Google AI Overviews: how it builds answers

What it is

AI Overviews are the generated summaries that appear above the classic results for many Google searches, including a growing share of local and commercial queries. They are built by Gemini models from pages in the regular Google index and show a carousel of source links.

How it retrieves and cites

There is no separate crawler: AI Overviews draw on the same Googlebot index that powers organic results. Google selects a set of pages that already rank well for the query and related queries, then generates the summary. Ranking well is therefore a prerequisite, but not a guarantee.

Source links appear in a side panel or carousel. Studies consistently show that cited pages rank in the top ten for the query or a close variant, with a bias towards pages that answer sub-questions directly. Clicks from AI Overviews are lower than from classic results, which makes being named in the text itself more valuable.

Crawlers and robots.txt

• GooglebotThe only crawler that matters here. Must be allowed.
• Google-ExtendedDoes not affect AI Overviews. Optional.

Not sure what yours allows? Check your robots.txt.

Five tips to be recommended by Google AI Overviews

1. 1Rank first: AI Overviews cite pages that already rank in the top ten.
2. 2Answer the question in the first paragraph, then expand.
3. 3Add FAQ and HowTo structure; sub-questions are what the overview is built from.
4. 4Keep Core Web Vitals healthy; slow pages are deprioritised.
5. 5Monitor which of your keywords trigger overviews and prioritise content for those.

Questions