---
title: "How to Rank in Google AI Mode: Step-by-Step Guide for B2B Websites | VertoDigital"
description: "Seven steps to rank in Google AI Mode for B2B sites: check eligibility, answer buyer questions first, add original data, earn trusted mentions, then measure."
url: "https://vertodigital.com/content-hub/blog/how-to-rank-in-google-ai-mode"
image: "https://vertodigital.com/images/site/og-default.png"
---

> For AI agents: an index of every page on this site is at https://vertodigital.com/llms.txt

# How to Rank in Google AI Mode: Step-by-Step Guide for B2B Websites

**Blog · Oct 23, 2026 · 16 min read**

By [Desislava Dermishkova](/content-hub/authors/desislava-dermishkova), Senior SEO & AEO Associate, VertoDigital · Reviewed by [Elitsa Dankova](/content-hub/authors/elitsa-dankova), Director, SEO & AEO

To rank in Google AI Mode, you need three things: a site Google is allowed to use in its AI features, pages that answer the questions buyers ask in a form AI Mode can quote, and a presence on the third-party sites it trusts. [Google's own position is that this is still SEO.](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide) For B2B teams, the difference is where the shortlist now gets made.

---

## Key takeaways

- **There's no separate AI Mode playbook.** Google says optimizing for its AI features is still SEO, so the work builds on your existing SEO strategy and the pages and ranking signals you already have.
- **Check eligibility first.** Your Search Console property must be included in Search generative AI features, and priority pages need to be indexed, crawlable and allowed to show a snippet.
- **Write for the hidden searches.** AI Mode breaks each buyer question into related searches, so strengthen the pages that answer those sub-questions instead of publishing a page for every variation.
- **Answer first, then add what nobody else has.** Lead each section with a clear answer, back it with original data, case studies and plain limitations, and spell out what changes your price.
- **Earn mentions where AI Mode already looks.** A brand's own site is often only 5-10% of the sources AI search references, so reviews, partner pages and communities matter. Skip inauthentic mentions.
- **Measure in layers.** Use the Search Console Generative AI report for impressions by page, read conversational queries for themes, and track a fixed set of buyer questions plus a pipeline field on demo forms.

---

The route into AI Mode just got shorter. At Google I/O in May 2026, Google rolled out a redesigned Search box and made it possible to [ask a follow-up straight from an AI Overview and carry on in AI Mode](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/search-io-2026/), with the context intact. It's live on desktop and mobile worldwide. Classic organic results haven't gone away, since Google says people still get a range of results from Search. But a buyer who starts with a regular search can now move into an AI Mode conversation in one step.

Your product pages rank. Your comparison posts rank. Then a buyer asks Google's AI Mode for the best tools in your category, and your brand isn't in the answer. Ranking for the main keyword doesn't guarantee a place in it, because AI Mode answers from many related searches at once, not just the one your buyer typed.

That matters more every quarter. AI Mode has passed one billion monthly users, and AI Overviews more than 2.5 billion, [according to Google](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/new-opportunities-control-and-insights-for-website-owners/). B2B buyers have moved with it. In [Wynter's January 2026 survey of 101 B2B SaaS CMOs](https://wynter.com/post/how-b2b-saas-cmos-buy-software-in-2026), 84% used AI tools for vendor discovery, up from 24% a year earlier, and 68% started with AI before a search engine.

And the AI's shortlist tends to become the buyer's shortlist. In a [48-person usability study by Citation Labs](https://citationlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/The-Funnels-New-Gatekeeper.pdf), 69% of shortlists built in AI Mode came straight from the AI's answer. Unfamiliar brands were often dropped on name recognition alone. The study looked at consumer purchases, but the pattern will feel familiar to anyone who's watched a buying committee narrow a vendor list.

Clicks are scarce too. In [Kevin Indig's AI Mode usability study](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/what-our-ai-mode-user-behavior-study-reveals-about-the-future-of-search/557697/), 77.6% of sessions ended without a visit to any external site. If buyers decide inside the answer, being in the answer is the job.

This guide walks through seven steps we use with our B2B clients. If you need a refresher on how AI Mode differs from AI Overviews first, start with our [comparison of the two](/content-hub/blog/ai-mode-vs-ai-overviews-for-b2b).

## How Google AI Mode chooses sources

AI Mode doesn't run your buyer's question as one search. It breaks it into many related searches, pulls pages from Google's own index for each, and returns a generated answer with links to the pages it used.

Google describes two mechanisms in its [guide to optimizing for generative AI features](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide). Retrieval-augmented generation grounds the answer of the large language model in pages Google's ranking systems retrieve. Query fan-out generates a set of related searches at the same time to fill in the parts of the question the first search doesn't cover. Google's own example: a question about fixing a weedy lawn fans out into searches about herbicides, chemical-free removal and prevention.

Translate that to B2B. "What's the best [category] for a mid-size SaaS company?" might fan out into pricing searches, comparisons between named vendors, reviews, integration questions and searches with the current year in them. Your page doesn't need to win the original question. It needs to be the best answer to one or more of those hidden searches.

The research backs this up. Nectiv ran about 9,000 prompts through Gemini 3 and found Google used [9.06 fan-out searches per prompt on average](https://nectivdigital.com/blog/new-research-we-analyzed-60k-google-fan-out-queries), with software prompts the highest at 11.7. The most common terms in those searches were the year, "reviews" and "vs." Two caveats. Nectiv pulled the data through the Gemini API and says it can't confirm AI Mode works identically. And in a separate Seer Interactive test it cites, 95% of fan-out searches had no measurable search volume, which is why you can't keyword-research your way to every sub-question.

Two more things shape what you'll see:

- **Follow-ups count as new searches.** When a buyer replies "what about [competitor]?" inside AI Mode, Google treats it as a new query, and everything in the new answer is attributed to it. That's why the click often comes one turn later, after the buyer has narrowed things down. Since Google I/O in May 2026, buyers can also ask a follow-up straight from an AI Overview and continue in AI Mode with their context intact, [on desktop and mobile worldwide](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/search-io-2026/). More conversations now reach AI Mode that way.
- **AI Mode isn't the same as AI Overviews.** In [Profound's May 2026 data](https://www.tryprofound.com/blog/variability-of-google-models-gemini-vs-aio-vs-ai-mode) across 15,155 brand configurations, brands saw a median 8-point visibility gap between their best and worst Google AI surface, and AI Overviews and AI Mode shared only about 40% of the companies they mentioned. [AI Mode also cited the most sources per answer](https://www.tryprofound.com/articles/rank-in-google-ai-mode), about 15. Track it as its own channel.

The good news: there's no separate AI index to get into. Everything below builds on the SEO foundation you already have.

## How to rank in Google AI Mode: the seven steps

### Step 1: Confirm Google is allowed to use your site

Before you rewrite a single page, check that Google can show your content in AI features at all. Google sets three gates, and the first one is a setting most teams haven't opened.

**The Search Console AI setting.** Google's guide says a site must be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console to be eligible to appear in them. 

You'll find it under Settings, then Search generative AI. 

Sites set to exclude get no traffic or impressions from AI Overviews, AI Mode or AI features in Discover, [according to Google](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/new-opportunities-control-and-insights-for-website-owners/).

The good news: include option is the default, and most properties never touch it. The catch is inheritance. A subdomain or URL-prefix property might take its setting from its parent property, so a subdomain's setting can simply read "Inherit from" the main domain. 

If you run several subdomains, regional sites or separate docs properties, check that none of them sits under a parent someone set to exclude.

**Indexing and snippets.** A page has to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet. Look for nosnippet, max-snippet and data-nosnippet on product, pricing, comparison and docs pages. These tags sometimes get added by a legal or security review and then forgotten.

**Crawl access.** Make sure your CDN or firewall isn't challenging or blocking Googlebot. Google can render JavaScript as long as your scripts aren't blocked, but it can't use anything behind a login or a form. If your site runs on a JavaScript framework, spot-check a few key pages with URL Inspection to confirm pricing, specs and comparison tables show up in the rendered page.

One check B2B sites often skip: outdated copies of the same content. Old product pages, retired pricing pages, previous docs versions and duplicate URLs can keep surfacing instead of the current page, so AI answers quote features or prices you no longer offer. Point them to the current version with redirects or canonical tags.

**Do this**

- [ ] Search Console AI setting is set to include (or inherits include)
- [ ] Top 20 commercial pages are indexed, with no snippet restrictions
- [ ] Key facts aren't behind logins, forms or blocked scripts
- [ ] Googlebot gets a full page through your CDN
- [ ] Outdated and duplicate pages point to the current one

If you also want ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude to reach your pages, their crawlers need the same check. [Velin Dragoev's guide to LLM crawlability](/content-hub/blog/optimize-b2b-website-llm-crawlability) covers it step by step.

### Step 2: Map buyer questions to the pages you already have

Start with a fixed list of 20 to 40 questions your buyers actually ask, then decide which existing page should answer each one. This list becomes your content plan and your tracking set (Step 7).

Good sources for the questions:

- Sales call notes and objections ("Does it work with our SIEM?", "How does pricing scale past 50 seats?")
- Support tickets and onboarding questions
- Site search on your docs and help center, if you have one and track it
- Search Console, where AI Mode follow-ups now show up as ordinary queries. A query like "what about [competitor]?" tells you exactly which comparison buyers want.

Then look at what AI Mode searches for around those questions. Run a few in AI Mode and check the related searches it shows for the prompt; People Also Ask fills in more. Pay attention to the names that keep appearing: analyst firms, G2, Reddit threads, certifications, competitors. Those are the proof points the AI goes looking for. In Nectiv's fan-out data, reviews, "vs" and the current year were among the most common terms, so check that you have comparison and review content with a current date.

Now map each question to one page:

| Buyer question type | Best page to answer it |
|---|---|
| Is this the right kind of tool for us? | Product or solution page |
| How does it compare to X? | Comparison or alternatives page |
| How do we set it up or migrate? | Guide or documentation |
| Has it worked for a company like ours? | Case study |
| What does it cost, and what changes the price? | Pricing page |

One warning before you open a content brief for every gap. Google says that creating separate pages for each variation of how people search, including fan-out queries, mainly to manipulate AI answers violates its [scaled content abuse policy](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide). Strengthen the page that should own the answer first. Create a new page only when buyers need a resource that doesn't exist yet.

**Do this** build a sheet with five columns: question, intent, page that should answer it, what's missing, owner.

### Step 3: Put the answer first, in passages that stand on their own

AI Mode quotes passages, not whole pages. So the first two or three sentences under each heading should name the subject and answer the question.

That's also one of the most consistent findings in the research. Cyrus Shepard's [review of 54 AI citation studies](https://signal.zyppy.com/p/ai-citation-ranking-factors) ranks answer placement near the top of the page, close query-answer match and self-contained passages among the strongest signals. He's clear that these are correlations, not confirmed ranking factors, but they line up with how retrieval works.

In practice, three habits do most of the work:

1. **Name things.** Write "[Product] syncs HubSpot deals to Salesforce every 15 minutes" rather than "it keeps your tools in sync". A passage pulled out of context should still say who does what.
2. **One claim per sentence, with its number.** "Setup takes about 30 minutes for a single cluster" is quotable. "Setup is quick and easy" isn't.
3. **Use the right format for the job.** Tables for real comparisons, numbered lists for real processes, prose for everything else.

Here's what that looks like on a product page:

> **Before:** "The future of [category] is here. Built for modern teams, our platform brings everything together."

> **After:** "[Product] is a [category] for [who it serves]. It [does X], [does Y] and [does Z], so [teams] can [outcome]."

You don't need to chop pages into tiny chunks or hit a word count. Google's guide says there's no requirement to "chunk" content and no ideal page length. The goal is a page a busy buyer can scan, which happens to be the page AI Mode can quote.

We implemented a version of this with Fontfabric, a digital type foundry. We clarified its product-page copy, linked related pages and reorganized its content, and its AI Overview appearances grew 555.77% over six months, according to the [case study.](/case-studies/fontfabric-seo-aeo)

### Step 4: Add information nobody else has

If ten vendors publish the same "what is X" page, AI Mode has no reason to pick yours. Google's guide puts unique, non-commodity content above every other suggestion it makes.

Google's own contrast is useful here. Commodity content restates common knowledge ("7 tips for first-time homebuyers"). Non-commodity content gives an expert or first-hand take that goes beyond it. For a B2B site, that usually means:

- **Benchmarks** with the test setup explained, so readers can judge them
- **Case studies** that state the starting point, what changed and the result
- **Integration and limitation docs** that say plainly what the product doesn't do
- **Original data** from support tickets, product usage, surveys or your own Search Console
- **Screenshots and walkthroughs** of real workflows, not stock dashboards

Vendor data points the same way. [Surfer's 2026 citation analysis](https://surfer.ai/blog/how-to-rank-in-google-ai-mode/) found first-hand experience in the content scored higher in AI Mode than in the other AI engines it tracked, while author bio boxes scored near the bottom. Experience written into the page beats credentials listed beside it.

A practical target: one original number a quarter. It gives AI Mode a reason to cite you as the source instead of paraphrasing someone who quoted you.

### Step 5: Make pricing and product facts impossible to misread

Buyers in AI Mode act on whatever numbers the AI shows them. If your pricing page is vague, AI Mode fills the gap with an estimate, and buyers treat that estimate as a quote.

The [Citation Labs study](https://citationlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/The-Funnels-New-Gatekeeper.pdf) saw this happen. Participants accepted AI-summarised price ranges as if they applied to them, then cut options from their shortlist based on those numbers. The authors flag SaaS with variable pricing as exposed to the same problem. Their recommendation is editorial, not technical: say on the page what determines the price.

They also noticed that format changed decisions. Providers shown with concrete figures were easier to choose than those shown only with percentage discounts. A starting price or a typical range gives AI Mode something accurate to repeat.

For most B2B sites, that means:

- **A "What affects your price" section** on the pricing page that names the factors (seats, data volume, modules, contract length) and the date it was last checked
- **Consistent names everywhere.** Product, plan and integration names should match across your site, docs, G2 and Capterra listings, and partner pages.
- **Limits stated plainly.** If a plan doesn't include SSO or an integration needs an add-on, say so. AI Mode will find the answer somewhere, and it's better if it finds yours.

**Do this** ask AI Mode five pricing and comparison questions about your category, and write down what it says about you and your competitors. Every wrong or missing fact goes on the fix list.

### Step 6: Show up on the sources AI Mode already trusts

Most of what AI Mode cites isn't your website. [McKinsey's analysis](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/new-front-door-to-the-internet-winning-in-the-age-of-ai-search) found a brand's own site often makes up only 5-10% of the sources AI search references. The rest comes from publishers, review sites, communities and user-generated content.

For B2B comparisons, review sites carry a lot of weight. In Indig's study, when participants compared Ramp and Brex, 83% of the visits that left AI Mode went to review sites. [Profound's May 2026 data ](https://www.tryprofound.com/blog/variability-of-google-models-gemini-vs-aio-vs-ai-mode)puts YouTube and Reddit at the top of AI Mode's most-cited domains overall. For a software company, add G2 and Capterra, analyst coverage, integration partner pages and the practitioner communities your buyers use. Wynter's CMOs name peer communities and review sites among the channels they rely on most.

Here's how we approach it:

1. Run your buyer questions (from Step 2) in AI Mode and list every third-party page it cites.
2. Sort them: pages that mention you correctly, pages that mention you badly or out of date, and pages that skip you.
3. Fix what you control first: review profiles, partner listings, directory entries.
4. Earn the rest the slow way: high-quality data publishers want to use, expert commentary, genuine answers in communities.

One line not to cross. [Google's guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide) says seeking inauthentic mentions isn't helpful, because Google's AI features depend on the same spam systems as the rest of Search. Paid insertions into listicles and fake community posts are a short-term bet against the systems that decide who gets cited.

### Step 7: Measure what you can, and track the rest yourself

Search Console now shows how often your pages appear in AI features. It doesn't show which questions triggered them or whether anyone clicked, so pair it with a fixed prompt set and your pipeline data.

**1. Open the Generative AI report.** In Search Console, go to Performance and open the Generative AI view. [Google's Generative AI performance reports](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2026/06/gen-ai-performance-reports) show impressions inside AI Overviews and AI Mode by page, device and date. Know its limits: AI Overviews and AI Mode are combined, the data starts on 18 May 2026, and there are no queries, clicks or API access. Export it monthly, because your exports become your trend line.

**2. Match AI-visible pages to your queries.** Export the page data from the Generative AI report and your query export for the same dates, then line them up. [Suganthan's free classifier](https://suganthan.com/free-seo-tools/conversation-query-classifier/) does the matching. It sorts queries into conversational queries, short replies, follow-up pivots, tracker probes, agent prompts and pasted strings, and flags queries that land on pages shown in AI features. Pages that appear in AI features but earn few clicks are good candidates for a clearer next step toward a demo, pricing or a trial.

**3. Read the conversations in your query report.** AI Mode follow-ups show up as ordinary queries: "yes", "show me more", "what about [competitor]". They're a direct look at how buyers phrase questions about your space. Read them for themes, and don't add them up. Suganthan Mohanadasan checked his own Search Console data and found that[ 57.7% of impressions over 59 days sat in Google's anonymised pool](https://suganthan.com/blog/ai-mode-queries-search-console/), so what you see is a floor.

**4. Filter out the machines.** AI visibility trackers and research agents also run prompts through Google. Suganthan's classifier labels these as tracker probes and agent harness prompts, so you can take them out before you count anything. Search for a few of your own tracker's prompts word for word, too.

**5. Track your buyer questions monthly.** Run the same 20 to 40 questions from Step 2. For each, record three things separately: whether your brand is mentioned, whether your site is linked, and whether you're recommended. Note how AI Mode describes you.

**6. Connect it to pipeline.** Add AI search as an option in your "How did you hear about us?" field and ask sales to log when prospects mention AI research. AI-influenced deals rarely show up in click-based attribution, so this is often the only signal you'll get.

## What you don't need to do

A lot of AI Mode advice is noise. [Google's guide ](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide)names the tactics it ignores, which saves your team a few sprints.

| Common advice | What Google says |
|---|---|
| Add an llms.txt file or AI-only Markdown pages | Google Search doesn't use them. They won't hurt, and they won't help. |
| "Chunk" pages into small blocks for AI | Not required, and there's no ideal page length |
| Rewrite content specifically for AI | Not needed. Google's systems understand synonyms and meaning. |
| Build mentions through outreach schemes | Inauthentic mentions aren't helpful, and spam systems still apply |
| Add special AI schema | There's none. Keep structured data and schema markup for rich results. |

Two more claims we saw in AI answers and forum threads while researching this guide. "Request Indexing gets you into AI Mode within a day" has no source behind it. And there's no "AI Mode" filter in Search Console's search appearance options; the Generative AI report is a separate view that combines AI Overviews and AI Mode.

## Frequently asked questions

### Do I need to rank #1 on Google to appear in AI Mode?

No. AI Mode draws on pages that rank for the original question or for any of the related searches it runs in the background. Ranking well still helps, because those searches use Google's normal ranking systems. But a page that answers one sub-question clearly can be cited without winning the head term.

### Is optimizing for AI Mode different from SEO?

Google says no: it calls optimizing for its AI features "still SEO". What changes for B2B teams is where the work pays off. Buyers form shortlists inside the answer, and much of what AI Mode cites lives on third-party sites.

### Can I see AI Mode performance in Search Console?

Partly. The Generative AI report shows impressions by page, device and date, combined with AI Overviews. It doesn't show queries or clicks, so you'll need prompt tracking and pipeline data alongside it.

### Does optimizing for AI Mode help with ChatGPT too?

Some of it does: clear answers, original information and third-party presence help everywhere. But ChatGPT also uses its own search index, so it needs its own checks.

### How long does it take to see results?

There's no reliable timeline, and anyone promising one is guessing. A fair way to judge progress: after 30 days, eligibility fixes and your first page updates are done and you have a baseline for your buyer questions. After 90 days, compare that baseline with where you stand now.

### What is Google AI Mode?

Google AI Mode is Google's AI-powered search experience inside Google Search and Chrome. It's most often accessed through Google's AI Overview, and it replaces the traditional list of search results with a single, synthesized answer, similar to the way LLMs like ChatGPT and Gemini work.