What Are AI Overviews and How Do You Optimize for Them?
You may have noticed Google’s search results looking a little different lately. That’s thanks to AI Overviews, which are automatically generated summaries that appear at the top of the search results page. These summaries are designed to answer your question right away on the search engine results page (SERP). These responses are created by Large Language Models (LLMs), pulling together information from high quality web sources to deliver a quick, synthesized answer.
As AI Overviews become more common, they’re changing the way users interact with search engines, they’re changing how much traffic actually makes it to your website, and they’re changing how we need to think about SEO.
Why AI Overviews Matter
Unlike traditional search results, where users click on links to learn more, AI Overviews aim to answer the query on the spot. That means your content has a better chance of being featured when it’s structured in a way that’s easy for these AI systems to parse, understand, and cite.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Structuring Content for AI Systems
First, have excellent, regularly updated content.
High-quality content that matches user’s search intent is critical to being featured in AI Overviews. Content that has Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness (known as E-A-T in the SEO world), and is regularly updated regularly to ensure relevancy and accuracy, is more likely to be cited by AI Overview at the top of the search engine results page.
Clear, Semantic Organization
LLMs prefer content that’s broken into logical sections using proper HTML heading tags (H1, H2, etc). This helps AI systems understand how your content flows and what each section is about.
Direct Answers to Specific Questions
Content that’s formatted in a Q&A style or includes concise answers near the top of a section increases the chances your text will be selected for an AI Overview.
Long-Tail and Conversational Queries
Focus on natural, specific keywords and keyword phrases rather than broad, competitive terms. These longer queries are more likely to trigger AI responses and reflect how users actually speak or type.
Bullets, Lists, and Tables
AI loves clean formatting. Breaking information into skimmable pieces not only improves user readability, it can also boost your chances of being cited in the AI Overview.
Integrating AI Optimization into SEO Strategy
At Results Repeat, we’re integrating these principles into every layer of our SEO work. That means continuing to follow best practices for traditional search, while adapting content formats to ensure machine readability for LLMs like Google’s Gemini or Bing’s Copilot.
This is part of a broader shift in how search works, and we’re helping clients stay ahead by making their content visible, usable, and valuable. If you’d like a hand ensuring your content is optimized for AI Overview and LLMs, please contact us to discuss more.
This post is the second in a month-long blog series on how to optimize for AI, LLMs, and traditional search engines. We’ll explore how to future-proof your SEO, adapt to AI trends, and ensure your brand stays front and center across all platforms. Last week: Search Has Changed, Here’s How to Keep Up. Next week: Why Traditional SEO Still Matters (Even in an AI World)
