Google's AI Overviews Checklist: 6 Things to Get Right

Google published official guidance on how sites can appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Read past the headline and it is six recommendations, and every one of them is a restatement of existing SEO fundamentals. There is no new algorithm to chase.

Use this as a checklist. If a page fails on any of these six, that is more likely to explain missing AI visibility than the absence of some AI-specific tag.

1. Write content that earns its place

Google's bar is that a page should cover the topic properly and add something a competitor's page does not: a first-hand result, a specific number, a local detail, an opinion backed by experience.

Check: Open your top three competing pages next to yours. If yours restates the same points in different words, it has nothing distinct for an AI summary to prefer. Add the evidence, example or detail that only you can provide.

2. Add relevant images (and video, where it fits)

AI Overviews and AI Mode can surface images and video alongside the text answer, not just a link. A page with no supporting media, or only a generic stock photo, gives the AI summary nothing to pull from.

Check: Does every important page have at least one image that is actually about its topic, not a decorative banner? Descriptive file names and alt text still matter here.

3. Don't build a page for every query variation

Google's term for this is "query fan-out": one topic can generate a dozen related searches, and creating a thin page for each variation reads as spam rather than depth.

Check: Before publishing a new page, search your own site for the topic first. If a page already covers it, extend that page instead of forking a near-duplicate for a slightly different keyword phrase.

4. Make sure Google can actually crawl and index the page

This is the one that gets skipped because it feels too basic to check. If a page is blocked, noindexed, orphaned from internal links, or stuck behind JavaScript that doesn't render, it cannot appear in AI Overviews no matter how good the writing is.

Check: Search Console's Page Indexing report, plus a manual site: search for the URL. Confirm the page is linked from at least one other page on the site, not just the sitemap.

5. Skip the AI SEO hacks

Google was direct about this one: you don't need an llms.txt file, special AI markup, or content rewritten into small "chunks" for a model to parse. None of it does what vendors selling it claim.

Check: If a proposal for your site includes any of the above as the main deliverable, that budget is better spent on items 1 and 4.

6. Track AI visibility on its own, not by feel

Search Console now reports impressions and pages for AI features separately from standard organic performance. Guessing whether a page "shows up in AI" from anecdotal ChatGPT screenshots is not a measurement strategy.

Check: Pull the AI-feature filter in Search Console for your top pages. Compare it against clicks and enquiries, not impressions alone, since an AI mention that doesn't convert still needs fixing further down the page.

Where this checklist usually breaks down

In practice, the items businesses skip aren't 5 or the general idea of "write good content." They're 3 and 4: sites publish a page per keyword variation because a tool suggested the volume, while an existing cornerstone page sits unindexed or buried three clicks deep. Fixing the plumbing (internal links, indexing, consolidating near-duplicate pages) tends to move AI visibility faster than writing more content.

If you want a second pair of eyes on where your site stands against this checklist, request a free SEO audit or see our SEO services for Malta businesses.

Sources

• Google Search Central: AI features in Search
• Google Search Central: Search quality raters and spam policies