AI Overviews are summaries generated by Google's Gemini models that appear above or among the regular results for some searches. Each overview answers the query in a few sentences or a short list and shows links to supporting web pages. Google launched them broadly in the US in May 2024, after testing them as the Search Generative Experience, and has since expanded them to many countries and languages.
When AI Overviews appear
Google decides per query whether an overview is useful. They show up more often for informational and multi-part questions and less often for simple navigational searches, such as a brand name. Whether one appears can change from day to day for the same query.
How pages are chosen
Google's guidance says there is no special markup or extra requirement to appear in AI Overviews. A page has to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet in Google Search. Beyond that, the usual signals apply: helpful content, clear answers, and a page Google can crawl and render.
The links shown are not always the top organic results. An overview can draw on pages from further down the results, or from related queries Google ran in the background.
Controlling your content
The same controls that limit snippets in normal results apply here. The nosnippet meta tag, the data-nosnippet attribute and max-snippet limit what Google can show. Blocking Googlebot removes the page from Search entirely. The Google-Extended token in robots.txt does not affect AI Overviews: it governs use of content for Gemini models outside Search.
<!-- Stop Google from showing any snippet from this page, including in AI features -->
<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">
<!-- Or exclude one part of a page -->
<div data-nosnippet>Internal pricing notes</div>Measuring AI Overview traffic
Search Console counts clicks and impressions from AI Overviews inside the normal Web search type of the Performance report. As of late 2026 there is no filter that separates them, so you cannot isolate AI Overview clicks directly in Search Console. Many teams track a list of queries with a rank tracker that records whether an overview appears and whether their domain is linked.
Example
A fictional HR platform
Peoplepath, a made-up HR software company, notices that impressions for “how to calculate employee turnover” held steady while clicks fell. Checking the results page shows an AI Overview now answers the formula directly. The team keeps the guide, makes sure the formula and a worked example appear near the top, and adds a free turnover calculator, something a summary cannot replace, to give searchers a reason to click.
Common mistakes
Blocking Google-Extended to avoid AI Overviews
Google-Extended does not control AI Overviews. Use snippet controls if you want to limit what Google shows.
Reading a drop in CTR as a ranking drop
If impressions hold and clicks fall, check whether an AI Overview started appearing before rewriting the page.
Questions
Not separately. You can use nosnippet or max-snippet to restrict what Google shows, but those also affect your normal snippets.
Google says no. Structured data can help Google understand a page, but it is not a requirement or a guarantee for appearing in an overview.
No. AI Overviews sit on the normal results page. AI Mode is a separate, conversational search experience with its own tab.
