Google AI Overviews Explained: Insights from Our SEO Team’s Roundtable Discussion

Our SEO team recently sat down for a roundtable discussion to unpack one of the most impactful changes to Google Search we’ve seen in years: AI Overviews. 

Meet the team

As this new SERP feature becomes more widespread, small and medium-sized businesses are presented with both a challenge and an opportunity: how can I ensure my brand’s content is included in AI Overviews? 

Hear how our team of SEO specialists are tackling the shift—all while staying grounded in our core principles at seoplus+.

What are AI Overviews 

AI Overviews are a new feature in Google Search that uses generative AI to provide summarized answers at the top of the search results page. Google pulls information from multiple sources to generate a concise, conversational response—often including links to its sources. 

Here’s an example of an AI Overview result for the query “recommended project management roadmap”:

SEO roundtable discussion on AI Overviews 

1. The state of AI Overviews

Q: Are certain industries impacted more than others? 

AI Overviews are now appearing across a broad range of queries and industries. Margot cited SEO Site Checkup, stating that 80% of health-related queries now trigger an AI Overview. That’s a massive shift in visibility for content in the healthcare space.

Margot also referenced findings from Semrush, which revealed the top 5 industries seeing the most exposure in AI Overview visibility.

Clearly, this isn’t a fringe update—AI Overviews are rapidly becoming a core part of the search experience. As a result, marketers and SMBs across all industries should start paying attention. With increased cross-industry visibility, now is the time to get ahead and start optimizing for AI Overview visibility. 

2. What AI Overviews are prioritizing 

Q: What content is Google prioritizing in AI Overviews? 

The team collectively identified that AI Overviews seem to favour “explainer-style content”—clear, concise answers to specific, information-seeking queries.

Katie highlighted, “You’re not getting AI Overviews for ‘roof repair near me’—it’s informational content that’s showing up.” In other words, AI Overviews are triggered by knowledge-based intent rather than local or transactional searches.

Alexa expanded on this, noting that formatting matters: “Short, concise, question-based content helps. Think more like a quick answer than a narrative blog.” This aligns with the pattern of Google surfacing bit-sized, skimmable summaries in the AI-generated responses.

Margot broke down the mechanics behind AI Overviews: “Predictive summaries pull from across the web, and Google pairs those with authoritative grounding links—even if the page isn’t ranking in the top 10”. For businesses, this means your content doesn’t need to outrank big brands to be featured—it simply needs to contribute meaningfully to a topic.

“Predictive summaries pull from across the web, and Google pairs those with authoritative grounding links—even if the page isn’t ranking in the top 10”

– Margot, Senior SEO Strategist

Our focus on optimizing content for E-E-A-T signals ensures what’s written on our client websites provide genuine value to users.

3. How to show up in AI Overviews

Q: So what can small and medium-sized businesses do to show up in AI Overviews?

1. AEO OPTIMIZATION

Alexa suggested prioritizing “Answer Engine Optimization,” where question-based queries and concise answers take center stage. Internal linking is also becoming more important. She continued, “AI Overviews pull from multiple sources, so if your content is well-connected and cleanly structured, you’re helping Google understand your expertise.”

“AI Overviews pull from multiple sources, so if your content is well-connected and cleanly structured, you’re helping Google understand your expertise.”

– Alexa, Senior SEO Strategist

2. INTERNAL LINK OPTIMIZATION WITH SCREAMING FROG

Noah shared his process for identifying unlinked keyword mentions using Screaming Frog’s N-grams tab, which can expose gaps in internal linking that might otherwise be missed. 

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Closing internal link gaps strengthens topical connections across your site, which could help Google surface your content in AI Overviews as a reliable source when compiling AI-generated summaries from multiple pages.

3. ANALYZE GENERATIVE AI TRAFFIC IN GA4

Lisa walked through how she set up GA4 tracking to monitor traffic from generative AI tools and why it matters: “In the last 90 days, one client gained 243 sessions from AI platforms—and 12 of those sessions resulted in a key event. That’s something we’ll be watching closely.”

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💡Use Dana DiTomaso’s guide to setup and track traffic from AI Overviews in GA4.
Traffic from other generic AI tools like ChatGpt, Claude, Perplexity, etc can also be tracked in GA4, by setting up a new channel group using this regex:

^(?:(?:.*chatgpt.*)|Claude\.ai|quillbot\.com|openai\.com|blackbox\.ai|perplexity(?:\.ai)?|copy\.ai|jasper\.ai|copilot\.microsoft\.com|gemini\.google\.com|(?:\w+\.)?mistral\.ai|(?:\w+\.)?deepseek\.com)$

💡Use Dana DiTomaso’s guide to setup and track traffic from AI Tools in GA4.

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All of these efforts tie back to our foundational approach—creating content and SEO strategies that are tailored to our clients’ goals and their audience, and measuring the impact over time to make data-driven SEO decisions. 

4. Visibility vs. clicks—what’s the impact?

Q: What impact will AI Overviews actually have on SEO performance? 

Getting featured in an AI Overview doesn’t always guarantee a click.

Ragheed noted, “People might just read the AI Overview and move on. But if they do click through, those visits could be highly qualified.”

This relates back to one of our core strategies of building long-form content and intent-focused tactics to rank for long-tail keywords. When we focus our efforts on long-tail keywords, we gain more qualified traffic that’s further down the funnel, impacting lead and revenue metrics. For one of our clients, they achieved a +1050% increase in website leads after implementing an aggressive topical authority, long-form blog content strategy.

The takeaway is clear—focus your efforts on driving qualified traffic that result in engagement and conversions, not just sessions. If AI Overview visibility drives the right users to take action, it’s a win.

5. Earning a spot requires unique content

Q: How can brands create content good enough to earn a spot in AI Overviews, especially when they’re in niche industries?

Margot pointed out that high authority and unique content are critical. But that’s tough when blog writers aren’t always subject-matter experts. 

Ragheed recommended using interviews and email Q&As with clients to infuse original insights into blog posts. Our team also leverages AskPolly, an AI Market Research tool, to gather unique and industry-specific user insights to incorporate into our content. 

This approach not only improves the quality and depth of content—it ensures it aligns with the business and its audience, strengthening both E-E-A-T signals and engagement.

6. ChatGPT search and Bing considerations

How does ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms fit into this shift in search experience? 

The conversation also touched on ChatGPT as a search engine—and what it means for visibility.

Lisa shared a 2025 stat from Seer Interactive that states 87% of SearchGPT results overlap with Bing’s top 20 listings. “That means Bing SEO matters too,” she said.

While optimization fundamentals remain similar across Bing and Google, leveraging Bing Webmaster Tools and Bing Places is essential for future visibility across platforms. 

Conclusion: our approach to AI Overviews

AI Overviews are expanding rapidly—and redefining how users interact with search results. At seoplus+, our SEO experts are proactively adapting by:

• Re-evaluating our blog strategies to prioritize explainer-style content
• Testing new content formats and tracking generative AI traffic
• Collaborating with content and web teams to improve structure and formatting
• Staying focused on delivering quality, E-E-A-T aligned content that serves user intent and showcases thought leadership for our clients 
• Configuring AI referral traffic reports in GA4 to analyze engagement from these sessions and make data-driven SEO decisions 

For SMBs and marketing professionals, now’s the time to start experimenting. While the foundational aspects of SEO haven’t gone away, search behaviour is changing—and those who adapt early will have the upper hand.

If you’re curious about how AI Overviews could impact your industry, and what you can do today to win in SERPs, we’d love to talk.