Google AI Overviews are built from pages in Google's search index. Google says there is no special code needed to appear in them: a page has to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet in search. So when an AI Overview skips your site, the cause is usually one of a handful of basics.
1. Google can't index the page
If a page carries a noindex tag, is blocked for Googlebot in robots.txt, or simply hasn't been discovered, it can't appear in AI Overviews or regular results.
Fix: set up Google Search Console, use URL Inspection on your key pages, and submit a sitemap that lists every page.
2. Your snippet settings say no
Settings like nosnippet, max-snippet:0 or data-nosnippet limit what Google can show from a page, and that includes AI features.
Fix: remove them unless you added them on purpose.
3. The answer isn't on your page
Many small business sites describe their services in images, PDFs or one short paragraph. If a customer asks "how much does X cost in my town" or "do you serve Y", and no page answers in plain text, Google has nothing to quote.
Fix: give each main service its own page, written in plain text, that answers the questions your customers actually ask: what you do, where, for whom, how it works and what to expect.
4. Google isn't sure who you are
If your business name, address and phone number differ between your site, your Google Business Profile and directories, Google has to guess which details are right.
Fix: make your details identical everywhere, and add Organization or LocalBusiness structured data (schema) to your site. Schema helps Google understand your business. It is not a guarantee of being featured.
5. Other pages answer better
AI Overviews link to the sources that answer the question most clearly. If a directory or competitor explains things better, they get the link.
Fix: write from your own experience. Specific details only you know, like the jobs you do most and the questions you hear every week, make your page the better source.
6. The page is hard to use
Pages that load slowly, break on phones or bury the content under pop-ups are weaker results across Google Search, AI features included.
Fix: check your key pages on a phone, and use PageSpeed Insights to spot the biggest problems.
A note on Google-Extended
You may see advice about the Google-Extended robots.txt token. It controls whether your content can be used for Google's Gemini models. Google says it does not affect inclusion in Google Search, so allowing or blocking it is a separate decision from appearing in AI Overviews.
Not sure which of these applies to you?
Our free AI search audit checks your site against all of these and shows what Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity say about you today. If your site needs more than a few fixes, an AI-ready rebuild handles them all at once.