AI Overviews and AI Mode: SEO and GEO for Google's AI answers

Since August 2024, Google has shown AI Overviews in the UK, and since March 2025 in Ireland: a short text written by AI at the top of the results page, with links to the pages that support it. Google says they only appear when its systems determine that an AI-powered response is helpful for the search.

AI Mode goes further. It opens in a tab next to Images or News, or from an AI Overview. People ask a complete question, get a written answer with links, then follow up with more questions, as in a conversation. It has been available in the UK since July 2025, and in Ireland since October 2025.

For a business, what's at stake is the same as with ChatGPT: when the answer cites a few sources, being one of them.

Google explains this in its documentation: to build an answer, AI Overviews and AI Mode can run several related searches at the same time, on the subtopics of the question. Google calls this technique “query fan-out”. While the answer is being written, its models identify other pages that support it, which makes it possible to show a wider range of links than a classic search.

These pages come from Google's index. Its guide published in May 2026 sums it up: SEO best practices still apply, because these features rely on Search's ranking and quality systems.

In practice, a page that clearly answers a sub-question can be cited, even if it isn't at the top for the main question. For “Which joiner should I choose for a bespoke kitchen in Manchester?”, Google may search in parallel for prices, lead times, materials and reviews: every page that clearly answers one of these points has a chance.

It's the only technical requirement set by Google. Check in Search Console that your important pages are indexed, and that no nosnippet tag, or overly low max-snippet limit, prevents Google from using a snippet from them.

One page per service and per area, an answer in the very first sentence, then the details your customers ask for: guide prices, lead times, area covered, after-sales service, steps. An FAQ uses their questions, in their words.

Text in the page's code, not in an image or a PDF; fast pages that are easy to read on mobile; useful images and videos, which Google lists among good practices.

Structured data that matches what the page shows: Google finds it useful, without it being required for its AI features. For a local business, a complete Google Business Profile; for a shop, an up-to-date Merchant Center feed: Google mentions both tools in its guide.

Customer reviews, mentions in the press and in your industry's directories. Google warns against fabricated mentions: they fall under its spam policies.

In its May 2026 guide, Google dismisses several common beliefs:

• creating special files or markup for AI: unnecessary; the llms.txt file, Google says, neither helps nor harms visibility in its results;
• breaking text into small chunks for AI: nothing requires it, and there is no ideal length;
• writing in a particular way for AI: write for your customers;
• producing pages in bulk or fabricating mentions: these practices go against its policies.

Yes. Since 31 August 2026, a Search Console setting, open to all websites, lets you stop appearing in AI Overviews, AI Mode and AI Overviews in Discover, and stop being used to build their answers. Google says this choice isn't used as a ranking factor in traditional results; it doesn't apply to the Gemini app.

Other controls are more precise: the nosnippet, data-nosnippet and max-snippet tags limit what Google uses from a page, in traditional results as in AI features; the noindex tag removes the page from Search. The Google-Extended control, for its part, changes nothing about your presence in Google Search or in AI Overviews: it concerns training and other Google AI systems.

For a business looking for customers, opting out of AI Overviews usually means leaving the space to its competitors. This setting is mainly of interest to publishers who live off their content.

• In Search Console: clicks and impressions from AI Overviews are counted in the Performance report, “Web” search type, along with the rest; those from AI Mode have been counted there since June 2025. Since 31 August 2026, Search Console has also provided information specific to AI features: impressions, pages that appear, countries.
• By hand: search for your customers' questions in a private browsing window, from your town, and note the sources cited. Answers vary from one search to the next: a single try tells you almost nothing.
• With iasyo: the full audit and monitoring check Google's AI Overviews, along with ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude, and show who is cited instead of you. See the methodology