Google · AI Overviews and AI Mode
Visibility in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode: what it means for your business, and how to measure it
By Kristian Stig Henriksen · Dear Future
AI Overviews are Google's AI-written answers at the top of the results page, and AI Mode is a conversational search where the whole page is one answer. Both are built from ordinary web pages that Google fetches and cites. Your visibility in them cannot be read from a daily prompt measurement, but it can be measured in Search Console, and that is where to start.
What are AI Overviews, and what is AI Mode?
An AI Overview is the box that sometimes sits above the blue links: a summarised answer with references to the pages it draws on. It is triggered by searches where Google judges that a combined answer helps more than a list, typically multi-part questions. AI Mode goes a step further: a tab where you ask in natural language, get one long answer and can keep asking. It resembles ChatGPT with Google's index behind it.
Both are powered by Gemini models, but they are not the Gemini app. The difference is the source: AI Overviews and AI Mode retrieve from Google's search index and cite web pages; the Gemini app also answers from its training and uses search when needed. For your visibility, it is the first two that build directly on what Google has indexed about you.
How often do Danish searchers meet them?
Less often than in the United States. AI Overviews are triggered by a share of searches, and that share is markedly lower for Danish queries than for English ones. In our own daily measurement of Danish buyer questions they appear so rarely that we do not report them as a daily source. The share is rising, and AI Mode is rolling out market by market, so the number you read today is not the number in six months. Check it for your own important searches rather than trusting an average.
Does it matter for your business?
Yes, in two ways that pull in opposite directions. An AI answer that names and cites you puts you in front of a buyer without requiring a click, and that is the visibility that decides who gets considered. At the same time, the pages beneath the answer get fewer clicks, because many people are satisfied by the answer. If you are in the answer you win attention and may lose clicks; if you are not in the answer you lose both.
For a Danish B2B company that means, in practice: the questions where Google shows an AI answer are the ones where being a source counts for more than ranking third. And those questions are often exactly the comparative and explanatory questions buyers ask before they contact anyone.
How to measure your visibility in AI Overviews and AI Mode
Search Console has a report for generative AI features under Performance: impressions and clicks where your pages appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode. It is the closest thing Google offers to a number for your AI visibility, and it is free. Three rules for reading it correctly:
- The numbers are a subset of the web numbers, not an addition. If AI impressions rise while the total is flat, the mix has shifted towards AI answers; that is not the same as more traffic.
- Read windows of at least 28 days. Danish AI answers are rare enough that a week is noise.
- Cross-read with the page level: which of your pages appear, and for which questions. Those are the pages that already meet Google's bar for a source, and they are the model for the next ones.
The report cannot be fetched through the API, so it is exported by hand; we add the export to the measurement as a dated manual data point. That is also why it is not part of share of voice: share of voice is a daily proportion across assistants, while Search Console measures Google's own surfaces with Google's own delay.
How to become a source
Google itself writes that there is no special optimisation for AI features: the same pages that rank in search become the sources. What helps in practice is what also helps search, only sharper:
- A short, direct answer at the top of the page that can be quoted in two sentences.
- One clear definition of the concept the page is about.
- Updated pages with a visible date and a sitemap that tells Google when something changed.
- Structure: headings that are questions, and lists and tables rather than long paragraphs.
- Sources and an author, so the page can be judged.
It is the same recipe our guide to getting recommended by ChatGPT describes, because the mechanism is the same: a model fetches pages and picks the most usable passages.
Read on: how to measure AI visibility, get recommended by ChatGPT and what GEO is.
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Get the analysis →Frequently asked questions
How important is visibility in AI Overviews for my company's online presence?
It depends on how often your buyers' questions trigger an AI answer. When they do, visibility in the answer decides whether you are considered at all, while clicks to the pages beneath it fall. Check your own most important searches in Search Console's generative AI features report before deciding how much weight to give it.
Is Google AI Mode the same as Gemini?
No. AI Mode is a search surface inside Google Search that builds its answers on Google's index and cites web pages. Gemini is Google's AI assistant as a standalone app, which also answers from its training. Both are powered by Gemini models, but AI Mode and AI Overviews are what directly reflect what Google has indexed about you.
Can you measure whether your page appears in AI Overviews?
Yes. Under Performance, Search Console shows a report for generative AI features with impressions and clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode. The numbers are a subset of the web numbers and should be read in windows of at least 28 days.
Where do the sources in AI Overviews come from?
From Google's ordinary search index. Google fetches pages that already rank for the question and writes the answer from them with references. There is no separate optimisation; the same pages become the sources.