AI Overviews
AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that Google shows at the top of some search results, with links to the sources they draw on.
What are AI Overviews?
AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that Google displays at the top of the search results for some queries. Powered by Google’s Gemini models, they answer the question directly and link to the web pages the answer draws on. The feature grew out of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) experiment, rolled out in 2024 and has since been expanded to many countries and languages.
AI Overviews appear mostly for informational and complex queries, less often for navigational or clearly transactional ones. Because users get an answer without clicking, they can reduce clicks to websites for some queries – while being cited as a source can bring highly qualified visitors and brand visibility.
To improve your chances of being cited in AI Overviews:
- Be eligible to rank in the first place: there is no separate submission, and pages must be indexed and shown in Google Search.
- Answer questions clearly and early in your content, and support answers with facts and expertise (E-E-A-T).
- Structure content with helpful headings, lists and structured data.
AI Overviews are one part of the broader shift towards AI search. Our entry on Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) covers how to optimize for AI answers across platforms.