AI Overviews on over 80% of searches: is your website ready?

Google's AI Overviews, the AI-generated answers that appear at the top of the results, are now present in the vast majority of searches. For a business, this changes the way of thinking about the website: it is no longer enough to appear among the links, you have to be the source that AI draws from. Let's look at what the data says and how to prepare.

What the data says about AI Overviews

According to Semrush data reported by Search Engine Roundtable, AI Overviews now appear in over 80% of Google searches. A year ago, in June, the share was around 50%. Growth has therefore been rapid, and it is no longer limited to a niche of informational queries.

Other studies point in the same direction: SE Ranking reports 82.5% for brand searches in the United States. In short, about 8 out of 10 searches show a synthesized answer even before the traditional results.

Why "ranking" means something different for a business

For years, the goal of SEO was to climb the rankings. Today, the AI answer takes up the most visible space on the page, and those who read it may find what they are looking for without clicking. The website, as a result, has to do two things: earn its position and, above all, be clear and reliable enough to become a cited source.

For a B2B company in Emilia-Romagna, which may be competing on very specific queries related to its own industry or its own territory, this means covering customers' real questions with content that an automated system can understand and reuse.

What makes a website "citable" by AI

There is no guaranteed formula, but there are elements of editorial and technical common sense that increase the chances of being chosen as a source:

– Clear, up-to-date content: accurate, dated information, with no beating around the bush. – Direct answers to customers' questions: pages and sections that tackle a specific question and answer it in the first few lines. – Clean technical structure: hierarchical headings, correct markup, linear navigation, nothing that gets in the way of search engines reading the page. – Fast pages: carefully optimized performance on desktop and mobile, because user experience remains a quality criterion.

Our approach to website redesigns

At ME Communication, we design redesigns starting from this logic. Modern design matters, because it conveys credibility and makes the site pleasant to use, but it is not enough. Before touching the graphics, we analyze the existing content, the questions a customer would want answered, and the technical soundness of the pages.

The result is a website designed both for people, who need to understand right away what you offer, and for search engines, which need to be able to read, interpret and cite what you publish. It is the kind of integrated work we have been carrying out for over 25 years in Bologna, with a direct relationship and no intermediaries.

Where to start

A sensible first step is to check the current state of the website: which pages truly answer customers' questions, which content is outdated, which technical issues slow down reading. From there, you can define what to update right away and what to rethink with a broader redesign.

If you want to understand where your website stands, request an analysis from ME Communication: we will show you what to improve in order to be found, and cited, in AI-powered search. You can also write to us at info@mecommunication.it or call us at +39 051 19501014.

Data source: Search Engine Roundtable, "Over 80% of Google searches have AI Overviews" (26/10/2026), based on Semrush data; SE Ranking for brand searches in the USA.