A number of SEOs are experimenting with strategies to appear in Google AI Overviews, rather than just avoiding them. Cyrus Shepard shared a "mini case study" on X, detailing how he successfully integrated his site into the AI Overviews. He achieved this by updating his webpage to closely match the AI Overview's text. If the site also ranked in the top 10 of Google's organic search results, it would be featured as a website card in the AI Overviews. However, he noted that these results are highly volatile, stating "easy come, easy go."
Cyrus also mentioned that he lost his featured snippet after making these changes, suggesting it was a net loss despite gaining a reference link. He shared a screenshot to illustrate this point.
He also referenced a patent explaining how Google selects links for AI Overviews, noting that reference links are chosen after the AI Overview is created by finding supporting documents. This process, he implied, is easy to manipulate.
Key Points:
- Cyrus Shepard updated his webpage to match AI Overview text and achieved a website card if the site ranked in the top 10.
- Results are highly changeable.
- Cyrus lost his featured snippet after these changes, indicating a potential net loss.
- A patent suggests Google selects reference links post-AI Overview creation, making it easy to game the system.
