Gemini answers from its model unless grounding is on; with grounding it runs Google searches and answers from the results, which makes its answers close to what Google ranks. Allow Googlebot and Google-Extended in robots.txt. Rank in Google for the question.
How Gemini decides who to name
Gemini answers from its model unless grounding is on; with grounding it runs Google searches and answers from the results, which makes its answers close to what Google ranks. It tends to name the established companies in a category and to add a caveat when the category is local or fast-moving. It is the engine most likely to answer a comparison question with a table.
What Gemini reads
| Agent | What it does |
|---|---|
Googlebot | the search index that grounding draws on; nearly every site already allows it |
Google-Extended | not a crawler but a robots.txt token: disallowing it tells Google not to use your pages for training Gemini or for grounding in the Gemini apps; it does not affect Search or AI Overviews |
The lines to have in robots.txt, checked in seconds by the crawler access checker:
User-agent: Google-Extended
Allow: /How Gemini shows its sources
Grounding sources, returned with the answer as a set of URLs, each behind a Google redirect. The report resolves them to the real domains and records them.
What the report records
The report uses the Gemini API with the Google Search tool on, asked with the buyer's country set, and records the answer, the order of the names and the resolved sources.
When Gemini is not scored the header says why: our key was refused, our quota ran out, or it timed out. Faults on our side; the report is re-run.
What to do for Gemini
- Do not disallow Google-Extended unless you mean to be absent from Gemini's grounded answers. Many sites added the line in 2023 to opt out of training and forgot it also covers grounding.
- Rank in Google for the question. Gemini's grounded answer is drawn from Google's results, so the SEO work carries over here more than anywhere.
- Give it a table to quote: a comparison page with a real table, since Gemini answers 'A vs B' with a table and takes yours when it exists.
Read next
ChatGPT · Perplexity · Google AI Overviews · All four engines · By industry · Grounded answer, defined
Questions
Is Gemini the same as Google AI Overviews?
No. Gemini is the assistant, grounded on Google Search when asked; AI Overviews is the AI answer at the top of a Google results page. They read the same index and often name the same companies, but they are asked in different places and the report scores them separately.
Does the Google-Extended line hide me from AI Overviews?
No. Google says AI Overviews use the ordinary Googlebot index and the standard snippet controls. Google-Extended covers Gemini training and grounding.
See whether Gemini names you
Your website, region and work email. The score appears in about three minutes, and the report is a link you keep.