{"id":1556,"date":"2026-09-07T11:28:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T11:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/?p=1556"},"modified":"2026-09-07T11:37:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T11:37:24","slug":"ai-overviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/ai-overviews\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Overviews Explained: How Google, Bing, and Perplexity Generate Answers (and How to Get Cited)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>30-Second<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>AI Overviews are AI-generated answer summaries shown above or instead of traditional search results. Google launched the first mainstream version in May 2024, and Bing and Perplexity now run their own equivalents.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All three work on the same core idea, <a href=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/what-is-rag-in-ai\/\">retrieval-augmented generation<\/a>, pulling live web content before writing an answer, though the exact pipeline differs by platform.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They matter because they&#8217;re increasingly where the answer gets consumed. A growing share of queries now resolve inside the summary itself, before a user ever reaches a traditional list of links.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The traffic-loss numbers you&#8217;ll see cited range wildly, from an 18% CTR drop to 83%+ zero-click rates, and the honest answer is that the real figure depends heavily on query type and how the study was run.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You can&#8217;t cleanly opt out of any of these systems. Your only tools are blunt ones, noindex, robots.txt, or nosnippet, and all three cost you regular search visibility too.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>AI Overviews, AI Mode, and <a href=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/what-is-aeo\/\">AEO<\/a> are three different things that get used interchangeably online. Mixing them up leads to the wrong strategy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1672\" height=\"941\" src=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AI-Overviews-Featured-Image.webp\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Ai Overviews explain\" style=\"border-top-left-radius:10px;border-top-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-left-radius:10px;border-bottom-right-radius:10px;object-fit:cover;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AI-Overviews-Featured-Image.webp 1672w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AI-Overviews-Featured-Image-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AI-Overviews-Featured-Image-1024x576.webp 1024w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AI-Overviews-Featured-Image-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AI-Overviews-Featured-Image-1536x864.webp 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>I get shown a screenshot of a client&#8217;s traffic graph dropping off a cliff at least once a week now, and the panic that follows is usually built on one stat pulled from one study, about one platform, without asking what that study actually measured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Are AI Overviews?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An AI Overview is a feature that generates a written summary in response to a search query, using AI to synthesize an answer from multiple web sources rather than just listing links.<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.kb-image1556_66515b-ee .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;border-top-left-radius:10px;border-top-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-left-radius:10px;}.kb-image1556_66515b-ee img.kb-img, .kb-image1556_66515b-ee .kb-img img{border-top-left-radius:10px;border-top-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-left-radius:10px;}<\/style>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image1556_66515b-ee size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-three-platforms-comparison-1024x683.webp\" alt=\"Side-by-side comparison of AI-generated overview features on Google, Bing, and Perplexity\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-1562\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-three-platforms-comparison-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-three-platforms-comparison-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-three-platforms-comparison-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-three-platforms-comparison.webp 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google introduced the concept as the Search Generative Experience at its I\/O conference in May 2023, then relaunched it under the current name in the US on May 14, 2024. By mid-2026 it covers over 200 countries and 40-plus languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The term has since spread beyond Google. Microsoft&#8217;s Bing runs a comparable feature, currently branded Copilot Search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As of late August 2026, Bing is actively testing renaming that same feature&#8217;s answer box to &#8220;AI Overview,&#8221; the identical label Google uses. Perplexity, built as an &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/what-is-an-answer-engine\/\">answer engine<\/a>&#8221; from the ground up, has run this kind of AI-generated, cited summary as its core product since 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A typical AI Overview shows a short written answer, a handful of key points, and a set of cited source links, though the exact layout differs by platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Are AI Overviews Important?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They matter because they&#8217;re changing where the answer actually gets consumed, not just how it&#8217;s displayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For years, ranking well meant earning a click. Now, a meaningful share of queries resolve entirely inside the AI-generated summary, and the user may never scroll past it. That shifts the real prize from &#8220;rank first&#8221; to &#8220;get cited inside the answer,&#8221; which is a related but distinct goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They also matter because adoption is large and growing. Google&#8217;s version now covers the large majority of countries where Search operates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bing is actively expanding its own version and converging on the same naming, and Perplexity has built its entire product around this format, reportedly handling hundreds of millions of queries a month. This isn&#8217;t a niche experiment anymore, it&#8217;s becoming a default way search works across multiple major platforms at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For a business, that means visibility inside these summaries is no longer optional research, it&#8217;s a growing share of how potential customers first encounter you, sometimes without a click ever happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Do AI Overviews Work Across Different Engines?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every platform runs some version of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG): pull real, current content from the web, then generate an answer grounded in what was retrieved, rather than relying only on a model&#8217;s training data. The specifics diverge from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Platform<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Retrieval Approach<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Distinct Behavior<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Google (AI Overviews \/ AI Mode)<\/td><td>Query fan-out: issues several related searches across subtopics before synthesizing<\/td><td>Shown only when systems judge it adds value beyond a classic result list; often doesn&#8217;t trigger<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Bing (Copilot Search)<\/td><td>Grounded on live Bing search results plus additional queries run on the user&#8217;s behalf<\/td><td>Embeds citation links directly inside the summary text, not just listed separately<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Perplexity<\/td><td>Multi-stage pipeline: retrieves roughly 10 candidate pages, reranks through multiple filters, cites 3 to 4 in the final answer<\/td><td>Citation-first by design since 2022; strongest recency bias of the three, favoring very current content<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>The rough sequence looks like this: interpret the intent behind a query, retrieve relevant indexed content, and often issue several related searches behind the scenes, a technique Google calls <a href=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/what-is-query-fan-out\/\">query fan-out<\/a>, to cover the topic more completely. The model then synthesizes the results into a summary and attaches citations back to the source pages, a step Google calls grounding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That grounding step matters for two reasons. It&#8217;s meant to keep the answer accurate and verifiable, and it&#8217;s the mechanism that decides which sites get a citation and which don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Real Case Study: What Actually Moved Citations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One independently published case study offers a rare, transparent look at this in practice. An SEO consultant tracked 50 head terms in the marketing niche, all pages he already ranked well for organically, and measured which ones Google&#8217;s AI Overview cited as a source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His baseline: only 4 of the 41 head terms triggering an AI Overview cited his site, roughly a 10% citation rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He then added a consistent structural overlay to each page: a short direct-answer block near the top, a numbered step section, an FAQ block, and links to primary sources rather than secondary summaries. Nothing else on the pages changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Six weeks later, citation rate had climbed to 19 of 41, roughly 46%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The short answer block accounted for most of the gain, pages where Google could lift a clean two-to-three sentence answer were the ones that got cited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A handful of pages gained a citation and then lost it again within two weeks, typically ones competing against far more established sites for the same head term, suggesting the system tested them, then reverted to a source it trusted more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The honest caveat baked into that study: roughly half the pages saw no change at all, mostly ones where a small handful of highly authoritative competitors already occupied every citation slot. Structure helped. It didn&#8217;t overcome a large authority gap on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Does Adding Schema Markup Actually Increase AI Citations?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Less than commonly claimed, according to a rigorous, controlled study on this exact question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One large-scale analysis tracked around 1,900 pages that added structured data, compared against thousands of similar pages that didn&#8217;t, isolating the effect using a matched before-and-after design rather than a simple correlation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The result: no meaningful citation increase on AI Mode or ChatGPT, and a small, real decline on Google&#8217;s AI Overviews specifically, one too small to confidently blame on the schema itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There&#8217;s an important caveat that keeps this from being a blanket &#8220;schema doesn&#8217;t matter.&#8221; Every page in that study was already being cited heavily before the test began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The finding only tells you that adding schema to a page AI systems already trust doesn&#8217;t push it higher, not whether schema helps a brand-new, invisible page get discovered in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.kb-image1556_fe244d-db .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;border-top-left-radius:10px;border-top-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-left-radius:10px;}.kb-image1556_fe244d-db img.kb-img, .kb-image1556_fe244d-db .kb-img img{border-top-left-radius:10px;border-top-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-left-radius:10px;}<\/style>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image1556_fe244d-db size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-case-study-and-schema-study-charts-1024x683.webp\" alt=\"Charts summarizing a real citation case study and a controlled study on whether schema markup increases AI citations\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-1567\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-case-study-and-schema-study-charts-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-case-study-and-schema-study-charts-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-case-study-and-schema-study-charts-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-case-study-and-schema-study-charts.webp 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A separate, related test found something more specific worth knowing: when several major AI systems fetch a page in real time, they read the visible HTML content on the page, not hidden structured data sitting in the code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Schema still has real value for how <a href=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/search-engines\/\">search engines<\/a> build their broader understanding of your site, but it isn&#8217;t the mechanism doing the work at the exact moment your page gets pulled into an answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One more current wrinkle: Google formally began removing FAQ rich results from Search entirely in May 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Adding FAQPage schema no longer buys you a visible rich result in classic search, though the case study above found it still correlated with a modest citation bump specifically for question-phrased queries, likely because it forces cleaner answer structure rather than because any system is reading the markup itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Does This Actually Look Like for a Real Query?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Take a query like &#8220;how many backlinks do I need to rank.&#8221; Here&#8217;s how the documented mechanics above translate into a genuinely different answer on each platform, based on how each system is built to behave, not a single captured screenshot, since results shift by the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">On Google,<\/mark><\/strong> the query fan-out step likely breaks this into related sub-questions, backlinks for a new site, backlinks for an ecommerce category page, what counts as a toxic link, before Gemini writes a synthesized answer. Expect a short direct answer up top, a few expandable bullet points underneath, and 3 to 5 cited sources drawn from whichever pages most directly answer each sub-question.<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.kb-image1556_e35d32-1d .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;border-top-left-radius:10px;border-top-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-left-radius:10px;}.kb-image1556_e35d32-1d img.kb-img, .kb-image1556_e35d32-1d .kb-img img{border-top-left-radius:10px;border-top-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-left-radius:10px;}<\/style>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image1556_e35d32-1d size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Google-query-fan-out-1024x683.webp\" alt=\"Google Query Fan Out Map\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-1563\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Google-query-fan-out-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Google-query-fan-out-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Google-query-fan-out-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Google-query-fan-out.webp 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">On Bing,<\/mark><\/strong> Copilot Search tends to write in a more conversational, first-person tone and embeds its citation links directly inside the sentence rather than listing them separately below. The answer is more likely to read like a single coherent paragraph than Google&#8217;s bulleted breakdown.<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.kb-image1556_5c9639-0a .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;border-top-left-radius:10px;border-top-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-left-radius:10px;}.kb-image1556_5c9639-0a img.kb-img, .kb-image1556_5c9639-0a .kb-img img{border-top-left-radius:10px;border-top-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-left-radius:10px;}<\/style>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image1556_5c9639-0a size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Bing-Copilot-Search-1024x683.webp\" alt=\"Bing Copilot Search vs Google search\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-1568\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Bing-Copilot-Search-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Bing-Copilot-Search-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Bing-Copilot-Search-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Bing-Copilot-Search.webp 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">On Perplexity,<\/mark><\/strong>expect the most tightly sourced version of the three. Its pipeline retrieves a wider candidate pool, roughly 10 pages, then reranks down to the 3 or 4 it actually cites, with a visible numbered citation next to nearly every sentence. It also leans hardest on recency, so a page published or meaningfully updated in the last few months has a real edge here specifically.<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.kb-image1556_6da7d5-5b .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;border-top-left-radius:10px;border-top-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-left-radius:10px;}.kb-image1556_6da7d5-5b img.kb-img, .kb-image1556_6da7d5-5b .kb-img img{border-top-left-radius:10px;border-top-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-left-radius:10px;}<\/style>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image1556_6da7d5-5b size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Perplexity-Citation-Pipeline-Infographic-1024x576.webp\" alt=\"Perplexity-Citation-Pipeline-Infographic\n\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-1569\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Perplexity-Citation-Pipeline-Infographic-1024x576.webp 1024w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Perplexity-Citation-Pipeline-Infographic-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Perplexity-Citation-Pipeline-Infographic-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Perplexity-Citation-Pipeline-Infographic-1536x864.webp 1536w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Perplexity-Citation-Pipeline-Infographic.webp 1672w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">The practical takeaway:<\/mark> writing one version of a page and hoping it works everywhere undersells the opportunity. A direct, quotable answer near the top serves Google&#8217;s extraction step, a naturally conversational paragraph serves Bing&#8217;s citation style, and freshness matters most if Perplexity traffic is a priority for your topic.<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.kb-image1556_b83a96-d8 .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;border-top-left-radius:10px;border-top-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-left-radius:10px;}.kb-image1556_b83a96-d8 img.kb-img, .kb-image1556_b83a96-d8 .kb-img img{border-top-left-radius:10px;border-top-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-left-radius:10px;}<\/style>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image1556_b83a96-d8 size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-rag-pipeline-diagram-1024x512.webp\" alt=\"Flowchart showing the shared retrieval-augmented generation pipeline behind AI Overviews across platforms\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-1561\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-rag-pipeline-diagram-1024x512.webp 1024w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-rag-pipeline-diagram-300x150.webp 300w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-rag-pipeline-diagram-768x384.webp 768w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-rag-pipeline-diagram-1536x768.webp 1536w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-rag-pipeline-diagram.webp 1774w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Are AI Overviews the Same as AI Mode?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No, and mixing the two up is one of the most common mistakes I see in strategy conversations, especially now that terminology is converging across platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Google specifically, AI Overviews are embedded inside standard Search results. AI Mode is a separate, more expansive AI-powered search experience built for multi-part questions, follow-ups, and deeper conversational exploration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Clicking &#8220;Show more&#8221; on an AI Overview can flow directly into AI Mode, and Google has confirmed both features can use the same query fan-out technique, but they remain distinct products with different triggers, measured separately in reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The naming gets murkier across platforms. Bing&#8217;s equivalent feature has been called Copilot Search and is now being tested under the literal label &#8220;AI Overview,&#8221; borrowed directly from Google. Treat the capitalized term &#8220;AI Overviews&#8221; as Google&#8217;s specific feature name, and the lowercase, general concept, &#8220;AI-generated overview,&#8221; as the broader category that Bing&#8217;s and Perplexity&#8217;s equivalents also belong to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Much Traffic Do AI Overviews Actually Cost You?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here&#8217;s where I&#8217;d slow down, because this is the part where most content on this topic stops being useful and starts being alarmist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Depending on which study you read, this feature gets blamed for CTR declines anywhere from 18% to 61%, and zero-click rates on these queries specifically get cited anywhere from 58% to 93%. Those aren&#8217;t typos. They&#8217;re genuinely different findings from different research teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One widely cited industry analysis found a 34.5% lower average CTR for pages ranking alongside an AI-generated summary in an earlier measurement period. A later update to that same tracking found the gap had widened to 58%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An independently run academic study from Pew Research Center found something more moderate: users clicked a traditional result 8% of the time when a summary was present, versus 15% without one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Data Point<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Metric Reported<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Figure<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Industry analysis (earlier period)<\/td><td>CTR reduction, position 1<\/td><td>34.5% lower<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Same source (later update)<\/td><td>CTR reduction, position 1<\/td><td>58% lower<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Pew Research Center<\/td><td>Click rate with summary present vs. without<\/td><td>8% vs. 15%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Widely cited independent study<\/td><td>Organic CTR reduction<\/td><td>61% lower<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Why the spread? A few real reasons, not just inconsistent research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Studies measure different time periods as the feature keeps evolving on every platform. They sample different query types, and informational queries lose far more clicks than transactional ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some studies isolate one specific feature, while others blend in AI Mode, Copilot Search, and other zero-click formats that were already growing before any of this existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google has pushed back directly on the more dramatic claims. It states that some traffic-loss reporting relies on speculative or incomplete methodology, and that new AI search experiences create new discovery opportunities alongside the disruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;d treat that as a real perspective worth weighing, not dismiss it outright, while also not assuming a company with an obvious incentive is a neutral referee on this particular question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The honest summary: a real decline exists, multiple independent research teams agree on that much, but the exact size depends on your query mix and which platform you&#8217;re measuring, and anyone quoting a single precise number without naming their methodology is oversimplifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Do You Optimize for AI Overviews?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you&#8217;re looking for how to optimize for AI Overviews, here&#8217;s the reassuring part, straight from Google&#8217;s own developer documentation: there are no special files, no new markup, and no separate technical requirements to appear in an AI-generated summary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The same fundamentals that earn a page a spot in classic search are what earn it a citation here too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That said, a few specific practices consistently correlate with getting cited, across all three platforms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">Stay technically accessible.<\/mark><\/strong> A page has to be crawlable and indexed to be eligible at all. Check that robots.txt isn&#8217;t blocking important sections, that no page carries an accidental noindex tag, and that your CDN or hosting layer isn&#8217;t silently blocking crawlers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">Answer the question in the first 100 words.<\/mark><\/strong> Across independent analyses of what actually gets cited, the overwhelming majority of cited pages state their core answer within the first few sentences of the relevant section, not buried after a long introduction. Systems built to extract a quick answer skip past preamble.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">Structure content so it can be pulled apart cleanly.<\/mark><\/strong> Clear headings that match how people phrase questions, short paragraphs that stand on their own, and a direct answer immediately after each heading all make it easier for a retrieval system to lift a clean, accurate passage.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">Keep time-sensitive content current.<\/mark><\/strong> Recency is one of the strongest signals across these systems, and stale content on a fast-moving topic gets passed over for a fresher competing source, sometimes within days.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">Add structured data where the underlying content earns it.<\/mark><\/strong> FAQPage, HowTo, and Article schema still help these systems build a broader picture of your site, but a controlled study on this exact question found no meaningful direct citation boost for pages already inside the consideration set, since real-time retrieval mostly reads visible HTML, not hidden markup. Treat schema as good hygiene for discoverability, not a shortcut to a citation on its own.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">Earn genuine authority signals.<\/mark><\/strong> Real backlinks and brand mentions from credible, relevant sources still matter, arguably more than before, since being cited by other trusted sources is part of how these systems decide who to trust enough to cite themselves. This overlaps directly with E-E-A-T, the Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness signals that already shape classic rankings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">Name entities precisely.<\/mark><\/strong> Use your exact brand, product, and topic names consistently rather than vague synonyms. Systems built around entity recognition reward that clarity when deciding what a page is actually about.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">None of this requires a separate playbook from solid SEO. It&#8217;s the same fundamentals, applied with more attention to how a machine, not just a human, will parse the page.<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.kb-image1556_b446c4-bf .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;border-top-left-radius:10px;border-top-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-left-radius:10px;}.kb-image1556_b446c4-bf img.kb-img, .kb-image1556_b446c4-bf .kb-img img{border-top-left-radius:10px;border-top-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-right-radius:10px;border-bottom-left-radius:10px;}<\/style>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image1556_b446c4-bf size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-optimization-checklist-1024x683.webp\" alt=\"Checklist infographic of seven practices for optimizing content to be cited in AI Overviews\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-1560\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-optimization-checklist-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-optimization-checklist-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-optimization-checklist-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ai-overviews-optimization-checklist.webp 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Can You Opt Out of AI Overviews?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not cleanly, no, on any of the three platforms. There&#8217;s currently no setting that removes just your site from an AI-generated summary while leaving your normal search visibility intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your available tools are all blunt instruments. A noindex tag removes a page from all of it, but also from regular search results entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Blocking a page in robots.txt reduces the odds it gets used in one of these summaries, but hurts your broader crawlability too. A nosnippet tag stops a snippet from being generated at all, which also strips the preview text from your normal listings and tends to reduce click-through on the results you do still get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For most sites, none of these trade-offs are worth it. I&#8217;d only reach for them if a specific page has a genuine reason to avoid summarization, not as a default reaction to this feature existing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Do You Track Whether You&#8217;re Appearing in AI Overviews?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google Search Console won&#8217;t separate this out cleanly for you. Clicks and impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode get bundled into your regular Search performance report, under the standard &#8220;Web&#8221; search type, with no dedicated filter by feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Third-party rank-tracking platforms can fill that gap by flagging which of your ranking keywords currently trigger an AI-generated summary and whether you&#8217;re cited within it. If you don&#8217;t have access to one, watching for pages with high impressions but declining click-through in Search Console is a reasonable manual proxy in the meantime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Which AI Overview Keywords Can You Actually Win?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Competing head-on with major SEO publishers for the broad term &#8220;AI Overviews&#8221; is a domain-authority fight as much as a content one. These narrower, multi-platform angles have far less entrenched competition right now, and none of them are owned by any single existing publisher yet:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>&#8220;<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">AI Overviews vs AI Mode&#8221;<\/mark>,<\/strong> a genuine point of confusion with surprisingly thin, single-paragraph coverage across most existing content.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">&#8220;Bing Copilot Search AI Overview rename&#8221;,<\/mark><\/strong> tied to a development days old at the time of writing; almost no indexed content addresses it yet.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">&#8220;How does Perplexity cite sources&#8221;,<\/mark><\/strong> Perplexity-specific mechanics are covered far less than Google&#8217;s, despite real search interest from marketers evaluating the platform.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">&#8220;AI Overviews Google vs Bing vs Perplexity&#8221;,<\/mark><\/strong> a direct three-way comparison that, as of this research, no single competitor article attempts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">&#8220;Can you opt out of AI Overviews&#8221;,<\/mark><\/strong> high practical intent, and most existing answers bury the real trade-offs instead of stating them plainly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Targeting a cluster of these first, then linking them all back to a comprehensive hub like this one, is a more realistic path to real rankings than competing directly on the broad term alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is This the Same Thing as AEO?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Related, but not identical. AI Overviews (and their Bing and Perplexity equivalents) are the features themselves. <a href=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/what-is-an-answer-engine\/\">Answer Engine<\/a> Optimization, <a href=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/what-is-aeo\/\">AEO<\/a>, is the practice of structuring content to get cited across all of these systems collectively, not just one specific feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;ve broken down the full distinction, along with the specific tactics for each, in my <a href=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/marketing\/<a href=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/what-is-aeo\/\">aeo<\/a>-vs-seo\/&#8221;>AEO vs SEO<\/a> guide if that&#8217;s the comparison you actually need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What are AI Overviews in simple terms?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They&#8217;re AI-generated answer summaries that search engines show in response to a query, built by pulling current web content and citing the sources used. Google&#8217;s version popularized the name, but Bing and Perplexity now run comparable features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Do AI Overviews reduce traffic in a way you can actually verify?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes, most independent research agrees on that much. The exact size of the decline varies significantly by study, platform, and query type, ranging from roughly 18% to 61% in cited click-through rate drops, so treat any single precise number with some skepticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Can I stop my site from appearing in AI Overviews?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not specifically, on any platform. You can use noindex, robots.txt, or nosnippet to reduce the chances, but all three also reduce your visibility in regular search results, so they&#8217;re a genuine trade-off rather than a clean opt-out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is AI Overviews the same as AI Mode?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No. On Google specifically, AI Overviews are embedded inside standard Search results, while AI Mode is a separate, more conversational experience. Other platforms use similar but not identical structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do I know if my content shows up in AI-generated summaries?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Search Console doesn&#8217;t separate this out by feature. Dedicated rank-tracking tools can filter your keywords specifically by whether an AI summary is present and whether you&#8217;re cited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Do I need a separate strategy for AI Overviews versus normal SEO?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not really. The core guidance, from Google&#8217;s own documentation, is to apply the same SEO fundamentals: technical accessibility, quality content, and earned authority, since these systems draw on largely the same signals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bottom Line<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AI Overviews, in Google&#8217;s specific sense and in the broader sense now spreading across Bing and Perplexity, are a real and fast-growing part of how search works. The traffic impact is real too, even if the exact size of that impact depends on who&#8217;s measuring it, on which platform, and how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;d rather you understand the actual range of evidence than anchor on whichever single number scared you most in a LinkedIn post. The optimization advice underneath all of it hasn&#8217;t changed much: technical health, genuine expertise, and content built to be cited, not just ranked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!-- RANKMETRY AUTHOR BOX Paste into Elementor HTML Widget -->\r\n<style>\r\n.rm-author-box {\r\n  display: flex;\r\n  align-items: flex-start;\r\n  gap: 20px;\r\n  background: #faf9f7;\r\n  border: 1px solid #e8e5e0;\r\n  border-left: 4px solid #c8521a;\r\n  border-radius: 10px;\r\n  padding: 24px 28px;\r\n  margin: 40px 0;\r\n  font-family: 'DM Sans', sans-serif;\r\n}\r\n\r\n.rm-author-avatar {\r\n  flex-shrink: 0;\r\n  width: 72px;\r\n  height: 72px;\r\n    border-radius: 50% !important;\r\n  object-fit: cover;\r\n  border: 2px solid #e8e5e0;\r\n}\r\n\r\n.rm-author-info { flex: 1; min-width: 0; }\r\n\r\n.rm-author-label {\r\n  font-size: 11px;\r\n  font-weight: 600;\r\n  letter-spacing: 0.12em;\r\n  text-transform: uppercase;\r\n  color: #c8521a;\r\n  margin-bottom: 4px;\r\n}\r\n\r\n.rm-author-name {\r\n  font-size: 18px;\r\n  font-weight: 700;\r\n  color: #1a1917;\r\n  margin: 0 0 3px;\r\n  line-height: 1.2;\r\n}\r\n\r\n.rm-author-title {\r\n  font-size: 13px;\r\n  color: #8a8784;\r\n  margin: 0 0 10px;\r\n}\r\n\r\n.rm-author-bio {\r\n  font-size: 14px;\r\n  color: #4a4845;\r\n  line-height: 1.65;\r\n  margin: 0 0 14px;\r\n}\r\n\r\n.rm-author-socials {\r\n  display: flex;\r\n  gap: 10px;\r\n  flex-wrap: wrap;\r\n}\r\n\r\n.rm-author-socials a {\r\n  display: inline-flex;\r\n  align-items: center;\r\n  gap: 5px;\r\n  font-size: 12px;\r\n  font-weight: 600;\r\n  color: #1a1917;\r\n  text-decoration: none;\r\n  border: 1px solid #e8e5e0;\r\n  border-radius: 5px;\r\n  padding: 5px 12px;\r\n  transition: background 0.2s, border-color 0.2s;\r\n}\r\n\r\n.rm-author-socials a:hover {\r\n  background: #1a1917;\r\n  color: #fff;\r\n  border-color: #1a1917;\r\n}\r\n\r\n@media (max-width: 540px) {\r\n  .rm-author-box {\r\n    flex-direction: column;\r\n    align-items: center;\r\n    text-align: center;\r\n    padding: 20px;\r\n  }\r\n  .rm-author-socials { justify-content: center; }\r\n}\r\n<\/style>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"rm-author-box\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/Person\">\r\n\r\n  <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rm-author-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/wajahat-ullah-gondal.avif\" alt=\"Wajahat Ullah Gondal\" itemprop=\"image\" title=\"\">\r\n\r\n  <div class=\"rm-author-info\">\r\n    <p class=\"rm-author-label\">Written by<\/p>\r\n    <h4 class=\"rm-author-name\" itemprop=\"name\">Wajahat Ullah Gondal<\/h4>\r\n    <p class=\"rm-author-title\" itemprop=\"jobTitle\">Digital Marketing Strategist &amp; Co-Founder @ RANKMETRY<\/p>\r\n    <p class=\"rm-author-bio\" itemprop=\"description\">\r\n      Wajahat Ullah Gondal is a Digital Marketing Strategist and Co-Founder of RANKMETRY. With 5+ years of expertise, he specializes in SEO (Local, SaaS, International, eCommerce, Multilingual), SEM, Meta &amp; TikTok Ads, SMM, CRO, AEO, GEO, and high-performance Web Design. His mission is simple: help brands rank higher, convert better, and grow faster.\r\n    <\/p>\r\n    <div class=\"rm-author-socials\">\r\n      <a href=\"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\ud83c\udf10 Website<\/a>\r\n      <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/wajahatullahgondal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">in LinkedIn<\/a>\r\n      <a href=\"https:\/\/calendly.com\/wajahatullahgondal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">\r\n  \ud83d\udcc5 Book a Free Call\r\n<\/a>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>30-Second I get shown a screenshot of a client&#8217;s traffic graph dropping off a cliff at least once a week now, and the panic that follows is usually built on one stat pulled from one study, about one platform, without asking what that study actually measured. What Are AI Overviews? An AI Overview is a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo","category-aeo"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":3,"label":"SEO"},{"value":15,"label":"AEO"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AI-Overviews-Featured-Image-1024x576.webp",1024,576,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Wajahat Ullah Gondal","author_link":"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/author\/wajahatullahgondal\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":3,"name":"SEO","slug":"seo","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"<strong data-start=\"549\" data-end=\"585\">Search Engine Optimization (SEO)<\/strong> is the process of improving a website so it ranks higher in search engines like Google and attracts more organic visitors.","parent":0,"count":8,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":8,"category_description":"<strong data-start=\"549\" data-end=\"585\">Search Engine Optimization (SEO)<\/strong> is the process of improving a website so it ranks higher in search engines like Google and attracts more organic visitors.","cat_name":"SEO","category_nicename":"seo","category_parent":0},{"term_id":15,"name":"AEO","slug":"aeo","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":15,"taxonomy":"category","description":"<p data-start=\"88\" data-end=\"255\"><strong data-start=\"88\" data-end=\"124\">Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)<\/strong> helps your content appear in AI search results, voice assistants, and featured answers by providing clear and helpful information.<\/p>","parent":0,"count":11,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":15,"category_count":11,"category_description":"<p data-start=\"88\" data-end=\"255\"><strong data-start=\"88\" data-end=\"124\">Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)<\/strong> helps your content appear in AI search results, voice assistants, and featured answers by providing clear and helpful information.<\/p>","cat_name":"AEO","category_nicename":"aeo","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1556"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1572,"href":"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions\/1572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmetry.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}