What AI Overviews changed
For a growing share of queries, Google now composes an answer above the results and cites a handful of sources. If your business is in those citations, you’re in the buying decision; if not, even a #1 ranking sits below the fold.
The good news: citations follow patterns you can engineer. This is the core of our AEO service.
Step 1: Answer real questions, directly
AI Overviews extract from content that answers a question completely in a compact block: a direct 40–60 word answer up top, then depth beneath. Map the questions your buyers ask — People Also Ask, autocomplete, your own sales calls — and give each one a dedicated, well-structured answer.
Pages that bury the answer in paragraph nine don’t get lifted.
Step 2: Make yourself machine-readable
Implement FAQ, HowTo, Organization, and Product schema so extraction engines can parse and attribute you confidently. Keep entity data consistent everywhere your brand appears — same name, same descriptions, same facts.
Structured data doesn’t guarantee citations, but its absence reliably costs them.
Step 3: Earn the corroboration
AI systems triangulate before they cite: reviews, press mentions, expert commentary, and topical depth across your site all raise the model’s confidence that you’re a safe source. Strong classic SEO remains the entry ticket — Overviews draw heavily from content that already ranks.
Read how the disciplines differ in our guide to AEO vs SEO.
Step 4: Measure citation share, not just rankings
Track a fixed set of buyer questions monthly across AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, recording when you’re cited versus competitors. Citation share is the KPI; rankings are the input.
Early movers see the fastest gains — AI answers show strong incumbency bias. Our AEO team runs this exact measurement loop, alongside our GEO practice.
Adam is the founder of Synap Growth and leads its search practice across the UK, US, and UAE — technical SEO, content strategy, and AI search for brands that want organic growth that compounds.