It seems natural to hypothesize that Google would rely on its strongest SEO signals to determine which pages should surface in Google’s AI answers.
And so my pre-study hypothesis was that Early Query Confirmation – a page’s ability to show topical relevance quickly would matter for Google’s AI Overview answers.
What is early query confirmation?
Early query confirmation or early query relevance is a signal that measures how quickly and clearly a page addresses the user’s topic.
It typically evaluates whether the target keyword or core topic is introduced and answered within the first visible screen or paragraph of the content giving users immediate confirmation that they’ve landed on a relevant page.
We know that addressing the primary keyword and core topic within the first paragraph or visible screen area is a common practice in traditional SEO to help users confirm the page is relevant to them.
To test this, I analyzed over 30,000 pages that appeared for 1,000 AI Overview queries in June 2025. Each page was evaluated for how quickly and clearly it confirmed the topic of the query, using a simple rubric:
- Did the keyword/topic appear in the first paragraph or screen area?
- Was the core topic explicitly mentioned and contextualized up front?
I then compared the average scores for 7,000 pages selected by AI Overviews with those for 25,000 pages that AI Overviews didn’t select.
Key findings
Pages in AI Overview results score a modest 6.19% better on early query confirmation than non-included pages.
The signal isn’t nonexistent. AIO-included pages performed better, but not by a wide margin.
That makes it one of the weakest differentiators in my research.
In fact, early query relevance ranks 14 out of the 15 traits I’m analyzing for Google’s AI Overview selection.
While confirming relevance early is a best practice for human readability, it doesn’t seem to strongly influence whether content is cited in Google’s AI Overviews.
Early query confirmation doesn’t boost AIO inclusion much on its own, but may help avoid exclusion when done poorly.
This finding is in contrast with traditional blue-links SEO where query relevance has the highest correlation, which is rather intuitive because using the main keyword above the fold and explaining it is a strong SEO ranking factor.
Early query relevance is one of the factors I studied as part of a much larger research project into how Google AI overviews include pages in the results.
I will continue to share more insights as I analyze other factors. Next time, I’m looking at the role that contextually placed keywords play in AIO selection.
Limits of the study
From my experience working with AIO results, I could see that there are some pages directly addressing the query keyword but AIO results also include pages with related supporting information.
These pages won’t display “early query confirmation” since they explore related angles that are useful for the final AIO answer but not the exact query.
This could explain why AIO results show a weak signal with early query confirmation.
Data and methodology
I’m analyzing 1,000 queries that trigger Google’s AI Overviews, resulting in a dataset of over 30,000 unique pages using a 36-point scoring rubric.
- 7,000 pages were included in AI Overviews
- 25,000 pages were not selected but were present on the same results pages
To understand what separates AIO results from excluded pages, I’m evaluating each page on a set of 15 traits covering five categories:
1. Query relevance
How clearly does a page’s content match the query?
I am analyzing four factors in this category. This study you’re reading on early query relevance is one of them. The other three are search intent, contextual keyword inclusion, and concept definitions.
2. Logical flow
How well does the content on a page flow and transition?
3. Content presentation
How is the page’s layout and structure?
4. Semantic structure
Does the heading hierarchy offer clarity to readers and algorithms?
5. Supporting information
Does the page offer concrete examples and clear walkthroughs?
Each page is scored using a custom 36-point content quality rubric that covers the above five categories.
For example, the early query relevance on this page is non-existent.
Here’s an example of a page with strong early query relevance.
I’m calculating the average score difference between AIO-included and non-included pages per factor, revealing where meaningful differences emerge.
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