SEO for Google AI Overviews
We help brands to appear more prominently in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. If you are looking to recover/grow or scale traffic we can help.
Trusted by ambitious brands
AI Overview SEO Specialists
SEO Services for Google AI Overviews & AI Mode
Google rolled out AI Overviews effectively Google's AI generating answers from within search. Since the rollout, sites globally have seen clicks decline as Google answers more user searches directly from within search.
If you're looking for traffic / ranking recovery and / or growth, look no further. Assertive are specialists in helping to drive brand visibility growth. We help brands to:
- Recover clicks lost to Google's AI Overview
- Recover lost positions, rank and CTR
- Grow and claim more positions above the fold
- Increase clicks, conversions & sales from AI Overviews
- Improve prominence in Google AI Mode
50%+
Searches now show AIOs
−61%
Avg organic CTR drop
23×
Conv rate from citations
+35%
CTR uplift if cited
What are Google AI Overviews?
Google AI Overviews now appear in more than HALF of all searches.
Google AI Overviews (AIO) are generative AI powered summaries that appear at the very top of the search results. You no doubt will have seen them, moreso for informational searches. Now, Google has introduced a pivotal shift in how people get access to information, instead of forcing a user to click through three different websites to piece together an answer, Google's Gemini model does the "heavy lifting" for them.
It crawls high-authority pages in real-time, extracts the most relevant facts, and weaves them into a single, cohesive response. Initially launched as an experiment (SGE), AI Overviews are now the standard interface for informational and "how-to" queries. They often feature citation cards - small, clickable links that credit the sources used to generate the summary - effectively making them the new "Position Zero" for the modern web.
We help businesses to appear more prominently in AI Overviews, increasing the probability of a click. Whilst AI overviews benefit the users to a degree, they've also had a considerable impact on millions of businesses globally who relied on informational content for clicks and pre-consideration brand awareness.
The new search reality
Zero-click searches have surged throughout 2024, 2025 and into 2026.
With tens of millions of websites globally seeing click decline as a result of Google AI Overviews, there are a lot of publishers, businesses and site owners trying to recover traffic lost to Google AI overviews. Since their rollout in 2024, they have continued to grow in search saturation – as in, they're appearing in more and more searches. This puts website owners and publishers at a disadvantage.
- Organic Click-Through Rate (CTR) has plummeted: Traditional organic CTRs have dropped by roughly 61% to 65%.
- Zero-Click Volume: In many informational niches, zero-click rates have surged to over 80%, as users find their answers without ever leaving the Google ecosystem.
- Real Estate Loss: AI Overviews effectively push the first traditional organic result down by an average of 1,500+ pixels, burying "Rank #1" below the fold on most mobile devices.
We've seen an increased demand for traffic recovery services, this is why Assertive now offers a dedicated SEO for Google AI Overviews & AI mode service.
Why citations matter
AI Overview Citations are Crucial Now & For Future Search
In the current search landscape, being cited within the AI Overview isn't just a "nice-to-have" it's a strategic requirement, especially when we see how much AI overviews have eaten into informational searches. While overall traffic volume may be lower, the quality of traffic from AI citations is generally higher.
The "Citation Premium": Brands that are cited in an AI Overview see a 35% higher organic CTR compared to those that rank on page one but are ignored by the AI. Unfortunately, where AI overviews appear, traditional search results underneath get far less clicks.
Unmatched Conversion Rates: Early 2026 benchmarks indicate that visitors arriving via an AI citation convert at a much higher rate (up to 23× better in some sectors) because they have already been "pre-qualified" by Google's AI summary.
Third-Party Validation: When Google's AI quotes your data or methodology, it acts as a neutral endorsement. In a world of AI-generated fluff, being the verified source of truth provides a level of digital PR and authority that traditional rankings simply can't match.
Our work in AI Overviews
We've Helped Brands to Avoid Click Loss & to Grow & Thrive in Organic Search
We deal with clients in all different niches from publishers & content houses through to ecom brands, global service providers & MSPs. We've seen everything from publisher sites seeing significant click loss to Google AI Overviews through to brands that remained stagnant.
We've helped sites to recover lost clicks, we've also helped sites to grow and thrive, capitalising on more organic traffic from both traditional SERPs and from AI Overviews.
Our ethos is create genuinely good, helpful content, build a solid brand and the clicks will come, even if it does take time. Low-effort click gain from legacy SEO strategies is no longer as viable as AI Overviews answer more of the questions people are asking.
Strategy shift
How AI Overviews Change SEO Strategy & Approach
Traditional SEO still plays an intrinsic part in your website's ability to appear in AI, LLMs and AI Overviews things such as good technical SEO compliance, high quality content and a strong domain backlink profile all remain key.
Google AI Overviews tend to include website sources where the content is high quality, trusted and aligned with E-E-A-T / YMYL, where the landing page experience is likely to be better, and where there are sufficient trust signals / behavioural signals.
Sites have to earn and demonstrate topical authority before they are likely to be cited in AI Overviews so the SEO strategy really hones in on content quality, user behaviour and authority signals.
A good SEO strategy still requires crawlability & indexability analysis along with maximum technical compliance, snippet and structured data utilisation, solid internal and external linking, good page experience, high quality images & media alongside brand building, link building & more.
Beyond surface content
Adding Unique Value to Factually Correct Content is Key
A large volume of searches that return Google AI Overviews tend to be informational / navigational / commercial searches. How and where Google sources information is really dependent on the niche, query type and intent. So we work with clients to:
We go beyond that we work with clients to add unique added value to their content. What's key to understand is that Google doesn't need to serve lots of sites all saying the same thing. Instead, it's about adding new, unique added value to content in such a way that it's even more helpful than content being cited already.
- Audit, update, rewrite and fact-check content
- Improve content relevance, coverage and NLP
- Bolster E-E-A-T and trust in content, domain and brand
- Answer questions people are asking in relation to your brand
- Utilise structured data / JSON / schema
- Deliver a good user experience / good UX
Deep dive
How AI Overviews Are Changing SEO
Fundamentally, a key part of SEO strategies delivered by most SEO consultants, in-house SEOs and SEO agencies involved an element of content production i.e. blogs/articles as a monthly deliverable. For a long time this worked well and was generally easier traffic to get.
However, since the rollout of AI Overviews, informational traffic to websites has shrunk significantly because Google is synthesising answers directly within the search result, negating the need for a user to click to a website.
Fundamentally, targeting top-of-funnel or bottom-of-funnel traffic is harder. So SEO is now more about producing content with meaning & driving strong overall topical and brand authority so your site can be cited as opposed to the more legacy approach to SEO where people would often write lots of blog content just to try and get clicks.
Yes you can even though you cannot directly control if and what Google Gemini pulls to cite your content, you can not only improve the probability of being cited but you can enhance your citation position within an AI Overview.
SEO for AI Overviews is basically traditional SEO but with additional checks & tests on top bolstering trust, bolstering E-E-A-T, utilising all available structured data in order to improve the likelihood of your site being used in AI Overview generation or during query fan-outs.
So yes you can optimise for AI Overviews, although there is no exact or specific playbook for it.
Our AI Overview services
Our AI Overview SEO Services
Nine focused workstreams that map directly to how AI Overviews choose what to cite - accessibility, authority, and topical coverage.
- 01
Content Accessibility Checks
We ensure Google Gemini can fetch & render your content properly. We look at output, Javascript utilisation, raw DOM analysis & more.
- 02
AI Overview Research
We look at AI overview prominence for your niche as well as looking at the size of market and segments for AI overview prominence and potential impact.
- 03
CTR & Click Impact Analysis
If your site has lost clicks, we look at search console data to assess queries, CTR drop off & we strategise around where the losses have occurred for recovery.
- 04
Content E-E-A-T
We'll analyse your content and its overall E-E-A-T/YMYL compliance. We look at author, author validation & how genuine the content is, how unique, well written and topically complete it is.
- 05
Editorial Review & Enhancement
We look at your content production process as well as performing an editorial review. We'll look at editorial quality, author credentials, information accuracy & more.
- 06
Digital PR
We deliver high quality digital PR to help increase brand authority and trust, this works towards improving your brand as a citation source, it also supports SEO which indirectly supports GEO.
- 07
Query & Content Coverage
We'll look at how many questions your website answers, we'll look at coverage (queries vs content) and we'll look at how well questions are answered & whether they have structured data.
- 08
UGC & Brand Monitoring
We look at what is being said about your brand + where, covering UGC communities including Reddit & Quora. We track brand mentions & brand sentiment.
- 09
Visibility Solutions
We provide multi-platform LLM visibility tracking for clients including prompt coverage, share of market data + more.
Real client results
Case studies from across the agency.
Pharmacy Online
Online dispensary medications including over the counter & prescription medicines.
SCI-MX Nutrition
One of the UK's leading sports nutrition & protein supplement retailers.
Lenovo EMEA
Global computer manufacturer Assertive supports search across EMEA markets.
BNP Paribas Cardif
International insurance group Warranty Direct programme growth.
Audley Travel
Tailor-made luxury travel bespoke itineraries crafted by destination specialists.
Emma Sleep
Award-winning sleep products mattresses, pillows and bedding.
Orangeries UK
Bespoke orangeries design, manufacture and installation across the UK.
Justerini & Brooks
Fine wine & spirits merchant one of the world's oldest, established 1749.
Craft Irish Whiskey Co.
Ultra-luxury, super-premium Irish whiskey crafted in small batches.
Can You Optimise for AI Overviews?
Yes you can, even though you cannot directly control if and what Google Gemini pulls to cite your content, you can not only improve the probability of being cited but you can enhance your citation position within an AI Overview.
SEO for AI Overviews is basically traditional SEO but with additional checks & tests on top, such as bolstering trust, bolstering E-E-A-T, utilising all available structured data in order to improve the likelihood of your site being used in AI Overview generation or during query fan outs.
So yes, you can optimise for AI Overviews, although there is no exact or specific playbook for it.
What Kind of Content Gets Cited Most Often?
The pages most likely to be pulled into AI Overviews tend to be the ones that make life easy for Google. Not in the sense of dumbing things down, but in the sense of being genuinely useful, well explained and easy to extract meaning from.
Pages that answer a clear question, explain a process properly, compare options, or break down a topic in a way that removes friction are far more useful than vague pages padded with generic commentary. If your content says something specific, supports it well, and covers the obvious follow-up questions, it stands a much better chance of being referenced.
It also helps if the page brings something of its own to the table. Original insight, practical examples, first hand experience, worked examples, strong summaries, and clear points of view all make a page more worth citing than one that just repeats what ten other sites already said.
How to Structure Content for AI Overviews
Structure matters more than most people realise. A page can have the right topic and still underperform because the answer is buried under fluff, padded intros, or awkward formatting. If you want a page to be easy to pull from, it needs to surface the important points quickly.
That usually means clear headings, direct opening lines under each section, short blocks of copy, and content that moves logically from one idea to the next. Google does not need your page to sound robotic, but it does need to understand what each section is doing.
It also helps to think in layers. Start with the simple answer, then expand into the nuance. Use comparison tables where they help, steps where steps make sense, and FAQs where users naturally have follow-on questions.
A strong page does not just answer the headline query once. It gives Google enough clarity and enough depth to understand the topic properly and enough confidence to use the page as a source.
E-E-A-T, Authority & Trust Signals
When people talk about authority, they often make it sound abstract. In practice, it is much more concrete than that. Google is trying to work out whether this page feels dependable, whether the person or business behind it looks credible, and whether the content appears to have been written by somebody who actually understands the subject.
That means the signals around the page matter just as much as the copy itself. Named authors, real experience, evidence, sensible sourcing, clear business information, and a site that looks maintained all help build trust.
For a topic like AI Overviews, trust isn't just about adding an author box and calling it a day (or faking E-E-A-T). It is about showing you know what you are talking about.
It's very easy to see through fake E-E-A-T, i.e. if an author who doesn't fully understand the topic or niche they are writing about pretends to, it becomes evident to anyone who does understand the topic/niche inside out.
That might mean referencing Google's own documentation, using real search examples, explaining where people get this wrong, and writing in a way that sounds like somebody with experience rather than somebody trying to sound clever. Good content can rank. Trusted content has a better chance of being relied on.
AI Overview Data – Why is it Missing from Search Console?
Google hasn't commented on this but the SEO community have been asking for it. Any searches that have an AI Overview where a user clicks will be shown in Google Search Console data, the issue is, Google does not segment that data into its own "search appearance" section and subsequently, it means we cannot see AI Overview data within its own scope within Google Search Console.
The data is in Search Console, it's just blended in with general search data. We can however spot queries that have been impacted by AI Overviews (where clicks decline, average position remains stable and where CTR drops right off).
Technical SEO is Crucial for AI Overviews
We run full checks on your website to look at everything that plays a part in Google's ability to fetch and render content from your website. Google Gemini will fetch content from your website if your site is selected during the generative phase. So, ensuring that your content is available without any complex tech stacks or issues with rendering or performance is absolutely key. Technical SEO plays a key part in not only making your website accessible to Google and end users, but it is also intrinsic in enhancing how data is organised / structured, how internal pages are linked and other things that play a key part in traditional SEO performance.
"We've been working with Assertive on our SEO & AI SEO Strategy we're very pleased with the results. The team are fantastic & very helpful."
We had our first wholesale bulk order through ChatGPT which is one of the largest orders we've had to date. We're getting more customers telling us they found us in ChatGPT searches, so very pleased.
Appletons Wholesale
AI / LLM SEO client
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Common questions from brands considering AI Overviews services with us.
What are Google's AI Overviews?
Google's AI Overviews are AI generated summaries that can appear in Search results when Google believes a quick, synthesised answer will help the user. They usually sit above the standard organic listings and pull together information from multiple sources, while also linking out to relevant websites so people can explore further. Google positions them as part of Search rather than a separate product.
Why am I getting an AI Overview on Google?
You tend to see AI Overviews when Google thinks a query would benefit from a stitched-together answer rather than a simple blue-link result. That often means more complex searches, broader questions, comparisons, multi-step tasks, or searches where someone is trying to understand a topic rather than just find one exact page.
Google has changed the depth of coverage for AI Overviews over the past 1–2 years we're seeing AI Overviews appearing for more and more queries with more than half of all searches now yielding an AI Overview.
How to show up in a Google AI Overview?
There is no separate "rank for AI Overviews" switch. Google says there are no additional technical requirements for AI Overviews beyond the normal requirements to appear in Search. So if you want a page to be cited, the focus is still on strong SEO fundamentals: make sure the page is crawlable, indexable, internally linked, and able to generate a snippet, while also offering genuinely useful content that gives Google something worth referencing.
This is exactly what we focus on at Assertive if you onboard as a client, we'll ensure you're covered in as many ways as possible to maximise the chance of being cited.
Where does Google AI Overview get its information?
Google AI Overviews are generated from Google's understanding of the web and other information systems it already uses in Search. Google says AI Overviews provide an AI-generated snapshot with links so users can dig deeper, and its Search documentation explains that AI features can use a query fan-out approach effectively exploring subtopics and pulling together information from multiple relevant sources.
For site owners, the practical takeaway is simple Google is not looking for one perfect sentence hidden on a page. It is trying to understand the broader topic, identify strong sources, and assemble a useful result. That is one reason shallow pages, thin rewrites, and vague content tend to be less compelling than pages with clarity, depth, evidence and strong topical coverage.
Should I trust Google AI Overviews?
They can be useful, but they should not be treated as flawless. Google presents AI Overviews as a faster way to understand a topic and then click through to learn more not as a guarantee that every summary will always be complete or perfectly accurate. Google continues to link to sources within the experience, which is a strong signal that users are still expected to verify and explore beyond the summary itself.
This is why it is essential for your content to be factually correct, accurate & not misleading in any way.
Get started
Recover lost clicks. Get cited in AI Overviews.
Whether you've taken a hit from AI Overviews or want to claim more above-the-fold real estate, our SEO for AI Overviews service is built for both recovery and growth. Tell us about your site and we'll respond within 1–2 working hours.
