Want to Show Up in AI Overviews? Start With These 5 Steps

AI Overviews have been a regular part of Google search since their launch in 2024. Search for almost anything, and you’ll often get a quick summary at the top of the page complete with a list of sources, before you ever scroll. 

If you work in content, you’ve probably been over the question: how do we become one of those sources?

The good news is that AI Overviews still favour the same thing search always has: content that puts people first. Google’s longstanding standards of experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness (often shortened to E-E-A-T) still apply. That means clear, direct answers. Accurate, current information. Original insight from people who genuinely know the subject. And pages that are well organized and easy for search systems to understand.

Here are 5 ways to make your content more likely to show up in AI Overviews. 

1. Answer the question clearly

Have you ever been annoyed having to scroll and scour a page to find the answer you’re looking for? Users rarely have the patience, and neither do AI Overviews. Instead, short and to-the-point content is prioritized, giving readers exactly what they want. 

This doesn’t mean you can’t publish longer-form content. As long as you provide a summarized answer that can easily be pulled from the top of a page or section, you can include additional context and information after it. 

Lead with your answer and let the details follow. 

2. Think in questions, not keywords

People are searching with highly specific and conversational queries. Before, the longer your query, the less likely you would find your answer. Now, the more specific, the better! Users are using full sentences and expect follow-up queries to consider previous context. 

Look at questions your audience is asking, whether that’s site search data, in “People also ask” boxes, or frequently asked questions. Build content that addresses those questions directly. Include a clear header that mirrors the questions and provide the answer right underneath. 

3. Give Your Content a Clear Structure

SEO has always prioritized content with headings, short paragraphs, lists, and tables. Not only for skimmability and user experience, but it also helps search systems understand how the information fits together. 

A wall of text is hard to skim and hard to pull meaning from. A well-structured page provides context such as which details belong to which topic, and where one answer ends and the next one begins.

• Make sure you use headings in their logical order: A singular H1 followed by H2 for main section titles, and H3 as nested topics. 
• Write descriptive headings using user question queries. 
• Keep your paragraphs focused

4. Add Structured Data

Structured data (also referred to as schema markup) is code added behind the scenes that labels your content and surfaces it more easily. It can indicate what kind of content a page contains, such as Event, FAQ, Article, or Organization.

For example, your page might say “Show, October 25th, 10:00 am, Ratatouille”. Although a person might understand the page is referring to Ratatouille: The Musical, a search engine needs to infer that it’s an event and decide whether Ratatouille is referring to the movie or the musical phenomenon. 

Structured data (in this case Event Schema) removes the guesswork and provides clear information about the event’s type, location, date, and start time. 

5. Keep Your Content Current (and Crawlable)

Outdated event dates, broken links, or content using a lot of JavaScript can actually be working against you. 

Audit your high-value pages regularly to update dead links, refresh your statistics, and ensure there are no broken images. 

As for JavaScript, this content is not always being crawled by AI agents, reducing your chances of being sourced. Use tools like the AI Difference Engine extension to see exactly what might be missed. 

Being found looks a little different now. 

Showing up in an AI Overview might not always mean a click. But it does mean someone learned about you, trusted your information, and knows where to go next. That’s still discovery.

The goal hasn’t changed: be the clearest, most helpful answer out there. The difference is that your answer might be the first impression, not the last step.