How to appear in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode

By Mitch Flindell

Short answer: there is no special markup, file or form for Google's AI Overviews or AI Mode. Google's documentation says a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet to be a supporting link, and that there are no additional requirements beyond that. So you appear the way you appear in normal Google results: a page Google can crawl and index, that answers the question better than the others. The same page can be the one the AI links. Nobody outside Google can promise a link. Checked 21 October 2026.

AI Overviews are the short AI-written summaries that sit above some Google results. AI Mode is Google's separate, chat-style search. Both write an answer and link to the pages behind it. This guide covers both together, because Google's rules for them are the same page of documentation. For the other tools, see the guides for ChatGPT and Perplexity.

What Google says it takes

Google's guide to AI features in Search makes four points worth knowing:

• To be shown as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet. If Google hasn't indexed it, or you've told Google not to show a snippet, it is out.
• Google says the best practices for SEO remain relevant, and there are no additional requirements or special optimizations for AI Overviews or AI Mode. No schema is required either.
• Google says its AI features may run multiple related searches across subtopics (it calls this "query fan-out") to build an answer, which lets it show a wider set of links than a normal results page. A page that answers one narrow subtopic well can be picked up for a bigger question.
• Google says traffic from AI features is counted in the Performance report under the Web search type, with your other Google results. It is not split out, so you can't read an "AI Overviews" total from it.

What Google hasn't said is how it chooses between two eligible pages. Anyone who gives you a ranking formula for AI Overviews is guessing. Everything below is either from Google's documentation or a method you can test on your own searches.

Step 1: find the searches that show an AI Overview for your trade

Open Google in a private window and try the searches your customers type. Do each one on your phone as well, because the results can differ. Write down which show an AI Overview, which pages are linked beside it, and whether you are one of them.

how much does [job, e.g. a blocked drain repair] cost in [town]
best [type of business, e.g. brunch café] in [town]
how do I choose a [service, e.g. electrician]
is [business name] any good

Then switch to AI Mode on the same searches and ask them as full questions, the way a person would talk. Use a simple sheet:

Many searches show no AI Overview at all, and the same search can differ from one day to the next. Ask each a few times, and count answers, not hunches: "linked in 2 of 10 searches that show an Overview" is a result, "I saw us once" isn't.

Step 2: check Google can index the page

This is the one hard requirement, so it comes first. In Google Search Console, paste the page's address into the search bar at the top and read the verdict.

• "URL is on Google" means it is indexed. Move on.
• "Discovered, currently not indexed" or "Crawled, currently not indexed" means Google knows the page but hasn't kept it. Link to it from your strongest pages, make sure it says something the pages already indexed don't, and request indexing once. Repeated requests don't speed it up.
• A "noindex" tag, or blocked by robots.txt, means you've told Google to stay out. Remove it if that wasn't intended.

Check yourwebsite.com/robots.txt too. Googlebot is the crawler behind Search and so behind the AI features. If it has Disallow: / for Googlebot or User-agent: *, nothing else in this guide matters yet.

Step 3: don't switch off your own snippet

Google's documentation says site owners can limit what is shown in Search features with nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet or noindex. These controls work, and they work on you too. Search your page's source for them. A forgotten <meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">, or a max-snippet of 0, takes the page out of the running for a supporting link. Some themes and SEO plugins add them without telling you.

If you do want to keep one section out (a members-only price list, say), use data-nosnippet on that element rather than the whole page.

Step 4: put the answer in the first lines

An AI Overview is a few sentences built from what the linked pages say. A page is easy to use when the sentence that answers the question is right there, in plain text, with the numbers. For each search from Step 1, have one page whose first paragraph says what it is, who it's for, where, and what it costs or how it works.

Example only: the business and the prices are invented for this guide.

• Use the questions as headings, and answer each one in the sentence beneath it.
• Cover the subtopics, not just the headline question. Because Google may run several related searches, a page for "blocked drain cost" is stronger with short sections on what changes the price, how long it takes and when to call someone. The free content brief generator lists the subtopics the top five Google results share for any search.
• Keep it as text. Prices inside an image, a slider or a PDF are easy to miss.
• Show who wrote it and when you checked it. Real names, a real address and "prices checked 21 October 2026" (only if you did) are the people-first signals Google's guidance points to.
• Add a short FAQ from the questions customers ask you on the phone. Don't expect a rich result from it: Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in 2026, but the questions still help people.

More on why answer-first pages get picked is in what AEO is, and AEO vs GEO explains the names.

Step 5: keep your facts the same everywhere

An AI summary can quote whichever source it read. If your hours, phone, address and prices differ between your site, your Google Business Profile, Bing Places and directories, one of them will be wrong in the answer. Write one fact sheet and make everything match it. Fix old listings too. Step 2 of the ChatGPT guide has the checklist.

Step 6: earn mentions on the pages Google already trusts

For "best X in town" searches, the linked pages are often lists, directories and review sites, not business sites. From your Step 1 sheet, sort the linked pages by kind, then claim every free listing, contact the writers of lists you belong on with something worth including, and invite honest reviews from real customers. Never pay for a mention that passes ranking credit, and never post as a fake customer.

Step 7: make the page fast and easy on a phone

Google lists page experience among the things to get right. It is not a trick for AI features, but a page that loads slowly or shifts around on a phone loses the readers you worked for. Test your main pages with PageSpeed Insights and fix what it flags first.

What Google-Extended does not do

A common worry is that blocking Google-Extended in robots.txt removes you from AI Overviews. Google's documentation says it doesn't: Google-Extended is a token that controls whether content Google crawls can be used for training Gemini models and for grounding in Gemini apps, and "does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search nor is it used as a ranking signal in Google Search." So it is a choice about Gemini, not about AI Overviews, and it is not training-only either, because it also covers grounding in Gemini. Blocking Googlebot is different: it stops Google crawling the page, which can make it ineligible as a supporting link in the AI features. Blocked URLs can still stay in Search; removing a page needs a noindex on a page Google can crawl, or access restrictions.

Step 8: ask again and compare

Repeat the Step 1 searches each month, the same ones, and count. A change of one or two either way is noise. In Search Console, watch clicks and impressions for the pages you changed; remember AI feature traffic is mixed into the Web totals. There is no guaranteed timeline for earning an AI citation. Google says recrawling can take days to months, so treat any promised timeline with suspicion.

What doesn't work

• Special "AI Overview" schema. Google says none is needed, and none exists to add.
• Paying for a guaranteed spot. No one controls what Google's AI links.
• Hidden text aimed at AI, or showing Googlebot a different page than people see.
• Hundreds of near-identical suburb pages. They give the AI nothing new to link.
• Blocking Google-Extended to protect your rankings. It has no effect on Search.

The one-page checklist

Tick them off as you go. The print button prints this list on its own.

• Search your customers' questions on Google, on a phone and in AI Mode, and note which show an AI Overview and who is linked.
• Confirm in Search Console that each key page is indexed.
• Check robots.txt doesn't block Googlebot.
• Look for nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex in your page source.
• Rewrite your main pages so the first paragraph says what, who, where and the price.
• Add sections for the related subtopics the top results cover.
• Write one fact sheet and make your site, Google Business Profile and directories match it.
• Claim every free listing on the pages that get linked.
• Repeat the searches monthly and count how often you're linked.

Print the checklist

Questions

How do I appear in Google AI Overviews?

Have a page that Google has indexed and can show with a snippet, and that answers the question clearly. Google's documentation says there are no additional requirements for AI Overviews beyond Search eligibility.

Is AI Mode different from AI Overviews?

They are different features, but Google's documentation covers them together and sets the same requirement for both: a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet. That is why this guide treats them as one job.

Do I need special schema markup?

No. Google's documentation says no special schema is needed to appear in AI features. Accurate structured data still helps Search understand your page.

Does blocking Google-Extended remove me from AI Overviews?

No. Google says Google-Extended does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search nor is it used as a ranking signal. It controls Gemini training and grounding.

Can I see my AI Overview traffic in Search Console?

Only mixed in. Google says traffic from AI features is counted in the Performance report under the Web search type, alongside your other results.

Can I pay to be linked in an AI Overview?

Not for the answer itself. Be wary of anyone selling a guaranteed spot.

How long does it take?

There is no established timeline. Google decides when it crawls and what it keeps, so repeat the same searches monthly and compare.

Will this work for my kind of business?

Yes. The steps are the same for a café, a plumber, a dentist or a shop. What changes is the searches your customers make, so spend your time on Step 1 for your own trade.

Do it yourself, or have Dinkum do it every weekday morning

Everything here you can do yourself, and we'd rather you did than did nothing. The hard part is keeping it going: checking the searches every week, noticing which page should have won, rewriting it.

That's what Dinkum is. It asks a fixed set of buyer questions each week across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI answers, finds the page or fact that needs fixing, and ships one change to your site each weekday as a pull request you approve, then judges each change at 14 and 28 days against the rest of your site. It needs access to your website's code, because that's how it makes the changes, and it costs $2,000 a month for one site, month to month. There are no published client results yet, so we won't quote any. See how Dinkum works, how content briefs shape each page it writes, and what an AEO agency should do for what to expect from anyone you hire.