How to get recommended by Google Gemini and AI Overviews

How Google's AI picks businesses

Google says its AI features draw on the same index and ranking systems as Search, and that there's no special markup or file you need to appear in them. For local questions, the facts usually come from Google Business Profiles, reviews, and pages that clearly answer the question.

That means the classic basics carry more weight than ever:

• Your pages can be crawled and indexed by Googlebot.
• Your Google Business Profile is complete, accurate and active.
• Your pages clearly answer the questions people ask.
• Your reviews and listings agree with each other.

Step 1: Make sure Google can crawl and index your pages

Google's AI features use Googlebot, the normal Search crawler. Check that robots.txt doesn't block important pages, that pages aren't marked noindex by mistake, and that your text is in the page HTML. Google Search Console (free) shows indexing problems, and our AI readiness checker checks the basics in seconds.

Step 2: Treat your Google Business Profile as your most important page

• Choose the most specific primary category, and add secondary ones that fit.
• Fill in services, service areas, opening hours (including holiday hours), attributes and a clear description.
• Add real photos, and post updates now and then.
• Answer questions and reply to reviews.

For local questions, this profile is often the first source Google's AI reads about you.

Step 3: Answer real questions on your website

AI Overviews like content that answers a question directly and specifically. Give each service its own page, and add an FAQ with real customer questions answered in the first sentence. See how to write an FAQ page AI assistants will quote.

Step 4: Add structured data

Structured data doesn't guarantee a mention, but it removes guesswork about your business type, address, hours and profiles. Create LocalBusiness markup with the free schema generator, and check it with the structured data checker.

Step 5: Earn reviews and mentions

Recent, detailed Google reviews, plus mentions on trusted local and industry sites, give Google's AI confidence to recommend you. Read how to get more Google reviews the right way.

What you can control (and what you can't)

• Appearing at all: Google's AI features follow normal Search crawling, so blocking Googlebot removes you from Search and its AI features alike. Don't do that if you want customers.
• How much is shown: Google's snippet controls, such as nosnippet and max-snippet, limit what can be shown from a page in Search results, including AI features.
• Google-Extended: controls whether your content is used to train Gemini models and to ground some of Google's other AI systems. Google says it doesn't affect your ranking or inclusion in Google Search.

Google updates these controls from time to time, so check Google Search Central's page on AI features and your website for the current details.