How to Optimise Your Content for AI Overviews

Search is changing fast. If you’ve used Google recently, you may have noticed that the familiar list of blue links is no longer the first thing you see. Instead, Google often displays an AI Overview – a block of text generated by artificial intelligence that attempts to summarise the answer to your query.

For businesses and professionals who rely on organic search traffic, this shift matters enormously. It’s no longer enough to rank in the “ten blue links”, you now need to think about how your content is presented to, and interpreted by, AI systems.

In this article, we’ll explore:

• Why AI Overviews matter
• How they affect visibility and clicks
• Simple, actionable ways to optimise your content

Why Does Optimising for AI Overviews Matter?

⮞ Be visible at the very top of search results

AI Overviews usually* appear above traditional search results. This means that if your content is referenced or quoted in the overview, it can reach users before they scroll down to the standard listings.

⮞ It builds trust and authority

If Google’s AI chooses your page as a source, it’s a signal that your content is authoritative, reliable, and well-structured. This can strengthen your reputation in your field.

⮞ It captures User attention despite reduced clicks

Some users may get the information they need directly from the AI Overview without clicking through to a website. While this user behaviour can reduce traffic to your website, being cited in an AI Overview still raises your brand awareness, especially if your company name or website site appears within the overview.

⮞ It future proofs your SEO

Search seems to be moving towards AI-powered discovery so optimising your content NOW helps ensure your content doesn’t get left behind.

How AI Overviews Work (Simply Explained)

AI Overviews are generated by large language models (LLM) which are trained on vast amounts of text. When someone searches, the AI scans Google’s index and picks content that looks:

• Clear and easy to summarise
• Accurate and up to date
• Structured logically with headings and lists

Google then produces a “synthetic answer”, but it often links to the pages where it drew the information from. Your goal is to make your content the obvious choice for the AI to cite.

Practical Steps to Optimise Your Content

Here are some straightforward actions that non-specialists can take to improve their chances of being featured in AI Overviews:

⮞ Write clear, direct answers

• Adopt the ‘answer first’ principle and place the answer to the question (the primary question which your web page is addressing) right at the top of your article or section.
• Keep sentences short and easy to understand.
• Imagine you’re writing for someone with only 30 seconds to spare.

⮞ Use recognised structured formatting

• Break up your content into bite-sized chunks using clear headings (H2, H3, H4 etc) that reflect common search queries.
• Use bullet points and numbered lists where possible – AI loves structured data it can quickly summarise.
• Add short summaries at the end of long sections.

⮞ Target conversational queries

People ask Google questions in a conversational way, like “How do I optimise for AI Overviews?” rather than “AI Overview optimisation.”

• Sprinkle in FAQ-style questions as subheadings.
• Answer them directly underneath in one or two sentences.

⮞ Demonstrate expertise and trustworthiness

Google values E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).

• Add an author bio at the end of your post and be sure to link from the post to their profile and/or other articles they may have written and published.
• Link to reputable external sources where appropriate. They key here is to only link to reputable external sources so choose wisely.
• Keep your content up to date – review and refresh articles regularly.

Pillar and Cluster content for SEO: What it is and why it matters

Whether you’re a legal professional, small business owner, or marketing manager, understanding and implementing this model can have a transformative impact on your organic traffic. Click here to find out more about how to build E-E-A-T through the use of Pillar and Cluster content by reading this recent blog by Rich Holgate.

⮞ Optimise your content for clarity, not just for keywords

Traditional SEO focuses on keywords, and whilst we are still focussed on ranking in the organic search results, AI Overviews favour well-explained, natural language.

• Write like you’re explaining to a client or colleague, not just ticking boxes for search engines.
• Avoid jargon unless your specific audience expects it. Try to stay away from using acronyms or abbreviations or use them sparingly along with the long version.

⮞ Include examples and practical steps in your content

AI looks for useful, instructional content – material that goes beyond theory and actually helps the reader take action. If your article contains real-life examples, step-by-step advice, or clear takeaways, it’s much more likely to be cited in an AI Overview.

Google AI wants to serve up answers that are not only correct but also actionable. A list of abstract tips is less appealing than a clear, guided process and checklist.

For example, if you’re writing about “how can landlords serve a Section 21 notice,” you could:

• Provide a step-by-step checklist of the documents required.
• Show a short scenario of how a landlord might use the process in practice.
• Highlight common mistakes to avoid, alongside best practice.

This kind of content signals to Google’s AI that your page offers practical value. It also helps real readers, who are more likely to stay on your page, share it, or remember your brand when they need professional support.

⮞ Ensure your site is technically sound

Even great content won’t be used if your site is hard to crawl.

• Check that your pages load quickly.
• Make sure your content is mobile-friendly.
• Use a clear URL structure and add internal links between related posts.

For this technical element, you may need to employ the services of a specialist. However, non-specialists can get started using free tools:

1. Google PageSpeed Insights – Provides real-time insights on page speed, mobile responsiveness, and optimisation suggestions.
2. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools – Identifies technical SEO issues like broken links, indexing problems, and overall site health.
3. SEO SiteCheckup – Offers a simple site audit, including checks for meta tags, headings, broken links, and other common technical SEO issues.

Using these tools, you can quickly spot problems and prioritise fixes, even without a technical background. Regular checks help ensure your content remains accessible, crawlable, and AI-ready.

Quick Checklist for AI Overview Optimisation

Using the above as an essential guide for when you are publishing new content or optimising existing content will stand you in good stead for ranking high and featuring in the AI Overviews.

To help you further, and to simplify your journey, below is a list of actions you should check off each time you write or edit website content.

Print this out and pin it up so that you can quicky refer to it every time you create or edit content.

• Answer First Principle: Always start your content with a direct, succinct and clear answer to the question. Remember to use the ‘Answer First Principle’.
  
  ⮞ Tip: Pose your page title (your H1 header tag) as a question to better align with how users search.
  
  
• Structure Properly: Break up your content into bite-sized chunks by using headings, lists, images and FAQs.
  
  ⮞ Tip: Try to keep each section to around 300 characters.
  
  
• Use Conversational Language: Keep your language simple and natural, as if you were speaking to a client or a colleague and avoid jargon, acronyms, and abbreviations.
  
  ⮞ Tip: Write headings in a conversation manner like “How do I…” or “what is…”.
  
  
• Be the Expert: Show your expertise in the subject by including author bios, references, reviews and links to reputable sources.
  
  ⮞ Tip: Use the pillar and cluster approach to build a web of useful and related content.
  
  
• Be Useful: Provide examples and step-by-step instructions.
  
  ⮞ Tip: Written step-by-step instructions could be supplemented with an image showing the same.
  
  
• Stay Healthy: Maintain strong site performance with optimised images, up to date themes, and multi-platform functionality.
  
  ⮞ Tip: View your page on both website and mobile to be sure your page looks correct and fix any issues fast.
  
  

Our Final Thoughts (and a bit about funnels)

AI Overviews are still evolving, but we think they are here to stay. Optimising for AI Overviews is about making your content more useful, clear, and authoritative for real people.

If you can answer questions concisely, structure your writing logically, and demonstrate genuine expertise, you’ll increase your chances of being highlighted by Google’s AI.

Even if AI Overviews sometimes reduce click-through rates, there’s a powerful upside: brand visibility at the very top of the search journey, also known as the Top of the Funnel (TOFU). When your content is cited in an AI Overview, your company name or website appears as a trusted source right at the start of a user’s research process.

That exposure helps you:

• Build brand awareness with audiences who may not yet know you.
• Establish authority by being positioned as a source Google’s AI relies on.
• Nurture future demand – users may not click today, but they’re more likely to remember and return when they need more information, professional support, or to buy a product or service.

In other words, being cited in an AI Overview isn’t only about traffic, it’s about getting your brand in front of potential clients earlier, increasing the chances they’ll choose you when they’re ready to take action.

Optimising for AI Overviews is not an optional extra. It’s a shift in how information is discovered online. By following these simple, practical steps now, you can ensure your content continues to be found, trusted, and read – even as search transforms.

*We say “usually” because we have seen on a few occasions the AI Overview being placed further down the search engine results page. Evidence that Google are testing different approaches to discover the best way of serving artificial intelligence created overviews to the User.