Search for advice on AI Overviews and you will find fifty tactics. Add an llms.txt file. Chunk your content. Install special schema. Rewrite everything “for AI”. 

Google’s own guidance says to ignore nearly all of it. That is accurate, and it leaves most site owners no wiser about why a competitor is cited and they are not. 

Here is what Google has confirmed, what it implies in practice, and where the effort should go. 

 

What Are Google AI Overviews and AI Mode? 

Both are generative AI features inside Google Search, and both build their answers from Google’s existing Search index. 

	AI Overviews	AI Mode
Where it appears	Top of a standard results page	Its own conversational view
Triggered by	Google, when it judges a summary adds something	Usually the user choosing it
Suited to	Getting the gist of a question quickly	Comparisons, multi-step questions, follow-ups
Built from	Google’s Search index	Google’s Search index

Google notes that the two may use different models and techniques, so the links they show for the same question will differ. Being cited in one does not mean you are cited in the other. 

 

How Does Google Choose Which Pages to Cite? 

Two mechanisms, both documented by Google. 

Retrieval from the Search index: Google uses its core ranking systems to retrieve relevant pages, generates the response from what those pages say, and links to them. There is no separate AI index to get into. A page that cannot rank cannot be cited. 

Query fan-out: Instead of running one search, the system runs a set of related searches at once. Google’s own example is a question about fixing a lawn full of weeds, which fans out into searches on herbicides, chemical-free removal and prevention. 

Fan-out is the part worth understanding. It means you can be cited for a question you do not rank for, because you have the best page on one of the sub-questions underneath it. It is also why depth across a topic matters more than a single strong page. 

 

What Google Says You Do Not Need 

Google published a list. It is unusually direct. 

llms.txt and other special files: Google Search does not use them. Adding one neither helps nor harms. 

Chunking content: There is no requirement to break pages into tiny pieces. There is no ideal page length either. 

Rewriting for AI: The systems understand synonyms and meaning. You do not need a page for every phrasing of a question. 

Special schema: No AI-specific markup exists. Structured data is not required for these features, though it is still worth having for rich results, and it must match the visible text on the page. 

Manufactured mentions: Google says seeking inauthentic mentions across the web is less helpful than it sounds, because its spam systems apply here too. 

Google also says that, from its perspective, AEO and GEO are simply SEO. For Google that holds. ChatGPT and Perplexity run their own crawlers and behave differently, as covered in how to get your brand recommended by ChatGPT, which is why we run SEO and AI visibility as one programme with platform-specific checks rather than assuming one playbook covers everything. 

 

What Actually Makes the Difference 

Be eligible first 

A page must be indexed and eligible to show a snippet. If someone has applied nosnippet or a tight max-snippet limit, that page is restricted in AI features as well. 

There is also a newer setting to check. Search Console now has a Search generative AI control, rolled out to all sites worldwide as of 31 August 2026. The default is to include your site. If anyone has switched it to exclude, your pages will not appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode at all. 

One common confusion: Google-Extended is not the switch for this. It governs AI training, not whether you appear in Search’s AI features. Blocking it does not remove you from AI Overviews, and allowing it does not add you. 

 

Publish what nobody else can 

Google states that unique, non-commodity content will likely influence your presence more than anything else in its guidance. Commodity content restates common knowledge. Non-commodity content could only have come from you. 

For an online store, that means sizing notes drawn from your own returns data. Real delivery times to each emirate. A comparison written by someone who has sold both products. What customers actually ask before they buy. Content with a defined commercial purpose does this naturally. A quota of weekly articles does not, which is the gap between publishing volume and blog posts that actually drive organic traffic. 

 

Cover the sub-questions 

Fan-out rewards sites that answer the questions around a purchase, not only the head term. Take one category and list what a buyer asks between first interest and checkout. Most answers belong on the category page or the product pages. What is left over is your content plan. 

Google is explicit about the limit. Building a separate page for every fan-out variation, mainly to influence AI responses, falls under its scaled content abuse policy. Cover the topic properly. Do not manufacture pages. 

 

Keep product and business data current 

Google names Merchant Center feeds and Google Business Profile specifically as inputs to AI responses that include products and local businesses. A price or stock mismatch between your feed and your page is a visibility problem, not just a housekeeping one. This is the practical end of product SEO. 

 

Put the important facts in text 

Google lists this plainly: make sure important content is available in textual form. Specifications inside an image, a size chart as a JPEG and a price list in a PDF are all facts the system has to work to read, or cannot read at all. 

 

Fix the technical basics 

Crawlable pages, JavaScript that follows best practice, reduced duplication and a good page experience. On eCommerce sites the duplication point is the big one, because variant URLs and filter pages multiply it across the whole catalogue. That is technical SEO, unchanged, and the same list that defines an SEO-friendly eCommerce website. 

 

How to Measure AI Overview and AI Mode Visibility 

This used to be guesswork. It is now partly measurable. 

Search Console has a Generative AI performance report, available worldwide as of 31 August 2026. It shows impressions for your site in AI Overviews and AI Mode, grouped by page, country, device and date. An impression here means a link to your site was shown inside one of those features. 

That tells you which pages Google is using and whether the trend is up or down. It does not tell you what the visibility is worth. Read it alongside clicks in the main Performance report, where AI feature traffic is counted within the Web search type, and alongside branded search volume and revenue. 

Google adds a warning worth repeating: no third-party tool has access to its internal ranking or AI systems. Tools that claim otherwise are estimating. 

 

Will AI Overviews Reduce My Website Traffic? 

For some informational queries, yes. When the answer is given on the results page, fewer people click through. It is the most visible part of how AI-powered search is changing SEO. 

Google’s position is that clicks from results pages with AI Overviews are higher quality, meaning those visitors spend more time on the site. Both things can be true at once: fewer visits, better ones. 

The practical response is to change what you measure. Sessions become a weaker signal. Non-brand clicks, branded search and revenue become stronger ones. If rankings hold while traffic slips, that is the pattern a traditional audit cannot explain and an AI visibility check can. 

You can opt out through the Search Console control. For most commercial sites that gives up visibility and gains nothing, because competitors remain in the answer. 

 

Where to Start 

First: Check eligibility. Indexing, snippet controls and the Search generative AI setting. 

Second: Open the Generative AI performance report and see which pages already appear. 

Third: Fix structural problems, because a page fighting its own duplicates is a weak candidate for anything. 

Fourth: Upgrade your top category and product pages with information only you have. 

Fifth: Fill the sub-question gaps for one category before moving to the next. 

If you want that sequence built for your site, AI visibility is a core part of our Growth Audit, and the implementation sits under AI SEO. 

 

Frequently Asked Questions 

How do I get my website into Google AI Overviews? 

Make sure the page is indexed and eligible to show a snippet, keep the Search generative AI control in Search Console set to include, and publish content that is useful and not available elsewhere. Google states there are no additional technical requirements beyond normal Search eligibility. 

 

What is the difference between AI Overviews and AI Mode? 

AI Overviews are summaries Google places at the top of a standard results page when it judges them useful. AI Mode is a separate conversational experience for comparisons, multi-step questions and follow-ups. Both draw on Google’s Search index, but they can show different links. 

 

Do I need an llms.txt file for Google AI Overviews? 

No. Google states that Search does not use llms.txt or similar files, and that adding one will neither help nor harm your visibility. Other AI platforms may treat such files differently. 

 

Does blocking Google-Extended remove my site from AI Overviews? 

No. Google-Extended limits the use of your content for AI training. Whether you appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode is governed by normal Search eligibility, snippet controls and the Search generative AI control in Search Console. 

 

Can I see AI Overview and AI Mode data in Search Console? 

Yes. The Generative AI performance report shows impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode by page, country, device and date. Clicks from these features are included in the main Performance report under the Web search type. 

 

Can I opt out of Google AI Overviews? 

Yes. The Search generative AI control lets you exclude a site from AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative features in Discover, and Google says this is not used as a ranking signal elsewhere in Search. You will receive no impressions or traffic from those features, and competitors will still appear.