How to Track AI Overviews: Step-by-Step Guide

If you’ve noticed your client’s URL appearing in Google’s AI Overviews and are wondering how to track AI Overviews, you’re not alone. These AI-generated answers now account for over 50% of organic search queries, reshaping how users engage with results and often pushing traditional rankings further down the page.

But simply spotting AI Overviews here and there isn’t enough. You need a structured approach to track their presence, measure their impact, and adapt your SEO strategy accordingly. Without this, there’s no way to know if they are boosting visibility, taking traffic away, or if competitors are appearing more often in AI search results.

This article will show you how to monitor and track AI Overviews using Keyword.com’s accurate AI rank tracker and how to understand when AI search results appear, which pages are cited, and what these insights mean for your visibility.

What Are Google AI Overviews?

AI Overviews are Google’s AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results. They provide users with quick answers pulled from multiple sources. Originally rolled out in the US in May 2023, they are now present in many other countries.

Instead of relying solely on traditional organic rankings, Google’s AI synthesizes information from across the web to generate a response, often reducing the need for users to click through to actual websites.

According to Google’s documentation, “AI Overviews offer a preview of a topic or query based on a variety of sources, including web sources.” This means that AI Overviews synthesizes information from multiple sources to provide a concise, comprehensive answer to queries, including citations to original sources.

AI Overviews do not replace the traditional organic search result links, but instead appear above them.

These overviews are part of Google’s push toward AI-powered search experiences, similar to featured snippets but more expansive and conversational. They can boost visibility if your content is cited, but they also pose a risk by keeping users on Google rather than driving traffic to your site. That’s why tracking when and how your URLs appear in AI Overviews is crucial.

Read: How Google AI Overviews Impact Blog Performance (And What to Do About It)

What is an AI Overview Tracker?

An AI Overview tracker detects when Google displays AI-generated summaries for your keywords, shows which URLs are cited, and provides reporting on how often AI results appear. It helps SEOs measure visibility in AI-powered search and compare performance against competitors.

Do AI Overviews Appear for All Searches?

No, AI Overviews do not appear for all searches. Their appearance varies widely, but they do appear in over half of organic Google queries. They tend to appear more often for longer queries (five words or more), industry-specific terms, and informational searches.

As Google expands its AI-powered search experience, AI Overviews are expected to appear for a broader range of topics. Tracking when they show (and when they disappear) gives you early insight into how search behavior is changing.

Why You Should Care About Tracking AI Overviews

Without reliable AI tracking, you’re left guessing how AI Overviews are affecting rankings, traffic, and overall search performance.

Here are key reasons to monitor how and when your URLs are featured:

AI Overviews are taking over search results: AI Overviews now appear for nearly half of all search queries, pushing traditional organic results lower on the page. Tracking them helps you understand how much visibility your content gains or loses.
They can steal clicks from organic rankings: even if you rank #1, an AI Overview may answer the query immediately, reducing click-through rates. Tracking helps you measure the impact on traffic.
Your competitors are getting featured, too: AI Overviews pull from multiple sources. Tracking competitor citations helps you see where you stand and what improvements might be needed.
SEO strategies must adapt: optimizing for AI-generated answers requires clarity, structure, and strong topical relevance. Tracking shows which content formats and query types work best.
Clients expect clear reporting: when rankings or traffic fluctuate, clients want explanations. AI Overview tracking provides the data needed to support strategic decisions.
Tracking AI Overviews helps you boost clicks: understanding which keywords trigger AI Overviews lets you target queries less likely to produce AI-generated summaries, improving your chances of earning organic clicks.

How to Track AI Overviews Accurately

Tracking AI Overviews accurately requires visibility into when the feature appears, how often it shows for your target keywords, and which URLs are referenced. A reliable AI Overview tracker provides consistent monitoring, detects changes over time, and shows how AI summaries affect search visibility. There are multiple tools that you can use to track AI Overviews, including Keyword.com, Ahrefs, Semrush SE Ranking, Advanced Web Ranking and Ziptie.

Tracking Traffic From AI Overviews

Google Analytics and Google Search Console do not separate AI Overview traffic. However, you can still understand visibility impact by tracking:

Which keywords trigger AI Overviews.
How often your URLs appear inside them.
Whether organic clicks for those queries rise or fall.

While you cannot get a “traffic from AI Overviews” metric directly, AI Overview patterns are a strong indicator of visibility shifts.

How to Track Google AI Overviews Using Keyword.com

Keyword.com is a Google rank tracker that can track both the appearance and performance of AI Overviews for your keywords. Here’s how to use this tool to see which of your keywords trigger AI search results. Specifically, our AI Overview Tracker provides detailed insights into this crucial SERP feature.

Step 1: Sign up for a Keyword.com account. You get a 14-day free trial of all our rank tracker features.

Step 2: Log into your dashboard, create a new project, and add the keywords you want to track AI Overviews for.

Step 3: After a few minutes, your dashboard will be automatically updated with your latest keyword ranking data and SERP features — including AI Overviews. Keywords triggering AI results will have a green, robot-like icon beside them.

Step 4: You can see which of your pages are cited in AI Overviews by hovering over the AI Overview icon. This reveals the exact URL and the specific content Google pulled for the summary.

Keyword.com also offers a SERP Feature Performance report that tracks how often AI Overviews appear for your keywords and how frequently your content is included. This report helps you:

Monitor AI Overview trends over time
Measure your content’s visibility in AI-generated summaries
Compare AI Overviews to other SERP features
Identify opportunities to improve your content’s presence in AI Overviews

This data helps you adjust your SEO strategy and increases the chances of your client’s websites being featured in AI search results.

Track Your Website’s AI Overview Rankings Accurately with Keyword.com

Keyword.com is the easiest way for SEO agencies to track how your clients’ websites feature in AI Overviews. Our tool shows which keywords trigger AI search results and how often your client’s URL appears, giving you the data to refine strategies, boost visibility, and demonstrate the ROI of your SEO efforts.

Try our AI Overview tracker for free.

AI Overview Tracking FAQs

Got more questions about tracking AI Overviews for your clients? We’ve answered them below.

1. Can I Track AI Overviews with Google Search Console?

No. Google Search Console doesn’t report on AI Overviews. This means you cannot see which of your websites appear in or which keywords trigger AI search results. For this, you need an AI Overview tracker like Keyword.com.

2. Which Tools Can I Use for Tracking AI Overviews?

There are multiple tools that you can use to track AI Overviews, including Keyword.com, Semrush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking, Advanced Web Ranking, and Ziptie. However, dedicated AI rank trackers like Keyword.com provide more accurate and comprehensive data on AI-generated content in search results than all-in-one tools.

3. How Do I Rank for AI Overviews?

To increase your chances of being featured in AI Overviews:

Create clear, well-structured content: Use concise answers, bullet points, and structured data.
Target informational queries: Optimize for “how,” “what,” and “why” searches.
Establish authority: Build high-quality backlinks and follow E-E-A-T best practices.
Track AI Overview appearances: Use Keyword.com to monitor when and how your content is cited.
Optimize for featured snippets: Provide direct answers and use schema markup

For a deeper dive, read: How to Rank for AI Overviews in 2026

4. What Makes a Good AI Overview Tracker?

A reliable AI Overview tracker should detect when AI summaries appear, identify the URLs being cited, show the frequency of AI results, and offer clear reporting over time. Accuracy and granularity matter because AI results can change frequently.

5. Why Does My Site Appear in AI Overviews Less Often?

AI Overview visibility can shift due to factors like newer competitor content, changes in query patterns, or updates to Google’s AI systems. Tracking AI Overviews helps you see when citations change and which pages may benefit from updated structure or clearer answers.

How to Track AI Overviews