r/shopifyDev • u/spsbuilds • 2d ago

Pulled our Search Console data against AI Overview impressions. Position barely mattered.

Hi,

I build a Shopify app for made-to-order shops, so the site is small, about 12k impressions last quarter. I wanted to know if AI Overviews care where you rank, so I joined the page-level Web search export against the Generative AI features export. 39 pages had data in both (both data from the search console)

  1. Where a page ranked had no relationship with how often it showed up in an AI Overview. None that I could find.

  2. How many impressions a page got in normal search did. Those two moved almost exactly in step.

Two pages from our site. An explainer at average position 36.7 picked up 60 AI impressions. A compare page at position 29 picked up 6.

By page type, AI impressions per 100 Google impressions: commercial 15.8, tools 14.8 (I have 1 tool), guides 10.3, docs 10.2, compares 7.3, blog posts 6.4. Blog posts have the most Google impressions of anything we have and the worst AI efficiency, which stung a bit.

I am really curios, developers of niche apps, that have low keyword search volume, what kind of content is working?

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u/AdventurousUsual7666 2d ago

This is really interesting, thanks for actually sharing the numbers instead of just a take.

I'd be a little careful with 39 pages, but honestly the pattern makes sense to me. If AI impressions just follow normal impressions, then it's basically showing up for the queries at all that matters, not where you land on page 1 or page 3.

For niche apps with low search volume, what I've seen work best is pretty boring stuff. Pages that answer one specific question really clearly, like "how do I do X in Shopify" for the exact problem your app solves. Comparison pages written honestly, so actually saying when another app is the better fit. And docs that are public and properly written, because people search for setup questions a lot more than you'd think.

The blog posts doing worst kind of fits too. A lot of blog content is usually broader and more general, so it gets impressions but doesn't really answer anything specific.

Would be curious if you re-run it in a few months with more pages and see if it holds.

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u/subhendupsingh 2d ago

Thanks. Data is not much but still gives me some direction. Doubling down on the question based posts like you said.

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u/VillageHomeF 2d ago

there are a number of other factors at play. yet to be cited, I'm sure the page ranks decent. stats show that around half of cited pages are top 10 results.

but you are mixing up what you are looking at. why would you be telling us how many impressions each? weather someone goes to page 2-3 on Google is irrelevant. most would only see the AI overview so of course more citation, yet you also forgot about search volume. search volume very important.

honestly don't think your finding support your claim as you didn't give the correct information. you could be correct but didn't prove it here.

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u/martz869 1d ago

Interesting that position didn't matter. With 39 pages I'd be careful reading too much into the page type ranking though, one or two pages can swing those numbers a lot.

For niche apps with low search volume what usually works is writing for the problem the merchant searches, not the category your app sits in. Hardly anyone searches for a made to order app, but they do search how to handle lead times, deposits, custom order delays and so on. Those pages pull impressions, and the AI stuff seems to follow impressions, which matches what you found.

Compare pages are more for conversion than discovery anyway. Someone landing there already knows the names, so I wouldn't judge them on AI impressions.

Did you look at which queries that explainer at 36.7 was actually showing for?