What Are AI Overviews (Formerly Google SGE) and How Have They Changed SEO?

Since they were introduced between May and October of 2024, AI Overviews have completely changed how Google shows search results, as well as how your content needs to be written, structured and positioned to stay visible. 

Last year, a bunch of new acronyms were introduced to those in the digital marketing space. To optimize for search going forward, in addition to SEO, we learned we had to consider GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and SXO (Search Experience Optimization). All three of these relate to the AI Overviews and AI mode we’re getting accustomed to in search. But behind this new landscape lies the origin story: SGE – Google’s Search Generative Experience, the experimental phase that started it all. 

First announced in 2023 and officially rolled out from May 2024 through 2025, SGE has evolved from an experimental Search Labs feature to a global reality. AI Overviews are now widespread globally with 2 billion monthly users, as per CEO Sundar Pichai’s Google’s Q2 2025 earnings call. 

Google’s SGE brought generative AI right into search. It transformed how search results are shown by often delivering fast, summarised responses, usually at the top of the results page, rather than the traditional blue links. It’s like having ChatGPT integrated directly into Google Search, but with the added benefit of real-time web data. What’s more, users can switch to AI Mode for deeper, conversational responses, and Google has begun testing integrating ads there, too.

Integrating AI-generated answers and conversational experiences directly in Google Search has not only fundamentally changed how search results are delivered – it has affected user behaviour, CTR (Click Through Rates) and optimization strategies.

If you’re a marketer, content creator, website or business owner wanting people to find your brand via Google, you need to get familiar with what AI Overviews (SGE) are doing to search. In this blog, we provide a simple explanation and offer steps you can take to stay visible online in the AI Overview and AI Mode age. 

In this guide, we cover:

• What Google’s SGE is and how it became AI Overviews and AI Mode
• How AI Overviews differ from featured snippets and Position 0
• How AI Overviews have affected click-through rates (CTRs)
• Whether AI search is replacing traditional SEO
• How to optimise your content for AI Overviews in 2026
• What E-E-A-T means for AI search visibility
• Which metrics to track in a zero-click search world

Where it all started: Google’s SGE

Search Generative Experience (SGE) is the reason your traffic numbers look different. It’s what brought generative AI into search, changing the way search results appear by putting an AI-generated summary above the blue links you used to rank in. More importantly, SGE changed how users interact with search results. 

How does Google SGE actually work?

SGE upended the SERPs we were used to. Rather than showing blue links to click on, SGE uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) models to deliver fast, summarised responses at the top (or near the top) of the search results page for about 21% of search queries (according to Ahrefs research late in 2025). 

What’s more, this sophisticated, experimental AI technology understands the intent behind the search query in order to pinpoint the exact answer needed. The goal? To make search more helpful for users who want direct, precise responses.

Back in May 2023, Google explained: 

“With this powerful new technology, we can unlock entirely new types of questions you never thought Search could answer, and transform the way information is organised, to help you sort through and make sense of what’s out there.”

In July 2025, Google’s Pichai said: 

“Overall queries and commercial queries on Search continued to grow year over year. And our new AI experiences significantly contributed to this increase in usage.”

He also noted that AI Overviews were driving over 10% more queries globally for the query types that show them, and that AI Mode was getting positive feedback for complex, longer questions. 

AI Overviews (SGE) include features like: 

• Engaging, conversational interaction patterns
• Smart, dynamic summaries 
• Product and How-To Overviews.

While this is great for search users (who doesn’t want nifty answers, fast?), marketers have valid concerns about the prioritised placement of AI summaries drastically reducing the need for users to click through to their websites (click-through rates). 

What is the impact of AI Overviews on SEO?

AI Overviews are significantly hurting click-through rates. Here’s what the data shows and what it means for your strategy.

How much have AI Overviews hurt click-through rates?

Thanks to getting immediate answers, users no longer need to click on SERP links. The largest CTR declines are being felt on informational and ‘how–to’ queries, especially non‑branded, long‑tail terms. But declines in CTR have also been felt by brands previously in top positions. Pages most affected include news and media sites, B2B SaaS blogs, affiliate/comparison content, and info-heavy e–commerce pages, where AI Overviews replace the need to go to the original article.

From June 2024 to September 2025, Seer Interactive analysed 25.1 million organic impressions, 1.1 million paid impressions and 3,119 informational queries across 42 organisations. The results of their study were somewhat alarming: 

• Organic CTRs showed a 61% decline
• Paid CTRs dropped by 68%

Clearly, the search game has changed. Classic ranking tactics no longer pack the same punch as before. Understandably, this new zero-click reality is seriously challenging traditional SEO strategies. This is especially true as more users engage with AI Mode, which eliminates the familiar blue links entirely. 

But it’s not all doom and gloom. A report by Conductor on the state of AEO/GEO in 2026 found that 97% of their respondents reported that AEO/GEO had a positive impact on their marketing funnels in 2025, despite the fears around reduced CTRs. 

But the 250 executives and digital decision-makers consulted were from enterprise brands. That matters. It suggests a widening resource gap between well-funded organisations that can invest in AEO/GEO and smaller businesses still relying on traditional SEO. And that gap is likely to grow.

AI Overviews (SGE) vs featured snippets

AI Overviews didn’t just replace featured snippets. They made “Position 0” a much harder prize to win, because now multiple sources compete for a summary that used to go to one.

To understand what’s been lost, as well as what’s now possible, here’s how AI Overviews compare to the featured snippets they’ve largely displaced.

AI Overviews (SGE) vs featured snippets: How AI Overviews have redefined position 0

Is AI search replacing traditional SEO?

No. Traditional SEO still matters, but ranking at the top no longer guarantees traffic. The goal has shifted from ranking for keywords to being the source AI trusts and cites. This requires building brand authority by answering user questions accurately and in detail, and using a forked approach by optimising for both Google’s generative AI and human users. 

How do you optimise content for AI Overviews?

Content must hold more clout

Flimsy, keyword-stuffed content won’t get cited by AI. To appear in overviews, your content needs genuine authority, which Google has become much better at discerning.

To be included in SGE overviews, strategies must focus on publishing unique, valuable and user-focused content. As per Google’s advice, the best way to do this is to build genuine authority and trustworthiness around a topic, and keeping content freshness at top of mind. (More on this is covered below in the E-E-A-T section.)

The truth is: manipulative tactics are dead. Authority and current relevance are important for getting cited by AI and improving brand visibility.

Focus on all kinds of conversational intent

Since AI in search addresses complex but conversational queries, content must be planned to answer deep questions and cover multiple intent types. 

The same keyword could trigger different search paths for different users, so hyper-personalisation must now be considered. AI Mode tracks and considers the user’s entire search journey, from their context, past behaviour and search history, and the intent behind the tone of their questions. Your content should factor in such multi-turn journeys. Think conversational formats (Q and As), sections that consider scenarios (e.g. “X for beginners”), and clear intent signals in headings, FAQs, and so on. 

Target long-tail, conversational keywords while addressing multiple user intents, providing nuanced insights and authentic first-hand experiences that give AI systems authoritative source material to cite.

Make content structure and structured data paramount

Content must be well organised. Include clear hierarchies, concise paragraphs and well-formatted sections that include bulleted lists, proper headings and comprehensive schema markup to help search engines understand and extract your content effectively.

Core Web Vitals are now essential, as AI search favours fast-loading sites that deliver instant, seamless experiences. In 2026, Google suggests developers should aim for these metrics:

• Load performance: LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) should occur within 2.5 seconds. 
• Responsiveness: INP (Interaction To Next Paint) should be under 200 milliseconds.
• Visual stability: CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) should score under 0.1.

Consider more complicated search journeys 

Within the search interface, AI Overviews encourage users to explore follow-up questions, follow sub-paths that address various intents, and click links to the sites consulted – often before they see any organic results. There’s also the option of going directly into AI Mode. But not all search queries trigger these responses. Some still yield traditional SERPs. 

This messy, non-linear search journey means greater competition for brands to get noticed. Content strategies must now factor in these new AI touchpoints with content that addresses multiple user intents, answers comprehensively with follow-on questions and is arranged in linked topic clusters. 

How should SEO specialists and digital marketers adjust?

Google is no longer just a search engine. It’s an answer engine. Primarily, adapting SEO to stay relevant involves a shift in mind-set from ‘ranking for keywords’ to ‘being a source that AI trusts and cites’. 

Top 3 steps to take:

1. Put quality over quantity: Publish authoritative, comprehensive, ‘AI citable’ content that SGE will likely reference. 

2. Mix up content formats by including testimonials, video, Q&As and infographics to increase your chances of being seen and cited. 

3. Keep monitoring your efforts – track CTRs, rankings and which queries feature in AI results, so you can adapt your strategy accordingly. 

Expert advice from an SEO veteran

For insight into what this shift actually demands, it’s worth hearing from someone who’s been in search long enough to see through the hype. In a July 2025 interview with Search Engine Journal, SEO pioneer Bill Hunt explained why he believes SEO isn’t currently working:

“To succeed now, we need to unlearn and relearn how discovery [in search] actually works … we need to recenter and refocus.”

He went on to identify three key current problems: 

“One is paralysis. We see that clients put search on pause, especially organic search, because they just don’t know what to do.”

This paralysis tends to hit smaller businesses hardest. Enterprise brands have the budget to bring in specialists, while small or medium-sized businesses are left navigating the uncertainty alone.

“The second is the distraction with all the hype around the AI thing. I mean, there’s a different acronym every day. So, which do we do? Are we chasing answers? Are we doing LLM index files or whatever craziness comes out?”

For brands with lean marketing teams, this confusion is more disorienting than it is for a more established brand with a dedicated SEO team.

“The third is that there’s such a distraction from all this that a lot of the fundamentals aren’t being covered. And I think that’s where the problem is.”

His solution? Get back to basics and understand what’s really changed. 

Hunt outlined three core changes to search we need to be aware of:

1. A greater need to understand search intent. Asking questions like “Why did the user search for this? What do they really want to find out?” is more important than ever. 
2. Friction is no longer tolerated. Any glitches that get in the way of users getting the information they want must be fixed. 
3. Monetisation matters more. We have to be profitable while being helpful. 

Hunt had additional insights regarding publishing original content and the way we think about content and keywords.

Does original content get rewarded by AI search?

Hunt says that since “AI systems synthesise consensus”, original content won’t be rewarded automatically. Content that reflects the consensus will. Got something refreshing or different to say, but want to remain visible? His advice is to link new ideas to familiar terms. 

EXAMPLE: “If you’re saying you’ve got a new way to cut bread, you have to talk about the old way to cut bread and connect it to a more efficient or easier way to do it.”

So bridge the gap between old and new to avoid being undetectable by AI models. 

Is traditional keyword research still effective in AI search?

Conversational, long-tail queries drive clicks for detailed answers to a topic. As Hunt explains: “If somebody doesn’t know a product exists to solve a problem, how would they search for it? They would use the problem or symptoms of the problem. If they know a product exists but don’t know you exist, how would they search for it?”

So, rather than focusing on keyword research, conduct a manual query-path analysis to explore how people really search. This evolved approach to keyword research focuses on understanding human intent rather than just search volume and competition metrics.

EXAMPLE: Act as your ideal customer, use any of your referred search platforms, and search around the problem your offering resolves without searching for your brand. 

“Take the symptoms people have, go into any tool you want, Google, Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini, and search and see if you come up. If you don’t come up, the very next question you should ask is, ‘Why isn’t this product or this company in your result set?’ That’s probably the single most illuminating thing a senior executive can do … When it tells you that you don’t have the answer, your very next step is, ‘How do we then create the answer, and then how do we get it into these?’”

Hunt’s advice is within reach of any-sized business, so the resource gap narrows when we stick to the fundamentals.

Further adaptation strategies for AI search optimization

Beyond the fundamentals, here are specific tactical approaches to strengthen your visibility and build the authority that AI engines trust.

Consider content across multiple touchpoints 

To map out the full user search journey, identify follow-up questions and sub-topics related to primary search queries. Developing interconnected content clusters can help you address multiple touchpoints. An easy way to do this is by adding FAQs that cover potential follow-up questions. Then, keep an eye on search analytics and user behaviour to spot emerging questions in this evolving search experience. 

Also, bear in mind that users are searching beyond Google, thanks to Bing Copilot, Perplexity and other AI engines. Each of these platforms has its own preferences when it comes to where they source information from. A blog that gets picked up in AI Overviews may struggle to feature in ChatGPT, for example. These different ecosystems require different, parallel optimization strategies. 

Test how your content does across various platforms (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and two or three more platforms your customers use. Then identify gaps where your competitors’ content appears, but yours doesn’t. 

You might also consider factoring Google’s February 2026 Discover update into your touchpoint strategy. This update made three changes:

1. Locally relevant content from within the user’s country is prioritised.
2. Sensational or clickbait content is reduced.
3. Original, fresh content from authoritative sources is more likely to be surfaced.

This can work in your brand’s favour if you consistently publish locally relevant, expert content for your specific audience or region.

Mix up your content formats

Since SGE integrates various content formats, adding videos, infographics and charts increases your likelihood of being cited in answers.

Refresh old content

According to a Seer Interactive study, 85% of pages cited in AI Overviews were published in the last two years. Content recency is now an active weighting factor, so refreshing old content is one of the highest-ROI moves you can make right now.

To make old blogs and articles more “AI-friendly”, update them with fresh stats, examples or case studies and improve their structure. Don’t forget to add those important time markers (e.g. “updated April 2026”).

Write for humans in a natural tone

Conversational content is more likely to be picked up by AI, so write in a way that’s accessible for people – and the AI that’s mimicking their natural language interactions. Write in a simpler tone. Keep explanations straightforward. And include long-form questions rather than just keywords. 

Amplify your E-E-A-T efforts

While AI can summarise information, it can’t create real-life experiences. So make sure your content demonstrates Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness by including: 

• interviews
• expert commentary
• personal anecdotes and insights 
• case studies 
• unique research 

Note that E-E-A-T extends beyond your web page. Your brand’s off-site imprint matters, too. Consider your brand presence across the entire web, as this is what AI search does. Prioritise brand mentions over backlinks, earn trusted third-party mentions, and ensure your brand is consistently well-mentioned across the digital space. 

Make things easy for AI crawlers to pick your content

Make it easy for AI to parse and interpret your content with schema markup (structured data) that clearly labels your content, acting as a roadmap to your best articles.

• Use relevant schema types
• Organise content with clear headings
• Check your structured data with Google’s Rich Results Test and Schema Markup Validator and fix any errors

Monitor your efforts 

In 2026, you need to change what you measure, not just what you optimize. Rankings and traffic alone aren’t enough, as Google Search Console (GSC) only surfaces AI Overviews citations that lead to a click. Those that don’t won’t show up on your dashboard, even if AI is leaning on your content heavily in its answers. 

Metrics worth tracking include:

• GSC’s AI Mode filter
• Citation frequency (versus competitors)
• Brand mentions across platforms

Dedicated tools like Otterly.AI can help, but smaller teams could simply track results manually.

Final thoughts

Google’s SGE has changed the search game and there’s no going back. Rather than seeing it as a passing AI fad, see it as an evolution in how users search, explore and engage online. 

Rather than just “getting clicks”, SEO is now about “gaining trust”. So content strategies should prioritise providing useful, in-depth and experience-driven content that will be deemed authoritative by both human readers and AI search engines. Brands that adapt to the new demands of AI-powered search in this way will stay ahead of the competition. 

Ready to future-proof your search strategy for the AI search era?

At Digivate, we specialise in helping brands navigate the evolving search landscape. From AI search optimization to building the kind of authoritative content that AI engines cite, we’ll help you stay visible when it matters most.

Contact our team today to discover how your brand can thrive in the age of generative search – while your competitors are still figuring out what all the new acronyms mean.

Did you find this blog useful? Check out some of our others, such as “AEO vs SEO: Optimising for Answers, Not Just Rankings” and “GEO vs SEO: Do Traditional Tactics Still Matter in AI Search?”.

Coming next:

Part 5: “How to Rank in Google AI Overviews in 2026: What Gemini Really Looks For”

FAQs

What’s the difference between AI Overviews (formerly known as Google SGE) and AI Mode? 

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) uses AI to provide summarised answers (AI Overviews) at or near the top of search results, rather than just showing the traditional blue links, with main sources identified alongside the summary. AI Mode takes this further, with users directed to a new search interface that ditches the results page entirely in favour of a purely AI-generated, conversational answer. It’s like having ChatGPT in search. 

Are AI Overviews and AI Mode available globally? 

AI Overviews (the production version of SGE) are now available worldwide, reaching 2 billion monthly users globally. The conversational AI Mode interface is broadly available across 200+ countries. It’s free for all users with a personal Google account; paid plans (Google AI Pro and Ultra) offer higher usage limits and advanced features.

Will AI Search kill traditional SEO? 

No, but it’s been redefined in terms of visibility and citations. Instead of just ranking for keywords, you now need to focus on becoming a trusted source that AI cites across multiple touchpoints. Quality, authoritative content is more important than ever.

How have AI Overviews affected click-through rates (CTRs)? 

Significantly. Research by Seer Interactive reveals that organic CTRs showed a 61% decline, while paid CTRs dropped by 68%. News and media sites, B2B SaaS blogs, affiliate/comparison content, and info-heavy e-commerce pages have been most impacted. 

What should I do to optimize for AI search? 

Focus on creating comprehensive, authoritative content that follows E-E-A-T principles. Write conversationally, use proper schema markup, and aim to be the source that AI trusts and references. Consider your off-site brand presence, too.

Article by

Deidre Donnelly

Deidre has been an editor and writer for some 20 years. Notably, she worked her way up from copy editor to senior features writer/books editor at O, The Oprah Magazine (South Africa). She was also a regular contributor to ShortList Dubai magazine, and has provided editorial and content marketing services for a variety of brands including Oxford University Press, Think With Google (MENA), and tourism authorities such as Visit Abu Dhabi and Vietnam.Travel.