AI Overviews
AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that Google Search can show at the top of some results pages, with links to web pages that support the summary.
Example
A search for "how to descale an espresso machine" may show a short summary of the steps above the regular results, with links to the manufacturer guides and articles it drew on.
Why it matters
Google describes AI Overviews as a way to get the gist of a complicated topic quickly, with links as a starting point to explore further, and says they may use a query fan-out technique. For a brand, being one of the linked sources can matter as much as ranking in the results below.
AI Overviews also affect how traffic is reported. Google Analytics documentation excludes AI Overviews and AI Mode from its AI Assistant channel, so visits from them are not grouped there.
How Stellarcast handles it
Stellarcast tracks Google AI Overviews alongside the other AI engines it measures, and AI Overviews is one of the four engines in the free audit, together with ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.
See how AI describes your brand
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