16th August saw Google announce a core algorithm update along with the long rumoured roll-out of AI Overviews into UK results. Both are significant developments for anyone reliant on organic search to drive traffic to their site. Below we unpack the potential impact on your business.
1) August core update is now live
What does this mean for you?
As with previous core updates, the August Core update is part of Google’s ongoing efforts to improve the relevance and quality of its search results. The update is expected to take about a month to fully roll-out. Update roll-outs can often impact rankings, so while no immediate action is required, it’s important to stay vigilant for any shifts in rankings or traffic. As such, we’ll be closely monitoring search results for any changes in presentation.
The StrategiQ team are poised to provide post-update analysis of any changes to site performance highlighting where performance has been positively or negatively affected. If you’d like to discuss this further, just give us a shout!
2) AI Overviews are now live in UK Google results
What are AI Overviews?
Google’s AI Overviews provide AI-generated summaries at the top of search results on both mobile and desktop devices.
Previously launched in the US in May, it’s now available in the UK. The feature had faced criticism for inaccuracies, but Google are demonstrating their confidence in resolving that by extending its roll-out into other territories.
The appearance of this search feature in wider international markets had been long rumoured, but with no prior warning of a launch date, the announcement has taken many by surprise.
How do you trigger AI Overviews?
Our current testing indicates that AI results commonly show for ‘question’ searches. Early iterations of AI Overviews that ran in the US sometimes appeared for product related searches. We believe that Google may have rolled back the extent to which these results appear in this latest release.
For example:
What does this mean for you?
As shown in the above example, the AI Overview pushes ‘normal’ search results further down the page, potentially reducing clicks to the snippet since the query is answered by the overview. Giving good reason to monitor snippet performance and CTR closely in Google Search Console.
StrategiQ has monitored AI overviews since their US debut and have yet to see reports of significant impact on site traffic. Nevertheless, our current content strategies focus on guide content that aligns with the ‘how/what/when/why’ queries which are likely to trigger AI overviews. At this early stage of the roll-out, we anticipate that keyword rankings are more likely to be affected for guide content.
How can StrategiQ support you?
Over the coming weeks, we will be monitoring and assessing any significant changes to see if they correlate with the appearance of AI Overviews. The aim of this being to establish whether there is a negative or net positive impact on SEO performance as a result.
If you’d appreciate help in understanding how AI Overviews may impact SEO performance for your business, then please reach out.
