Google AI Overviews: Rewritten Content & SEO Concerns

Google AI Overviews: Rewritten Content Raises SEO Concerns

Google's AI Overviews, designed to provide comprehensive answers, are raising concerns among search marketers. These overviews often rewrite existing online content, potentially impacting website traffic and raising questions about plagiarism.

Rewriting Content and Plagiarism

Previously, Google used Featured Snippets, short excerpts from web pages. AI Overviews expand on this, providing full answers and even anticipating follow-up questions. However, instead of generating original content, AI Overviews repurpose existing content, mirroring the structure and ideas of original articles. This practice raises concerns about plagiarism, especially as it lacks unique insights or analysis.

Example of Rewritten Content

SEO expert Lily Ray highlighted this issue, demonstrating how Google's AI Overview rewrote one of her articles almost verbatim. This raises questions about the originality and value-add of these overviews.

“It re-wrote everything I wrote in a post that’s basically as long as my original post 🤦🏻‍♀️”

Did Google Rewrite the Entire Article?

Analysis reveals that Google's AI Overviews often answer the same questions as the original articles they summarize. In Lily Ray's case, both her article and the AI Overview answered nearly the same number of questions, with significant overlap in the topics covered.

Plagiarizing More Than One Document?

Google's AI Overviews sometimes synthesize information from multiple sources. This can create answers that contradict the original articles or present a different perspective, further complicating the issue of plagiarism.

Key Takeaways and SEO Implications

• AI Overviews repurpose existing content, potentially impacting website traffic.
• They often mirror the structure and ideas of original articles, raising plagiarism concerns.
• This practice may deviate from Google's own quality guidelines, particularly regarding E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).
• The lack of unique analysis or added value raises questions about the overall benefit of AI Overviews.

The rewriting of content by AI Overviews may discourage users from clicking through to original sources, leading to declining website traffic. This raises serious concerns for content creators and SEO professionals. The lack of fact-checking and potential for misinformation further adds to these concerns. Ultimately, the use of rewritten content in AI Overviews raises important questions about the future of search and the value of original content creation.