Google AI Overviews and Citations: Tips for Web Publishers

Google AI Overviews (AIO), where Google’s AI engine attempts to answer your query at the top of a search results page, is now available in more than 100 countries. But for publishers and website operators, it’s still difficult to evaluate the impact of AIO on your business. How often does your website show up in AIO? How many times are your citation links in AIO clicked on?

Those are difficult questions to answer, because Google doesn’t always provide data on its use of AI, but SEO firm BrightEdge thinks it can help. It’s just upgraded Data Cube X, a search database and SEO tool that it now says “provides brands with in-depth insights on their AI footprint.”

To find out more about the state of Google AI Overviews, and to gather tips for publishers and website operators, I spoke to BrightEdge founder and CEO, Jim Yu. We last spoke about seven months ago, before AIO had launched widely (at that point it was only available as a limited beta in the US).

Google’s Industry-Specific Approach to AI in Search

Yu firstly explained that BrightEdge has been monitoring Google’s generative AI search tools — previously known as “generative search experiences” (SGE) — since its beta phase, using its own generative parser. This tool tracks changes in AI overviews and website footprints in search results, he said.

Just recently they noticed that the travel industry saw a 700% increase in AI Overview activity in the past month. Yu said this indicates that Google has taken an industry-specific approach to building AI models. Healthcare and e-commerce were two other industries where AI Overviews are being used a lot. But in each case, the approach is slightly different, he noted. Healthcare in AIO has “tight guardrails” and relies on trusted healthcare sources due to sensitive information. E-commerce in AIO features rich interactive experiences — including reviews, product details, and trends. Travel, meanwhile, focuses on location-driven intent.

Yu also noted that some companies have had dramatic growth in their generative AI footprints. Data from the Cube showed that from September to October, many companies’ generative AI footprints more than doubled. This signals a significant shift in search visibility for websites, said Yu.

Citations in Google and Perplexity

One of the things I noticed when AIO rolled out more widely, including to the UK where I live, is that Google has chosen to use citation links alongside its AI summaries — very similar to Perplexity, which pioneered this approach. This is in contrast to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which does not currently provide citation links (although SearchGPT, a new feature of ChatGPT currently in testing for premium users, does include links).

Here’s an example of what I see currently when I search Google and Perplexity with the same query: “How is JavaScript used in modern web applications?”

Google AI Overviews, as you can see below, included multiple links (note the link icon sprinkled throughout the AI Overview text), although there were only 6 sources in total. (Interestingly, I got a different AI Overview reply and 3 more source links when I tested it in another of my Google accounts — so, your mileage may vary.)

The same query in Perplexity elicited a longer reply (more like an article) and 8 source links. But the layout is similar to Google’s product. Incidentally, I did the same query in Perplexity back in January and got 22 sources back then. I’m not sure why the number of sources Perplexity cites for that query has decreased, but it’s now roughly the same number as Google provides.

But Are Users Clicking?

I asked Jim Yu about the citations in Google AI Overviews and whether people are clicking them. He made a couple of points in response.

“The big picture that we see is, number one, referral traffic from Google is not going down — it’s actually going up,” Yu said. “So big picture, referral traffic is going up. But it does not mean click-through rates of the SERP [Search Engine Results Page] in AI Overviews is going up.”

In other words, according to BrightEdge there has been an increase in overall click-throughs from Google search. Yu attributes this to Google’s market share in search increasing recently.

As for clicks from a search page with an AI overview in it, Yu commented that the AIO acts like “zero-click quick answers on steroids” — implying that people aren’t necessarily clicking on the citation links. He said that AIO is likely reducing click-through rates, because its AI summaries aim to answer a query directly.

AI Overviews Generate More Impressions and Interactions

His second big picture point, though, may be more encouraging to web publishers and operators. There is evidence that AIO is generating more overall impressions for publishers, which can help them in other ways apart from click-throughs.

“With the AI overviews — and again, this is very preliminary — but some of those formats actually drive people to interact more within that AI overview,” Yu said. “So […] even though [the user] doesn’t click through on every impression, [AIO] generates more impressions — and they [Google] are doing more to play with that format.”

Indeed, Yu says BrightEdge has just noticed a new feature within AIO where users are encouraged to do more things with an overview — ask more questions, dig further into the data, etc.

“Even if you don’t get the direct click-through from the initial impression, there’s a lot more interaction and impressions.”
– Jim Yu, BrightEdge founder and CEO

“So what happens is, these kinds of interactions drive more and more impressions within the AI experience,” Yu explained. “And so even if you don’t get the direct click-through from the initial impression, there’s a lot more interaction and impressions that happen. And then if you click on the link, then it clicks through to the source.”

So what should publishers and operators do to adapt to this new SEO paradigm?

Yu encourages website managers to keep an open mind about the value of AIO to their business. “The AI is refining its understanding of who to trust on what topics,” he said. So having a presence inside AIO will help your website in the long run, he suggests, especially if it does indeed open up new opportunities for users to interact with your brand. With any luck, Google AIO users will click through to your website in the end — although that part is still up in the air.