Data-backed analysis of Google AIO keyword triggers supports patterns observed by digital search marketers
New research by enterprise search marketing company BrightEdge reveals dramatic changes to sites surfaced through Google’s AI Overviews search feature. While Google maintains its search market share, data shows that AI search engine Perplexity is gaining ground at a remarkable pace.
Rapid & Dramatic Changes In AIO Triggers
The words that trigger AI Overviews are changing at an incredibly rapid pace. Keywords trending in June may have already shifted by July.
In June, AI Overviews were triggered 50% more often for keywords containing the word “best.” However, Google seems to have reversed this behavior, as these phrases, especially when applied to products, no longer trigger AIOs in July.
Other AIO triggers for June 2024 include:
“What Is” keywords increased by 20%
“How to” queries increased by 15%
Queries with the phrase “symptoms of” increased by about 12%
Queries with the word “treatment” increased by 10%
A BrightEdge spokesperson responded to questions about eCommerce search queries:
“AI’s prevalence in eCommerce is indeed increasing, with a nearly 20% rise in eCommerce keywords showing AI overviews since the beginning of July, and a dramatic 62.6% increase compared to the last week of June. Alongside this growth, we’re seeing a significant 66.67% uptick in product searches that contain both pros and cons from the AI overview. This dual trend indicates not only more prevalent use of AI in eCommerce search results but also more comprehensive and useful information being provided to consumers through features like the pros/cons modules.”
Google Search And AI Trends
BrightEdge used its proprietary BrightEdge Generative Parser™ (BGP) tool to identify key trends in search that may influence digital marketing for the rest of 2024. BGP collects massive amounts of search trend data and turns it into actionable insights.
Their research estimates that each percentage point of search market share represents $1.2 billion, making even small gains incredibly valuable.
Jim Yu, founder and executive chairman of BrightEdge, noted:
“There is no doubt that Google’s dominance remains strong, and what it does in AI matters to every business and marketer across the planet. At the same time, new players are laying new foundations as we enter an AI-led multi-search universe. AI in digital marketing is in a constant state of progress, so the most important thing marketers can do now is leverage the precision of insights to monitor, prepare for changes, and adapt accordingly.”
Google continues to be the most dominant source of search traffic, driving approximately 92% of organic search referrals. A notable point from the research is that AI competitors have not yet significantly impacted Google’s search traffic, countering speculation that AI competitors will cut into Google’s search traffic.
Massive Decrease In Reddit & Quora Referrals
In May 2024, Google followed through on reducing the amount of user-generated content (UGC) surfaced through its AI Overviews search feature. UGC is responsible for many of the outrageously bad responses that generated negative press. BrightEdge’s research shows that referrals to Reddit and Quora from AI Overviews declined to “near zero” in June.
Citations to Quora from AI Overviews decreased by 99.69%. Reddit saw an 85.71% decrease.
BrightEdge’s report noted:
“Google is prioritizing established, expert content over user discussions and forums.”
Bing, Perplexity, And Chatbot Impact
Market share for Bing continues to increase, though only by fractions of a percentage point, growing from 4.2% to 4.5%. However, Perplexity is growing at a monthly rate of 31%. While percentages can be misleading, as 31% of a relatively small number is still small, a monthly growth rate of 31% is significant.
Traffic from chatbots isn’t significant, as sending referral traffic to websites isn’t what chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT are about at this point. The data shows that both Claude and ChatGPT are not sending much traffic. OpenAI, however, is hiding referrals from the websites it’s sending traffic to, making it difficult to track.
BrightEdge’s analysis looks at this from a long-term perspective and anticipates that referral traffic from large language models (LLMs) will become more prevalent and significant for marketers.
BrightEdge concludes:
“The overall number of referrals from LLMs is small and expected to have little industry impact at this time. However, if this incremental growth continues, BrightEdge predicts it will influence where people search online and how brands approach optimizing for different engines.”
AIO trends have already changed in July, highlighting the importance of having fresh data to adapt to fast-changing AIO keyword trends. BrightEdge delivers real-time data updated daily so that marketers can make better-informed decisions.
