AI Overviews No Longer Always in Position 1

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Just last month, fewer than 2% of AI Overviews ranked below the first position on the search engine results page. That figure has now climbed significantly to 12.4%. This change suggests that Google’s AI-generated summaries are not as consistently holding the premier spot, leaving space for well-optimised pages to compete more effectively.

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How Often AI Overviews Appear

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Currently, AI Overviews show up in around 19% of all desktop keyword searches in the United States. While they remain a significant feature in search results, the growing number of cases where they do not appear at the very top offers fresh opportunities for websites to improve their rankings.

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Understanding Search Intent Behind AI Overviews

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The types of search queries that tend to trigger AI Overviews break down as follows:

  • 84.16% are informational, where users are looking to learn something
  • 12.38% are transactional, focused on purchasing or taking action
  • 3.31% are navigational, aimed at finding a specific website or page
  • 0.15% are local, seeking nearby services or locations

Interestingly, when AI Overviews rank lower on the page (Position 4 or below), the share of transactional queries increases sharply from 12.38% to 22.7%. This pattern hints at an opportunity for e-commerce and transactional content to rank above AI Overviews in certain cases.

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What This Means for Your SEO Strategy

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These changes show that AI Overviews are not untouchable. By carefully targeting transactional queries and ensuring content meets user intent, SEOs and content creators have a better chance of outranking AI-generated results. As Google continues to refine its AI features, keeping a close eye on search intent and page positioning will become even more important.

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