Google AI Overviews show on 13% of searches: Study

Google’s AI Overviews appeared in 13.14% of all U.S. desktop searches in March, up from 6.49% in January. That’s a 102% surge in just two months, according to a new analysis of more than 10 million keywords by Semrush and Datos.

Why we care. Google’s introduction of AI Overviews was the biggest shift since the arrival of featured snippets a decade ago. Google is forever changed and is becoming more of an answer engine than a search engine. That’s because AI Overviews generate answers rather than pointing searchers to websites, which studies have shown is hurting traffic and decreasing CTRs for many types of websites.

Triggers. AI Overviews tend to appear for low-risk, fact-based content. However, Google is slowly creeping into conversion territory, according to Semrush:

• 88.1% of triggered queries are informational (e.g., “what is BMR”).
• 8.69% are commercial queries – up from 6.28% in January.
• 1.43% are navigational queries – this is double from 0.74% in January.

Industry trends. The top five industries where AI Overview grew since January were:

• Science: Up 22.3%
• Health: Up 20.3%
• People & Society: Up 18.8%
• Law & Government: Up 15.2%
• Travel: Up 14.3%

On the other end, real-time information categories (e.g., News, Sports) were the least affected, perhaps suggesting that “Google is still wary of covering recent events with AI-generated content,” according to Semrush. For now, anyway.

Zero click. AI Overview queries show higher-than-average zero-click rates. However, when comparing the same keywords pre- and post-AI Overview, zero-click behavior declined slightly, according to the report. It fell to 36.2% in March from 38.1% in January. As Semrush put it: “That suggests AI Overviews do not automatically increase zero-click behavior.”

The report is available here. (No registration required)

Full disclosure: Semrush is MarTech’s parent company.