Google AI Overviews (AIOs) now appear at the top of results for the majority of high-volume search queries in the UK and US. They summarise the answer before anyone clicks through — and they cite a small number of sources directly.
If your brand is one of those sources, you earn the click. If you're not, you've lost the query — even if you rank in position one below it.
When Google AI Overviews appear, overall organic CTR drops 61% and paid CTR drops 68%. Brands cited inside the AIO earn 35% more clicks than those ranked below it. (Seer Interactive / Ahrefs, 2025-26)
Here's what determines whether you get cited — and the exact steps to improve your chances.
How Google AI Overviews Choose Sources
Google AI Overviews are built on top of the standard Google index. They don't crawl the web separately — they draw from the same content Google already knows about, then apply an additional layer of selection.
Ahrefs analysed 300,000 AI Overview citations and found that 93.67% came from pages already in Google's top 10 organic results. Being in the top 10 is the baseline requirement.
But top 10 is necessary, not sufficient. AIOs then select specific passages that directly answer the query. A page that ranks for a broad keyword but doesn't contain a clear, extractable answer to the specific question gets skipped. A page lower in the top 10 with a precise, well-formatted answer often gets chosen instead.
The additional selection factors:
- Schema markup — Pages with structured data are 3x more likely to earn AIO citations. FAQ schema, HowTo schema and Article schema all help Google extract answers accurately.
- Direct answer format — AIOs open with a direct fact or answer 99.8% of the time. Content that leads with the answer (not a preamble) is far more likely to be extracted.
- E-E-A-T signals — Author credentials, publication date, outbound links to authoritative sources, and references to original research all signal trustworthiness.
- Content freshness — Recently published or updated content gets preference for time-sensitive queries.
- Page load speed and crawlability — AIO crawlers don't render JavaScript. Clean HTML, fast load times and proper sitemap submission are prerequisites.
The 6-Step Process to Get Cited
Step 1: Identify which queries trigger AIOs for your category
Not all queries show AIOs. Search your key terms in Chrome (UK or US) and note which ones trigger AI Overviews at the top. These are your priority targets. Focus your optimisation effort on queries that already show AIOs — you can't earn a citation on a query type that doesn't have one.
Step 2: Check if you already rank top 10 for those queries
If you're not in the top 10, you need standard SEO work first — this is the gating factor. If you are in the top 10 but not being cited, the problem is content format, not ranking. Check Google Search Console for your current positions.
Step 3: Reformat existing pages to lead with direct answers
For every query you want to win, your page needs a section that directly answers the question in 2-4 sentences, immediately after the heading. No preamble. No "Great question, let's explore..." The answer first, then the detail. This is the format AIOs extract from.
Step 4: Add FAQ schema to every content page
FAQ schema markup signals to Google that your page directly answers questions. Add 3-5 Q&As in FAQ schema format to every blog post and pillar page. Use the exact phrasing people search for as the question text. This is one of the highest-ROI technical changes for AIO visibility.
Step 5: Build E-E-A-T signals throughout the page
Include: author name with credentials, publication and update dates, outbound links to studies or data sources, references to original research or proprietary data. AIOs favour sources that demonstrate genuine expertise — not just content that covers the topic superficially.
Step 6: Monitor your AIO citation rate over time
Google Search Console shows AIO impressions and clicks. Track which of your pages earn AIO citations and which don't — then analyse what's different between them. Pages that earn citations show you what's working. Pages that rank but don't earn citations show you where to improve format and schema.
What Google AI Overviews Won't Cite
Understanding the exclusions helps focus your effort:
- Pages blocked from crawling — Any pages with noindex tags, disallow in robots.txt, or behind login walls are invisible to AIOs.
- JavaScript-rendered content — If your key content only appears after JavaScript executes, AIO crawlers likely can't read it. Move critical content to server-rendered HTML.
- Paywalled content — AIOs don't cite subscription content. If your best research is gated, it won't appear.
- Highly promotional content — AIOs avoid content that reads as advertising. Factual, informative content gets cited; product pitches don't.
- Low-authority domains — AIOs skew heavily towards established domains with strong trust signals. New sites building authority from scratch need time before this channel becomes available.
The Content Types That Earn AIO Citations Most Often
Based on our analysis of which content gets cited across 5,600+ AI queries:
| Content Type | AIO Citation Rate | Why |
|---|---|---|
| FAQ pages with schema | High | AIOs extract Q&A format directly; schema makes structure machine-readable |
| How-to guides | High | Procedural queries ("how to...") trigger AIOs frequently; step-by-step format extracts cleanly |
| Definition / explainer pages | High | "What is X" queries almost always trigger AIOs; clear definitions at the top of the page get cited |
| Data and research pages | Medium-High | Original statistics and data are cited as authoritative sources; proprietary data has no competition |
| Product pages | Low | Too promotional; AIOs prefer informational sources |
| News articles (recent) | Medium | High freshness scores for time-sensitive queries; decays quickly |
Frequently Asked Questions
How do Google AI Overviews choose which sources to cite?
Google AI Overviews primarily cite pages already in Google's top 10 organic results — 93.67% of AIO citations come from top-10 ranking pages. Beyond ranking, AIOs favour pages with structured data and schema markup, direct question-answer formatting, E-E-A-T signals, original data, and comprehensive topic coverage. Schema markup gives a 3x citation advantage over comparable unstructured pages.
Does ranking on Google guarantee appearing in AI Overviews?
No. Ranking in the top 10 makes you eligible but not guaranteed. Google AI Overviews select specific passages from pages that best answer the query — so even a top-ranking page needs to directly address the question with a clear, extractable answer. Pages that rank for broad terms but don't answer specific questions clearly are often skipped.
What is the impact of appearing in Google AI Overviews on website traffic?
Brands cited as sources inside Google AI Overviews earn 35% more organic clicks than brands ranked below the AIO but not cited. When AI Overviews appear, overall organic CTR drops 61% — meaning the traffic increasingly flows to cited sources, not to the wider results page.
How long does it take to start appearing in Google AI Overviews?
If your pages already rank in Google's top 10, adding schema markup and improving answer-format content can show results within 2-4 weeks as Google recrawls. If you need to build rankings from scratch, expect 3-6 months for competitive queries. The fastest wins come from improving structured data on pages that already rank.