Google's Official Guide to Optimizing for Generative AI Search Features

Google Search Central has released an official optimization guide for AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Generative AI search runs on top of Google Search's core ranking and quality systems, using RAG and query fan-out to fetch relevant web pages and enrich answers.

The core strategy is original, irreplaceable, non-generic content.

• Include firsthand experience and expert insight
• Maintain a human-readable structure with paragraphs, sections, and headings
• Add high-quality images and videos to create additional exposure opportunities
• Avoid churning out separate pages for every search variation

Basic SEO remains just as important.

• Pages need to be indexed and eligible for snippet display
• Crawling best practices, JavaScript SEO, good page experience, and reducing duplicate content are needed
• Merchant Center and Google Business Profiles help with exposure for local businesses and e-commerce
• Structured data isn't required, but it's still useful for rich results

On the other hand, Google made clear that LLMS.txt, special markup, content chunking, AI-specific rewriting, and AEO/GEO-style hacks have no effect on Google Search.

Finally, Google pointed to agentic experiences—which perform tasks like booking and comparison on users' behalf—as the next area to prepare for, and advised keeping an eye on browser agents and related protocol changes.