, and the company advises that it is continuously honing the technology so it is better able to understand nuanced language and search queries in order to improve the quality of the responses. In fact, AI Overviews today may look a bit different than they did just last month as Google is steadily refining and improving the interface.
Here is an example of Google’s AI Overview response to a search term:
How Will AI Overviews Impact the User Experience?
One of the goals of AI Overviews appears to be providing viewers with not only an enhanced search experience, but also a streamlined one. As we’ve seen so far, AI Overviews often contain a list of select resources for which it may have gleaned some of the information in the response. In some cases, the viewer may also be able to refine their search a bit more with follow-up questions or instructions. Ultimately, AI Overviews are geared toward making the search process quicker and more efficient. Additionally, the responses may be personalized based on viewer preferences, previous interactions, and the context of the questions. This can provide a more adaptable, customized experience when entering a search query.
What Could AI Overviews Mean for My Website and My Practice?
There are several very important things to understand about the potential impact of techniques such as AI Overviews on the broader Internet landscape and overall Internet marketing strategies. First, like all previous forms of search, AI Overviews are user-driven and require engagement from the person looking for specific information. Additionally, a balance of Google Ads and organic listings will still be key components of the search experience. Based on what we know so far, ads and traditional listings will remain part of the search engine. It’s also important to note that Google had already been using Artificial Intelligence tech to rank websites, and content is still “King.” Therefore, content is vital to your medical website or dental website, and should remain a major focus going forward.
Although the potential benefits associated with this new form of search are numerous, there are also some potential downsides. With this more compact format of results after a search query, some SEO experts contend that it may produce a gradual decline in the prominence of organic listings, and thereby overall traffic to websites, since AI Overviews may be offering a comprehensive answer to the question directly on the search page. However, one of the keys to successful marketing, especially in the Internet era, is to evolve as necessary. Rosemont Media has seen many changes when it comes to the search landscape over the years and, fortunately, we’re already ahead of the game on numerous fronts.
Rosemont Media and AI Overviews
Some of the best ways to prepare for this new search future involve things Rosemont Media has already been doing for a very long time. Producing continuous and consistent content updates that are formatted in an educational, understandable and easily digestible way is our stock-in-trade. Whether they are in the form of pages on the website, blog posts, press releases, or others, these types of updates will keep the supply of content flowing into websites, regularly establishing its relevancy to search engines. Additionally, our strategies are based on balancing SEO with creativity in content and developing content that is heavily focused on how users input questions in order to match the query as closely as possible. All of this is crucial, as these standard strategies may make it more likely that the content shows up as a resource in an AI Overview search result, potentially lending even further credibility to the referenced site as it is shown as a possible source of trusted information in the response.
When it comes to search algorithms, informative and relevant content has been of utmost importance to Google for many years, and that will not change. In fact, it looks like it will continue in an even greater way with AI Overviews, as the platform will be providing summations based on high-quality content, which may ultimately enhance the chances of being discovered in the AI Overview result. Again, Rosemont Media has always made relevant, educational, and genuinely informative content a hallmark of our services, and that goes right in line with what Google is expecting in order to achieve prominence with AI Overview responses.
Now that AI Overviews have been introduced, it is important to note that this new type of search experience is still in its infancy. Google will continue to refine and expand the experience in the coming months and years, and Rosemont Media will keep a close eye on its evolution so our team always remains prepared and ready for strategic adaptations.
If you would like to talk to one of our experienced consultants about enhancing your website strategies, or developing a new website from the ground up, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.
Editor’s note: The original version of this post was published on May 7th, 2024.