Where & When AI Overviews Appear in Finance Searches (Backed by 2.3M Queries)

Key takeaways

• 31.1% of all finance-related queries trigger AI Overviews in search results. That means your finance company has a substantial opportunity for getting cited in AI responses, and you should optimize your content accordingly.
• The types of queries that are most at risk of AI Overviews are keywords seven words long or longer (55.6%) and informational queries (42.8%). For that reason, long, informational queries (like “steps to refinance a mortgage”) are the most important ones for you to optimize for AI citations.
• The types of queries that are the safest from AI Overviews are commercial (29.8%) and transactional (23.9%) keywords, as well as local queries (24.5%). That means if you’re trying to rank in searches where you won’t have to compete with AI responses, transactional and local queries (like “financial consulting services near me”) offer the best targeting opportunities.

AI Overviews appear in 31.1% of all finance-related searches in Google. That means that for almost a third of the keywords your bank, fintech, or wealth management firm tries to rank in, you’ll have to compete with AI responses in the search results.

Although AI Overviews tend to pull traffic away from traditional search rankings, they also offer a great opportunity to get your finance company cited in AI responses right at the top of search results. That’s awesome for your finance search engine optimization (SEO) strategy — especially since building trust and compliance-approved visibility is so critical in the finance industry.

That said, not all searches are equally affected. Some finance keywords are more likely to result in AI Overviews than others.

WebFX recently conducted a study of 2.3 million keywords to determine which searches were the most (and least) likely to turn up AI responses. On this page, we’ll be looking specifically at finance searches, which means we’ll cover the following topics:

You can use the information below to help you determine which queries to prioritize. That will prevent you from losing out on qualified leads, loan applicants, or prospective investors.

Which finance keywords trigger the most AI Overviews?

Let’s start by looking at the two types of finance keywords that are the most likely to show AI Overviews — longer queries and informational queries.

1. Longer queries

When it comes to AI Overviews, keyword length matters. As it turns out, longer keywords are a lot more likely to surface AI responses than shorter ones are. Here’s a look at the data:

As you can see, the AI Overview rate rises pretty dramatically once keywords reach a length of seven words or more. That puts finance companies in an interesting conundrum. Historically, it was better to target longer and more specific keywords, like “how to calculate required minimum distribution.”

Shorter keywords, however, came with a lot more competition, making them harder to rank for. Plus, long-tail keywords in finance often relate to high-stakes topics like retirement rules or tax reductions — prime opportunities for your company’s expertise to shine.

But today, the playing field is a little more even. Short-tail keywords like “best credit cards” or “mortgage rates” may still come with more organic competition, but now they carry the advantage of being less likely to trigger AI Overviews.

Ultimately, the best strategy is probably to target both long-tail and short-tail keywords, ensuring you capture broad visibility for brand awareness while still generating qualified leads from niche financial queries.

2. Informational queries

Another type of query that frequently spawns AI Overviews in finance searches is informational queries. Based on our data, AI Overviews appear in 42.8% of all informational finance searches. That comes in slightly higher than the baseline rate of 39.4% across all industries.

The takeaway here is that educational content is at greater risk of competing with AI responses in search results. That poses a challenge for finance companies, who often rely on informational topics as initial touchpoints for building trust. Some examples of finance content that might fall into this category include:

• A guide to mortgage applications
• A page detailing how credit scores work
• A list of tips for good budgeting
• A glossary of financial terms

All of those informational topics are likely to generate AI Overviews when users search for them, decreasing the traffic you’ll get to those pages.

To be clear, though, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t create informational content. You absolutely should — you just have to optimize it for AI Overviews. We’ll talk more about how to do that later on this page.

Which finance keywords are the safest from AI Overviews?

Now that we’ve looked at the finance keyword categories that are the most likely to generate AI Overviews, let’s look at which types of keywords are least likely to do so.

1. Commercial and transactional queries

We’ve already seen how common AI Overviews are in informational searches. But there are other types of search intent too, and as it turns out, they have significantly lower AI Overview rates. Here are the specific stats:

Commercial queries have only slightly fewer AI Overviews than the average, but the rate drops a good bit for transactional searches, and even more for navigational ones.

This data shows the benefit of publishing plenty of bottom-of-funnel content on your website — like loan application pages or investment account sign-ups — to help balance out the impact AI Overviews will have on your top-of-funnel, informational pages.

2. Local queries

In the full version of our study, we found that adding branded and/or local modifiers to keywords significantly reduced the chances of AI Overviews appearing. However, when we look specifically at finance companies, that’s only half true. Check out the data:

As you can see, branded modifiers don’t help reduce AI Overview rates for finance queries (they actually increase them slightly). Local modifiers, however — such as “near me” or “in [your city]” — do help. That means your business can really benefit from targeting local searches for financial services, such as branch locations or regional lending options.

Of course, local SEO is a good strategy to begin with, but it’s even more valuable now that it allows you to lower your chance of having to compete with AI Overviews in search results.

What do AI Overviews in finance searches mean for SEO?

If you’re worried that finance AI Overviews spell the end for SEO, don’t be. As we’ve seen from the data, there are still plenty of finance-related searches — particularly those for short-tail, local, and transactional queries — that are relatively safe from AI Overviews.

That means you can keep using traditional SEO strategies to rank in those searches, continuing to drive loan applications, account openings, and advisory leads just like you always have. That said, the rise of AI Overviews also creates an opportunity to get cited in AI responses.

Consequently, the best finance SEO strategy involves pairing traditional SEO with AI optimization. You have to use both of them together to outpace your competitors in the current search landscape.

The bottom line is, finance SEO isn’t going anywhere. It’s still one of the best ways to maintain compliance-approved visibility and acquire new clients online. But it is evolving. Given the new role of AI in search, AI optimization is an essential partner to SEO.

How should your business adapt to finance AI Overviews?

Focusing on searches with a lower risk of AI Overviews appearing is a good strategy, but it’s not enough on its own. At the end of the day, you still need to create top-of-funnel, educational content — like credit score explainers or mortgage application guides — to draw users in. And long-tail keywords remain vital for avoiding competition with other finance businesses.

So, how do you adapt for searches with AI Overviews? The short answer is, you optimize for AI citations. That means crafting your content in a way that makes it more likely for AI Overviews to cite it as a source. When you earn AI citations, it enables your business to show up at the top of the search results pages even when AI Overviews appear.

Here are some of the best tactics for making your content AI-friendly:

• Prioritize search intent in your content: Make sure all of your content is optimized for specific queries, and in particular, make sure it gives users what they’re looking for in those searches. You can check existing search results to help you gauge the search intent of a given query.

• Use structured content formats: AI has an easier time parsing (and therefore citing) pages that have a clear, well-organized content structure. That means using FAQ blocks (about tax rules, for instance), comparison tables (like for loan rates or credit card perks), bullet lists, headings, and more.

• Include compliance-approved authority signals: By grounding your content in financial compliance — such as by citing authorities like the SEC, IRS, and FDIC — you’ll demonstrate your credibility within the heavily regulated finance industry, thus increasing the likelihood of an AI Overview citing your content.

• Explain why your content matters: Rather than just handing your audience some financial info, be sure to explain why that matters to them and what they can do about it. For example, instead of only listing IRA contribution limits, explain how those limits affect retirement planning and potential tax savings.

• Signal your unique finance expertise: AI responses (as well as traditional search results) are more likely to surface your content if they view you as an expert on the topic, so be sure to emphasize the traits that make you uniquely qualified to talk about financial topics.

Each of these tips will make your content more likely to show up in finance AI Overview citations, boosting your overall search visibility — and with it, your ability to drive loan applications and investment inquiries.

OmniSEO® helps finance firms drive results in an AI-first search landscape

One of the most effective methods for adapting to AI responses in search results is to use OmniSEO®. If you’re not sure what that is, it’s a new form of SEO that focuses on optimizing for AI responses and traditional search results at the same time (as well as social media, forums, and more).

OmniSEO® is pioneered by yours truly — WebFX. We’ve been optimizing our clients’ content for AI responses for as long as they’ve existed, and we’d love to do the same for your finance business. If you’re interested in partnering with us, just give us a call at 888-601-5359 or contact us online today!

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