More searches now end with an AI-written answer: Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot. Those answers link to a handful of sources. Being one of them is the new version of ranking on page one, and a growing number of agencies sell secret formulas for it.
The reliable guidance is less exciting and more useful. Here is what the platforms themselves have said, and what we do for clients.
What Google says about AI Overviews and AI Mode
Google’s documentation on AI features is direct: to be eligible as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet, and there are no additional technical requirements. There is no special markup or file that switches it on. The same fundamentals that earn organic visibility, crawlable pages, helpful content and a clear structure, are what make a page usable as a source.
Make sure AI search crawlers can reach you
Each platform uses its own crawlers, and a robots.txt written years ago may block some of them by accident. Check which you allow:
- Googlebot powers Google Search, including AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google-Extended is a separate control for use of content in Gemini model training and grounding; Google states it does not affect inclusion in Search.
- OpenAI documents OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search results and GPTBot for model training, and they can be allowed or blocked independently.
- Perplexity uses PerplexityBot, and Anthropic documents separate agents for training and for search.
- Bing’s index feeds Microsoft Copilot, so set up Bing Webmaster Tools and submit your sitemap there too.
Write pages that are easy to quote
- Answer the question near the top of the page in one or two plain sentences, then go into detail.
- Use descriptive headings that match how people phrase questions.
- Include specifics that only you can provide: prices or price ranges, timelines, locations served, process steps and real examples.
- Show who is behind the content: named authors or teams, credentials, and an about page that explains the business.
- Keep key information in HTML text, not inside images, PDFs or scripts that crawlers may not render.
Structured data helps understanding, not ranking tricks
Schema.org markup such as Organization, Product, Article and BreadcrumbList helps search engines understand what a page is about and who publishes it. It must match what users see on the page. It does not guarantee rich results or AI citations, and markup that misrepresents a page can lead to a manual action.
A note on llms.txt
llms.txt is a proposed file, published in 2024, that summarises a site for language models. It is not an adopted standard, and Google has said its search systems do not use it. It costs little to add, but do not expect it to change your visibility on its own.
How to measure AI search visibility
Google Search Console includes AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic within its overall web search performance reports rather than as a separate line, so watch the trend for the queries you care about. Track referral visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai and copilot.microsoft.com in your analytics, and ask new leads how they found you. Enquiries that mention an AI assistant are now a real and growing source for many businesses.
