How to Rank in Google AI Overviews

Do you want your website to appear in Google’s AI overviews? Work on the 3 pillars of SEO. They are: Technical SEO, on-page and off-page SEO. This video shows OpticsIn.com in Google’s AI overviews because of employing SEO principals. We didn’t do anything to explicitly to target AI overviews and chances are, neither should you.

The Transcript

0:00 When we engage with clients for SEO services, they want to know frequently how to rank in the AI overviews. They see them in Google when they’re doing search queries and they wonder how to get in there.

0:11 So I thought I’d use one of the examples from OpticsIn, OpticsIn.com, uh, to show how you do that. Take a look at the query above here, San Diego, uh, San Diego, San Diego SEO training.

0:24 Training at the top here, and, uh, that query, that search, has an AI overview. When you scroll down, you can start to see the online programs associated with that search result, right?

0:38 We have University of San Diego, we have UC San Diego Extended Studies, and they’re for online programs. And then we have in-person workshops.

0:48 Brighton SEO, which is a search conference, sometimes it’s here in San Diego. And then we have OpticsIn. That’s my company.

0:57 I just got the name wrong, it should be OpticsSpaceIn. Uh, looks like they pulled that from the domain OpticsIn.com. And then we have this little description, offers an 8-hour training for beginners, that covers SEO basics, keyword research, and more.

1:12 True, true, and true. So, it does a pretty good job at pulling in the information, not perfect, clearly. Uh, but where does this information come from, is the question.

1:21 If you scroll further down on the page, you start to see some patterns. See University of California, San Diego, which we saw at the top.

1:30 University of San Diego, Professional and Continuing Ed, we saw that at the top. And see you San Diego SEO Training by OpticsIn, we saw that at the top.

1:40 So, the best chance you have for ranking in the AI overviews is to make sure that you rank for those links below.

1:50 And then if Google determines that the query should have an AI overview, it typically pulls from, the sources below. Once you’re in, the AI overview, and if someone was interested, they can click on these little links.

2:06 They’re, they’re not great, but it’s what we have to work with today. So, they would click on that little link, the right-hand side changes, and you can see San Diego SEO Training.

2:15 This goes to OpticsIn, and Google’s pulling in, uh, content from the page, not the meta description. So, it looks a little weird, but, you know, we, we work with what we have, and, and Google makes its own decisions, as it typically does, but overall, we’re ranking in the AI overview.

2:30 That was the, that was the goal. Uh, so, we’re there. I also want to check a few other ones to see, is that also true? A few other queries.

2:38 So, SEO in Carlsbad, OpticsIn is at the top here, position number one, uh, but there’s no AI overview. Why that happens, I’m not quite sure in this case.

2:48 Also, if you were to do this query on your phone, San Diego SEO Training, I didn’t get an AI overview.

2:58 I only got it on the desktop, for whatever that’s worth. That can be different tomorrow. However, for optics in SEO, Google pulls in into the AI overview a bunch of information Thank for OpticsIn, again, OpticsIn.com, but then it also brings in some other information.

3:17 Search Optics, there it is. Search Optics, right? It’s, uh, I’m not sure who these guys are, but Google determined that, um, they, they thought it was a good idea to bring it in for, this is really a branded query, and so it should be all about the company or the entity, but Google’s saying we, we think

3:44 it’s a good idea to bring this in. Either way, uh, the same pattern holds true. OpticsIn.com is number one, and because of that and the query type, a lot of that information from OpticsIn is pulled into this AI query.

4:01 Overview. So in review, if you want to rank for the AI overviews in Google, your best bet is to get the SEO for your site on track, and what that means is make sure you have good technical so Google can crawl and index your website, make sure you have good content on the site, use the Links are helpful

4:26 If your competition is beating you up with links, they have a million, you have one, there’s probably a gap in terms of backlinks that you need to cover, and that will increase your chances of ranking in those AI overviews.

4:38 I hope this has been helpful.