Understanding AI Overviews

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Louise Linehan analyzed 300K keywords for Ahrefs to understand what triggers AI Overviews (AIO).

Here’s what she learned:

1. AI Overviews populate for low volume, long-tail keywords. These have lower traffic potential but display clearer intent and are often question-focused.
2. AIO keywords have an average keyword difficulty of 12,  compared to non-AIO keywords (median 33). Ranking for these typically requires fewer referring domains (13 vs. 41 for non-AIO keywords).
3. Almost all AIO keywords target informational intent—about 99.2%, while commercial and transactional intents make up less than 10%.
4. People Also Ask and Featured Snippets are prominent in over 99% of AI SERPs. 
5. Mobile optimization is essential. Mobile traffic dominates AIO queries (81% mobile vs. 19% desktop).

Take a closer look at the Ahrefs blog.

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