The Expanding Role of AI Overviews in Search
Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) have seen some significant changes in search results, reflecting Google’s growing confidence in AIO’s ability to deliver relevant answers. Research by BrightEdge indicates that more keyword phrases than ever before are now triggering AI-generated responses.
AIOs are increasingly capable of handling complex queries, rewarding content that is contextually appropriate. Initially resembling featured snippets, AIOs have evolved to address multi-turn, sophisticated search queries. Google is placing greater emphasis on authoritativeness and precision in understanding context. In areas where trustworthiness and accuracy are critical, larger, well-established brands are leading the way. For instance, in the healthcare sector, 72% of AIOs now originate from medical research centres, a notable increase from 54% at the start of January. Similarly, between 15% and 22% of B2B technology search queries feature results from the top five technology companies.
A quarter of search queries containing eight or more words now trigger AIOs. Although AI-generated responses are also increasing for shorter queries (under four words), their growth rate remains slower.
Google appears to favour certain content types when determining relevance for AIOs. These include:
- Step-by-step and ‘how-to’ guides, structured in a clear hierarchy.
Content with real-time relevance, where precision and accuracy are essential.
General guidance, providing broad yet informative answers.
Additionally, there has been a noticeable decline in the number of YouTube videos appearing in search results for high-volume queries (100,000+ searches). This suggests that Google is improving its ability to assess context and recognise when video content may not be the most appropriate format for a given query.
Why we care: To remain competitive, it is essential to evaluate the most effective content formats—whether image, sound, video, or text—while also considering user intent. Content should be tailored to the specific needs of the query, whether it requires a step-by-step explanation, a data-rich resource, or a general informative approach.
Although major brands are performing well in certain categories, smaller brands that align their content appropriately with user intent and context are also seeing benefits. The key remains focusing on usefulness and positioning oneself as an authoritative source on a given topic.
To maximise visibility, websites must ensure they align with E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) principles. Targeting long-tail keywords and maintaining technical SEO best practices is also crucial, ensuring that content is easily identifiable and understood by search engine crawlers.
Google’s First Major Search Quality Rater Guidelines Update of 2025
Google has released its first major update to the Search Quality Rater Guidelines since March 2024. These guidelines are used by human evaluators to assess the quality of search results. While they do not directly influence rankings, they offer valuable insight into what Google considers high-quality content.
The latest updates include formal guidance on AI-generated content, providing clear instructions on how raters should evaluate materials produced by machine learning. Additionally, three key areas of concern have been highlighted regarding low-quality and spam content: expired domain abuse, site reputation abuse, and scaled content abuse.
Why we care: For SEO, understanding these guidelines is crucial in avoiding penalties for spammy or low-quality content. As AI-generated content becomes an integral part of many publishers’ strategies, it is essential to ensure that content remains high-quality, useful to users, and provides unique value.
Google Removes Breadcrumbs from Mobile Search Results
Google has removed breadcrumbs from mobile search results in an effort to simplify search engine results pages (SERPs). While breadcrumbs are still present on desktop searches, mobile users will now only see the domain name displayed.
Google stated that breadcrumbs were removed from mobile SERPs because they are not particularly useful on smaller screens and often get truncated, reducing their effectiveness.
Why we care: Staying informed about changes in SERPs is essential for understanding what aspects of sites and pages to optimise. Although breadcrumbs no longer appear in mobile search results, they remain important on desktop and continue to play a key role in helping search engines understand site structure and hierarchy. For this reason, it is still necessary to implement valid breadcrumb markup, which can be monitored using Rich Results Tests and Google Search Console.
DeepSeek: China’s Lateset AI Chatbot Enters the Market
This month saw the arrival of DeepSeek, a new AI-powered chatbot developed in China, which has generated significant interest within the AI community. Reports suggest that DeepSeek is as powerful as OpenAI’s o1 model, with developers claiming it operates using less memory than its competitors—potentially reducing the cost of performing tasks.
However, the chatbot’s accuracy has been called into question. Reports indicate that DeepSeek failed 83% of the time when tested on news and information-based prompts, raising concerns about its reliability. Additionally, there have been reports of information censorship and site outages following its release, further complicating its adoption.
Why we care: The landscape of AI and search is constantly evolving, making it essential to stay informed about new developments that could impact user behaviour and audience reach. While DeepSeek has the potential to be a major player in the AI space, it appears to have some way to go before becoming a trusted and widely used platform. Nonetheless, keeping an eye on emerging AI technologies remains crucial as the industry continues to shift.
Author: Sophia Choudhury
Published: February 11, 2025
