SEMrush tracked 400 commercial keywords across banking, ecommerce, and software for a full year, five modifier groups, alternatives, best X for Y, pricing, reviews, and brand versus brand.
- A year ago AI overviews showed up 46% of the time. Today it is 88%.
- The largest jump is in review searches, which went from 30% triggering an AI Overview to 89%.
- Best X for Y queries now show up 96% of the time.
- Even brand versus brand comparisons, the stickiest category, climbed into the high 80s.
Layer that with the video I shared a few days about about three studies confirming Google organic still drives the overwhelming majority of real traffic and conversions, with AI tools barely registering a combined total of less than 1% of all search volume.
Ranking number one on a review or comparison page likely sends less traffic than it did twelve months ago, so have or set that expectation with yourself or clients before you get to sending ranking reports.
Google did not kill commercial search. It put a summary on top of almost all of it. Show up as the source or watch somebody else. Because it’s no longer who gets some of the visibility. It’s about being THE one to get all of the visibility.
Audit which sources actually get cited inside the AI Overview on your top money keywords. Review platforms, as YouTube results are showing up a lot. And consider comparison and roundup articles, because they’re doing well.
Without current and properly structured comparison pages, you are handing that citation straight to a competitor.
Something still has to feed that summary. Make sure it is pulling from you instead of just about you.
Keep building those comparison tables, pricing guides, and review guides. Do it properly so it works now, and not a gimmicky way that you have to worry about penalizing yoruself later.
