AI-powered search is changing how people find information online.
A recent study by Semrush published in Search Engine Journal said that Google’s AI Overviews now appear in 42.5% of search results as of Q4 2024, a 9 percentage point increase from the previous quarter.
This is already changing how users interact with search results – and potentially your charity’s website traffic.
What are AI Overviews?
AI Overviews are Google’s AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results, particularly for informational queries.
Unlike traditional featured snippets that pull content directly from a single source, AI Overviews synthesize information from multiple websites to create comprehensive answers, usually with links to the various sources.
The impact on click-through rates
The rise of AI Overviews correlates with declining click-through rates (CTR) for informational queries.
- Websites in the top four positions for “what, when, where, how” searches saw a 7.3 percentage point decrease in desktop CTR
- Science related content experienced the largest CTR decline with top desktop positions dropping 6.0 percentage points
- Law & politics content bucked the trend with a 7.39 percentage point CTR gain for top desktop positions
The mobile difference
Interestingly, the Semrush study found that while desktop CTR for informational queries declined, mobile CTR actually improve. Top ranked sites on mobile search gained 1.8 percentage points in CTR.
Anecdotally, on mobile search, the AI overviews take up less scree real estate and can be easier to scroll past, which might be why we’re not seeing the declines in CTR seen on desktop.
As with all changes in the organic search landscape, it’s important to consider your audience, what devices they’re using, and how they want to engage with the information you’re providing. Always ensure you optimise your site to perform well on the platforms where the majority of your audience is.
Health charities face the biggest impact
AI Overviews are particularly common for health-related queries, so they’re super important for health charities to be aware of and understand.
There’s nothing we can do to influence the occurrence of the overviews, or the fact that a proportion of your potential site visitors will instead get their information from the overviews without visiting your website.
While your overall site traffic is likely to take a hit as a result of overviews, you can soften the blow by ensuring that you’re featuring in the overviews. Appearing in the overviews helps to reinforce your organisation as a leading authority on the topic, and also ensures that the quality of information provided in the overviews is as high as possible.
Charities we work with that have strong organic rankings already often see their content featured and linked to within the overviews. Factors such as content quality & relevancy, organisational expertise & trustworthiness, topical authority, and elements such as structured data all play into your ability to appear in the AI Overviews.
What we’re seeing with charity websites
Although traffic numbers may be declining for some health charities, we’re noticing an interesting trend: improvements in user engagement metrics. Many charities we work with are seeing increases in metrics such as pages per session and average engagement time of their informational content.
That means that the users who do click through to the website are spending more time on webpages and engaging more deeply with content.
This suggests that the traffic being “lost” may have been users looking for quick answers who might never have meaningfully engaged with your content anyway.
It’s important to consider the purpose of your content when evaluating performance and the impacts of search changes like this. If your intention was to provide quick answers to basic questions, then the overviews will have a greater impact.
If you want to reach audiences who engage with your content, and help to genuinely inform and educate them, then AI overviews are far less likely to be able to provide that for to users.
Have a look at engagement metrics for your informational content over the last few months, and see if you can see any improvements. You might find that overall traffic is down slightly, but the quality and engagement of that traffic has improved.
The paid search double whammy
Paid search isn’t immune either. CTRs for paid ads are also declining regardless of whether AI Overviews appear on the page.
To make matters more challenging for health charities, Google has been cracking down on health-related personalised advertising, limiting ad options. This creates a double impact for health charities trying to maintain visibility.
Is this really a problem for your charity?
Before worrying about traffic declines, remember:
- This isn’t all that new – Featured Snippets have been ‘stealing’ traffic from websites for years. You’ll never get 100% of traffic from any keyword, even if you rank in position 1. We have to be able to adapt to changes in the search landscape and adjust our goals and expectations accordingly.
- Not all traffic is created equal, think about your audience and what you want them to do with your content
- If your goal is to genuinely inform and educate, the loss of unengaged traffic may not actually hurt your more important website goals
- If AI Overviews are providing incorrect information for queries you care about, you might want to optimise your content to allow it to appear in the AI Overviews
- User trust in AI Overviews is currently low – the Semrush study indicates only 18% of people surveyed said they trusted the information provided by them. Utilise your USP in being a charity with expertise in your topic. Your audience likely wants to come to your website for reliable information they can trust. This should remain a key focus.
How to respond to AI Overviews
1. Consider your content purpose
This is a great time to consider the real purpose of your content. So consider these points:
- Why is the page live on your site, what do you want it to do?
- Is it just raw traffic you want?
- Are you looking for engagement, awareness, or something else from your content?
- Can your content still meet its purpose with AI Overviews in play?
2. Optimise for inclusion in AI Overviews
Give your content the best possible chance to appear in AI Overviews:
- Implement relevant structured data markup across your site
- Provide comprehensive, well-structured information
- Use your internal experts while creating and optimising content
- Highlight your expertise and authority on the topic. Keep the principles of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) in mind
3. Continue foundational SEO
If you take nothing else away from this post, remember this one thing: AI Overviews means your charity’s website needs strong SEO foundations more than ever. SEO can help minimise the detrimental impact of overviews on your site traffic, and can leverage them as an opportunity to improve your brand visibility.
Creating high-quality, authoritative content is still so essential for visibility in both traditional search results and AI-generated summaries. All search engines are looking to best meet the needs of their users. You should aim to do the same with your content, as this will stand you in good stead for any changes in the search engine landscape.
A strong technical foundation to your site, and eliminating any crawling and indexing issues is also important to ensure you’re giving your content the best chance to appear in the overviews.
Proper heading structures help search engines understand your content’s organisation, and allow you to optimise your content to target relevant keywords. Carry out keyword research not just to see the search volumes for high priority keywords, but to genuinely understand what your audience is looking to find out, and the language they use to search for this information.
With trust in the quality and reliability of information provided by AI tools still very low, we expect to see a push from the tool providers to prioritise pulling in information from high quality, authoritative websites. Acquiring high quality backlinks will continue to signal your website authority to search engines. This should happen naturally as you create great content. Don’t go paying for backlinks from dodgy link farm owners.
4. Consider searcher intent refinement
Don’t think of this change in the search landscape as losing traffic – it’s more refining the quality of your traffic.
Users with deeper questions and a genuine interest in your cause will still click through to your website, leaving those looking for simple facts to get them from overviews. You should always look to engage and serve these core audiences with your content.
This shift is an opportunity to focus on creating content that goes beyond what Overviews can provide. Think about how you can deliver truly in-depth analysis, personal stories, or interactive elements that AI simply can’t replicate.
That way, the visitors who do reach your site are likely to be more engaged and interested in your charity’s deep expertise and knowledge, and may go on to become supporters of your charity.
5. Stay adaptable
The AI search landscape is evolving rapidly. New features are being deployed at a bewildering pace. What works today might not work tomorrow. So monitor your traffic and engagement metrics closely.
Be prepared to adjust your strategy and goals as needed, experimenting with different content formats and approaches to see what resonates with your audience.
Staying informed about the latest developments in search technology will help you anticipate changes rather than merely react to them. Set aside time for research and learning about the emerging trends in AI search.
What’s next?
AI Overviews aren’t going away. They’re probably going to become more prevalent across more sectors and query types.
But as scepticism about AI-generated content persists, we may see a shift towards more authoritative and trustworthy sources being promoted by AI platforms and overviews.
This could actually benefit charities that establish themselves as authoritative voices in their field.
Want to learn more?
If you’d like support with navigating the changing search landscape, get in touch with our team at Platypus Digital. We’re helping charities adapt to this new reality every day.
Email [email protected] to discuss how we can help your charity maintain visibility in an AI-first search world.
You might also find these blog posts interesting:
- Optimising for AI Search: A Comprehensive Guide For Charities
- Top SEO Tips for Charities
- Why Your Charity Should Invest in SEO
References
This blog post draws on data and insights from the Q4 2024 Semrush CTR study published in Search Engine Journal: Google CTR Study: AI Overviews Rise As Click Rates Decline, alongside our own observations of charity client performance.
