How to appear in Google AI Overviews

Google AI Overviews are summaries written by Google’s AI above the search results, with links to the pages they draw on. They are built from pages Google already crawls and indexes, so appearing in them starts with being a page Google trusts for the query, then being easy to quote.

What helps a page get cited

• Rank in the first place. Pages cited in an AI Overview are usually pages that already perform for the query or close variants.
• Answer the question early and plainly. A first paragraph that states the answer, followed by the detail, is easier to summarise than a long introduction.
• Structure the page. Clear headings, lists and tables, and an FAQ block when the questions are real.
• Describe entities with structured data: Organization, Product, FAQPage, ItemList for a ranked list. It removes ambiguity; it does not guarantee a citation.
• Keep facts consistent across your site and the profiles that describe you.

AI Mode

Google’s AI Mode runs a fuller conversational search on the same index. The same foundations apply; the questions are longer and more specific, so pages that cover a topic in depth tend to be retrieved more often.

Measuring it

Track the queries that trigger an AI Overview in your market, and whether your pages are cited in it. Several agencies include this in their reporting.

UK agencies offering AI Overviews optimisation

1. Archipel Marketing, 91.6/100
2. Banda, 89.1/100
3. Olympe, 87.4/100
4. LLM-First, 85.8/100
5. GEO-Consulting Group, 84.3/100

The full list is on AI Overviews optimisation agencies.