Google AI Overviews and AI Mode: how to show up

What Google says officially

Google published a full guide for site owners on 15 May 2026, on top of its older "AI features and your website" page. The points that matter most:

• SEO still counts. Asked whether SEO is still relevant, Google answers "In short, yes!", because its AI features "are rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems."
• Answers are grounded in the index. Google uses retrieval-augmented generation: it fetches relevant pages from its Search index, writes the answer from them and shows "prominent, clickable links" to the pages that support it.
• Eligibility is simple. A page "must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet", and the site must be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console.
• No extras needed. "You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown", and "there's no special schema.org markup you need to add."
• Write what others can't. Google asks for "non-commodity content". Its example contrasts a generic "7 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers" with a first-hand story about waiving an inspection.
• Don't flood the index. Making separate pages for every variation of a search "primarily to manipulate rankings or generative AI responses" breaks Google's scaled content abuse policy. Since May 2026, Google says its spam policies apply to AI responses too.
• The two features differ. AI Mode and AI Overviews "may use different models and techniques, so the set of responses and links they show will vary."

Google also says clicks from pages with AI Overviews "are higher quality (meaning, users are more likely to spend more time on the site)." Independent data shows fewer clicks overall. Pew found users clicked a normal result on 8% of visits with an AI summary against 15% without, and Ahrefs measured a 58% lower click rate for the top result when an AI Overview appears. Both can be true: fewer clicks, from people who are more serious.

Eligibility checklist

The Search generative AI control reached all websites worldwide on 31 August 2026. Excluding your site removes your links and content from AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative features in Discover. Google notes that "content from other sites will still be available in those features, and it may appear similar to yours." For a business that wants buyers, excluding usually means handing the answer to a competitor.

Query fan-out, with a UAE example

Google defines query fan-out as "a set of concurrent, related queries generated by the model to request more information." Its own example: for "how to fix a lawn that's full of weeds", the model might also search "best herbicides for lawns", "remove weeds without chemicals" and "how to prevent weeds in lawn".

Now a UAE version. This is our illustration, because Google does not show the real fan-out queries. A founder asks AI Mode: "Which free zone is cheapest for a one-person e-commerce business, and can I set it up remotely?" The sub-searches could look like this:

• "cheapest free zone UAE 2026"
• "e-commerce licence cost free zone"
• "free zone visa cost one person"
• "set up UAE company remotely"

Each sub-search is a normal Google search, and the pages that rank for them are the candidates for the answer. So winning AI Mode means ranking for several narrow searches, not one big one. In our ANCFZ pilot we built pages for questions like these: e-commerce licence, residence visa cost, FZE versus FZC, business setup cost. "Cheapest UAE free zone" answers led with ANCFZ.

Keep Google's warning in mind, though. One strong page per real question beats ten thin pages on near-identical wording. Where two questions overlap, we merge them into one better page.

A useful window into fan-out comes from Microsoft. Bing Webmaster Tools' AI Performance report shows "grounding queries", the phrases its AI used to retrieve your content for Copilot and Bing's AI summaries. Google's AI report groups data by page, country, date and device, not by query, so Bing's list is a free look at how AI rewrites buyer questions.

Local results, Google Business Profile and reviews

Google says AI responses can include "information about local businesses", and that a Google Business Profile "can help your products and services to be visible in both AI responses and other Google Search results." For local ranking, Google names three factors: relevance, distance and prominence. Prominence is "based on info like how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have." Google adds that "there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking."

What we set on every client profile:

• The business name as it appears on the trade licence and the shop sign.
• The most specific primary category, plus services with prices where the category allows.
• Hours that include public holidays and Ramadan hours, updated before they change.
• The same phone and WhatsApp number as the website and every directory.
• Real photos of the place, team and work.

Reviews deserve their own plan. Google says "more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking." Our team has also seen how AI retells reviews. A business with 92% good reviews and 8% bad gets summed up as "most people say X, but some say Y", and that "but" reads like a 50/50 split. So we reply to every negative review with facts, fix the complaints that repeat, and ask real customers for fresh reviews after real service. We never buy or fake them.

Arabic results

• AI Overviews have supported Arabic since 20 May 2025, when Google brought them to the Middle East and North Africa.
• AI Mode started rolling out in Arabic on 8 October 2025, in Modern Standard Arabic (Fush'a). Google says early users ask questions "two or three times the length of traditional search queries."
• Google reads the visible text to decide a page's language. It does not use the lang attribute or the URL for this. It recommends one URL per language with hreflang tags (which tell Google which version to show), no side-by-side translations on one page, and no automatic redirects by language.

For a UAE business, that means a real Arabic page for each Arabic question, written in clear Modern Standard Arabic. Buyers may type in Gulf dialect, but Google says its AI systems "can understand synonyms and general meanings", so the page does not need to copy every spelling. Keep brand and product names in Latin script where customers search them that way, and keep prices identical to the English page. In our work, Arabic questions face far less competition than English ones, because most UAE businesses have no Arabic pages at all.

How to measure it

1. Open the Generative AI performance report in Search Console (rolled out to all sites by 31 August 2026). It counts impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, meaning how often links to your site were shown. Group by Pages, Countries, Dates or Devices, and filter Countries to United Arab Emirates. If the report is missing, Google says that usually means your site has not had enough AI impressions yet.
2. Check clicks in the main Performance report. Google says AI feature traffic is included in the Web search type, mixed with normal results. Compare clicks on the pages that lead the AI report.
3. Read GA4 correctly. Visits from AI Overviews and AI Mode count as Google organic search. GA4's AI Assistant channel covers chat assistants, and Gemini is on Google's list, so Gemini app visits show up there.
4. Add Bing Webmaster Tools for Copilot citations and grounding queries.
5. Check your question list by hand, with screenshots, on a schedule. AI Overviews do not appear on every search, and the links change.
6. Count leads, not impressions. Tag WhatsApp buttons per page and ask every lead how they found you, because a visit from an AI Overview looks exactly like a normal Google visit.

Gemini app vs AI Overviews

They share a brand, not a rulebook.

The trap: some sites block Google-Extended to keep their content out of AI training. That can also remove them from Gemini app answers grounded in Search, while they still show in AI Overviews. If Gemini never mentions you, check your robots.txt for a Google-Extended block before assuming anything else. Google's developer docs for the Gemini API describe the grounding loop: the model decides whether a search would improve the answer, writes "one or multiple search queries", then answers with citations.

Checklist: showing up in Google's AI answers

1. Verify your site in Search Console and confirm your key pages are indexed.
2. Check that Search generative AI is set to include.
3. Remove stray nosnippet and tight max-snippet settings on pages you want quoted.
4. Allow Googlebot, and decide on Google-Extended on purpose, knowing it affects the Gemini app.
5. Write down your buyers' questions in English and Arabic, and list the likely sub-questions for each.
6. Give each real question one clear page, with prices, hours and areas in plain text.
7. Put Arabic pages on their own URLs with hreflang tags.
8. Keep structured data accurate and matching the page. Don't build pages around FAQ rich results: Google stopped showing them in May 2026.
9. Complete your Google Business Profile: category, services, prices, hours (Ramadan included) and photos.
10. Keep a steady flow of real reviews, and reply to every negative one with facts.
11. Get mentioned on the pages that already rank for your sub-questions.
12. Each month, open the Generative AI performance report, filter to the UAE and note the top pages.
13. Check clicks for those pages in the main Performance report.
14. Re-check your question list with screenshots, and count the leads that follow.

Our plans track this on ChatGPT and Gemini (Google AI), with traditional SEO included. Prices and the method are on our AI SEO agency in Dubai page.