Many SEOs are experimenting with ways to appear in the Google AI Overview, rather than just removing themselves from the AI Overview. Cyrus Shepard posted a “mini case study” on X, showing how to get his site into the AI Overview.
Silas explained that he “simply updated his webpage to roughly match the text in the AI Overview,” and that if his site ranks in the top 10 organic search results on Google, it will also appear as a website card in the AI Overview. He shared a screenshot of his site with a referral link.
But, he said, “what comes easily is also easily lost,” adding that “these things change a lot.”
He explained that because he changed his content, he also lost the featured snippet. He wrote, “This query gained a link but lost the featured snippet (see below). I consider this a net loss.”
Here's a screenshot of it:
Expect to see a lot of SEOs dabbling in this over the coming months.
Those posts are:
Mini SEO Case Study: Ranking your site with multiple Google AI summaries
• Updated the webpage to match the text in the AI summary 🤷
• If your site is ranked in the top 10, you will usually get a referral link
• Easy to get, easy to lose. Things change a lot. pic.twitter.com/erNniVr3SV— Cyrus SEO (@CyrusShepard) May 30, 2024
Here's a patent that explains how Google selects links in AI summaries
As others have pointed out, reference links are selected after you create your AI brief, i.e. by finding documents that support the contents of your AI brief.
The game becomes so much easier ¯\_(ツ)_/¯https://t.co/73JzmT3Ihe pic.twitter.com/RO8dUkizS4
— Cyrus SEO (@CyrusShepard) May 30, 2024
Forum discussion on X.