Google is testing placing the link cards at the top of the AI Overviews box within Google Search. Instead of having them deep at the bottom, they are being tested at the top, which would clearly drive more clicks to publishers than the current implementation.
A Google spokesperson confirmed this is just a test and is not fully live.
This test was spotted by Bartosz Góralewicz who has a tracking tool for AI Overviews named Ziptie. He posted this screenshot on X:
Compare that to what I see:
Yea, the only way to see the cards it to click “Show more” and then they show a at the bottom:
Bart believes they are rolling this out more widely soon but I asked Google and they confirmed this is just a test.
Here is his post:
🛑 ALERT 🛑
Google just launched a new layout of Google AIOs.
– Links to websites on top of the page
– A new structure of AIO responses
– Different coverage per verticals we trackMore updates are coming soon!
Check out https://t.co/yi4UHVQA6m for tracking & optimizing! pic.twitter.com/xKIN7Gx625
— Bartosz Góralewicz (@bart_goralewicz) June 26, 2024
They are rolling this out. I think you’ll see this soon. We see this popping up data-center by data-center.
— Bartosz Góralewicz (@bart_goralewicz) June 26, 2024
Yes, this was our logic at first, too. It seems to scale to other locations. We’ll see, but it would actually be a nice change driving more clicks to websites (and giving Google some space to advertise ;))
— Bartosz Góralewicz (@bart_goralewicz) June 26, 2024
Here is some of the reaction from the SEO community on this:
Well that’s… something https://t.co/llwo5dPHyf
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) June 26, 2024
This one looks quite interesting.
Better than using carousel or needing to open a dropdown. https://t.co/9b9KkKXANe— Gianluca Fiorelli (@gfiorelli1) June 26, 2024
What’s….the point of the AIO if it’s not the first thing users see? 😂 https://t.co/YmfGE5HIYI
— Blair MacGregor (@blairmacgregor) June 26, 2024
And more reactions on LinkedIn:
Brandon Wentland, “Interesting… I like how the citations are MUCH more prominent than before, that is a big win for brands.”
Brennen Bliss, “Love this!”
Marcus Sandford, “Somewhat of an improvement, right? And a little different or “friendlier” to SEO than what a lot of us feared was coming next.”
I like it. Reminds me of Perplexity on desktop. https://t.co/qTIKivOmqk pic.twitter.com/GZKW4ujDEv
— Ethan Lazuk 🪬 (@EthanLazuk) June 26, 2024
Again, this is just a test…
Forum discussion at X.
