I spent the weekend running tests on Google\u2019s SERPs. I wanted to understand whether the websites I\u2019m monitoring are appearing in the AI Overviews<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No surprises: for queries where the brand ranks in the top 3, it also appears in the AI-O panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have to admit, this panel annoys me a little. Weren\u2019t there already enough boxes in the SERP?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And if every panel has a purpose \u2014 that is, to respond to a specific search intent \u2014 what exactly is the purpose of the AI-O panel? Is it informational? <\/p>\n\n\n\n But isn\u2019t that already covered by the \u201cPeople Also Ask\u201d box?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then again, if you include the brand in the AI panel and also show it in the snippet at position zero, isn\u2019t that redundant?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s dive into the details and begin with the first and most important question: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n But before that, let\u2019s take a step back and look at what the AI Overview actually is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We can define it as a middle ground between what Google used to do \u2014 showing a featured snippet from a website that best answered the user\u2019s question \u2014 and what Gemini does today. Gemini generates original content, meaning it doesn\u2019t copy and paste text from a website, but reworks hundreds of pieces of information already indexed by Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is how Google\u2019s VP of Search, Liz Reid,<\/a> described it: <\/p>\n\n\n\n AI Overviews work very differently than chatbots and other LLM products. They\u2019re not simply generating an output based on training data,\u201d but instead running traditional search tasks and providing information from top web results. So she doesn\u2019t consider the errors as hallucinations, but rather as the model misreading what\u2019s already online.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The AI Overview panel is triggered by informational queries. What we really need to acknowledge is that if AI provides a complete and satisfying answer, users may no longer feel the need to click on any website to read the content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the next question I asked myself over the past few days was: <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n First, it\u2019s triggered by informational searches. I ran multiple tests searching for products and it never appeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another important point: websites shown in the AI Overview are typically those already ranking in the top three results on Google.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Are you wondering whether your site appears?<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat is the AI Overview\u2019s purpose?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
When does the AI Overview appear?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n