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What are Google AI Overviews?

Also called: AI Overviews, SGE, Search Generative Experience

Definition

Google AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear above the regular results for some Google searches, with links to the web pages used to build them. They grew out of Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) experiment and rolled out broadly in the US in May 2024.

Explained

AI Overviews are generated by a Gemini model using pages from Google's own index, so classic SEO still matters: a page generally has to be indexed and relevant to be used. Google shows them only for some queries, more often for informational and comparison questions than for simple navigational searches.

For brands, an AI Overview changes what "position one" means. A buyer may read a summary naming three products and never scroll to the blue links. Being named in the overview, or being one of its linked sources, becomes the new top spot.

Example

Someone searches "best accounting software for freelancers". The AI Overview names four products and links to two review articles. A product that ranks seventh organically but appears in both review articles can still be named in the overview.