What percentage of Google searches show AI Overviews?

According to the Conductor 2026 AEO/GEO Benchmarks Report, AI Overviews now appear in roughly one in four Google queries on average. In certain industries the rate is much higher - health care queries trigger AI summaries nearly 49% of the time, and financial services reaches about 26%.

Does ranking on page one of Google guarantee you appear in AI Overviews?

No. While many AI Overview citations come from top-ranking pages, structure matters as much as rank position. Pages with clear headings, bullet points, and structured data have a 65% higher citation rate than unstructured text. You can rank on page one and still be excluded if your content is not formatted for AI extraction.

What content format gets cited most in Google AI Overviews?

Video is the single most cited content format in AI Overviews, with YouTube accounting for about 23% of all citations according to the SurferSEO AI Citation Report. For text content, comparative listicles achieve a 32.5% citation rate, and bullet-formatted content with 5 to 7 items gets lifted more frequently than dense paragraphs.

How to Rank in Google AI Overviews

Ranking in Google AI Overviews means getting your content cited as a source when Google generates an AI-powered summary at the top of search results. Unlike traditional search rankings where you compete for position on a list, AI Overviews synthesize information from multiple sources into a single answer - and your goal is to be one of the sources Google's AI selects.

AI Overviews are already widespread. The Conductor 2026 AEO/GEO Benchmarks Report found that AI answers now appear in roughly one in four Google queries, with coverage reaching nearly 49% in health care and 26% in financial services. If your content is not structured for AI extraction, you are invisible in a growing share of search results.

What Types of Content Does Google AI Overviews Cite?

Not all content formats have equal chances of being cited. The SurferSEO AI Citation Report - which analyzed 36 million AI Overviews and 46 million citations - revealed clear patterns in what Google's AI prefers.

Video dominates. YouTube accounts for approximately 23.3% of all AI Overview citations, making it the single most-cited domain across every vertical. If you have explainer videos on YouTube, they have a strong chance of being referenced in AI Overviews.

Wikipedia and Reddit carry weight. Wikipedia accounts for about 18.4% of citations, and Reddit contributes a growing share of community-driven insights. For startups, this means getting your brand mentioned on Wikipedia and discussed authentically on Reddit can indirectly boost AI Overview visibility.

Structured text outperforms unstructured text. Content with clear H2/H3 hierarchy, bullet points, and tables gets cited 65% more frequently by AI engines than unstructured paragraphs. Comparative listicles achieve a 32.5% citation rate - the highest among text formats.

Multimodal content wins. Pages that combine text, images, video, and structured data see 156% higher selection rates than text-only pages. Adding a relevant video embed and structured data to your blog posts meaningfully increases citation probability.

How Do You Structure Content for AI Overview Extraction?

Google's AI does not read content the way humans do. It scans for extractable chunks - specific passages, lists, or data points it can pull into a synthesized answer. Your content structure needs to facilitate this extraction.

Lead with direct answers. AI Overviews often cite the first one to two sentences after a heading. Use the "Bottom Line Up Front" (BLUF) format - answer the question in the first sentence, then elaborate. A heading like "How long does account warm-up take?" should be immediately followed by a direct answer, not three sentences of context.

Use bullet-formatted lists with 5 to 7 items. AirOps research confirmed that bullet-formatted content with 5 to 7 items gets lifted more frequently than dense paragraphs. When you are explaining a process, a comparison, or a list of factors, use bullets.

Format tables for extraction. Properly formatted tables achieve 81% extraction rates compared to 23% for the same data presented in paragraph form. Any time you are comparing tools, features, or metrics, use a table.

Use question-format headers. Question-based H2 and H3 headings are 3.4x more likely to be extracted for AI Overview answers than statement-based headings. Match the exact phrasing your audience uses when searching.

Does Traditional SEO Still Matter for AI Overviews?

Yes - but it is not sufficient on its own. Google AI Overviews pull primarily from pages that already rank well in traditional search. You still need strong domain authority, good internal linking, and solid E-E-A-T signals.

The difference is that traditional SEO gets you into the candidate pool, and content structure determines whether the AI actually selects your page from that pool. A page ranking third on Google with perfect formatting for AI extraction will often be cited over a page ranking first with unstructured content.

Key traditional SEO factors that still matter:

Page authority and backlinks - Higher-authority pages are more likely to appear in the retrieval set
Topical depth - Sites with comprehensive topical authority across related pages get cited more
Freshness - Updated content with recent dates gets preferred over stale pages
Technical SEO - Fast load times, mobile responsiveness, and proper indexing remain foundational

What Schema Markup Helps with AI Overviews?

Structured data gives Google's AI direct signals about your content's meaning and structure. Pages using schema like FAQ or HowTo are 78% more likely to be cited, and proper heading structure alone boosts citation rates by 63%.

Implement these schema types across your site:

Article schema - Signals that the page is editorial content with an author, date, and topic
FAQ schema - Marks up your FAQ section so Google can extract individual Q&A pairs directly
HowTo schema - For step-by-step guides, marks up each step as a discrete, extractable unit
Author schema - Connects content to a specific author with credentials and expertise

The combination of these schema types with well-structured content creates a strong signal that your page is an authoritative, extractable source - exactly what Google's AI is looking for.

How Do You Monitor Your AI Overview Visibility?

Track your presence in AI Overviews using AI search monitoring tools. Otterly.ai and Peec AI both track brand mentions across AI Overviews. SurferSEO's AI Tracker monitors which queries trigger AI Overviews and whether your domain appears in the citations.

Check your Google Search Console for queries where your pages are receiving impressions but lower click-through rates - this often indicates an AI Overview is capturing clicks above your organic listing. These are the queries where you should focus your GEO optimization efforts first.