Ask An SEO: How Should Ecommerce Stores Respond To The Arrival Of AI Overviews?

AI Overviews are beginning to change how information is displayed, but ecommerce site owners don’t need to panic.

In this edition of Ask An SEO, we’re addressing a question about the impact of AI Overviews on search engine results pages, particularly for ecommerce store owners looking to stay competitive:

“Do you believe AI Overviews or AI will shake up SERPs with Google PLAs? And, as a small ecommerce store owner selling apparel, what can I do to stay ahead with the rollout of gen AI apps?”

That’s a great question! It’s a question many ecommerce site owners have been wrestling with since AI Overviews began rolling out last May.

The big worry is that Google’s generative AI summaries – which will appear right at the top of the SERPs – will cut into your traffic.

If individuals can find answers to questions without coming to your site, this will result in a sharp drop in customers.

But whereas this new trend may at first seem worrying, I don’t believe the disruption level will be so massive as it initially seems, especially for online stores. AI Overviews may also offer opportunities to rise up the ranks, too.

Do bear in mind that the image is somewhat less sharp with the likes of ChatGPT or Microsoft’s Copilot – these apps currently don’t give links to sources in their responses, but they’re not used for searching anywhere near as frequently as Google either.

Will AI Upend SERPs With Google PLAs?

Generative AI is self-evidently one of the most revolutionary pieces of technology in years, and there are very nearly daily leaps forward.

Therefore, I have attempted to do my best and respond to questions posed, but there is patently a vast caveat: Change is happening very quickly, and we can make no predictions whatever.

But to answer the question’s first part regarding whether or not AI would shake up SERPs, my gut would say: “Not that much (probably!).”

To begin, studies by BrightEdge (published in Search Engine Journal in November) discovered that AI Overviews are stabilizing and converging with organic search results.

The cite links that are provided with AI Overviews more and more present links to websites that are also found in the top 10 results.

For instance, if you were searching [how long to bake a loaf of bread], AI Overviews would usually summarize answers from baking websites that are already listed on page one.

In addition to displaying the sites in the SERP, AI Overviews will also give links to those sites in the “citation” section, as well.

What does this mean? In effect, Google keeps on rewarding websites that create good-quality, pertinent, and credible content.

The visibility of AI Overviews at the top of the page has changed the appearance and feel of the search experience. But because Google still includes links to relevant pages in its answers, the ranking principles underneath haven’t really shifted.

The impact of AI Overviews on Product Listing Ads (PLAs) was also requested. For the initial several months following AI Overviews’ release, this was somewhat uncertain. But as of last October, we now have a clearer understanding of how it’ll function.

Google reported it would start injecting ads into AI Overviews (usually in the form of a carousel under the text). To date, this doesn’t appear to have been completely launched.

But the illustration Google provided was of a user searching, [how do I remove a grass stain from jeans?]. Under the AI Overview, a carousel displays several associated grass stain remover products.

If you pay for PLAs, then they will most likely begin appearing in these types of answers.

AI Overviews Aren’t ‘Competing’ With Ecommerce Stores

The questioner also said they have a small ecommerce store selling clothes. They might well be worried about what AI Overviews are doing to their current ads and product pages.

Well, according to research by Ahrefs, the type of content they probably have on their site likely isn’t competing with AI Overviews.

Ahrefs analyzed hundreds of thousands of searches that yielded an AI Overview.

The overwhelming majority of searches that yielded an overview were informational searches (who, where, when, why, etc.) – fewer than 6% were commercial, and fewer than 5% were transactional.

This implies that a small percentage of search intent that is answered by AI Overviews is about the types of things sold on the site.

Essentially, AI Overviews answers longer tail questions such as [how to style a bucket hat].

But if a person simply searches [bucket hat], they will be presented with PLAs and organic SERP results – not a generative AI answer.

AI Overviews May Be Able To Leapfrog Your Competitors

As I noted earlier, AI Overviews give citation links to sites that also appear in the top 10 organic results.

Though, a Surfer SEO analysis claims that this is only the case 52% of the time. For the remaining 48% of sources, lower-placed websites (some of which will be pretty unknown) are able to get a link in a top spot of the SERPs if what they’re producing contributes to helping inform Google’s AI.

This implies that even if your site is not on page one now, you might still receive page one levels of traffic if Google refers to your content.

What Can You Do To Stay Ahead As AI Becomes More Widespread?

With the same caveats as above re the pace of change in this space, I believe there are a few things you can do to keep driving traffic to an ecommerce store.

Tip one is to simply just keep doing the best it gets. Apologies, I know it is not terribly sexy! However, the truth remains that making informative, original, correct, and consistent content – according to Google’s Helpful Content Update – still wins.

Since more than half of the sources listed in AI Overviews also organically come up in the top 10 SERP results, this means that creating good content still remains the optimal means of ranking.

I assume the questioner has a fashion niche. If that is the case, giving personalized style tips, seasonal style advice, hat/jacket/dress/jeans selection guides, etc., will all increase the likelihood of winning traffic.

Another boring (but still sound) piece of advice is to practice good ecommerce “hygiene.”

Make sure the product schema is both current and correct, and include rich attribute tables that inform Google and other search engines what the site contains. I know, it’s not exactly revolutionary material. But it will serve to fuel the algorithm and increase the chances of the website appearing in searches.

For product detail pages (PDPs), I’d also recommend focusing on unique product descriptions (like highlighting things about the design, the fabric, or how to style it). These are things that AI can’t figure out yet, and which the competitors may not have written about.

On that note, I’d also strongly recommend human curation when writing content.

As impressive as ChatGPT and others are, they can only regurgitate information that already exists.

To describe new products, features, or styles, you’re going to need a human to do it. Sure, generative AI is certainly able to get things started if you’re sitting with a blank page in front of you, but it’s also going to require your professional hand.

I hope that was helpful. Clearly, search is experiencing a time of enormous transformation.

But ultimately, by following the best practices and focusing on quality, helpful content, you’ll continue to give yourself the best chances of attracting traffic and converting customers.