{"id":1553014,"date":"2025-05-20T07:01:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T11:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/?p=1553014"},"modified":"2025-05-21T06:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T10:03:10","slug":"how-search-console-reveals-ai-overviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/how-search-console-reveals-ai-overviews","title":{"rendered":"How Search Console Reveals AI Overviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google’s AI Overviews answers queries directly on search result pages. The feature often eliminates the need to visit external sites, although it includes links to some for deeper research.<\/p>\n

Google provides no comprehensive reports of links in Overviews<\/a>, leaving little official insight for publishers. Third-party tools offer that data<\/a>, but at prices many merchants cannot afford.<\/p>\n

We’re left with Search Console to reveal links to a site in Overviews indirectly. Here’s how.<\/p>\n

Search Console ‘Positions’<\/h3>\n

Search Console’s “Performance” tab lists a site’s URLs in organic search results. Every section (“element”) of search results (e.g., “People also ask,” image packs, AI Overviews) counts as one single position.<\/p>\n

Per Google<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A Google Search results page is composed of many search result elements. The “position” metric is an attempt to show approximately where on the page a given link was seen, relative to other results on the page\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Each element in Search results occupies a single position, whether it contains a single link or many different links or child elements.<\/em><\/p>\n

For example, a URL in an image block at the top of results will show in position 1 in the Performance section for that query. A competitor’s URL in that same image section for the same query would also show as position 1.<\/p>\n

Search Console shows the topmost<\/em> position of a URL in search results. A URL simultaneously in a top image pack and the fourth organic search listing would show as position 1.<\/p>\n

AI Overviews is one of those elements. Thus all links in a single AI Overview for a given query will show in Search Console as position 1. Google’s John Mueller confirmed this<\/a> with the caveat, “I don’t know if AIO is always shown first.”<\/p>\n

Hence identifying your URLs in AI Overviews starts with those in the top position.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Create a filter<\/h4>\n

In Search Console’s “Performance” tab, scroll down to “Queries” and create a filter to see where your site ranks in position 1:<\/p>\n