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Google Search Central AI Features and AI Overviews Optimization Documentation

A working index of Search Central's AI features and AI Overviews optimization documentation: which page governs eligibility, which governs writing, and what we refuse to bill.

Google Search Central's AI features and AI Overviews optimization documentation is two pages plus a Search Console announcement. Teams ask for a "documentation brief" when someone on the account pasted a Twitter thread over those URLs. We read the primary pages. We do not add ranking factors Google did not write.

This is the documentation index. The practical reading with measurement notes is AI features search content guidance. Prompt tracking for questions GSC does not store is Promptwatch.

The three official URLs

  1. AI features and your website. Eligibility. Overviews and AI Mode. Fan-out (Google's lawn-weeds example). Supporting links need to be indexed and snippet-eligible. No extra technical requirements. Preview controls: nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet, noindex. Google-Extended is not a clean Overview-only off switch.

  2. Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search. Writing and site work. Unique point of view. Non-commodity pages. Headings for humans. Structured data that matches the visible page. Schema is not required for Overviews. Ignore llms.txt for Google Search. Do not publish a thin URL for every fan-out phrasing. AI-assisted drafts still pass Search Essentials and spam policy. Helpful content was not replaced.

  3. Generative AI performance reports (June 2026). Impressions in Overviews, AI Mode, and Discover generative features. Pages, countries, devices, dates. Clicks are not in that list. Mixed into the main Performance report (Web) as well.

If a vendor PDF disagrees with those three, we keep the three.

What the documentation does not cover

ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity. Bing Copilot (that is Bing AI Performance). The prompt that triggered an Overview. The other domains in the module.

We measure that gap in Promptwatch on paid plans (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Overviews, daily). Essential $95/mo. Kick-off $199/mo. Professional $245/mo. Business $579/mo. Explore is ChatGPT only, 10 prompts. Ahrefs Brand Radar and Semrush AI Toolkit ($99/mo per domain) are modeled. They are not Search Central. Keep Ahrefs and Semrush for ordinary SEO.

How we use the documentation on an account

  1. Put both Search Central URLs in the project brief. Anyone proposing llms.txt as a Google tactic has to quote the optimization guide back.
  2. Audit money URLs against the eligibility page: index, snippet, robots, CDN. Technical tickets come from our audit checklist.
  3. Audit a sample of pages against the optimization guide: first-party point of view, no doorway fan-out URLs, markup matches the offer.
  4. Turn on GSC generative reports. Train stakeholders on "impression."
  5. Only then decide whether prompt tracking is in the SOW. Documentation-only retainers can stop at GSC.

We will not bill special Overview schema. We will not bill synonym-chasing rewrites the guide dismissed. We will not claim Google-Extended turns Overviews off and leaves Search on.

FAQ

Is there an official AI Overviews ranking-factor list?

No. Eligibility plus ordinary SEO plus people-first pages.

Which document wins if they seem to overlap?

Eligibility and controls: AI features page. What to write and what to skip: optimization guide. What you can measure in GSC: June 2026 announcement.

Do we implement IndexNow because Search Central mentioned AI?

IndexNow is a Bing/participating-engine protocol (indexnow.org). Search Central's AI pages are Google. We may still enable IndexNow. We will not cite it as Google documentation.

What to do this week

  1. Open the three official URLs. Bookmark them.
  2. Check money URLs for indexation and snippet controls.
  3. Open GSC generative reports.
  4. If the SOW includes ChatGPT or Perplexity, add Promptwatch. If it is Google-only, stay on the documentation.
  5. Email hello@1001seomedia.com if you want the documentation mapped onto your URLs. We follow Search Central. We do not replace it with a tool blog.

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