But those AI-generated answers still need to get their information from somewhere. Google draws on content from across the web and links to supporting sources, creating a new SEO opportunity: making your website one of the sources it trusts enough to cite.
So, how do you become that source? In this guide, we’ll show you how you can increase your chances of being cited by publishing genuinely useful content, making your expertise easy to verify and structuring your information so Google can understand it.
What Are AI Overviews and AI Mode?
What Are AI Overviews?
If you’ve searched on Google recently, you’ve probably already seen an AI Overview. These AI-generated summaries appear above or among the traditional search results.
They combine information from multiple sources into one response, with links to supporting websites where users can learn more.
What Is AI Mode?
AI Mode takes this a step further, turning Google Search into a much more conversational experience.
You can ask complex, multi-part questions and continue with follow-up questions. Behind the scenes, Google uses a “query fan-out” technique to run several related searches across different subtopics before bringing the information together into one response.
How Do AI Overviews and AI Mode Affect SEO?
More Searches Are Ending Without a Click
The most obvious impact is fewer clicks to websites. If Google can answer a user’s question directly within an AI Overview, they often have no reason to visit the original source.
In fact, an Ahrefs study of 300,000 keywords found that the presence of an AI Overview was linked to a 58% lower average click-through rate for the top-ranking page.
That doesn’t mean every website will lose a third of its traffic as the impact will depend on your industry and the searches you target. However, AI Mode could push this even further by allowing users to ask follow-up questions and continue their research without returning to the traditional results.
Rankings Are No Longer the Whole Story
You could rank first for a search and still receive fewer clicks because an AI-generated answer appears above you.
At the same time, your content could be cited within that answer even if you aren’t the top traditional result. Rankings and traffic still matter, but they no longer tell you the full story. AI citations, brand visibility and conversions are becoming increasingly important measures of SEO performance.
SEO Has to Adapt
People are asking longer, more specific questions, and AI Mode saves them the task of visiting multiple different website to find all the answers they’re looking for.
You can’t control how people choose to search, but you can give Google stronger reasons to use your content by making it useful, trustworthy and easy to understand.
The goal is no longer just to rank. It’s to become part of the answer.
How to Get Your Content Cited in AI Overviews and AI Mode
There’s no guaranteed formula for getting cited but there are things you can do to give Google a clearer reason to use your content.
1. Get the SEO Fundamentals Right
Before Google can cite your content, it needs to be able to find, access and understand it.
Make sure your pages are crawlable, indexable and connected through clear internal links. Your important information should be available as text, and your website should be technically sound and easy to use.
You don’t need any technical hacks, Google says the same SEO fundamentals used for traditional Search also apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode.
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2. Make Your Expertise Easy to Verify
E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. It describes the qualities Google looks for when assessing whether content is helpful and reliable.
So, how can you demonstrate them?
Name the author. Make sure your content has a named author. Create author bio pages covering their role, experience and expertise, and link to relevant professional profiles and previous work.
Show first-hand experience. Include your own observations, examples, processes and case studies. Don’t just repeat generic information that every other article says.
Back up your claims. If you mention a statistic or make a factual claim, show where it came from. Citing reliable external sources makes your content easier to verify.
Build topical authority. Cover your specialist subjects in depth and connect related articles through internal links. Publishing a smaller number of genuinely useful articles is better than filling your website with surface-level content.
Keep your content updated. Review important pages regularly and replace outdated statistics, broken links and obsolete advice. Outdated statistics or obsolete information lowers trust signals.
3. Put the Answer Before the Explanation
In the past, SEO content was written with the aim of keeping users scrolling to find the information, in an attempt to keep users on the page as long as possible.
Now, it’s recommended to write in the ‘inverted pyramid’ that’s used in journalism. Start with the most important information, then expand with context, evidence and examples.
Research from Kevin Indig found that 44.2% of the verified ChatGPT citations analysed came from the first 30% of a page.
Although the study looked at ChatGPT rather than Google AI Overviews specifically, it shows a wider pattern: AI systems are more likely to reference information that is clear and easy to find.
If your most useful insight is hidden near the bottom of the page, you’re making it harder for both readers and AI systems to find it.
4. Write in Self-Contained Sections
Treat each H2 as its own unit. Someone should be able to read one section and understand it without needing to read the entire article.
The heading should clearly describe the question or subject, and the first paragraph should provide a direct answer. You can then add more detail, evidence and examples underneath.
This also makes it easier for Google to identify and retrieve a relevant passage instead of interpreting the whole page.
5. Use Supporting Formats Where They Add Value
Not every question is best answered with text alone. Original images, diagrams, videos and demonstrations can help explain a subject more clearly and create additional opportunities to appear across Google’s search features.
Make sure the important information is still available as text, and give images and videos useful titles, descriptions, alt text or transcripts so Google can understand their context.
6. Use Structured Data Accurately
Structured data helps Google understand what a page is about. Google has confirmed that there is no special schema required for AI Overviews or AI Mode. Any structured data you use should accurately reflect the content visible on the page.
Depending on the page, useful types could include:
- Article for the article, author and publication dates
- ProfilePage for author pages
- Person and Organization for the people and businesses behind the content
- BreadcrumbList to explain where a page sits within your website
- Product or LocalBusiness where relevant
The aim is to make your content and the people behind it easier to understand.
7. Build Authority Beyond Your Website
Your SEO presence no longer ends at your website. Google can discover information about you across social media, Business Profiles, author pages and other websites.
Make sure your name, role, biography, profile image and website links are consistent wherever you appear.
You should also think about what you’re publishing on social media now that Google indexes Instagram, TikTok and Facebook posts. If you write expert articles on your website but only use
LinkedIn to repost company updates, you’re missing an opportunity to demonstrate that same expertise elsewhere.
Connect the appropriate social accounts to your Google Business Profile and, if you’re eligible, consider claiming a Google Search Profile.
Search Profiles bring a creator’s articles, videos and social content together in one place, although Google states that creating one does not directly improve rankings.
If your website says you’re an expert but the rest of your online presence gives Google little evidence of that expertise, you’re leaving part of the picture incomplete.
Think of your website, author profile, social accounts and Business Profile as connected parts of the same online identity. The clearer and more consistent that identity is, the easier it becomes for Google to understand who you are and why your content should be trusted.
Balance AI Visibility With Traffic Opportunities
Getting cited in an AI Overview is valuable, but it shouldn’t be the only goal of your content strategy.
Some searches create an opportunity to build visibility through AI citations. Others are more likely to send users directly to your website. A strong SEO strategy should target both.
Target Searches Where You Could Be Cited
Start by looking at the AI Overviews already appearing for searches relevant to your business.
Complex questions, comparisons and topics that require information from several sources can all create citation opportunities.
Look for answers that are unclear, outdated or missing useful detail, then consider what you could add.
Don’t rely entirely on keyword tools to decide which questions to answer. Look at People Also Ask results, customer reviews, forum discussions and the questions your sales or customer service teams receive.
These sources can reveal the specific concerns, comparisons and follow-up questions people ask when they’re genuinely researching a subject.
Your strongest opportunities will often be subjects where you can contribute original research, first-hand experience or a genuinely expert perspective, not simply rewrite the information Google already has.
Continue Targeting Searches That Generate Clicks
You should also continue targeting searches where users need to visit a website to complete what they’re trying to do.
These could include local and transactional searches, specialist questions, product or service enquiries, and queries where users need a tool, calculator, template or detailed resource.
AI Overviews can appear or disappear as Google updates its systems, so don’t treat the absence of one as permanent. Instead, build a balanced strategy: compete for citations where AI answers appear while continuing to create content that gives users a reason to click.
How to Measure AI Search Visibility
This isn’t quite as straightforward as tracking traditional rankings. Google is rolling out a dedicated Generative AI performance report in Search Console, although it isn’t available to every website yet.
The report shows impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode, including which pages appeared and where and when those impressions occurred.
However, it doesn’t currently provide complete query, click and citation data. This means you’ll need to look at several metrics to understand how AI search is affecting your website:
- AI impressions and cited pages
- Organic click-through rates
- Branded search demand
- Identifiable referral traffic
- Engaged sessions and conversions
- Visibility for topics that are commercially important to your business
Don’t measure success by citations alone. Being mentioned in an AI answer may increase awareness, but a citation that never produces a click, branded search or conversion might have limited commercial value.
The aim is to understand whether your AI visibility is helping more people discover, trust and ultimately choose your business.
Become the Source Behind the Answer
As Google answers more questions directly, earning organic traffic may become more difficult. But that doesn’t mean content or SEO is becoming irrelevant. AI-generated answers still need reliable information and supporting sources.
Your opportunity is to become one of them.
Publish original, genuinely useful content. Make your expertise easy to verify, structure your information clearly and build a consistent identity across your website and wider online presence.
Ranking still matters, but it’s no longer the only goal. The future of SEO is about becoming a source Google trusts enough to include in the answer.
