Tracking AI Overviews: Queries, Citations

Optimizing for organic search now requires knowing which queries trigger AI Overviews and the URLs those summaries reference. Neither metric — queries or citations — is easily identified because Overviews appear only for logged-in users, and Search Console does not include separate Overviews reporting.

We have only third-party sources. Here are three tools for AI Overviews tracking and analysis.

ZipTie

ZipTie is a standalone AI Overviews tracker that monitors users’ important queries weekly and sends alerts when opportunities are missed.

To start, import your queries — I used Search Console‘s list. ZipTie will then generate a report containing:

• Your page rankings for each query.
• Whether your page is featured.
• Whether your query triggered an AI Overview and if your page was referenced.

ZipTie reports users’ queries that produce Overviews and whether users’ domains were cited. Click image to enlarge.

Click any query in the report to see which URLs are included in the AI Overview and where they rank organically. This is helpful insight I could not find elsewhere.

Click any query to see which URLs are included in the AI Overview and where they rank organically. Click image to enlarge.

Early tests confirm that Search Console’s Performance tab includes clicks from AI Overviews. And ZipTie’s “Standard” tier at $89 per month integrates with Search Console. Thus combining ZipTie with Search Console will show clicks to your links in Overviews.

Otherwise, ZipTie.dev offers a free 14-day trial with a credit card. Paid plans start at $29 per month for “Basic.”

Semrush

Semrush includes AI Overviews in its Position Tracking section. To see whether your site was included in Overviews, create a project in Position Tracking with your website URL and list of keywords.

Once the project is running, go to the Overview tab and use the “SERP features” filter to limit your report to queries that trigger AI Overviews. If your site is referenced in any AI Overview, an icon will appear next to your organic position.

If any AI Overview references your site, an icon will appear next to the organic position. Click image to enlarge.

In my testing, ZipTie.dev provided more accurate results as I couldn’t replicate some of Semrush’s reported AI Overviews.

Semrush offers no free trial. Paid plans start at $129 per month to track 500 keywords.

Google AI Overview Impact Analysis

Google AI Overview Impact Analysis is a free Chrome extension that analyzes Overviews for multiple queries.

Install the extension and then type your comma-separated queries into its sidebar. The extension will run each search, identify AI Overviews, and report which Overview includes your URL.

The “AI Overview Citations” report includes all the URLs referenced in each Overview and how often each domain appeared for all queries. This feature was handy for identifying domains referenced from multiple Overviews for my important queries. The report is downloadable as an Excel file.

The “AI Overview Citations” report includes all the URLs referenced in each Overview and how often each domain appeared for all queries. Click image to enlarge.