Google AI Overviews is in the testing phase in Turkish results! Opportunities for SEO experts, threats to organic traffic, and survival strategies.
Hello valued colleagues and digital marketing enthusiasts,
Drawing from my 15 years of experience in SEO and Conversion Optimisation, I’d like to address a topic that’s keeping many of us up at night: Google AI Overviews.
As you know, Google constantly takes new steps to “improve” the search experience. AI Overviews represents their latest and perhaps most impactful move yet. While not fully active throughout Turkey, the tests being conducted in Turkish search results (as shared by my dear friend Metehan Yeşilyurt on LinkedIn) clearly indicate this revolution is at our doorstep. So what are my first impressions, concerns, and most importantly, realistic solution strategies as an SEO expert?
In this newsletter, I’ll explain what AI Overviews are, how they work, and what they mean for our organic traffic – laying bare both the opportunities and seemingly inevitable threats. I’ll share analyses from industry publications like Search Engine Land and Search Engine Journal that reveal organic traffic declines with concrete data, and outline how we should prepare for this new era based on strategies distilled from my own experience.
Remember, this isn’t a panic piece – rather, a call for conscious awareness and proactive preparation. Let’s face this new reality together and chart our course to keep our SEO strategies afloat in these stormy waters.
Google AI Overviews are, in simplest terms, information boxes appearing at the top of search results pages (SERPs), aiming to provide direct and comprehensive answers to user queries. Google claims this feature elevates user experience and facilitates access to information. As they state on their developer pages, these summaries are activated “when our systems determine that generative responses would be particularly helpful.” This statement implies that control lies entirely with Google, and they decide which content appears in these summaries – our first red flag as publishers.
Yes, instant access to information may be appealing for users. Google’s own blog post emphasises that with AI Overviews, users can ask more complex questions and receive more comprehensive answers. They’ve even announced they’re working on features to personalise these summaries. But looking at the flip side, this “convenience” potentially blocks organic traffic to our websites. If users find the answer directly on Google, why would they click through to our site? This question will be critical in the coming period.
Understanding user intent and producing appropriate content has always been our priority. However, Google’s effort to satisfy this intent within its platform and direct users less to external sites rewrites the rules of the game for us. Google’s other AI-based search experiments like AI Mode can also be seen as part of this strategy.
Now for the most crucial point: How will AI Overviews affect our organic traffic?
Although Google claims links in AI Overviews will bring higher quality clicks compared to traditional web listings, the data from the field and predictions from experts like me who’ve devoted years to this industry aren’t very encouraging. To be frank, organic traffic decline isn’t just a possibility – it seems like an inevitable reality for many sites.
Because data doesn’t lie. The article “New data: Google AI Overviews are hurting click-through rates” published in Search Engine Land, based on reliable sources like Ahrefs and Amsive, reveals this bitter truth. The findings are genuinely concerning:
These data points suggest Google’s claim that “AI Overviews send higher quality traffic” doesn’t quite reflect reality, at least for now. Perhaps this claim might be true in some niche areas or very specific queries, but looking at the overall picture, there’s a significant danger for sites that produce informative content and rely on organic traffic. As another important article in Search Engine Land emphasises, “When Google answers a query without users needing to scroll, visibility no longer depends just on rankings. It depends on whether your content is selected, quoted, or even needed at all.” This means the rules of the game have fundamentally changed.
While pressure increases to produce extremely high-quality content that meets Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) criteria, uncertainty continues about how or whether this content will appear in AI summaries. Lack of transparency further complicates our optimisation efforts.
At this point, my advice as an SEO expert is to accept this reality and shape our strategies for this new and challenging era. Instead of panicking, we should analyse the situation and take proactive steps.
So, what are we going to do in the face of this bleak outlook? Give up?
Of course not! As an SEO expert, my duty is to develop strategies against all kinds of challenges and safely navigate this stormy sea. Here are some important approaches distilled from my own experiences to create an SEO strategy resilient against the challenges of AI Overviews:
If users will get basic information from AI summaries, your site must offer a much stronger, irresistible reason to make that click. This means not just providing information, but delivering a unique experience. What experience? Perhaps an interactive tool on your site, an in-depth analysis, an original dataset compiled only by you, a live community forum, or personalized expert advice that AI summaries can never offer. You need to create a magnet that will attract users to your site and make them think, “Yes, I read the summary, but there’s so much more on this site.”
Google will prefer trusted, authoritative sources for AI summaries. Therefore, maximising your site’s and content’s Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) signals is no longer an option but a necessity. You must prove to Google that you’re truly authoritative in your field, and that your content is the most comprehensive, accurate, and reliable source written on that topic. The general guidelines on Google’s Developer page are a starting point, but understanding how these criteria will be interpreted more deeply for AI Overviews and acting accordingly is vitally important.
If your revenue model and traffic heavily depend on simple, informative queries, I’m sorry to say, but the sustainability of this model is at serious risk. You need to urgently diversify your content strategy. Focus on content types that solve more complex problems, provide in-depth analyses, are directly related to your products and services (commercial/transactional intent), or where users interact with each other in community-focused content.
Every visitor to your site is now worth their weight in gold. Therefore, you need to make serious investments in perfecting the user experience (UX), ensuring visitors spend more time on your site, and directing them toward your desired actions (such as subscribing to my newsletter, getting information about a service, or purchasing a product) through conversion optimisation (CRO). Is your site fast? Mobile-friendly? Easy to navigate? Can users easily find what they’re looking for? The answers to these questions must be “yes.”
SEO is certainly important, but putting all your eggs in one basket isn’t wise. Focus on direct traffic channels like email marketing (just like this newsletter!), social media strategies, creating your online communities, and most importantly, building a strong brand awareness where people trust, search for, and directly visit your site to reduce your dependence on Google. If you have a loyal audience, you’ll be much less affected by algorithm changes or innovations like AI Overviews.
Don’t hesitate to use structured data like schema markup to help AI models better understand your content and potentially represent it more accurately in summaries. This can increase your chances of being included in AI overviews or at least being quoted correctly, but remember, this isn’t a saviour on its own.
The effects of AI Overviews and generative AI on the search world will constantly evolve. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Closely follow industry publications (Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, etc.), carefully watch Google’s official announcements, analyse your own data, conduct small tests, and most importantly, be ready to quickly adapt your strategies. Embrace a flexible and agile approach rather than rigid plans.
Remember, my motto as an SEO expert has always been: Change is inevitable; what matters is how we respond to this change and how we can turn it into an opportunity. As you prepare your clients and your own business for these potential challenges, also try to see the opportunities hidden within this new order.
Dear friends, to guide you in this new and uncertain period, I’m sharing my personal checklist and concrete suggestions that you can immediately implement, prepared from an SEO expert’s perspective with a completely realistic viewpoint:
Google AI Overviews truly creates a paradigm shift for the search and SEO world. This innovation means serious challenges, uncertainties, and yes, seemingly inevitable organic traffic losses for us website owners and SEO experts, beyond the potential benefits it offers to users. This risk is too large to ignore, especially for certain sectors and content types.
However, despite all this gloomy picture, it’s too early to say SEO is over. On the contrary, we’re witnessing a period where SEO is evolving, moving toward a much more strategic, quality-focused, user-oriented, and analytical approach. This may actually open new doors for those of us who take our job seriously, prioritize providing value to users, and can adapt to change.
The secret to success in this new and challenging period lies in correctly understanding threats, wisely managing risks, diversifying our strategies, strengthening our brand, providing our users with unique and indispensable values, and most importantly, being able to continuously adapt to change like water. Remember, as Darwin said, it’s not the strongest or the most intelligent who survive, but those who best adapt to change.
I hope the realistic perspective, concrete data, and strategic recommendations distilled from my own experiences that I’ve shared in this newsletter will serve as a compass in this sea of uncertainty and illuminate your path. Remember, knowledge is power, and with the right strategies, the sun always rises again after every storm.
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