Track Google’s AI Overviews in Semrush Position Tracking and Sensor

In May 2023 Google introduced its generative AI experience as a test, and this week Google announced the full release, rolling out to Google users in the US.

Now called AI Overviews, these summaries use generative AI to bring quicker answers for search queries. 

While they may appear somewhat similar to Google’s Featured Snippet feature, AI Overviews are unique in that they use generative AI to summarize content from multiple websites into one answer.

Here’s an example of what it looks like, and where you’d see websites and publishers being featured.

According to the company, they’ll “continue to focus on sending valuable traffic to publishers and creators.”

As a website owner, how can you prepare your content to have the best chance of getting featured?

And how can you track when your website is featured in these summaries?

According to Google Search Central, “There is nothing special for creators to do to be considered other than to follow our regular guidance for appearing in search, as covered in Google Search Essentials.”

That means following SEO best practices.

To track your appearance in AI Overviews you can use Semrush.

Here’s how.

There are two areas on Semrush where you can see data on AI Overviews. 

First is in Position Tracking, to monitor any site’s visibility in AI Overviews. 

Second is in Sensor, to monitor how much these AI Overviews appear across various industries. 

To start, create a Position Tracking project by indicating your target website and list of keywords to track.

Once you have a Position Tracking project running, navigate to the Overview tab and simply find the filter for SERP features and look for AI Overviews in the drop down.

The report now shows you all of the keywords in your campaign where Semrush saw an AI Overview, and whether or not your site was featured in this overview. 

Semrush Sensor gives you the ability to track changes in the search results of any industry, showing signs of volatility and potential Google updates.

This tool lets you track how SERP features such as instant answers, local packs, and knowledge panels appear across Google’s search results.

Now, you can see how often AI Overviews appear on Google. Like all stats in Sensor, you can check for AI Overviews occurrence across all types of SERPs, or dive into a specific industry (see the categories on the left).

This shows the percentage of SERPs where this type of result appears within the space of the top 20 organic results on the results page.

We’ll be following these developments from Google and looking out for how Semrush can help websites and publishers stay on top of their visibility in these new search elements.