To optimise for Google AI Mode, make sure your key pages are indexed and allowed to show snippets, then cover the follow-up questions Google's query fan-out generates around your main topics. Answer each one clearly on your site, add experience and data competitors lack, keep structured data and your Business Profile accurate, and measure leads, not just clicks.
There is no special AI Mode tag or submission form. Google's own guidance is that the same foundations used for regular search apply. What changes is how much reward goes to sites that cover a topic thoroughly and say something original about it. Here is the process we follow, step by step.
What is Google AI Mode, and how is it different from AI Overviews?
AI Mode is a separate, conversational search experience powered by Gemini, while AI Overviews are summaries that appear on top of normal results. AI Mode handles longer, multi-part questions and lets people ask follow-ups in the same thread.
It first launched in the US in 2025 and has since expanded to many more countries and languages, including India. Users can type, speak or use an image to ask a question.
The detail that matters most for website owners is query fan-out. Google describes AI Mode as breaking one question into many related sub-queries, running them at the same time, and assembling the results into a single answer with links. A page does not need to match the whole question; it needs to be the best answer to one of the pieces. For background on how this differs from classic ranking, see what generative engine optimisation is and how it differs from SEO.
Step 1: Are your pages eligible to be shown at all?
A page can only appear as a supporting link in AI Mode if it is indexed and eligible to show a snippet in Google Search. Check this before doing anything else.
Run through these checks for your ten most important pages:
- URL Inspection in Search Console confirms the page is indexed and shows the version Google sees.
- No accidental noindex tags, often left behind from a staging site.
- robots.txt allows Googlebot to fetch the page and its key resources.
- Snippet controls are deliberate. The nosnippet, max-snippet and data-nosnippet directives limit what Google can show, including in AI features. Remove them unless you have a reason.
- Canonical tags point to the right URL. When we audited grww.tech, we found canonical tags pointing at an old domain, which sends Google mixed signals about which page to use.
- Main content is in the HTML. Text that appears only after heavy scripts run is riskier than text served directly.
Step 2: What sub-questions will AI Mode fan out to?
List the follow-up questions a careful buyer would ask, because those are the searches AI Mode is likely to run on their behalf. This becomes your content map.
Take one commercially important question and break it down. Here is an illustrative example for a used-car dealership, a type of business GRWW has built websites for.
| Original question | Likely sub-questions | Page or section that should answer it |
|---|---|---|
| "Good used SUV under ₹10 lakh in Patna with finance" | Which SUV models are typically available in that price band? | Inventory page filtered by price and body type |
| Can I get a loan on a used car, and what documents are needed? | Finance page with eligibility and document list | |
| How do I know the car has not been in an accident? | Inspection process page with what is checked | |
| How does RC transfer work after purchase? | Ownership transfer FAQ | |
| Can I trade in my current car? | Trade-in page with how valuation works | |
| Is there any warranty on used cars? | Warranty section with clear terms |
Sources for sub-questions: your sales team, enquiry messages, "People also ask" boxes, and the follow-up suggestions AI Mode itself shows when you test your own topics.
If a sub-question has no clear answer anywhere on your site, a competitor's page will fill that slot.
Step 3: How should each answer be written?
Give each sub-question a heading phrased the way people ask it, followed by a direct one or two sentence answer, then the supporting detail. That makes each section easy to lift on its own.
Practical rules:
- Answer in the first sentence, then explain conditions and exceptions.
- Use numbers: price ranges, timeframes, eligibility limits, step counts.
- Use tables for comparisons and lists for steps.
- Keep related sub-questions on the same page when they belong together, and link out to deeper pages when they do not.
- Write for the person, not the machine. A page that reads like a keyword list will not win either.
For the basics of answer-first writing, our beginner's guide to answer engine optimisation has worked examples.
Step 4: What makes your content worth citing over a competitor's?
Information others cannot copy: first-hand experience, your own data and specific judgement. Google's published guidance for its AI experiences encourages unique, non-commodity content for exactly this reason.
Ways to add it:
- Your own numbers. For instance, GRWW publishes that our own lead generation for photographers produced 1,656 enquiries at an average of ₹20.92 each. A page with figures like that answers "what does a lead cost?" better than one quoting generic averages.
- Process detail only a practitioner would know: what you check, in what order, and why.
- Honest trade-offs: when your service is not the right fit, and what to choose instead.
- Local specifics: areas served, local regulations or seasonal patterns.
Step 5: Are your structured data and business listings accurate?
AI Mode draws on more than web pages, so the facts Google holds about your business must be current and consistent. Errors here can surface directly in answers.
- Google Business Profile: hours, categories, services, service areas and photos up to date.
- Merchant Center: for retailers, accurate product feeds with prices and availability.
- Structured data: Organization, LocalBusiness, Product or Article markup that matches what visitors see on the page.
- Consistent details across your site, directories and social profiles.
Step 6: Do images and video help?
Yes, when they carry information rather than decoration. AI Mode accepts image-based questions and shows visual results, so useful visuals give you more ways to appear.
Use original photos and short videos that show your work, products or process. Give them descriptive file names, alt text and captions, and place them next to the text they illustrate. Keep them light: on our own site we cut portfolio image weight from 1.66 MB to 456 KB by switching to WebP, which kept pages fast without losing quality.
Step 7: Is your page experience good enough?
Visitors arriving from AI Mode are often close to deciding, so a slow or cluttered page wastes your best traffic. Good performance also helps Google crawl and render you reliably.
Focus on fast loading on mobile data, a clear next step (call, WhatsApp, enquiry form) visible early, and no intrusive pop-ups. Check your Core Web Vitals in Search Console and fix the slowest templates first, since one heavy page layout often affects dozens of URLs.
Step 8: How do you measure results from AI Mode?
Use Search Console for visibility and your analytics and CRM for value. Clicks may be fewer than from classic results, so judge the quality of the visits too.
| What to check | Where | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions and clicks on question-style queries | Search Console Performance report (AI Mode data is included in web search totals) | Rising impressions on the sub-questions you targeted |
| Engagement from organic visitors | Analytics | Longer visits and more pages viewed on targeted pages |
| Enquiries from organic search | CRM or form tracking | More leads mentioning specific topics you covered |
| Visibility in AI Mode answers | Manual monthly checks on your key questions | Your pages appearing as supporting links |
What should you avoid when optimising for AI Mode?
Avoid volume for its own sake and anything that misrepresents your business. Google's spam policies apply to AI features as well as regular results.
Do not mass-produce near-identical location or keyword pages; GRWW noindexed 167 of its own templated city pages to avoid that risk. Do not add structured data for content that is not on the page. And do not chase every new acronym before your basic pages answer customers' real questions.
AI Mode is one part of a broader shift. For the full strategy, read AEO and GEO explained, and for the ChatGPT side of the picture, see how to get your brand recommended by ChatGPT.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to do anything special to appear in AI Mode?
No special tag or submission exists. Your pages need to be indexed and eligible for snippets, and then the usual quality factors apply. The practical difference is covering follow-up questions thoroughly and adding original information.
Can I opt out of AI Mode without leaving Google Search?
You can limit what Google shows using snippet controls such as nosnippet or max-snippet, which also restrict how your content appears in regular results. There is no separate switch that removes you from AI features only while leaving normal listings untouched.
Does AI Mode reduce website traffic?
It can reduce clicks for simple questions that the answer fully covers. For considered purchases, visitors who do click tend to be better informed and closer to enquiring, so track leads and sales, not only sessions.
Is AI Mode available in India?
Yes. After launching in the US, Google expanded AI Mode to many more countries and languages, including India. Availability and features continue to change, so test your own key queries regularly.
How long before changes show up in AI Mode?
Once Google recrawls an updated page, it can be used in answers. For established sites this can be days to a few weeks. New sites with little authority usually take longer to be trusted as sources.
Get help mapping your fan-out
If you want to know which follow-up questions your site is missing for your most valuable searches, GRWW can map them and rewrite the pages that matter. Get a fixed-price quote to start.