Google AI Mode SEO: what it is and how to show up in it

AI Mode is a separate mode in Google Search. You ask a question and get a written answer with links, and you can keep asking follow-up questions like in a chat. Paying Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers also get Deep Search, which can run hundreds of searches and build a full report with sources; it started in the US and isn't available in every country.

It runs on a custom version of Google's Gemini model. Google swaps that model every few months, so we don't name a version here. In May 2026 Google said AI Mode had passed one billion monthly users.

AI Mode started in the US in May 2025. It came to the Netherlands, in Dutch, on 8 October 2025, and Google now offers it in more than 200 countries and territories. Google's AI Mode help page has the current list of countries and languages.

Both are Google features, and both use your pages as sources. The difference is where they show up and who starts them.

• Where you see it

  AI Overviews

  A summary at the top of the normal results

  AI Mode

  A separate, chat-style page

• Who starts it

  AI Overviews

  Google decides when to show one

  AI Mode

  The searcher chooses to open it

• Answer length

  AI Overviews

  Short summary

  AI Mode

  Much longer: about 4 times longer in an Ahrefs study (vendor data)

• Follow-up questions

  AI Overviews

  A follow-up question opens AI Mode (since January 2026)

  AI Mode

  Built for follow-up questions

• What you need as a site owner

  AI Overviews

  An indexed page that may show a snippet

  AI Mode

  The same: an indexed page that may show a snippet

• Search Console

  AI Overviews

  Generative AI performance report

  AI Mode

  The same report, counted together with AI Overviews

How different are the sources? Ahrefs compared 540,000 query pairs in the US in September 2025 and found that only 13.7% of the cited URLs were the same in both. This is a vendor study from before Google's 2026 model changes, so read it as a rough sign.

AI Mode uses query fan-out: it turns one question into several related searches at the same time. Google's own example is "how to fix a lawn that's full of weeds". That question also searches for "best herbicides for lawns", "remove weeds without chemicals" and "how to prevent weeds in lawn".

Then it reads the best results and writes one answer. Google says these features are "rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems". So pages that already do well in normal Google have a head start.

In May 2026 Google published an official guide to its AI search features. These are its main points, in plain words.

• Write what only you can write: first-hand experience, your own data, real examples. A page that repeats what everyone else says is easy to replace.
• Make pages easy to scan for people: clear headings, short paragraphs, the answer near the top. You don't need special formatting for AI.
• Add useful images and video. AI answers can show them too.
• Run a shop or a local business? Keep your Merchant Center feed and Google Business Profile up to date. Google uses them in AI answers.
• Get the basics right: the page can be indexed, robots.txt lets Googlebot in, and Google can render your JavaScript.

The same Google guide also lists things that don't help in Google's AI features.

• An llms.txt file. Google says it will neither harm nor help.
• Special schema markup for AI. Google says structured data isn't required. It still helps for normal rich results.
• Cutting your text into small "chunks" for AI. Write for people instead.
• A separate page for every way to ask a question. Google calls that scaled content abuse, which is spam.
• Tools that promise AI Mode rankings or claim to use internal Google metrics. Google warns about them, and no tool, ours included, can show your AI Mode rank.

This is Google's advice for Google only. ChatGPT and Perplexity work differently.

You decide whether AI Mode may use your pages. These are your switches, from the biggest to the smallest.

• Search Console: "Search generative AI" setting

  What it does: On by default. Switch it to exclude and your site leaves AI Overviews, AI Mode and the AI features in Discover, usually within 1 to 2 days. Google says the setting is not a ranking signal for the rest of Search.

• nosnippet (robots meta tag)

  What it does: Stops the page from being used as direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode. It also removes your normal snippet in the search results.

• max-snippet (robots meta tag)

  What it does: Limits how much of your text Google may use, in normal snippets and as input for AI Overviews and AI Mode.

• data-nosnippet (HTML attribute)

  What it does: Hides one part of a page, such as a price or a spoiler, from snippets. The rest of the page stays usable.

• noindex

  What it does: Removes the page from Google Search completely, AI Mode included.

• robots.txt rules for Googlebot

  What it does: Google calls this the control for site owners. Blocking Googlebot also takes your page out of normal search results.

• Google-Extended (robots.txt)

  What it does: Does not remove you from AI Mode or AI Overviews. It controls whether Google may use your content to train Gemini models and to ground answers in the Gemini app and Vertex AI.

Many SEO guides still say Google-Extended keeps you out of AI Overviews. Google's documentation says it has no effect on whether your site shows up in Google Search.

Since 31 August 2026, Search Console offers every site a Generative AI performance report for AI Overviews and AI Mode. It only appears once your site has enough impressions in those features. If you don't see it, your pages aren't shown there often enough yet, or your site is excluded through the "Search generative AI" setting.

1. Open Search Console and pick your property.
2. Open the Generative AI performance report (Search).
3. Look at impressions by page, country, device and date. A page with AI impressions is being shown as a source.

What the report can't show

• Clicks: it only shows impressions.
• Queries: there is no list of what people asked.
• AI Mode on its own: AI Mode and AI Overviews are counted together.

AI Mode clicks are not lost, though. Google counts them in the normal Performance report under the search type Web. A follow-up question counts as a new query there.

Tip: put the AI impressions of a page next to its Web clicks. If AI impressions grow while clicks stay flat, people may be getting their answer without visiting.

AI answers change a lot. In an SE Ranking test from June 2025 (vendor data, US), only 9.2% of the cited URLs came back in all three runs of the same search on the same day.

In August and September 2026 the number of sources per AI Mode answer also swung a lot for a while. So judge trends over weeks, not on one screenshot.

Google started testing ads in AI Mode in May 2025, below and inside the answers. Google doesn't publish a list of countries where they run. Ask your Google Ads contact what runs in your market.

• The "Search generative AI" setting in Search Console is on include, unless you chose to opt out.
• Your key pages are indexed. Check them with URL Inspection in Search Console.
• Pages you want cited have no nosnippet and no tiny max-snippet.
• robots.txt lets Googlebot in.
• The answer sits near the top of the page, with your own facts or experience.
• You look at the Generative AI performance report every month.

• AI Overviews SEO guide
• Query fan-out guide
• Zero-click AI search: what it does to your clicks
• How Gemini finds and cites sources
• AI crawler access: which bots to allow
• Structured data for AI search
• llms.txt: what it does and doesn't do
• Free schema validator

All links checked on October 19, 2026. Studies by companies that sell SEO tools are marked as vendor data.

1. Google Search Help: AI Mode availability and help
2. Google Search Central: Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search (2026-07-10)
3. Google Search Central: AI features and your website (2025-12-10)
4. Search Console Help: Search generative AI control
5. Search Console Help: Generative AI performance report (Search)
6. Search Console Help: Performance report: how AI Mode clicks and impressions are counted
7. Google Search Central: Robots meta tag, data-nosnippet and X-Robots-Tag specifications (2026-03-24)
8. Google Search Central: Google common crawlers (Google-Extended) (2026-10-15)
9. Google blog: AI Mode in Google Search: expanding to more people (2025-05-20)
10. Google blog Nederland: De AI-modus komt naar Google Zoeken in Nederland (2025-10-08)
11. Google blog: AI Mode expands to more languages and locations (2025-10-07)
12. Google blog: Updates to AI Mode and AI Overviews (2026-01-27)
13. Google blog: Google Search at I/O 2026 (2026-05-19)
14. Google blog: New controls for website owners (2026-06-03)
15. Google Ads & Commerce blog: Ads in AI Mode and AI Overviews (2025-05-21)
16. Ahrefs: AI Overviews vs AI Mode (US, September 2025, 540k query pairs) (2025-12-15)Vendor data
17. SE Ranking: AI Mode research (10,000 US keywords, collected June 2025) (2025-08-29)Vendor data
18. Evertune: AI Mode citations fell 82% in three weeks (Aug-Sep 2026) (2026-09-23)Vendor data