Questions

Do Google AI Overviews use the same ranking as search?

Updated September 2026 · by Monish

Short answer

Mostly. An AI Overview is written from the pages Google ranks for the query and related ones, so a page that ranks well is the page that gets quoted. But the overview is not shown for every query, the set changes month to month, and the companies named are those on the ranked pages, which are often roundups rather than the companies' own sites.

What that means in practice

Ranking your own page for 'best X in city' helps only if that page is the kind that gets quoted, which usually means a comparison or a guide, not a home page. Being in the roundups that rank is what gets a company named. The report scores AI Overviews separately and drops the questions where Google showed none, saying how many.

Opting out

Only through the snippet controls (nosnippet, max-snippet), which also shorten the ordinary result. Google-Extended does not affect AI Overviews.

Read next

AI visibility on Google AI Overviews · AI visibility on Gemini · AEO vs SEO: what changes and what carries over

Ask it about your own company

Your website, region and work email. The score appears in about three minutes, and the report is a link you keep.

Check my AI visibility