How to rank a blog in Google’s AI Overview

SEO

UPDATED: August 2025

Search has changed!

Google now integrates AI into Search. The feature is called AI Overview, and its launch heralds a significant change in Search. 

Some come out on top as a consequence… some will emerge as losers. 

If you want to ensure that your informational content doesn’t suffer after this new upgrade, then read on to learn how to rank a blog in Google’s AI Overview. 

What is AI Overview? A super quick summary

AI Overview is Google’s answer to AI-integrated search. 

Rather than give you a list of websites that will answer long questions, Google will now present you with an AI-generated response to your query. The way the answer is laid out would depend on the query you’re submitting. The AI Overview will feature a carousel of websites that corroborate the answer it returns. 

Other features, such as People Also Ask and the traditional blue organic results, will appear, but much further down the screen. 

How has this impacted clicks to websites?

AI Overviews has had a significant impact on website traffic. Multiple reports reveal that the impact varies between 30% and 70%, depending on search terms, with one analysis by the Authority Analytics company reporting that a site previously ranked first in a search result could lose about 79% of its traffic (I have to point out that Google refutes this).

Regardless of the exact percentage, it’s clear that the impact is huge.

As a user, you may be more satisfied with how quickly you find results.

If you’re a business owner or marketer who is trying to generate traffic to your website, you are going to be devastated.

Key Takeaways:

• For informational searches, Google Search will now generate an answer for you.
• This means fewer users will click through to the websites that are shown for an informational query. This will have an impact on your website traffic.

How to rank a blog in Google’s AI Overviews

Because most SEO-bods think that if users are going to click through to a website, it is likely to be one that is featured within the carousel, most are recommending that marketers aim to restructure their blogs so that they will appear in the carousel of websites that appear at the side of the AI Overview. 

So, how do we do this?

1. Identify a keyword

Much like traditional SEO, ranking in AI Overviews requires you to identify a keyword (query) that users are searching for. Perform keyword research using an SEO tool to determine which keyword you want to rank for.

2. Cover query fan out

“Query fan-out” is a concept used in AI-driven search (like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.) where a single user query is expanded into multiple related sub-questions or topics in order to provide a more comprehensive answer.

For example, say a user asks:

“What’s the best protein powder for women?”

AI tools may “fan out” that query behind the scenes into related questions like:

• What are the different types of protein powder?
• What are the benefits of whey vs. plant-based protein?
• What should women look for in a protein supplement?
• Are there any side effects of using protein powder?

Then, the AI gathers and synthesises answers from multiple sources to provide a richer, more nuanced response.

Why it matters for SEO

If you want your content to appear in AI-generated results, you should:

• Cover not just the main query, but also likely follow-up questions or subtopics.
• Structure your content in a way that clearly answers each aspect.
• Use real-world, conversational questions as subheadings.
• Include concise summaries and strong, trustworthy sources.

Doing this increases your chances of being cited as a credible, comprehensive source in AI responses.

3. Structure your content in an AI-friendly way

Once you’ve determined the different points that you need to include in your blog, you need to write the content in a way that appeals to AI Overviews.

• Write a summary at the beginning of your blog post that answers your query in a concise manner.
• Keep paragraphs short, a maximum of three sentences.
• Keep sentences short and to the point.
• After each main section, include a brief takeaway for that section.
• Add a comprehensive conclusion.
• Add related queries after the conclusion.
• Use bullet points to break up text to make it easy to read.

4. Include your keyword in key locations on your webpage

Make sure that your keyword is included in the following locations:

• In the title
• In the meta title
• In the meta description
• In the alt text for the featured image
• In the first 100 words that you write. 
• 3 times throughout the content. 
• Within one subheading. 

What are a meta title and a meta description?

Each page of your website has a meta title and a meta description. They explain the content of each page and help search engines surface each page for relevant search queries. This is how they look in the search results:

You can change your meta titles and meta descriptions by using an SEO plugin such as Yoast or Rank Math on your website.

What is alt text?

Alt text describes an image so that a screen reader can read it. You can change the alt text of an image you’ve uploaded to a webpage in your media library.

Then, you can scatter the additional keywords for this cluster throughout the content. You don’t need to worry about repeating them too many times, but make sure that you only fit them in if it is grammatically correct. 

5. Include keyword clusters

“Keyword clusters” are groups of related keywords that share a common search intent or topic. Instead of targeting a single keyword with each blog post or webpage (the old-school SEO approach), modern SEO uses keyword clustering to create more comprehensive, relevant content that ranks for multiple related search terms at once.

For example, let’s say your main topic is “Local SEO for small businesses”. A keyword cluster for that topic might include:

• local SEO tips for small businesses
• how to improve local SEO
• Google Business Profile optimisation
• local SEO checklist
• SEO for service-based businesses
• get more local traffic online

All of these keywords are connected by the same underlying intent: a small business owner looking to improve visibility in local search.

Why keyword clusters matter

• Better rankings: Google ranks pages based on how well they satisfy a searcher’s intent. Covering a topic fully using clusters helps you rank for more variations.
• Improved topical authority: When you consistently create content around a group of related keywords, search engines see your site as an authority on that subject.
• Stronger internal linking: Keyword clusters help you plan content in a way that makes it easier to link related pages together, which boosts SEO even more.
• Future-proof content: Most importantly for our purposes, it feeds into AI Overview’s tendency to rely more on topic depth than on exact keyword matches. Covering a full cluster gives you better visibility across both traditional and AI search.

6. Signpost your authority and expertise

Google really, really cares about EEAT (Expertise, Experience, Authority and Trustworthiness). Although it’s not a direct ranking factor, it aims to showcase content that demonstrates these qualities.

Signpost your authority and expertise in your niche by including:

• Real-world examples or case studies (see my little experiment below!).
• Author bios.
• Opinions.
• Original thought.
• Original data you’ve gathered.
• Quotes from other sources.

7. Add multimedia elements

Multimedia elements, like images, videos, infographics, tables, charts, and screenshots, help your blog content rank better in AI Overviews by enhancing clarity, trust, and user engagement.

1. They signal high-quality, helpful content

AI Overviews (and traditional SEO) favour content that provides a great user experience. Multimedia helps explain complex topics visually, making the information easier to understand, especially for visual learners.

2. They demonstrate expertise and trustworthiness

Adding original graphics, branded visuals, or real-world examples (like product photos or custom infographics) shows that your content is credible and unique. Again, this aligns with Google’s E-E-A-T principles.

3. They boost engagement and time on page

Engaging visuals encourage readers to stay longer, scroll further, and interact with your content, all of which send positive signals to search engines and AI tools.

4. They provide anchor points for AI to reference

AI Overviews sometimes pull from captions, alt text, or headings associated with visuals. Well-labelled images and descriptive alt tags can help your content be cited as a supporting source within an AI-generated answer.

Tips:

• Add alt text to every image (important for SEO + accessibility).
• Use clear filenames (e.g., google-business-profile-example.png).
• Include captions for charts or graphs.
• Break up long sections of text with visuals to aid skimming.

Key Takeaways:

• To write a blog that has a chance of ranking in Google’s AI Overviews, write in short, simple sentences and paragraphs and cover all the sub-questions related to that topic.
• Structure your blog by including a summary at the start and adding a brief takeaway after each section of your article.
• Include FAQs after the conclusion and include original content, such as opinions, original data, quotes or real-world examples.
• Optimise your article according to normal SEO practices.
• Make your article as readable as possible by breaking up text, adding in multimedia elements and generally helping the reader gain a comprehensive understanding of the topic.

My aim: to get a blog to rank in the AI Overview. 

For my experiment, I chose a client that I knew had lots of blogs ranking well in the organic results already (high-five for me). 

I’d like to point out that I didn’t invent the following process – I don’t believe in taking credit for things I didn’t discover myself!

I selected one of their top-performing blogs and looked at Google Search Console to find out one of the keywords that the blog was ranking for. 

I typed in my keyword and looked to find out where my client was ranking. They appeared first in the organic search results. Here: 

But, not first in the AI Overview result. See here:

So, taking the exact keyword, I fashioned a short, concise answer to the search query and restructured the blog so that this summary appeared towards the top of the article. 

I headed back over to Google Search Console and requested the page to be reindexed. 

I waited 24 hours.

And lo and behold… my client was ranked in first place on the carousel. 

My reflections

Here are some of the things that flittered through my brain while conducting this experiment. 

High-quality content still wins

For informational searches, AI Overview looks for the best content, not necessarily websites from businesses that are in close proximity to the user.

Focusing on creating high-quality content that is structured in a way that AI Overview likes is a good strategy.

Focusing on satisfying user intent is still the best option. Following Google’s guidelines on how to create content that ranks well is still the best bet. 

Traditional SEO practices still apply

Your likelihood of ranking in Google’s AI Overviews is unlikely if your content is poorly optimised for search and not ranking well. AI SEO builds on the topic of traditional SEO principles. So, work on your traditional SEO, and then apply AI SEO best practices.  

Featured images might become increasingly important

To what extent will the thumbnail images you use (the featured image or open graph image that you use for your blog) impact click-through rates? 

An attractive featured image might increase the chances of a user choosing your blog from the carousel. Experimenting with them might increase traffic to your site. 

Rank in AI Overview: build on your traditional SEO 

Although we are entering a new season in the world of Search, there’s no denying that AI Overviews have and will change the search landscape – traditional SEO has not stopped being incredibly important. AI SEO demands that traditional SEO practices continue. AI SEO builds on traditional SEO; it hasn’t surplanted it.

There’s nothing new or revolutionary in any of the techniques that allow you to rank a blog in Google’s AI Overviews. Adding multimedia elements, making sure your text is readable, covering all sub-topics; none of this is new in the world of SEO.

But it’s like everything now has to be supercharged.

Articles need to be more comprehensive, the structure needs to be more nuanced, and the multimedia content more important. Original content is now essential, not just a “good to have”.

Ultimately, keeping up with this will be harder. Companies are responding by releasing fewer, better-quality articles, and I think that this is a wise choice. Hopefully, this will weed out the terrible spammy sites that churn out hundreds of AI-generated articles a week.

Need some help ranking in Google’s AI Overviews?

If you want to supercharge your traditional SEO practices, we can help. We offer AI SEO support designed for small and mid-sized businesses that want to stay visible as search evolves.

Our approach blends traditional SEO best practices with AI SEO to help your content get cited, recommended, or featured in AI-generated results like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.

We start by identifying the questions your audience is really asking, then build high-quality, structured content that AI tools can understand, trust, and reference. From keyword mapping and schema markup to long-tail content strategy and performance tracking, we’ll help you build visibility that goes beyond the Overviews!