Research on AI Overviews: top-linked websites in AIOs, appearances on Reddit/Quora, .gov/.edu websites, long-tail queries with low search volume, low CPC in AIOs, and more

The SE Ranking team recently conducted a new AI Overviews research study. We’re sharing our key findings with the Reddit SEO community to shed some light on how Google’s top projects have evolved over the past few months.

This round of research focused primarily on the sources used by AI Overviews. The purpose of researching these sources is to understand why Google prioritizes them in its AI-generated answers. You can use this information to devise more effective methods for optimizing your content and sustaining (and improving) your visibility in the new search results. Additionally, this study was conducted using accounts without Google Labs. Doing so provided a more realistic view of how AIOs function for everyday users.

Here’s what we found this time:

• How has the frequency of AIO appearance in search changed?

Our latest research shows a slight decrease of 1.24% in AI Overview appearances compared to our previous study. In our earlier research, 8.71% of searches (8,718 keywords) triggered AIOs. This time, AI Overviews appeared in only 7.47% of searches (7,475 keywords).

• How has the average text length of AIOs changed?

The average AIO text length dropped from 4,342 to 2,633 characters (almost a…