What Are Google AI Overviews?

How pages get included

Google says there are no additional requirements and no special optimizations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. To be eligible as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet, which means meeting Google's normal technical requirements.

Google also describes a "query fan-out" technique: it runs related searches across subtopics to find a wider set of supporting pages than a single classic results page would show. That gives well-structured pages on specific subtopics a chance to be cited even when they do not rank first for the main query.

How to see AI Overview traffic in Search Console

Clicks and impressions from AI features are still counted in the regular Performance report, under the Web search type. Search Console also has separate Generative AI performance reports for Search and Discover, available to all sites since August 31, 2026. The Search report shows how often your pages appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode, by page, country, device and date, with data from May 18, 2026. It reports impressions only: no clicks, click-through rate, position or queries. Use it to see which pages AI features show, and the Performance report for the clicks.

What helps a page get cited

Because the eligibility rules are the same as regular search, the fundamentals do the work:

• Pages that are crawlable, indexed and fast, with content in the HTML.
• A direct answer near the top of the page, then depth: steps, tables, examples.
• Clear, specific subtopic pages rather than one page that tries to cover everything.
• Signals of trust: named sources, first-hand evidence, accurate dates. See E-E-A-T.
• Links and mentions from other relevant sites, which help pages rank in the searches the fan-out runs.

Our guide on how to appear in Google AI Overviews walks through each step.

Illustrative examples

Hypothetical scenarios that show how the term applies. They are not reports of real cases.

• A search such as "how to get indexed by google fast" may show an AI Overview listing steps, with links to the guides it summarized.
• A comparison page with a clear pricing table is cited as a supporting link in an AI Overview for "[tool] pricing".