Does Ranking Higher on Google Mean You’ll Get Cited in AI Overviews?

We pulled one million keywords that triggered AI Overviews and extracted the top three links cited within those AIOs: a total of 1.9 million citation links in our database.

We then analyzed the relationship between:

Where websites ranked in Google's traditional top 10 results
Whether and where those same websites got cited in AI Overviews

Rankings matter for AI Overviews, just not as much as you think

We calculated the Spearman correlation between ranking in the top 10 and being cited in the top 3 AI Overview results. The correlation was 0.347.

This is a positive moderate correlation, which suggests that higher SERP rankings are associated with a greater likelihood of being cited in AI Overviews.

However, it’s not a guarantee.

Even pages ranking #1 only appear in the top three cited links in AI Overviews about 50% of the time. So yes, while it’s true that if you rank #1 in the SERPs, you’re more likely to be cited in an AI Overview than if you were ranked lower.

But that chance is a coin flip at best.

Here’s where it gets interesting. We also looked at the correlation between the position of the cited URL versus their organic ranking positions.

The correlation was 0.445.

In other words, pages that rank higher in the SERPs don’t just have a better chance of being cited; they also tend to be cited more prominently in the AI Overview when they’re included.

Wrapping up

From our research, it seems that Google does use some overlapping signals for both traditional rankings and AI Overviews selection. But the correlations tell us that AI Overviews aren’t simply repackaging the top search results.

SEO still matters. Higher rankings improve your chances of AI Overview citations. And if you can rank high and get cited, you’re more likely to be featured prominently in the AI Overview.

However, our study also suggests that there is something beyond traditional SEO. While we don't yet know all the factors Google uses for AIO selection, it's clear they're not simply lifting the top search results.

Maybe, as our research suggests, it’s all about your brand and web mentions.

If you’d like to track your branded mentions in AI Overviews, make sure to check out Brand Radar:

Go to Ahrefs Brand Radar
Hit the “Google AI Overviews” tab
Search for your brand name
Select “keyword OR AI Overview” from the dropdown

This will show your total AI Overview ownership, and any growth or decline over time.

Any questions or comments? Let me know on LinkedIn.

Post bySi Quan Ong

Si Quan is a content marketer at Ahrefs. He has been involved in digital and content marketing for the past 5 years. Before he joined Ahrefs, he was content marketer at ReferralCandy, a 7-figure ARR SaaS company.

Si Quan has spoken at some of the industry’s largest conferences in the Asia region, which includes TIECon and Digital Marketing Skill Share. He has also written for some of the industry’s most popular blogs like Sumo and SmartBlogger.

His earliest work was marketing a product on Kickstarter, which eventually raised $150,000, more than double the original funding goal. The product was also featured on prominent tech websites, including Engadget, CNET and Digital Trends.

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