How to Appear in Google AI Overviews
AI Overviews are generated from the ordinary Google index, so the work that gets you into an Overview is mostly the work that gets you ranking at all. Three things are genuinely different. The system issues several related searches around a question rather than one, so breadth of coverage beats depth on a single page. It quotes passages rather than pages. And the control for staying out of it is not the one almost everybody names.
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Why ordinary SEO still does most of the work
Google states it directly: its generative features on Search are rooted in its core ranking and quality systems, and there are no additional technical requirements to be eligible for them. There is no separate AI index to get into, no special markup, and no submission process. If you cannot be found in ordinary results for a subject, you will not be quoted in an Overview about it either.
That is unwelcome news for anyone selling AI visibility as a distinct product, and it is the most useful thing on this page. The vast majority of what improves your position in AI Overviews is indexing, relevance, clarity and authority, which is to say search engine optimisation done properly.
Query fan out, and what it changes
Google documents the mechanism by name. AI Overviews and AI Mode may use a query fan out technique, issuing multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources, which Google says lets it show a wider and more diverse set of links than a single set of results would.
The consequence for a content plan is specific. A single long page targeting one head term competes for one of those sub searches. A small set of clearly separated pages, each answering one of the questions that surround the subject, competes for several. This is the argument for topical coverage, but with a mechanism attached rather than as received wisdom, and it is why the cluster you are reading is built the way it is.
Passage level extraction, and how to write for it
Overviews lift bounded passages, not whole pages. A useful discipline is to read your own page and ask, of each section, whether it would still make sense with everything around it removed. If a paragraph depends on the two before it, it cannot be lifted. If it names its subject, states its answer and stands alone, it can.
- Put the answer in the first sentence under each heading, then explain.
- Write headings as the question a person would actually ask, not as a label.
- Keep one idea per section. Two ideas in one section means neither is cleanly extractable.
- State the scope: who this applies to, where, and as at when.
The control everybody names is the wrong one
This is worth being precise about, because it appears incorrectly in a great deal of published advice, including in briefs written in this office. Google-Extended does not take you out of AI Overviews. It is a standalone token governing whether crawled content may be used for training future Gemini models and for grounding in Gemini apps, and Google states that it does not impact a site’s inclusion in Google Search nor is it used as a ranking signal.
The control that actually removes you from the generative surfaces is the Search generative AI control in Search Console, introduced in June 2026. Google’s description of it is unusually clear about the boundary:
“This control only affects whether your content can appear in certain Search generative AI features; this control isn’t used as a ranking or inclusion signal affecting other parts of Search.”
Google Search Console Help, Search generative AI control, read 3 September 2026
So you can leave the generative surfaces and keep your ordinary rankings. Whether you should is a different question, and for almost every business we work with the answer is no, because the impressions you would give up are impressions in front of people who are asking about exactly what you sell.
What happens to clicks, honestly
Publisher measurement has found real declines on informational queries. Authoritas analysis reported by Press Gazette in July 2025 found UK publisher click through rates down 47.5 per cent on desktop and 37.7 per cent on mobile where an AI Overview appeared. Google’s own position is that clicks from result pages carrying an Overview are higher quality, meaning people who do click spend longer on the site.
Both can be true. Fewer people click, and the ones who do are further along. The planning implication is that thin informational content written to catch a passing search has lost most of its value, while content that answers a question somebody is acting on has lost very little. If your traffic is falling and your enquiries are not, that is the shape of it.
A note on measurement
Since June 2026 Search Console has carried a generative AI performance report covering AI Overviews and AI Mode. It reports impressions and clicks combined across both surfaces rather than split between them, which is a real limitation, and it does not appear at all for sites that have used the opt out control. It is still the only first party number available on this, and it is free.
Frequently asked questions
Related guides
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Sources
- Google Search Central. AI Features and Your Website. Read 3 September 2026. Query fan out described by name, the controls available to site owners, and Google’s statement that there are no additional technical requirements.
- Google Search Console Help. Search generative AI control. Read 3 September 2026. What excluding your site does, and Google’s statement that the control is not used as a ranking or inclusion signal elsewhere in Search.
- Google Search Central. Google Common Crawlers. Updated 14 July 2026. Google-Extended governs Gemini training and grounding, and does not impact inclusion or ranking in Google Search.
- Google Search Central. Optimizing for Generative AI Features on Google Search. Updated 10 July 2026. Generative features are rooted in core ranking systems, and no special structured data is required.
- Press Gazette. Publishers lose 50% of clickthrough rate due to AI Overviews. 30 July 2025. Authoritas analysis of 3,500 UK news search terms: click through rate down 47.5 per cent on desktop and 37.7 per cent on mobile where an AI Overview appeared.
- Google Search Central Blog. Introducing Search generative AI performance reports in Search Console. June 2026. The generative AI performance report covering AI Overviews and AI Mode, reported as a combined figure.
Every figure on this page was read on the source page listed above. This page is reviewed monthly and the last checked date is updated when it is.
Frequently asked questions
Do AI Overviews reduce our clicks?
On informational queries, measurably yes. UK publisher analysis found click through rates down 47.5 per cent on desktop where an Overview appeared. On queries with commercial intent the effect is smaller. If your reporting shows falling sessions and steady enquiries, that is the pattern rather than a tracking fault.
Should we block Google-Extended?
It will not take you out of AI Overviews, which is usually why people ask. It governs training and grounding for Gemini models, and Google says it is not a ranking or inclusion signal in Search. Block it if you object to the training use. Use the Search Console generative AI control if you want out of the Overviews themselves.
How do we get quoted rather than summarised?
Write passages that survive being lifted out. One idea under one heading, the answer in the first sentence, the scope stated, no dependence on the paragraph before. Pages built as a continuous argument summarise badly and get paraphrased instead of cited.
Do AI Overviews use structured data?
Google states that structured data is not required for generative AI search and that there is no special markup to add for it. Mark up your pages for the reasons that stood before AI Overviews existed, which are rich results and entity clarity.
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