AI Overviews debunked: what DMOs need to know about AI’s impact on search

If you’ve performed a search on Google over the past few months (really, who hasn’t?), you’ve likely seen the overviews generated by artificial intelligence (AI). It’s the latest area infused with AI during the mad dash to leverage the latest tech — and it hasn’t been without its challenges.
 

How does this change impact destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and their vital work in search engine optimization (SEO)? As we watch search engines adapt in real time, it’s important to remember that AI is not new. It’s the use of AI that has changed. The most notable — and noticeable — change is the addition of AI Overviews (AIOs) at the top of many search results.

In AIOs, Google scrapes content from multiple top results and combines them into a new result that attempts to answer the user’s question.

SE Ranking, an industry website that tracks Google and other search engines, reports that as of June, approximately 8% of searches trigger an AI overview — a decrease of more than 50% compared to their previous study done at the end of January when 18% of searches showed an AIO.

According to the same report, travel-related queries are among those that show the least AIOs at less than 1%.
 

Niche queries are most likely to generate AIOs. This applies not only to travel-related searches but to all types of searches, where more specific and detailed queries yield better results.

For example, a search for “Things to do in the poconos” returns a familiar search result page without an AIO.
 

A search for “What are the best things to do in the poconos with kids” features an AI overview at the top of the results page.
 

Two things are important to remember with AIOs:

1. While less prominent than traditional search results, Google is still showing links within the AIOs. The results feature citations for the sources used to generate the AI snippet
2. The traditional search results are still there, just further down the page. This is not unlike paid search results and Google’s other search features

One thing we do know is that industry organic traffic is still on the rise. The data shows continuous and steady growth since March 2024 with no visible effects from the introduction of AI search.

Google is constantly changing and AIOs are still very new. So how can you optimize for search when it’s changing faster than ever, and Google is trying to answer user questions without taking them off their page?

The answer is the same as it was before: write great, people-first content.

Google has consistently said that high-quality content — specifically, content that is relevant and answers user questions — is the most the important factor  search ranking.

Beyond that, we need to continue to focus not only on the traffic numbers but on the conversions. It’s not enough to optimize sites for search, we also need to continue to optimize for driving hotel bookings, visitor guide requests, newsletter sign-ups, partner referrals, and request for proposal submissions.

Search, much like the web, will keep evolving. However, the demand for excellent content and outstanding websites will remain constant.