ChatGPT, Gemini & Google AI Overviews Don't Cite Websites the Same Way

It's tempting to treat getting cited by AI as one job with one checklist, but ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews don't find and choose their sources in the same way. Knowing where each one gets its information tells you which parts of your existing work are already helping, and where the real gaps are.

Google AI Overviews are built on Google's normal index

AI Overviews aren't a separate system with separate rules. They draw on the same index and ranking systems behind ordinary Google results, and Google's own guidance is that a page needs to be indexed and eligible to appear as a normal search snippet before it can be shown as a supporting link. That's good news if your traditional SEO is solid: if Google already crawls, understands and ranks your pages for relevant searches, you're most of the way to being eligible. If it doesn't, no AI-specific trick gets around that.

Gemini sits on the same side of the fence

Gemini is Google's own model, and when it needs current information it grounds its answers in Google Search. So the same foundations carry over: being indexed, being understood, and having a page that clearly answers the question. In practical terms, the technical SEO work you do for Google is doing double duty for both AI Overviews and Gemini.

ChatGPT works from two different sources

Chat-first tools like ChatGPT blend two things. One is what the model learned during training, which is a snapshot of the web up to a cutoff date and isn't updated live, so anything you changed recently may simply not be in it. The other is live web search, which it uses for some questions to fetch current pages and cite them. Which one shapes a given answer depends on the question, which is partly why the same query can produce a different answer from one week to the next.

Why that changes your priorities for chat-first tools

Because the trained knowledge comes from a broad cross-section of the web rather than one search index, what other sites say about you carries more weight here: reviews, directory listings, local press and industry sites. On the live-search side, freshness matters, and so does whether these tools are actually allowed to fetch your pages. It's worth checking that your robots.txt file (the plain-text file that tells crawlers what they can and can't access) isn't blocking AI search crawlers by accident, because some hosting and security settings now do exactly that by default.

Where I'd put the effort

• For AI Overviews and Gemini: get the technical SEO right first, meaning clean indexing, fast pages and clear structure, because it's the same foundation

• For ChatGPT and similar tools: keep key pages genuinely current and build a consistent presence on reputable sites beyond your own

• For all of them: make sure the crawlers can actually reach the pages you want cited

These products change quickly, so I'd treat this as how things work today rather than a permanent rulebook. If you'd like to know where your site stands across all three, get in touch and I'll take a proper look.

A quick note: this is my own opinion, based on what I've seen work in practice, not formal legal, financial or professional advice. Your situation may differ, so do your own research before making a decision. These views are mine alone and don't reflect any employer or organisation I'm affiliated with.