Google AI Overviews
Google is moving links up in AI Overviews. Here is who gets them.
On 15 October Google said AI Overviews and AI Mode will show their links higher up in the answer, more often. That makes the cited sites easier to see and to click. So which sites are they? We record Google's AI Overview and Google's first page for the same buyer searches every week. In our data, 41% of the sites AI Overviews cited were already on that first page, far more than for any other AI engine we track. Below is what Google changed, what we measured, and what it means for your own pages.
Key takeaways
- Links move up, and two changes are still tests. Higher inline links are launching and article carousels are rolling out; the official-pages section and clickable creator names are tests (Google, 15 October 2026).
- AI Overviews leans on pages that rank. 41% of the sites it cited were on Google's first page for the same search, against 13% or less for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity (1 to 25 September 2026).
- Nearly every Overview cited a first-page result. 65 of 71 did, and 36 cited the page ranked first; ChatGPT cited the page ranked first in 6 of 72 answers.
- No special markup is needed. Google says an indexed page that can show with a snippet is eligible, with no AI files or extra schema.
What Google changed on 15 October
Google's post, More ways to connect with the web from Search, by Hema Budaraju, its vice president of product management for Search, lists five changes to AI Overviews and AI Mode. They differ in how far along they are, so here is each one with the status Google gave it:
| Change | Status, as Google put it |
|---|---|
| Inline links shown higher up in answers, more often | Launching |
| Bigger links with image thumbnails at the end of some answers | No status given |
| Article carousels, with your Preferred Sources, in more countries and languages | Rolling out |
| A section at the top for the one or two official pages for a task | Test |
| Clickable creator and publisher names on video results in AI Mode | Test |
The post gives no countries or dates for the link changes and no figures on clicks. Its one number is about Preferred Sources, Google's setting for picking the sites you want to see more from: Google says the number of people using it has grown more than seven times since the start of the year.
The official-pages test matters most to a business. Google wrote that for some tasks there are only one or two official places on the web to get it done, and that it will test showing those links in their own section at the top of the answer. Think of booking with a clinic, paying a bill or checking an order: if that page is yours, make sure it is indexed and that its title says plainly what it does.
Where AI Overviews links go, measured
We asked 20 buyer questions about AI visibility software four times from 1 to 25 September 2026, to Google and to four AI assistants. Each time Google showed an AI Overview we saved the sites it cited, and we saved Google's first page of results for the same search. That gives 71 AI Overviews to compare with the page they sat above.
41% of the sites AI Overviews cited were on Google's first page for the same search (182 of 446, counting each site once per answer). 65 of the 71 Overviews cited at least one first-page result. The four assistants drew far less from Google's first page:
| Engine | Cited sites on the first page | Cited the page ranked first |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 5% (31 of 564) | 6 of 72 answers |
| Claude | 13% (99 of 768) | 17 of 72 answers |
| Gemini | 10% (101 of 1,032) | 17 of 72 answers |
| Perplexity | 13% (173 of 1,309) | 25 of 72 answers |
| AI Overviews | 41% (182 of 446) | 36 of 71 answers |
Sites counted once per answer. 72 of the 80 searches had Google's first page recorded, 1 to 25 September 2026.
For a site owner this is the useful part. Google's links now sit higher in the answer, and in our data those links went to first-page results far more often than the assistants' did. Most of the cited sites were still not on the first page, so ranking is one route in, not the only one. The other assistants are a different contest: ranking on Google and being named by ChatGPT seldom went together in the same data.
The sites it cited most
In those 71 Overviews, youtube.com was cited in 32 answers, linkedin.com in 14, zapier.com in 12 and reddit.com in 11. The most cited pages were list articles comparing tools, led by zapier.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-tool (11), kime.ai/blog/best-ai-visibility-tools (9) and position.digital/blog/best-ai-visibility-tracking-tools (9). These were questions about software, so your category will have its own list. Look for the same kinds of site in yours: video, discussion sites and comparison articles. Which websites each engine cites has the full lists, engine by engine.
The links change from one week to the next
Asked the same question at the next run, one to fifteen days later, AI Overviews cited 35% of the same sites again. Higher links make the cited sites easier to see, but the set changes from run to run, so one check tells you about one day.
What to do about it
- Check that Google can show your page with a snippet. That is the whole entry requirement, in Google's AI features and your website guidance: indexed, eligible for a snippet, and no special optimization, markup or AI text file needed. A page blocked with nosnippet or left out of the index cannot be linked.
- Work on the searches where you are already close to the first page. AI Overviews cites first-page sites far more often than the assistants do, so a page in position 11 to 20 for a buyer question is a good place to start. Search Console's performance report lists those searches.
- Make your official pages obvious. Booking, pricing, contact, order status: one page each, indexed, with a title that names the task. That is what Google's official-pages test is looking for.
- Read the new Search Console report, and know what it leaves out. The Generative AI performance report counts how often links to your site were shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode, and Google says it reached all websites on 31 August 2026. It shows impressions, not the questions answered without you or the other sites cited. How to track Google AI Overviews covers the tools that fill that gap.
- Check every week. With the cited sites changing between runs, a weekly look at the same questions shows the pattern. The weekly routine sets it out, free or with a tracker.
Where Greater Than Services fits
Our own product, so read this as the vendor's description, not part of the measurement above.
Greater Than Services is a workspace per brand that puts your buyer questions to five AI engines every week, records which answers named you and what they cited instead, shows your Google rank beside each answer, and drafts the fixes.
- If you need to know which of your buyers' questions get an AI Overview, and whether it cites you, it reads Google's AI Overview off the live results page for your country every week and records the sites it cited.
- If you need your Google rank beside it, your rank for the same search sits next to each answer, so you can see when a ranking page was cited and when it was not.
- If you need the assistants as well, the same questions go to ChatGPT, and on the larger plans to Claude, Gemini and Perplexity too, which cite first-page sites far less often.
It tracks your questions and the answers to them. It does not see AI Mode conversations, carousels or the official-pages test.
Plans start at $49 a month, billed yearly, for one brand on ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews; Growth and Agency cover all five engines. The three-day trial is on one brand and needs a card.
Common questions
What did Google change in AI Overviews on 15 October 2026?
Google said it is showing inline links higher up in AI Overviews and AI Mode answers more often, making the links at the end of some answers bigger with image thumbnails, and rolling out article carousels to more countries and languages. It is also testing a section at the top of an answer for the one or two official pages where a task gets done, and clickable creator names on video results.
Do I need special markup to be linked in AI Overviews?
No. Google's own guidance says a page needs to be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet, and that no new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup are needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode.
Which sites does Google's AI Overviews link to?
Pages that rank, more often than any other AI engine does. Across 71 AI Overviews to buyer questions about AI visibility software (1 to 25 September 2026), 41% of the sites cited were on Google's first page for the same search, against 13% or less for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity. 65 of the 71 Overviews cited at least one first-page result, and 36 cited the page ranked first.
How can I see whether AI Overviews links to my site?
Search Console's Generative AI performance report counts how often links to your site were shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google says it reached all websites on 31 August 2026. It counts impressions only: it does not show which questions an Overview answered without you or which other sites it cited.
Sources
Google's three pages were read on 25 October 2026. The status of each change is the one Google gave in its post.
- Google, More ways to connect with the web from Search, 15 October 2026
- Google Search Central, AI features and your website
- Google Search Console Help, Generative AI performance report
The measurements are our own, from the answers behind our AI visibility tools ranking, which sets out the questions, the engines and the dates and publishes the data under CC BY. If a figure here does not match its source, tell us and we will correct it.