Google AI overviews are a new SERP feature that improves the user experience while allowing credible sources to be featured at the very top of search results.
They represent a new development in search as well as an opportunity for brands.
In this guide, I'll discuss the ins and outs of AI overviews, referring to Surfer's study of over 400k searches, and share actionable tips for securing these new prime spots in SERPs.
What you will learn
- What Google's AI overviews are
- How they affect SEO
- How to optimize your content for AI overviews
What are AI overviews?
Formerly known as Search Generative Experience (SGE), AI overviews (AIOs) are AI-generated responses to the search query that summarize all its key information.
They analyze the most reputable results for the given search term and draw from them using generative AI to create concise highlights in a few short paragraphs.
AIOs show up at the top of the search results, like so:
An AI overview also includes links to the sources used to generate it, as well as a separate panel with credible sources the reader can visit for in-depth information.
Besides links to third-party sites, AIOs can also include links from Google Shopping Graph, as shown here:
Think of AIOs as upgraded featured snippets.
The two are sometimes confused because they serve the same purpose, but there's an important distinction between them.
While a featured snippet includes a direct excerpt from the page Google believes best answers the query, AIOs crunch several reputable sources into a concise overview.
More importantly, AIOs are placed above featured snippets, as shown in this image:
This means that if your content is mentioned as a source used to generate an AIO, it will be placed above all other elements of the results page—organic results, paid results, and featured snippets.
Such exposure can do wonders for your organic traffic and expand your reach.
For this to happen, you need to make sure your content is fully optimized for AIOs.
Before explaining how to do this, we need to answer a question that has been on everyone's minds since the AIOs were released.
Are AI overviews accurate?
AI overviews aren't 100% accurate, though they provide trustworthy and reliable information in most cases.
Google's tests revealed that the AIO accuracy rate matches that of featured snippets, which are generally considered reliable. According to a 2022 study, only 12.5% of all featured snippets were deemed non-credible.
It's worth remembering that AIOs are generated from existing content, which might contain inaccurate information. Therefore, we can't expect them to be foolproof.
Another common concern is the relationship between AIOs and SEO. We already have quite a bit of data to explore this connection, so let's go through everything you need to know.
How do AI overviews affect SEO?
AIOs are opening new opportunities to increase your content's organic visibility— you only need to understand how Google generates them.
In a Surfer study, we looked at 405,576 user searches to understand the relationship between AIOs and SEO and what you can do to appear in AI overviews.
52% of sources cited in AI overviews rank in the top 10.
Another interesting discovery was that in 69% of cases, domains in the top 10 have higher average traffic than those featured in AIOs. In 71% of cases, they also rank for more keywords.
This tells us two things:
- The search engine continues to favor credible pages in AI overviews.
- There's still plenty of room to be featured in an overview even if you're not on the first page.
Smaller websites can benefit the most from this because they often lack the infrastructure or resources to compete with those dominating the search results.
With AIOs, they may not have to—if Google finds their content credible and authoritative enough, they might be bumped to the very top of SERPs.
Of course, many SEO aspects remained unchanged after AIOs were introduced. Our research showed that AIOs mention the exact keyword only 5.4% of the time, which means Google still focuses on context over exact keyword matches.
On the negative side, there's been some talk about AIOs increasing zero-click searches, which is when someone performs a search but doesn't visit any of the results. While this increase might make sense because users can find the info they need in the AI overview, there doesn't seem to be much evidence of it.
On the contrary—recent research found that the number of clicks per search didn't change much after the release of AIOs, so SEOs shouldn't be too worried about the feature costing them traffic.
Why are AI overviews important for SEO?
Google AI overviews are important for SEO because they can increase visibility and organic traffic by positioning content above traditional search results.
AIOs are a pretty major update and represent a new step in the evolution of SERPs. Proactive businesses will undoubtedly stay on top of them, and you'll want to do the same to maintain your competitive edge.
Lastly, being featured in an AI overview is a badge of honor that helps position your website as an authority in your niche. It means both Google and users find the website trustworthy, which is one of the pillars of successful SEO.
How to rank for AI overviews
You can't directly impact AI overview rankings—Google generates AIOs on the fly, so the content and sources can vary considerably between searches.
Still, you can increase your chances of being featured as a source by following these 11 tips:
1. Create high-quality, authoritative content
Google has always prioritized high-quality, trustworthy content to ensure users quickly find credible answers to their questions.
AIOs are an extension of this goal, so you must write authoritative content to boost your chances of being featured.
This is especially important in YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) topics, where Google looks for the highest possible degree of credibility.
For example, if you Google "how to treat the flu," you'll see that the AI overview cites resources like the CDC and Mayo Clinic.
The main reason for this is that such sources meet Google's E-E-A-T guidelines. This acronym stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness—the four things Google wants to see in content to both rank it high in traditional organic search results and include it in AIOs.
To write content that meets these criteria, follow these tips:
- Research the content thoroughly to ensure factual accuracy.
- Write comprehensive answers to people's questions.
- Highlight your expertise to present yourself as a credible source of information.
- Provide unique insights and share personal experiences when possible.
If your website consistently produces well-researched, informative, and trustworthy content, you're more likely to be chosen as a source in Google’s AI overviews.
2. Include answer-oriented sections
Since AI overviews aim to provide quick, digestible information, content that answers specific questions directly and clearly can improve your chances of being selected.
Optimizing for AIOs is similar to aiming for a featured snippet, so you should try to answer a user's query in the first few sentences.
Take the following query and its AI overview as an example:
You can see that the first cited source is an article by Corsair. If you open the article, you'll see the query is answered concisely in only a few lines:
Even the AI overview itself largely resembles Corsair's explanation, so Google trusts that it accurately answers the user's search term.
It's worth mentioning that you shouldn't only answer the main topic or search term—try to write sections that directly address other queries related to your topic.
This is similar to using FAQ schema to optimize for the People Also Ask section, and it can help Google's algorithm pick up those sections when generating AI overviews.
3. Match the search intent
Google's AI overviews prioritize content that directly addresses user queries.
Matching search intent aligns your content with what users are actually looking for.
By understanding and catering to search intent, you ensure that your content is informative and directly applicable to the user's needs, which is a key factor in Google's selection process for AI-generated summaries.
To effectively match search intent, look at the SERPs for your main keyword before you start writing.
For instance, we can see that the top-ranking pages for "learning tennis" are how-to guides.
The same is true for the pages ranking in AI overviews for this keyword.
To rank in SERPs and increase your chances of ranking in AIOs, you would also need to create a how-to article to tackle this query.
4. Improve your SERP rankings
Let us say it again: 52% of the sources selected for AIOs come from the top 10 results on the SERP.
Climbing SERPs should be one of your top priorities if you want to maximize your chances of being featured.
This has always been the end goal of all SEO efforts, so showing up in AIOs is only an additional benefit you can expect.
The average position of pages in AIOs is around the 5th spot.
So take steps to improve your keyword rankings as much as possible. Here are some of the most impactful ways to do it:
Perform on-page optimization
AIOs don't often include the exact search term. However, that doesn't diminish the importance of optimizing for the right SEO terms.
Search engines look at the context of your content. Keywords is how they derive that context.
That simply means you have to be smart about your on-page optimization efforts.
When using Surfer, you can rely on the Content Editor to guide you.
Surfer's Content Editor does a SERP analysis and tells you which terms to include in your content and how often.
This way, your content will be comprehensive and touch upon the most important points of a topic.
And if you want things to be even easier, use the Auto-Optimize feature inside the Content Editor.
You can automatically optimize your content for the right terms with one click. Auto-Optimize not only inserts terms but also adds entire sentences, paragraphs, and even sections to fill content gaps.
Work on your backlink profile
Backlinks are votes of confidence in your website coming from other sources, so attracting high-quality ones is an excellent way to position yourself as an authority and boost your SERP rank.
Building a robust backlink profile enhances your site's credibility and signals to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy.
To improve your link profile, you can use various strategies, such as guest posting, HARO, and broken link building.
Additionally, engaging with industry influencers and participating in relevant online forums can further strengthen your backlink strategy by fostering authentic connections and generating organic links.
5. Use plain language
As you answer user queries, use plain, natural language. Make the answer as clear and digestible as possible, and try to achieve a high readability score.
This means you should avoid the following:
- Slang and jargon your audience likely won't understand
- Overly complex terminology (even if your topic is more technical)
- Keyword-stuffed text that aims to game search engines
By avoiding the above and sticking to natural language, you will help Google understand the context and relevance of your content and use it for its AI-generated summaries.
You can use tools like Hemingway Editor to assess the content's readability and make any necessary improvements.
And if you're using an AI writing tool, it might be worth using a text humanizer such as Surfer's AI Content Humanizer.
6. Properly format your content
Try to improve your content's skimmability by using short paragraphs and elements like lists and bullet points.
Doing so makes it easier for Google to pick up the content and summarize the key points relevant to the query.
AI overviews contain lists in 78% of the cases.
For example, the following AI overview comes in the list format:
If you open the first cited resource, you'll see that AIO's list items are largely inspired by the article's bullet list:
This means Google recognized the list as a credible response to the question, so it built the AI overview around it.
7. Cite authoritative sources
According to our research, Google cites up to eight sources in AIOs 90% of the time. It pulls content from various pages to create a concise summary that still offers a well-rounded answer to the user's query.
While it's best if your website is considered credible enough to be cited, linking to other authoritative sources can also help.
Doing so means your data is backed up by a resource Google deems reputable, which increases the chances of your content being used in the AI overview.
This is another rule that particularly applies to YMYL topics. As per Google's Quality Rater Guidelines, these topics require a particularly high level of E-E-A-T, so you need to make sure all the facts are accurate and can be verified through citations.
Always cite sources when discussing the following:
- Financial advice
- Medical claims
- News and current events
- Legal and government information
8. Meet Google's technical requirements
For Google to use your content in AIOs, it must be able to access and index your pages. This is why you need to ensure your website's technical aspects are on point.
Specifically, you need to check if these three conditions are met:
- Googlebot (Google's crawler) isn't blocked and can visit the page.
- The page is served with the HTTP 200 status code (which means it works and isn't an error page).
- The page contains indexable file types and doesn't violate Google's spam policies.
Luckily, you don't need to be an expert to ensure your pages meet these requirements.
All you need to do is open Google Search Console and go to the Page Indexing report. It will show if your pages are indexable and if there are any indexing issues you need to fix.
9. Leverage structured data
Another way to help Google grasp your content is to add schema markup (a.k.a. structured data)—a piece of code that explains to Google what your content is about.
There are various types of schema markup (Product, Person, etc.), and you should use all the types applicable to your content to help Google understand it fully.
You can see what types of structured data Google has found on your website by opening Google Search Console and going to Overview > Enhancements.
If it doesn't look how you intended it to, you can use Google's Schema Markup Testing Tool to spot any errors and validate your structured data.
10. Improve user experience
Besides creating quality content, you need to make sure users have a smooth experience navigating your website.
Ensure proper mobile optimization, make pages responsive and skimmable, and avoid pop-ups and layout shifts as much as possible.
Additionally, focus on improving page speed and that your website's design is intuitive and user-friendly.
Enhancing user experience increases the likelihood of being featured in AI overviews and boosts overall user engagement and satisfaction.
11. Regularly update your content
Regularly updating your content is crucial for maintaining and improving your rankings in AI overviews.
Google values fresh, relevant content as it aims to provide users with the most accurate and up-to-date information.
By consistently refreshing your content, you signal to Google that your website is active and committed to delivering current insights.
Regular updates allow you to incorporate the latest data, address new user queries, and refine your SEO strategies, thereby increasing your chances of being featured in AI-generated summaries.
Not sure whether your content needs an update?
You can check out your Google Search Console data or head to the Content Audit tab inside Surfer.
In the Content Audit, you can see your content's performance alongside important metrics, such as your content score, CTR, traffic, impression, and position changes.
You can also look at your top improvement opportunities to get started.
Once you click on Optimize, you'll move to the Content Editor to make the improvements based on its guidelines.
Key takeaways
- AI overviews, formerly known as Search Generative Experience, are AI-generated summaries of search queries that appear at the top of Google's search results, providing concise information from multiple credible sources.
- AI overviews offer new opportunities for increasing organic visibility and traffic by placing content above traditional search results, featured snippets, and paid ads.
- To rank in AI overviews, create high-quality, authoritative content that meets Google's E-E-A-T guidelines (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).
- Structure your content to provide clear and concise answers to user queries. Use natural language and avoid jargon to enhance readability and immobility.
- Ensure your website's technical aspects are optimized for Google's crawlers, including proper indexing, HTTP status codes, and schema markup.
- Enhance your SERP rankings through on-page optimization, building a strong backlink profile, and improving user experience to improve your chances of being featured in AI overviews.
- Cite authoritative sources, especially for YMYL topics, to back up your data and increase your credibility with Google.
- As AI overviews evolve, adapt your SEO strategies to maintain a competitive edge and ensure long-term success in AI-driven search.
Optimize for AI-driven search
AI overviews offer an opportunity to enhance organic visibility by placing content prominently in search results.
Can you directly optimize content for AI overviews?
Not really. However, our data shows that content that performs well in traditional SERPs has a higher chance of ranking in AIOs.
So, your best chance to rank in AI overviews is to continue creating authoritative, high-quality content and optimizing it for readers and search engines.
If you need some help creating high-quality content that ranks well, give Surfer a try!
