Special Edition: AI Answers in Google Search

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Travel Marketers,

We’ve been waiting for over a year for this day to come, and it’s finally arrived: Google’s AI overviews are entering search this week (for most users in the USA).

Google announced the release of Google’s AI Overviews at their annual I/O conference.

What are Google’s AI Overviews?

You’ve come to expect a list of ten blue links answering your search on Google. AI Overviews change that standard, giving users an answer to their questions in an AI snippet on Google, rather than by clicking a blue link. Imagine ChatGPT at the top of your search results (though this is powered by Google’s Gemini model).

The Bottom-Line Impact:

Just like featured snippets reduced clickthrough rates in 2014, we expect a clickthrough rate decrease of between 11% and 60% for informational queries on Google. We understand this is substantial, and you can expect close monitoring by your SEO manager if you're working with Propellic, followed by action recommendations.

We expect the number of search results per search engine results page (SERP) to drop from 10 to 5-7. We don't expect this to be the reason for a decrease in CTR, but rather, the question being answered in whole without a click (we call these Zero-Click searches).

We don’t anticipate a significant impact on conversions unless your primary conversion-generation strategy is top-of-funnel content retargeted across social platforms using third-party cookie data.

What You Can Expect:

• If you drive top-of-funnel traffic through content, expect an immediate decrease in website traffic as the new feature rolls out at scale.
• If you are retargeting web traffic on paid social, plan for smaller audiences.
• If you drive most of your revenue through advertising (and in some cases, affiliate deals), expect a moderate impact on revenue-generation abilities for those segments of your business.

If You Work With Propellic:

If you’re currently working with Propellic on an SEO project, your SEO Manager will be prepared to discuss the updates, answer questions, and advise on growth strategy around the updates in your regularly-planned meetings.

An Ask:

Please write back to me and let me know what you’ve seen happen to your traffic if you notice a meaningful impact over the next week.

That's all for now!

- Brennen Bliss, CEO @ Propellic

Subscribe to the NavLog here for bi-weekly travel marketing news.