The Impact of Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode on Search, Traffic, and SEO Strategy

Introduction to AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google Search

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into Google's search experience has fundamentally changed how users find and interact with information — and consequently, how digital marketers strategize. Google's recent innovations, particularly AI Overviews and AI Mode, indicate a substantial shift in content discovery and engagement. Understanding these developments is crucial for digital marketers aiming to remain competitive online.

What Exactly Are AI Overviews, and How Do They Work?

AI Overviews represent Google's shift toward succinct, AI-generated answer boxes that prominently appear above traditional organic search results. Unlike previous featured snippets, AI Overviews leverage Google's sophisticated Gemini language models to condense complex information from multiple web sources into brief summaries. These summaries typically appear as bullet points or short paragraphs, each accompanied by links back to original sources.

At their core, AI Overviews function through generative AI processing. Google's Gemini model synthesizes content from trusted online sources to create accurate and coherent responses, displaying them prominently at the top of search results. Each overview provides two or three clickable resource links, enabling users to easily verify information or explore topics in greater depth.

Importantly, these AI-generated answers are intelligently summarized to help users quickly grasp essential information without needing to sift through multiple websites.

Google selectively deploys AI Overviews when generative AI can effectively assist users, particularly for informational or problem-solving queries. Currently, Google reports that AI Overviews appear for approximately 30% of all searches and nearly 75% of problem-solving queries.

Introducing AI Mode: A Step Beyond Traditional Search

While AI Overviews provide concise information, Google's AI Mode expands this concept significantly by offering an interactive, conversational search experience. Available through Google's experimental Search Labs, AI Mode redefines user interactions with search results.

Unlike traditional search, AI Mode encourages dynamic, conversational exchanges. Users can ask follow-up questions to refine or deepen their queries, receive detailed product or service comparisons, and navigate through complex, multi-step searches. This conversational style doesn't just deliver straightforward answers; it actively guides users through detailed decision-making processes.

AI Mode employs Google's advanced Gemini 2.5 model, described by Google as their most powerful generative AI tool yet. By integrating diverse data such as shopping comparisons and comprehensive knowledge graphs, AI Mode creates detailed, interactive responses tailored to user needs.

Recent Developments: Google's Significant Advances

Google has made significant strides in enhancing both AI Overviews and AI Mode. By mid-2025, over one billion people worldwide had adopted AI Overviews, highlighting broad user acceptance and preference for AI-driven search experiences.

Key recent advancements include the Gemini 2.0 upgrade, which brought improvements to mathematics, coding assistance, and multimodal responses — extending the usefulness and accuracy of AI Overviews. Additionally, Google expanded accessibility by removing sign-in requirements, now allowing broader access, including teenage users.

At Google I/O 2025, Google announced that AI Mode had transitioned from a limited waitlist to broad availability in the U.S., emphasizing its utility for handling complex tasks such as product comparisons and detailed writing assignments.

With Gemini 2.5 powering AI Mode, users gain access to highly sophisticated generative capabilities supported by Google's comprehensive data systems, offering an enhanced, engaging search experience suited for multifaceted inquiries.

Google’s data indicates that searches triggering AI Overviews have resulted in more than a 10% increase in engagement across major markets. This clearly demonstrates that AI-enhanced results significantly improve user interactions. Google, however, remains transparent about the evolving impact these AI features may have on traditional website traffic patterns.

Implications for Digital Marketers

The integration of AI into Google's search results requires digital marketers to rethink their strategies fundamentally. These AI-driven developments substantially affect how content should be optimized, how visibility is maintained, and how value from search interactions is measured.

For marketers, adapting to these changes involves:

• Creating content specifically optimized for clear, concise AI-generated summaries.
• Implementing conversational SEO practices by anticipating user follow-up queries and addressing these in content planning.
• Focusing content development efforts on immediately delivering clear and engaging value to users.

These transformative shifts call for proactive strategy adjustments rather than incremental tweaks, reshaping digital marketing approaches in significant ways.

As we explore further throughout this article, we'll offer actionable strategies designed to help marketers effectively adapt to Google's increasingly AI-driven search landscape.

Impact on SEO and Organic Traffic: How are AI Overviews changing traditional SEO?

Quick answer: AI Overviews change the SEO game by pushing organic results down the page and introducing a new visibility layer — becoming a cited source in the AI answer is now just as important as ranking in the Top 10.

AI Overviews don’t just live alongside traditional search results; they take center stage. AI-generated summaries sit atop the search engine results page (SERP), often pushing the first organic listing far below the fold. This spatial dominance fundamentally changes the way users interact with the page.

What used to be prime real estate — the first few organic links — is now second-tier visibility. For many mid- to high-volume informational queries, the AI Overview now occupies that crucial first-glance space. In fact, recent research shows AI Overviews appear in roughly 30% of all Google queries — and nearly 75% of problem-solving searches. When an AI Overview is present, the first organic result can be pushed down by over 140% in vertical scroll distance. And in mobile layouts, users often have to scroll through several screens before they even reach the first organic link.

For SEO professionals, that means one major shift: it’s no longer enough to rank in the Top 10. Your content must now be designed to feed Google’s generative AI — structured, clear, and comprehensive enough that the system cites it directly in the overview.

And that’s not a total mystery. Early data shows that nearly 75% of sources cited in AI Overviews were already ranked in the organic Top 10. That suggests strong traditional SEO still matters — but getting cited is the new KPI. Long-tail content, structured data, and clarity of writing all seem to boost the chances of your content appearing in these AI answers.

So while the old playbook of keyword targeting and backlinks still applies, there’s a new layer of optimization: make your content AI-digestible.

What is happening to organic clicks and impressions?

Quick answer: Impressions are holding steady or increasing, but actual clicks are dropping sharply when AI Overviews appear. Users are getting their answers without clicking.

This is where things get murky — and frustrating — for publishers and marketers.

Google Search Console data has revealed a growing pattern: for pages that used to attract high organic traffic, impressions remain high, or even increase, while click-through rates (CTR) plummet. In other words, your content may still be showing up — it’s just not being clicked anymore.

Several independent studies have quantified this drop:

• According to an Ahrefs and AIO study, CTR for the #1 organic result dropped from ~7.3% to ~2.6% within a year when AI Overviews were present, a whopping 34.5% relative decrease in clicks.
• Other studies show even steeper declines, with CTRs down 15% to 37% depending on industry and query type.

Why the sharp decline?

Because users often find the answer they need in the AI Overview itself. The generative summary satisfies the query, without requiring the user to scroll, click, or explore further. This trend is especially strong on mobile, where scrolling feels slower and less intuitive.

Some early estimates suggest:

• Google’s total click volume may be down ~30% year-over-year for search queries where AI Overviews dominate the results.
• That number is disputed by Google — but the anecdotal and publisher-level data (including our own internal SevenAtoms data) supports the broader trend: organic clicks are shrinking.

This decoupling of impressions and clicks is especially disruptive for content-heavy sites like publishers, blogs, and guides. Pages that were built to earn traffic from high-volume, evergreen queries are now being quietly leapfrogged by AI.

What about zero-click SERPs?

Quick answer: AI Overviews are driving a rise in zero-click searches — but it’s not as simple as “no one clicks anymore.” Users are just clicking differently.

Zero-click SERPs aren’t a new challenge for marketers. We’ve seen this trend with featured snippets, instant answers, and knowledge panels. But AI Overviews take that concept further. They not only answer the user’s question but also summarize supporting context and link out to a few sources, making the need to scroll even less compelling.

Recent data from SEMrush and other SEO analytics platforms finds that nearly 40% of AI-related queries end in a zero-click result. These rates are comparable to older featured snippets — but more consistent across query types. Queries like “How to boil eggs,” “What is GDPR,” or “Symptoms of burnout” now often show fully satisfying AI Overviews, eliminating the need for a follow-up click.

That said, the situation isn’t entirely one-sided. While users are clicking less broadly across the SERP, they are still engaging with the internal resource links featured within AI Overviews. Those two or three links beneath the summary? They’re getting a disproportionate share of the clicks. Some datasets have even observed slight declines in zero-click rates on specific query sets — likely because users want to verify or expand on the AI-generated information. If your site is one of the sources highlighted in the AI Overview, you're in a stronger position than most.

SEO strategies must adapt to a new search experience

So, what does all this mean for SEO professionals, content strategists, and digital marketers?

You’ll need to rethink how you define success in Google Search. It’s no longer just about “ranking #1.” It’s about becoming one of the chosen few sources that Google’s Gemini model trusts enough to cite in an AI Overview.

To adapt, your SEO strategy should now include:

• Structuring content for generative summarization. Use clear headings, definitions, bullet lists, and concise answers within longer content.
• Improving E-E-A-T signals. Expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness continue to matter — especially for health, finance, and legal queries.
• Refreshing and expanding evergreen content. Content that hasn’t been updated in years is less likely to be used by AI models.
• Monitoring your zero-click exposure. Track not just rankings and impressions, but whether your content is surfacing in AI Overviews.
• Targeting AI-prone queries wisely. Some searches are more likely to be AI-resolved — aim for niches or angles where users still want human interpretation or deeper analysis.

In short, generative search is here — and it’s not going away. 

SEO isn’t dead, but it’s evolving fast. Getting traffic now means earning a place not just on the results page, but inside the machine’s answer itself.

CTR and Engagement Insights: Do AI Overviews reduce or increase CTR?

Quick answer: AI Overviews reduce click-through rates (CTR) for most organic listings, but the impact varies based on ranking position, query type, and whether you're cited in the AI summary.

The introduction of AI Overviews has had a measurable impact on organic CTR, and for most websites, it isn’t a positive one. When Google’s AI-generated snapshot appears at the top of a search result, it often satisfies user intent without requiring a click. As a result, fewer users are reaching the websites that once ranked in the Top 5, even if those sites still technically appear on the first page.

A series of studies validate this trend. An Ahrefs/DCN analysis showed a 34.5% drop in clicks for queries with an AI Overview. A broader, cross-industry study later recorded an average CTR decline of -15.49%, with non-branded terms hit even harder — down -19.98% on average. These aren’t one-off anomalies. The numbers reflect a structural change in how users engage with search results.

Importantly, not all links are affected equally. Sites that rank in the Top 3 — and especially those cited directly in the AI Overview — tend to see less of a decline. Some even report modest gains in visibility or engagement due to increased authority perception. But once you fall below the top three, the traffic loss becomes more severe.

Interestingly, branded queries often tell a different story. When users search for specific companies, products, or people — and those brands are referenced in the AI Overview — click-throughs can actually rise. One study found branded searches that included an AI summary saw CTR increases of up to +18.7%. It makes sense: if someone already intends to interact with your brand, having that validation baked into the AI summary just reinforces the click.

How does CTR change by query type and SERP feature?

Quick answer: CTR drops the most on informational, long-tail queries — especially when AI Overviews appear alongside featured snippets or carousels.

Not all queries are created equal, and the impact of AI Overviews depends heavily on query intent. Informational queries — the kind that start with “how,” “what,” “why,” or “best” — are by far the most likely to trigger an AI Overview. According to industry research:

• 88% of queries that produce an AI answer are informational in nature.
• CTR declines are steepest for these informational and long-tail searches.
• Transactional and local queries rarely produce AI Overviews — less than 10% of AI answers are triggered by transactional keywords.

When users are researching or learning, the AI summary is often enough. But when they’re shopping or looking for something nearby, they still need to click — often to compare prices, check availability, or get directions.

The presence of multiple SERP features compounds the effect. When AI Overviews appear alongside other Google widgets, the impact stacks:

• AI Overview + Featured Snippet = over 35% CTR drop.
• AI Overview + "People also ask" = cannibalizes mid-page clicks.
• AI Overview + Image Carousel = deflects visual traffic, especially on mobile.

Brand-specific or navigational queries are less affected:

• AI Overviews appear in only ~20% of branded searches.
• For non-branded terms, that number rises to ~33%.

This means your homepage or product page may still see healthy engagement when users search for you directly — but your general keyword rankings may be bleeding clicks without you realizing it.

Are AI-driven visitors more or less engaged?

Quick answer: While CTR may fall, engagement quality often improves. AI-referred users bounce less, stay longer, and explore more pages.

Here’s the silver lining: the users who do click on AI-referred links are often more engaged.

Adobe’s 2025 analytics report on “AI referral” traffic found that these users had 23% lower bounce rates, spent 41% more time on site, and viewed approximately 12% more pages per visit compared to traditional organic users. In other words, AI Overviews may act as a filter, sending only the most motivated or curious users through to your site.

Google echoes these findings. John Mueller has stated that visitors coming through AI Overviews tend to show higher-quality engagement — longer session durations, lower exit rates, and more time spent with interactive content. That’s likely because the AI summary primes the user with context before they arrive, so they’re not clicking in blind. They already have a sense of what to expect.

Conversion data adds another layer to the picture. According to Adobe, AI-referred traffic converts almost as well as traditional organic users — just 9% lower on average. And in some research-heavy verticals, the AI segment actually performs better. Electronics, travel, and B2B tech sites reported higher revenue per visit from AI leads than from regular search traffic.

How does AI affect different industries?

Quick answer: Industries with high-research queries (tech, SaaS, travel, finance) are seeing major shifts. Branded visibility and structured content are more critical than ever.

Some industries are feeling the impact of AI Overviews more acutely than others. While CTR losses are broad, the nature of your content — and how users typically engage with it — will determine how hard you’re hit.

Ecommerce

Shopping queries like “best running shoes” or “compare Dyson vs Shark” now commonly return AI summaries. Adobe data suggests that users who engage with AI in the research phase are more likely to convert later — particularly on desktop. Still, many ecommerce sites are seeing lower overall traffic. To stay competitive, retailers should prioritize structured product content, buyer guides, and comparison tables optimized for inclusion in AI Overviews.

SaaS and B2B

Queries like “best CRM tools” or “top email automation software” frequently generate AI answers. SaaS brands must publish comparison-focused content and product FAQ pages — not just feature lists. Analysts increasingly view high-quality, AI-targeted content as essential to competitive visibility. A well-written “Best of 2025” post may outperform traditional blog traffic in this space.

Tech and Developer

AI Mode and Gemini responses dominate coding-related queries. A developer searching “how to create a Python class” might get a complete code snippet from the AI. Traffic to tutorials and dev blogs is dropping in some cases. Technical SEO should now emphasize clean, snippet-ready formatting: think code blocks, numbered steps, and precise terminology.

Healthcare

Medical content faces unique scrutiny. Because these are YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) queries, Google is more cautious. AI Overviews in health lean heavily on .gov, .edu, and institutionally backed sources. Independent publishers must focus on E‑E‑A‑T — particularly trust and credentials. Citations, clear disclaimers, and a lack of sensationalism are now table stakes.

Automotive

AI appears in roughly 16–21% of car-related queries, based on L2T Media’s data. When local dealerships appear in the AI Overview, their CTR increases. When they don’t, traffic can plummet. Dealers should optimize content like vehicle specs, dealership details, and special offers using structured data and clear language to qualify for AI citation.

Travel and Finance

These industries are rapidly shifting. Travel sites saw a 17x increase in AI referrals over the past year, with users spending more and staying longer. Financial queries like “best savings accounts 2025” are now fertile ground for AI summaries — and if your site isn’t included, you may be invisible. Top-performing brands in these spaces are investing heavily in comparison content, data-backed insights, and user-first design.

High-Research Industries

Industries with high-research user behavior — like education and real estate — are seeing growing disruption from AI-driven search. Users searching for “best online MBA programs” or “first-time homebuyer tips” are increasingly satisfied by AI summaries, especially when these queries are broad and early in the decision journey. For institutions and providers in these verticals, the priority is clear: create highly informative, trustworthy, and well-structured content that positions your brand as an authoritative source. Without a presence in the AI Overview, even well-ranked content risks being completely overlooked.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): What It Is and Why It Matters

What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) vs. traditional SEO?

Quick answer: GEO is the practice of optimizing your content not just for search rankings, but for inclusion in AI-generated answers — like Google’s AI Overviews or Bing Chat results.

If SEO is about climbing the ladder of blue links on a search results page, GEO — or Generative Engine Optimization — is about being the quote the AI chooses to show. It’s not about being listed; it’s about being used.

Traditional SEO relies on keywords, backlinks, meta tags, and structured internal linking to help Google understand and rank your content. GEO builds on this but adds a critical dimension: making sure your content is intelligible and appealing to large language models (LLMs). These systems don’t rank results the way Google’s classic algorithm does. Instead, they generate summaries or answers by pulling from high-quality, high-authority text fragments they’ve been trained on or can access in real time.

Where SEO asks, “Can I get on page one?” GEO asks, “Will the AI quote me?”

It’s a different mindset — one rooted in clarity, structure, and authority. Think of GEO as your answer to the AI era of search. It’s not a replacement for SEO but an essential layer on top of it. After all, if a user finds their answer directly from an AI overview or chatbot, and your brand isn’t part of that answer, your visibility has effectively vanished — even if you rank #2.

Why does GEO matter now?

Quick answer: Because AI Overviews and answer engines are taking over more of the search experience. If you're not being cited in those answers, you're not being seen.

Google’s AI Overviews, Microsoft’s Copilot, and other AI-driven experiences are beginning to dominate the top of the SERP. In some cases, they replace it altogether. As of mid-2025, AI summaries show up in nearly 30% of search queries and over 70% of problem-solving ones. That number is only expected to grow.

When these AI systems display a generated answer, they often include just two or three clickable sources. That’s it. The rest of the page? It’s pushed far below the fold. In this environment, traditional SEO visibility — even ranking in the top 3 — may no longer be enough.

GEO is a strategic response to this change. It helps ensure that your content becomes part of the training or retrieval set for LLMs and that your site appears as a cited source in generated answers. Industry studies and experiments are beginning to outline the kinds of content most likely to be used in AI Overviews:

• Pages that are well-structured, readable, and authoritative.
• Content written with clear intent and topical coverage.
• Articles that mimic Q&A patterns or use structured formatting.

Experts also note that content cited across the web (including off-site brand mentions) tends to appear more often in generative results. In this way, GEO is both content strategy and a brand-building initiative.

You’re not just writing for Googlebot anymore; you’re writing for Gemini, GPT-4, and every other AI model scanning the open web for high-quality input. GEO makes sure your site isn’t left out of that conversation.

What tactics help optimize for AI Overviews?

Quick answer: You can improve your chances of being cited in AI answers by structuring content for readability, adding schema, and demonstrating authority and relevance.

While there’s no formal checklist for GEO — and no official Google ranking factor associated with it (yet) — a set of clear, emerging practices can help your content rise to the top of generative results.

Here are the most effective tactics for Generative Engine Optimization:

• Structure content into small, digestible chunks. Use short paragraphs, clear headers, and sub-sections that answer one idea at a time. This format is easier for AI models to parse and extract from.

• Use question-and-answer formatting. Posing a question in the header and providing a succinct answer directly underneath it mirrors how generative models look for context. It also matches the pattern of AI Overviews, which often reflect this format.
• Cite high-quality sources. Linking to trusted third-party resources — government, academic, or well-known industry sites — increases your perceived authority. This improves both traditional E-E-A-T and your chances of being selected by an AI engine.
• Implement structured data where relevant. Schema markup (especially FAQPage, HowTo, Article, and Product types) helps search engines and AI understand what your page is about. It isn’t mandatory, but it creates clear signals.
• Vary your content formats. Include relevant bullet lists, comparison tables, visuals, code blocks, or videos when appropriate. AI models trained on multimodal content are more likely to surface your content when it includes rich, structured media.
• Create topical depth. Don’t stop at answering one question. Dive into related subtopics, provide comparisons, outline pros and cons, and cover the common follow-up queries users might have. This increases your content’s utility and makes it more attractive to AI systems assembling a full response.
• Demonstrate real expertise. AI Overviews and similar tools often favor content from authors with credentials or sites with strong trust signals. Use bylines, bios, references, and citations to underscore your authority. In sectors like healthcare, finance, and legal, this is critical.
• Write for both humans and machines. Clear, concise writing — without fluff or filler — benefits both the reader and the AI. If your point isn’t obvious in the first few lines of a paragraph, it’s likely to be ignored by the model.

While many of these tactics overlap with classic SEO best practices, the emphasis is shifting. GEO encourages us to think not just about what ranks, but what gets remembered, summarized, and shared by AI engines.

A changing search future calls for layered strategies

The rise of Generative Engine Optimization doesn’t mean SEO is obsolete. In fact, the two disciplines complement each other. SEO still gets your content indexed, crawled, and ranked. GEO determines whether your content ends up in the answer itself.

Smart marketers should approach the SERP with a dual lens: optimizing not just for where you appear, but how you appear — and whether your content is included when AI speaks.

As Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and others continue to blur the lines between search and chat, brands that adopt GEO principles early will have a clear advantage. Those that wait? They risk becoming invisible — not just on page two, but completely omitted from the answer.

Let’s be clear: users aren’t going to stop searching. But they are changing the way they consume information. If your content isn’t part of that evolution, it’s falling behind.

How to Optimize for Google AI Overviews (with Tips from Google)

What does Google recommend for content that might appear in AI Overviews?

Quick answer: Google recommends creating high-quality, user-focused content that follows its Search Essentials. There are no shortcuts, no secret algorithm; there’s only doing the work.

If you’re expecting Google to release a special playbook for AI Overviews, don’t hold your breath. Their messaging has been consistent: treat AI Overviews as a natural extension of Search, not a new frontier with its own rulebook. That means all the advice you’ve (hopefully) been following for years — focus on people-first content, provide real value, maintain accessibility, and demonstrate expertise — still applies.

In May 2025, Google reiterated this stance clearly. In a Search Central blog and in various responses from John Mueller, they made it plain: There’s no “AI Overview formula.” Instead, they point content creators back to the Search Essentials and their quality guidelines. Mueller summarized the best approach as “unique, satisfying content that answers the question the user had when they searched.”

What does that mean in practice? It means AI Overviews are not handcrafted summaries created by editors behind the scenes. They’re generated from the same signals Google uses for traditional ranking (content quality, trustworthiness, relevance, usability) just processed differently through generative models like Gemini.

The AI simply selects the most relevant, scannable, and trustworthy content from what it finds. If your site isn’t meeting the bar for organic visibility, it’s unlikely to make the cut for AI Overviews either. And if your content is high-quality but disorganized or poorly structured, it might be skipped over regardless of its depth.

So, the official advice: stick to the fundamentals, but do them exceptionally well. AI Overviews aren’t a separate system with new rules. They’re a sharper lens focused on the best content available.

What are the best practices for content structure and formatting?

Quick answer: Make your content skimmable, answer-focused, and technically sound — because AI needs structure, clarity, and confidence in what it's quoting.

If the core of SEO is content + authority, the core of AI Overview optimization is content + clarity. Even strong content won’t make the cut if it’s hard to parse, fragmented, or visually messy.

Here are several best practices, drawn from Google’s own advice and observed patterns in AI Overview behavior, to help your pages become prime candidates for inclusion:

• Write for user intent: Create pages that directly answer real questions. Start with the likely query (especially long-tail or problem-solving), and provide a clear, concise answer near the top. Consider phrasing key headers as questions to mirror search behavior.
• Use a clean, scannable layout: Avoid visual clutter. Make generous use of whitespace. Use descriptive headings, short paragraphs, and a consistent hierarchy of information. Mobile-first design is crucial, not just for usability, but because AI draws from the mobile index.
• Employ logical navigation: Group related ideas with subheadings. Link internally between related articles. Not only does this help users, but it allows Googlebot to understand the topical scope of your site and how your content connects.
• Add structured data where appropriate: Use schema markup for FAQs, HowTos, Products, and Articles. This reinforces your content’s structure and helps both search engines and generative AI interpret what’s on the page.
• Use visual and multimedia elements thoughtfully: Google has repeatedly stated that visuals matter in AI Search. Where relevant, include:
  • High-quality images (with descriptive alt text)
  • Videos (especially demos or tutorials)
  • Tables, comparison charts, and infographics
  • Diagrams or labeled screenshots

• Format technical content precisely: For sites that share code, formulas, or datasets, ensure that formatting is crisp. Use <pre> tags or monospace font for code, label tables clearly, and avoid copying styling from WYSIWYG editors that may not translate cleanly.
• Make every section self-contained: AI Overviews often pull just a paragraph or two from your page. So make sure each part of your content stands on its own. A good rule: any subheading section should make sense if read in isolation.

Formatting is the bridge between your hard-earned content and how AI models interpret it. When in doubt, structure your content the way you’d expect it to appear in a direct answer box — because that’s exactly what AI Overviews are mimicking.

How about source authority and citations?

Quick answer: Content that cites reputable sources — and clearly signals its own expertise — is more likely to be trusted, quoted, and linked in AI Overviews.

One of the clearest signals Google continues to emphasize is trust. While the mechanics behind generative selection are evolving, Google has confirmed that AI Overviews pull from sources that their systems deem authoritative and credible. That doesn't always mean the biggest brands; it means content that backs up its claims, follows quality best practices, and signals legitimacy through structure and citation.

That includes:

• Attribution: Clearly display authorship. Use real names with bios, credentials, or affiliations where relevant — especially for YMYL topics (finance, health, law).
• Citations: Link to high-quality external sources when referencing data, studies, or claims. This helps reinforce your own credibility and also positions your page as a well-cited resource.
• Structured markup: Use author, publisher, and article schema where appropriate to help search engines identify and validate your content.
• Date transparency: Show when your content was published and last updated. Google has stated that freshness can play a role in selection, particularly for AI answers that depend on timely info.

Interestingly, Google also allows you to opt out of having your content used in AI Overviews — either at the page level (via nosnippet meta tags) or at the site level (via robots.txt). But in most cases, you want to be part of the answer. The caveat is that what gets quoted might not be your whole page — it could be a single paragraph. Which means every paragraph matters.

Instead of trying to game the system, the best strategy is to ensure that anything AI might grab, like a summary, a definition, a comparison, or a conclusion, is clear, well-sourced, and reflects your brand’s voice and standards.

Bottom line: AI Overviews reward what SEO should already value

If this all sounds familiar, that’s the point. Google isn’t launching a new algorithm for AI Overviews; it’s amplifying the value of good content through a new interface.

Great formatting? That’s already part of Core Web Vitals. Clear, concise writing? That’s been an SEO staple for years. Source attribution and author credentials? Classic E‑E‑A‑T. The difference now is that instead of being read by humans scanning the SERP, your content is being summarized — and potentially excerpted — by machines.

And that raises the stakes.

If your site isn’t optimized for clarity and structured for AI comprehension, you may be invisible at the very moment a user is making a decision. But if you are — and your content is the one the AI chooses to showcase — you’ve skipped the line. You’ve become the answer.

In this new era of generative search, it’s not just about visibility. It’s about quotability.

AI, SEO, and the New Search Landscape

The rise of Google AI Overviews and other generative search experiences marks a pivotal evolution in digital discovery. For marketers, content creators, and SEO strategists, this shift is both a challenge and an opportunity. Traditional “blue link” ranking is no longer the only path to visibility — today, being cited, summarized, and quoted in an AI-generated answer may be the most important real estate on the page.

What’s clear is that the fundamentals still apply: create unique, user-focused content, demonstrate real expertise, and ensure your pages are technically sound and accessible. 

But what’s new is the growing importance of structuring content for machines — not just people — and of future-proofing your strategy through Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).

Brands that adapt quickly, embrace new formatting tactics, and focus on true value will thrive in the AI era of search. Those that resist change risk vanishing from the digital conversation. They won’t be found just on page two, but they’ll be missing entirely from the AI answers that increasingly shape how users experience the web.

SEO isn’t dead. It’s just evolving.

The most successful brands are those that will evolve with it.

AI Search FAQs

What are AI Overviews in Google Search and how do they work?

AI Overviews are special answer boxes, powered by Google’s Gemini AI model, that appear at the top of some search results. They quickly summarize information from several trusted sites and usually display a short paragraph or a few bullet points, along with two or three links to cited sources. The goal is to help users find answers instantly, without having to click through multiple results.

How do AI Overviews affect organic traffic and click-through rates (CTR)?

When an AI Overview appears, most sites see fewer clicks — sometimes significantly fewer. Click-through rates for organic results below the AI box can drop by 15–35%, especially for informational searches. Impressions (how often your page appears in results) might not change, but actual visits from search will likely go down unless your page is one of the cited sources in the AI Overview.

What is the difference between AI Overviews and Featured Snippets?

Featured Snippets pull a single answer from one page and display it above the rest of the organic results. In contrast, AI Overviews use generative AI to synthesize and combine information from multiple sites, often presenting a more comprehensive or multi-faceted answer. This means that while a snippet highlights one source, an AI Overview aggregates key insights from several places.

What is query fan-out and why does it matter for SEO?

Query fan-out is the process by which an AI search engine breaks down a broad user query into several related sub-questions. For example, searching “how to improve website security” might trigger the AI to pull answers on topics like firewalls, SSL certificates, password hygiene, and malware protection. For SEO, this matters because you’re more likely to be cited if your content addresses not just the main question, but also these related angles.

How can I optimize my content to appear in AI Overviews?

To maximize your chances:

• Use clear, question-based headings and concise answers for each
• Add FAQ or Q&A sections to your pages
• Cite high-quality sources, and use schema markup where relevant
• Demonstrate real expertise and keep your information up to date

Above all, focus on creating well-structured, user-focused content.

How do I track traffic from AI-generated sources in GA4 and Search Console?

Currently, there isn’t a direct filter for “AI Overview” traffic in GA4 or Search Console. You can, however, look for patterns like a drop in clicks but stable or rising impressions for queries where you’ve seen AI Overviews. It’s also worth monitoring any changes in referral traffic from known AI tools or unexpected sources. Expect more granular tracking tools as Google and other platforms roll out updates.

What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and how does it relate to AI search?

GEO is the process of optimizing your content to be selected and cited by AI-powered answer engines, rather than just ranked by traditional search. Unlike classic SEO, which focuses on getting your pages to appear as blue links, GEO aims to ensure your insights are included in the AI-generated answers users see first. In a world where AI is increasingly the “front door” to information, GEO is fast becoming a key part of a robust content strategy.