Google AI Overviews for Financial Services

Google AI Overviews have now firmly embedded themselves in UK search results. With their increasing prominence, particularly for informational and question-led queries, we’re now able to get a real sense of what types of queries trigger AI Overviews and, crucially, what brands can do to leverage the visibility opportunities they present.

In this article, we review some examples of AI Overviews in the financial services industry and dive into what types of queries they are most frequently appearing on, and what brands should be doing about them.

How often are AI Overviews appearing for finance industry search terms?

Now that AI Overviews have been rolled out across more than 100 countries, there are a number of studies that provide broader datasets on percentages of AI Overview triggers by industry, so we’re able to dig a little deeper. 

When it comes to finance, a number of studies suggest that AI Overviews are triggered by roughly 5-6% of searches, depending on the nature of the search term. This is lower than expected when looking back at Google’s announcement of AI Overviews last year and the subsequent experiments with the feature that were granted to select users in Google Search Labs. This would appear to suggest the impact of AI Overviews in the finance industry hasn’t been as significant as expected.  

Despite this relatively low percentage, when AI Overviews do show up it does mean a significant alteration in the appearance of the traditional search result. We’ll detail some specific results further on, though effectively it means that regular organic results appear below the AI Overview and any paid results, so this may result in lower click-through rates than before. 

Early studies suggest some conflicting data in terms of click-through rates on links in AI Overviews. However, given that users now have an additional element in the search results to interact with, this will inevitably split click-through rates which may see organic results further down the page suffer.       

AI Overviews are dynamic in nature

Given the YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) and sensitive information related to financial topics, such as insurance and investments, there’s some some interesting data on the nature of citations (links in the overviews where your brand could appear) and sources that show up before users expand the overview when finance-related AI Overviews do appear. These are also often government-related sources.

As mentioned, it’s also clear that AI Overviews are triggered more often when long-tail, informational-type queries are searched, and this is also the case for the finance niche. Advanced Web Ranking conducted a study that showed from five words onwards, the likelihood of AI Overviews increased in percentage, with six word queries triggering AI Overviews in an average of 25% of cases. 

In short, the likelihood of AI Overviews appearing increases the longer the search query. This is where it becomes actionable for brands to look into long-tail keywords related to their product or service and to assess whether there are opportunities to occupy an AI Overview if there is one showing up for a certain query.    

The studies also detailed other statistics about the nature of the AI Overviews in how they were composed. AI Overviews are inherently dynamic not only in when and how they are triggered but also in: 

• How many words are used in the AI snippet

• The number of sources used

• The extent to which the sources were being pulled from the traditional top ten search results on Google

Looking at the finance sector specifically, the studies suggested that the initial “pre-click” links display around three citations on average per query, with trusted sites such as Investopedia as well as various news publications dominating a lot of results. Upon expanding the AI Overview, an average of seven total sources were then displayed. 

There was also, generally speaking, a strong correlation between links showing up in the AI Overviews when looking at regular organic search results. In fact, the aforementioned SERanking study gave a 33.71% exact overlap in the propensity of AI Overviews mirroring traditional search rankings in how the sources were listed. This suggests that bar a few outliers, there’s strong evidence to suggest traditional keyword ranking and strong E-EAT metrics play a big role in sites being featured in AI Overviews. 

What do AI Overviews look like across the industry?

Given the length and breadth of topics within the financial sector and the variety in which AI Overviews can manifest themselves, it’s worth exploring a few examples covering a few different finance areas straight from the search results.

Insurance

Below is a screenshot for the AI Overview triggered by the long-tail term, “what type of insurance do I need for a financed car?”

Aligning with what some of the studies suggest, the answer is being composed from a total five source links (if the user clicks on the “Show all” dropdown). Aside from reputable industry sites such as Money Saving Expert, the links referenced here include finance suppliers such as Ocean Finance, Moneybarn and Oodle. Elements of this AI Overview are made from these brands’ long-form guide content on the matter, which suggests some clear opportunities for brands which offer in-depth authoritative content aligned with the topic at hand.

Looking further down the search result, we can also see a clear crossover in terms of what’s already ranking in the traditional top spots. The aforementioned Moneybarn occupies the “position zero” rich snippet result:

Moving down the positions, we can see Ocean Finance ranking well, as well as Oodle, albeit in positions two and ten respectively. The alignment isn’t unilateral, however. While there is some correlation between the order of the results ranking in traditional search results and how they are shown in the AI Overview, there are also some clear differences. The Money Saving Expert post, for example, is at position 15 in the traditional search results, suggesting an opportunity for sites further down the SERPs to enjoy heightened visibility in the AI Overview mix.

Mortgages

Next, we can see an example of the AI Overview generated for the long-tail informational term “what do I need to apply for a mortgage”:

Here, owing to the topic at hand (and given that mortgage applications are in-depth, lengthy processes), the word count on the AI Overview is much higher. Google is trying to do its best to provide as much in-depth and accurate information here and draw from a larger resource pool. 

From the 11 links listed, we see major banks such as NatWest, Lloyds Bank, HSBC and Halifax cited, though in the mix include a number of price comparison and financial advice companies such as Uswitch, MoneyHelper and Mortgage Advice Bureau.

The traditional search results similarity is a little closer here, potentially owing again to the fact that this is a topic that requires authority and accuracy, though three listings in the AI Overview, that of Mortgage Advice Bureau, Mortgage Propeller and Experian, appear nowhere in the top ten results. This again suggests that there’s leeway and potential for brands not ranking in the traditional top spots to feature in AI Overviews if their content is deemed relevant and authoritative to the query at hand.

Investments

The investment sector is another heavily regulated, high-risk YMYL topic in the field of finance. Here’s a look at the AI Overview result for the query “is investing in Ethereum worth it”:

Again, given the sensitivity and risk involved in investments in general, there’s a range of information here as well as a wide array of authoritative sources such as US News Money and Forbes, as well as a number of investment provider and broker websites detailing long-form content on the subject. 

These feature predominantly in the traditional search results too, though there are a few notable inclusions in the form of forum sites Reddit and Quora that don’t feature in the AI Overview. It’s notable that despite Reddit’s heightened visibility in search results of late, threads from the forum giant have yet to be seen in AI Overviews. 

AI Overviews have at times been under fire and ridiculed for the misinformation and inaccurate answers and particularly in a highly regulated field such as finance, ensuring that only trusted and authoritative links are being referenced over user-generated content is clearly key. Again, outside of major players such as trusted banks and government-related sites, there’s a clear remit for brands to enjoy the heightened visibility that AI Overviews provide if they align their content with the tenets of E-EAT and the Helpful Content System.

Getting your content cited in AI Overviews

As we’ve seen from the studies mentioned above as well as the live examples from a variety of sub-sectors in finance, there’s a clear correlation between sites that enjoy high rankings and organic visibility already being featured in AI Overviews. 

A recurring theme from these sites and how their content may come to be represented as part of an AI Overview is a clear emphasis on lists, subsections and readability within the respective articles themselves. 

Taking the first example, we can see the table that is formed by the AI Overview is being constructed from different subsections within the sites referenced. This, along with question-based headings, use of structured data and the featuring of expert authors (again bolstering E-EAT credentials) is a clear signifier to being featured as part of an AI Overview answer.

SEO best practices such as thorough keyword research, matching search intent, link building and E-EAT enhancements all play a major role in achieving AI Overview features. 

Many tools are rolling out features that track keywords that trigger AI Overviews in search results. Along with this, in-field testing on search queries and competitor analysis should be some initial steps brands should be taking to ascertain what they need to be doing to get their content cited in AI Overviews. 

Alluding back to long-tail queries being triggers for AI Overviews, outside of the general SEO best practices we mentioned, informational-type “how to” or “Five Ws and H” (What, Why, When, Where, Who and How) type articles that are clearly structured and easily digestible with short paragraphs are favoured. This aligns with the nature of the examples shown above, where short, succinct snippets are generated from their respective sources.  

Brands should assess the nature of the content appearing on AI Overviews for search terms they care about, and ensure that outside of technical SEO best practices, their content and UX are structured in a manner that reflects Google’s Search Essentials on the topic. 

Should every financial services brand pursue AI Overviews?

In some situations, such as in the case of large-scale funds or brands that work in tightly regulated, compliance-heavy niches, there may be a preference to avoid having your brand represented in AI Overviews. This can be due to concerns over inaccurate representation of data in search results or worse still, a brand being mentioned in an AI Overview in the context of a negative topic.

If you’re concerned over a potential loss of control over messaging, accuracy compliance (with AI Overviews potentially omitting small print or disclaimers), or don’t want AI Overviews to surface information about your brand that may put you at a competitive disadvantage, there are some steps to consider.

Managing your crawling and indexing status could be worth considering. Following the explosion of ChatGPT last year, many brands took steps to block its web crawler to stop their information from surfacing in its answers. For Google’s AI Overviews, you can block the Google-Extended user agent in your robots.txt file as well.

Another solution here, if you have certain areas of your site that you simply don’t want to surface in search results due to potential compliance or competitive reasons, is to block these pages from being crawled and indexed by Google altogether. These could be specific subfolders or certain URL stylings that may contain sensitive information.

About the author

James Vatter is a Senior SEO Consultant at Reddico with over eight years of experience in SEO and digital marketing, encompassing technical SEO, content optimisation and strategy, and website migrations in the financial services, insurance, medical, and pharmaceutical sectors. Amongst other clients, James manages our global partnership with BlackRock.

Reddico financial services experience

With over a decade of experience helping financial services brands solve their most difficult SEO challenges, Reddico has worked with brands like BlackRock, Compare the Market, Direct Line, eFront, Finimize, Islamic Finance Guru, Totally Money and Wellington Management.

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