What AI Overviews and AI Mode are
AI Overviews are the AI-written summaries Google shows above the results for many questions, with links to the sources it used. AI Mode is a separate tab where the whole search is a conversation. Both run on Gemini models on top of Google’s index.
How Google picks the sources
Google describes a technique it calls query fan-out: the system runs several related searches on subtopics of the question and draws on the pages it finds for each. So a page can be cited for one part of a question even if it does not rank first for the whole question.
The page must be indexed and allowed to show a snippet. Beyond that Google names no extra requirements: the same guidance as for Search applies, helpful content written for people first.
What helps
Make sure Googlebot can crawl the page and that it is indexed; Search Console shows both. Answer the question directly in the first sentences of a section, then explain. Use structured data that matches what is visible on the page. Keep your business details the same on your Google Business Profile, your site and your other profiles. And be mentioned on the other sources Google finds for the question.
The guide covers these steps for all engines, and the free check tests the technical ones on your own site.
What does not exist
There is no AI Overviews markup, no submission form and no way to pay to be one of the cited sources; ads are shown separately and labelled. Anyone who sells a guaranteed spot is selling something Google does not offer.
How to opt out, and what it costs you
The snippet controls apply here too: nosnippet, data-nosnippet and max-snippet limit what Google may show from your page, in AI Overviews and in normal results alike, and noindex removes the page from Search. Use them only for content that must not be quoted, because they also shrink your snippet in normal results.
How to measure it
Search Console counts clicks and impressions from AI Overviews inside the normal Web search report, without a separate filter. So to know whether you are cited, ask the questions yourself, regularly and in the markets that matter, and keep what Google shows. Our audit and monthly plans measure AI Overviews next to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude.
Why it matters: in a Pew Research Center study of US browsing data from March 2025, people clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits when an AI Overview appeared, against 15% without one, and clicked a link inside the summary on 1%.