How to Optimize Your Website for AI Overviews

min read

January 24, 2025

Morgan McMurray

As search practitioners and digital marketers, we’re used to the appearance of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) fluctuating. One of the latest developments within Google search results in particular has been the rise of AI Overviews (AIOs), an advanced SERP feature that summarizes results with the help of large language models (LLMs).

AIOs are changing how consumers find and interact with information on the web. So in partnership with DemandSphere, Botify set out to determine how AI Overviews affect traffic, clicks, and ROI, and what actions brands can take to get their websites cited as sources within AIOs.

In this post, we’ll explore some key takeaways from our study of more than 120,000 queries, and outline the actionable strategies your brand can implement to rank in the new position one: AI Overviews.

AI Overviews are the shiny new SERP feature

Google has been experimenting with what were originally called quick answer boxes since at least 2013, so think of AIOs as simply the next iteration of these SERP features. Just as quick answers developed into featured snippets, which began sharing space with other iterations like “People Also Ask” dropdowns and knowledge panels, Google’s original 10 blue links have now yielded even more pixels to AI Overviews.

While occupying similar SERP real estate, AIOs look a little different than featured snippets and answer boxes, most notably expanding to include several sources with direct links.

SEOs know how to handle SERP changes. The arrival of featured snippets necessitated new strategies to prove authority in order to appear on page one and in SERP features. Since AIOs, like featured snippets, preference sources that most closely match the intent of the query, your brand authority will remain a key factor in AIO visibility.

Why AI Overviews matter

Between their frequency and the SERP space they occupy, AIOs have become a powerful tool for brand awareness, and will necessitate attention in your optimization strategies.

While they’re still “experimental,” our research indicates that AIOs already show up about half the time across all queries, and are even more prevalent for informational results. When they do appear, they pull information from sources that would have filled the traditional top ranks.

Visibility above the fold

When AIOs appear alongside featured snippets, they dominate the screen, occupying up to 67% of the space above the fold. This prime real estate is the first thing consumers see, especially on mobile. Moreover, AIOs may impact Google Ads performance by showing ads below the AIO.

Satisfying consumer intent directly on the SERP

Like other SERP features, AIOs can satisfy consumer intent directly on the SERP without requiring users to click through to your website. While this may sound concerning for your organic click-through rates, the links within AIOs actually present an opportunity for higher quality conversions from more qualified visitors, who have already completed part of the customer journey before reaching your site.

How to optimize for AI Overviews

As you may have guessed, the good news about AI Overviews is that the strategies to get your website featured rely on strong SEO fundamentals, which you should already have in place for your brand.

1. Ensure your website is indexed by Google

It sounds basic, but if Google can’t find and crawl your content, it won’t appear in AI Overviews (or anywhere else on the SERP, for that matter). To make sure that your site is accessible and prioritized for indexing:

Ensure your sitemap is regularly updated to reflect changes on your site. This helps Google’s crawlers discover new and important content faster. Botify can automate and streamline this process to help Google index and prioritize your most valuable pages.
Monitor performance and fix indexation issues ASAP. Set up alerts using Botify Intelligence’s AlertPanel to monitor indexing status. These alerts will help you quickly spot and fix any issues that prevent important pages from being indexed. For instance, if a page becomes unindexed or a crawler faces errors, you can take immediate action.
Conduct regular log file analysis. By regularly analyzing your log files, you can gain insights into how your pages are being crawled and which content may be underperforming. Understanding not only how Googlebot but also crawlers from other search engines and AI tools are crawling your site helps you optimize your crawl budget and avoid wasting resources on low-value pages.

2. Improve site health and crawlability

To index your content, Google needs to be able to crawl your site effortlessly to ensure it indexes all relevant pages. Foundational technical SEO strategies should remain a high priority for your brand in order to improve your site’s crawlability:

Clean up your internal linking structure: Organize your internal linking in a way that provides a clear, logical path for crawlers to follow. Each important page should be accessible within a few clicks, reducing the click depth. This allows crawlers to efficiently discover your content.
De-cruft your content: Remove outdated, irrelevant, or underperforming content (“cruft”) that can confuse both search engines and users. Cruft also eats up valuable crawl budget, which is getting smaller all the time.
Implement schema: Schema markup acts as a guide for Google and other bots, helping them understand the context of your content more effectively. Use structured data to highlight key information on your pages, which will make it easier for bots to extract relevant details for AIOs and search results.
Optimize for speed: Page speed remains a major factor in the success of your website, as slow-loading pages or page features hinder crawlers from exploring them quickly. Using tools like Botify’s SpeedWorkers to pre-render and serve pages to bots ensures they can quickly understand your content and index it in a timely manner.

3. Rev up your content strategy

Content quality remains a cornerstone for appearing in AI Overviews. Our research shows that the pages linked and cited in AIOs have a strong semantic similarity to the AI-generated text of the Overview itself. That means that to appear as a linked source, your content should best satisfy your consumer’s intent. For the best chance at appearing in AIOs, you must align your content strategy to meet user intent at every stage of the customer journey.

Identify valuable queries: Analyze search results to identify queries where CTR has dropped due to the prevalence of AI Overviews. By understanding what users are searching for, you can adjust your content strategy to target these high-value keywords and capture attention through optimized answers.
Build content for the full journey: Rather than focusing solely on bottom-of-funnel keywords, consider addressing queries throughout the entire customer journey. Use content to answer questions in the People Also Ask (PAA) section and anticipate what users might need to know next. This holistic approach ensures that you’re visible at every touchpoint.
Strengthen content authority: Google still places a significant emphasis on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). Boost your chances of being featured in AIOs by making sure your content is trustworthy, well-researched, and reflects your brand’s expertise. Establish your website as an authoritative source by producing high-quality, informative content across multiple stages of the funnel. The more you can consistently deliver value to users, the more likely you are to be cited in AIOs. Additionally, building authority increases your chances of appearing in featured snippets and other rich results.

4. Maintain, scale, and automate strong SEO fundamentals

AI Overviews aren’t selecting sources at random. According to our research, 75% of the links in AIOs came from websites ranking in position 12 or above; 90% came from position 35 or above. Getting the most from your organic search strategy requires working efficiently and effectively. Here are some ideas:

Find opportunities to improve your low-hanging-fruit pages: if you have valuable pages ranking in the 13–35 zone, try to identify improvements that could boost them into position 12 or higher.
Automate optimizations at scale: For brands with large websites, managing and maintaining strong fundamentals across so many pages can be manual, tedious, and time-consuming. Use tools that can implement your best optimizations across many pages at once, like Botify Activation’s PageWorkers.
Leverage split testing: Compare the results of different optimizations against a control group of pages with a solution like PageWorkers. You’ll be able to prove that a change has an impact to deploy it at scale and prioritize hard-coding it with your engineering team.

Don’t miss out on AI Overviews

AI Overviews are already taking up prime real estate at the top of the SERPs. To ensure your brand can appear in AIOs and maintain visibility, focus on strong SEO fundamentals, technical website health, and content that matches your target customer’s search intent. Take actionable steps now to optimize your site and position yourself for success as AIOs continue to rise in prominence.

To learn more about how AI Overviews impact SEO and digital marketing strategies, be sure to check out our comprehensive report: AI Overviews Study: Inside Google's New Search Reality