Google AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear above the normal search results. Google has been rolling them out gradually to more countries and languages since May 2024. For SME websites, this means: purely informational questions are answered more often without a click, while pages linked as a source in the overview stay visible. You can measure the effect through impressions and clicks in Search Console and through your own spot checks, because Google doesn't report the overview separately there.
Anyone typing a question into Google today increasingly gets a block of text that Google itself has written first, with small links to the pages it's drawn from. That's the AI Overview. This page doesn't cover the rules Google uses to select its sources. It covers what the overview means commercially for an SME and how you measure its effect on your own website.
Where the AI Overview appears today
Google first launched the AI Overview in the US in May 2024 and has since rolled it out in stages to more countries and languages, including the German-speaking region. Google publishes these steps on its blog, but not a list of which search queries get an overview in which country. What can be observed: the overview mainly appears for questions that call for an explanation ("how does it work", "what is", "what to look out for"), less often for queries with clear purchase intent or when searching for a specific business nearby.
For your website, only what happens with your own terms counts. Search your ten most important questions from Switzerland and note down which ones get an overview and which pages are linked in it. That's the basis for everything else.
What's changing in click behaviour
Google hasn't published any figures on how many clicks the overview takes from websites or brings them. Industry reports note declines for informational queries that vary widely by topic; there are no reliable figures for Switzerland as of October 2026. What can be said follows from the logic of the overview:
| Question type | Overview likely? | What happens to the click | What you do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short factual question ("How long does a heat pump last?") | common | The answer is in the overview, many no longer click | Don't plan this as its own post, but as a paragraph within a bigger topic |
| Decision question ("Heat pump or gas heating in an older building?") | common | The overview summarises, readers click for details and figures | Provide your own experience, tables and examples that the overview doesn't have |
| Provider question ("Heat pump installation Thurgau") | rare | Classic results, map, business profile | Maintain local signals, service page with region |
| Price question ("What does a heat pump cost for a detached house?") | medium | The overview gives ranges and refers to sources | State your own dated price range so you're the source |
The consequence for topic planning: posts that only provide a definition lose out. Posts that help prepare a decision and back it up with your own figures stay relevant, because the overview itself refers to them.
Which pages make it into the overview
Google only says that the AI features build on the same systems as search and don't require any special measures. In practice, the pages that appear in the overview are the ones that answer the question directly and already rank well. The AEO checklist describes how to build a page for this; the selection criteria themselves aren't the subject of this page.
Three business consequences for SMEs
Fewer visitors, but not fewer customers. The clicks that disappear are mostly from readers who just wanted a piece of information. Anyone looking for a business still clicks through. So visitor numbers alone say less about the blog than they used to. Count enquiries, not just sessions.
The source gets named. If your page is linked in the overview, your company name appears next to Google's answer. That's visibility without a click, and it works similarly to a mention in a trade magazine: it doesn't show up in your metrics, but it builds trust for the next contact.
Thin pages lose out first. A page that just says what everyone else says gets replaced in the overview, not cited. A page with its own figures, its own photos and a stated date remains the source. How visibility shifts between different types of pages is also explained in the post on AEO, GEO and SEO.
How to measure the effect
Google doesn't report the AI Overview separately in Search Console. Impressions and clicks from the overview are counted together in the performance report under "Web". This leads to a simple approach:
- Record a baseline. Export the search queries from the last three months from Search Console, with impressions, clicks and click-through rate. How to set up the console is explained under Setting up and reading Search Console.
- Sort queries into the four question types. Factual question, decision question, provider question, price question. This can be done in a spreadsheet in half an hour.
- Watch the click-through rate per type. If the click-through rate for factual questions drops while impressions stay the same, that's the typical pattern of the overview.
- Monthly spot check. Search your ten terms in your browser and note whether an overview appears and whether your page is listed in it. You'll find the method and a spreadsheet for this under Measuring AI visibility.
- Check your enquiries. Compare contact enquiries and quote requests over the same period. If visitors are dropping but enquiries aren't, the overview has only cost you readers who wouldn't have bought anyway.
What to do with this
The AI overview rewards pages that know something Google can't summarise from twenty other pages: your prices, your experience, your region. So plan blog topics around your customers' decision and pricing questions, not around dictionary-style questions. Whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini can find your website at all is shown by the free AI check in about a minute; for Google, Search Console remains the tool.
Frequently asked questions
Can I exclude my website from the AI overview?
Google documents the usual methods for this: nosnippet, max-snippet or data-nosnippet control which parts of your text may appear in snippets, and therefore also in the AI overview. The Google-Extended crawler, on the other hand, only affects Gemini applications and, according to Google, has no influence on search or the AI overview. However, exclusion also costs you visibility as a source.
Do I need special markup to be cited in the AI overview?
No. Google explicitly states that there are no special requirements for AI features and that the same principles apply as for classic search. Structured data helps with understanding the page, but it's not an entry ticket.
Can you see in Search Console whether a page appeared in an AI overview?
Not directly. Google counts impressions and clicks from the AI overview in the performance report under the search type "Web", but doesn't offer a separate filter. So you see the total, not the share. For the share, only your own spot checks remain.
Is a blog still worthwhile if Google gives the answer itself?
For questions answered in a single sentence, a post brings fewer clicks than before. For questions where customers are looking for prices, experience and a nearby provider, the source remains important because the overview points to it and the decision isn't made for them. Topic choice matters more than it used to.