Google AI Overviews: how does my company get in?

What are Google AI Overviews?

AI Overviews are a short answer Google shows above the normal results for some searches, with links to the pages it draws on. In Switzerland they have been available since 26 March 2025, in German, French, Italian and English.

For companies this changes the results page: above the links sits a text that names only a few firms. Whoever appears in it is seen, even if their own page ranks further down. Whoever is missing is easily overlooked for that search.

How do I get my company into Google AI Overviews?

With the same basics as for normal Google Search. Google writes on Search Central that there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. In practice:

1. Indexed and eligible for a snippet: the page is in Google’s index and may be shown with a snippet. A page marked «nosnippet» does not appear there as a link.
2. Crawlable: neither robots.txt nor a CDN or host locks Googlebot out.
3. Included in Search Console: since 31 August 2026 a website can be excluded from the AI features. Check under «Settings» that yours is included.
4. Answers to the sub-questions: for each question the AI runs further searches of its own on sub-topics, known as fan-out. Pages that answer such sub-questions directly, such as what you offer, for whom, where and at what price, stand a chance of being linked.
5. Your own knowledge, not repetition: in its guide of July 2026 Google recommends content that goes beyond general knowledge, is clearly structured and is backed by good images and videos. Your own figures, prices and experience are things only your company can supply.
6. Clean business data: according to the same guide, AI answers can include details on local businesses and products; for these Google names the Business Profile and, for shops, Merchant Center.

None of this is a guarantee. Google itself writes that a page that meets every requirement need not be crawled, indexed or shown.

When does Google show an AI Overview?

Only when Google’s systems consider it a useful addition; according to Google it is often not triggered. How often that applies to your questions only a measurement can show.

An example from our own measurement, the live case study «Grow in Public»: from 6 to 13 October 2026 we asked Google questions about GEO and AI visibility from a Swiss location, 741 requests in all. 653 returned an AI Overview, 67 showed none, and 21 failed. We count the requests without an AI Overview and the failures and report them, rather than leaving them out.

Whether an overview appears depends on the search: from 6 to 21 October 2026 Google showed no AI Overview for “GEO Agentur Schweiz” and “KI SEO Agentur Schweiz”, but it did for knowledge questions such as “Was ist LLMO?” or “Was kostet ein GEO Audit?”. For searches without an overview, the normal results and the Business Profile still count.

What is GEO on Google?

GEO on Google means making sure your company appears in the AI answers of Google Search, that is in AI Overviews and in AI Mode. The work is the same as for other AI services, with one difference: Google relies on its own search index. On Google, good SEO is therefore the precondition for GEO, not a different discipline. The difference between the two terms is explained in GEO vs SEO.

How can I see whether my company appears in AI Overviews?

With two sources that complement each other:

Source	What it shows	What it does not show
Search Console, generative AI features performance report (since 31 August 2026)	how often links to your website appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode, by page, country, device and date	whether the answer names your company, recommends it or describes it correctly
Repeated questions to Google, with a location	whether and how the answer names you, which competitors and which sources appear	how many people saw the answer

One search is not enough, because the same question does not get the same answer every time. You ask your customers’ questions on several days and count. In our own measurement from 6 to 13 October 2026, 9% of the 653 AI Overviews named anewera, with a margin of error of 7 to 12%.

We count the sources too: from 6 to 21 October 2026, 277 of 709 AI Overviews we evaluated cited a page on YouTube and 68 one on Reddit; our own website anewera.ch was cited in 30. That holds for our topic; in your industry the sources may be quite different.

anewera measures the Google AI Overview every day from a Swiss location, alongside ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, and shows which sources the answers use. What that looks like is shown by the AI visibility tool and the page on AI sources.

What does not help?

In its guide of July 2026, Google lists tactics you can ignore for Google Search:

• llms.txt and other AI files: Google Search does not use them. More in What is an llms.txt?.
• Chopping content into small pieces: Google’s systems understand several topics on one page.
• Rewriting for AI: no special writing style is needed.
• Fake mentions: Google says they are not as helpful as they may seem; its spam systems block such attempts.
• Special markup: there is no schema.org markup of its own for the AI features.

Be careful, too, with offers that promise «internal» Google data: according to Google, no third party has access to Google’s ranking or AI systems.

AI Overviews and AI Mode: what is different?

AI Overviews are a short answer above the results; AI Mode is a separate area for longer questions with follow-ups. According to Google the two can use different models, so appearing in one answer does not mean you appear in the other. What AI Mode is, since when it has been available in Switzerland and in which languages, is covered in Google AI Mode in Switzerland.