With AI Overviews, Google has changed the results page. For many questions the top of the page is no longer a list of links but a summarised answer with sources. It is the most visible form of what is discussed as Generative Engine Optimization.
How they work
Google generates the summary with a language model based on pages from its own index and links the sources in or beside the answer. Whether an overview appears depends on the query: more often for informational, multi-part questions, less often for navigational or transactional ones. There is also a separate AI mode for longer, conversational searches.
Who gets cited
Google provides no separate optimisation guide for AI Overviews. The basic conditions are the same as for classic results: the page must be crawled, indexed and eligible for snippets. In practice, pages that answer a question precisely and self-containedly, whose statements are verifiable and which convey topical authority are preferred. Clear definitions at the start, clean structure with subheadings and evidenced statements help people and models alike.
What it means for clicks
When the answer is already on the results page, fewer users click through; this reinforces the trend towards zero-click search. At the same time, clicks from a source citation are often more qualified, because the user wants to go deeper. For measuring success this means: impressions and citations become more important, raw click counts on informational pages less telling.
Content that gets cited
Glossary entries with a clear short definition, comparisons with fair weighing, checklists with verifiable criteria and articles with own experience and sources are highly citable. Structured data under Schema.org makes content machine-readable without guaranteeing citations. E-E-A-T signals — identifiable author, traceable experience, imprint — strengthen trust.
Measuring
Search Console does not report AI Overviews separately; impressions and clicks flow into the normal reports. To know whether you are cited, check relevant queries regularly by hand or with tools that track citations in AI answers. How to set a website up for this is described in our GEO and AEO readiness checklist.