3 Things You Should Do to Ensure Your Website Is Cited in AIOs

Google’s AI overviews are slowly taking over with now over 50% of all searches in Google triggering an AI Overview. This is producing what is called the “Zero Click Search” which basically means people are typing in their question in Google and Google uses it’s AI Overview to answer their question in the search results page…
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Meaning Google is fulfilling the need for the user to click into your website and read more about the topic. Google’s AI is doing that for them - meaning the user just needs to read the AI Overview.
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So what does this mean for you?

Well… if you want to still maintain the mental real estate of your prospective clients, then being cited in the AI overviews (AIOs) is crucial.
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So let’s dive into 3 key ways to get cited in AIOs as of September 2025.

Before we proceed, please keep in mind that this is an incredibly new & emerging space - and for all intensive purposes - conducting good ole fashioned SEO will yield solid AIO ranking results…
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However, it’s crucial to hone in these small, yet effective tactics we are about to cover because AIO uses different ranking criteria to determine which sites get listed in the AIO compared to traditional regular search results.
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What do I mean by different criteria?

AIO’s are primarily cited by the following sources - according to Profound in a recent study…
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Based on this, we can see that AI overviews inside of Google cite

• Reddit 21.0%
• ‍YouTube 18.8%
• ‍Quora 14.3%
• ‍LinkedIn 13.0%
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and also cites other specific directories are large portion of searches…
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• Gartner 7.1%
• ‍NerdWallet 5.9%
• ‍Forbes 5.7%
• ‍Wikipedia 5.7%
• ‍BusinessInsider 4.5%
• ‍Medium 3.9%
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Now for non SEO people, you may think that the regular Google search algorithm already does this - but in reality - regular organic search ranking takes into consideration other key factors like on page SEO, technical SEO, and off page SEO.
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More broadly speaking, Google’s organic ranking algorithm cares more about the technical composition of your website, the keywords on your pages, and the creditworthiness of your website based on the number of other website’s linking to it.
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The important distinction between AIO and SEO

Organic rankings (SEO) do influence AI Overviews (AIO)… however, AIO doesn’t influence organic rankings. In simple terms, having good SEO already gives you an edge with AIO.
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So what does this mean for you?

If you don’t have good SEO already, then focusing on AIO is likely a better investment of your time and capital as a business because building good SEO takes a lot of time is generally an uphill battle if trying to be done quickly.
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With that out of the way… you’re probably wondering… How can I ensure my website is setup to be cited in AI Overviews for my keywords? And that’s what we are going to dive into now…
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Just like anything else, there isn’t a get ranked fast scheme that exists…‍

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However using the data we just presented, we can reverse engineer the fastest way to get ranked in AIO’s. In my experience, these 3 things help a ton with getting ranked in AI overviews.
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1. On Page SEO in the form of YouTube Videos
2. Technical SEO in the form of an llms.txt file
3. Off Page SEO in the form of specific brand mentions
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And each of these aren’t too difficult to do… so let’s get stuck in…
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Why Should you Add YouTube videos to your Content?

YouTube is cited nearly 20% of the time in AIO’s so if you embed the appropriate schema markup & video embed on your page - then you are effectively giving yourself a 20% bump in AIO ranking potential.
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And with our simple process for manufacturing good, professional explainer videos - this “hack” is a emerging way to not only deliver a better experience for your website visitors - but also get cited in AI overviews.
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How to quickly develop YouTube Explainer Videos to Enrich Your Existing Website Content

One of the lowest hanging fruit optimizations that I like to make for our clients is quickly manufacturing professional explainer video YouTube videos that help enrich our existing content.
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These videos help with on page SEO in a traditional sense - because the AI ranking algorithm can watch & listen to your videos embedded on your page.
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Meaning, once a video is added to your page - it already gets a bump in terms of organic ranking because it now has more “rich content” and an artificially higher word count. For context, word count is one of the highest ranking factors when it comes to organic ranking in traditional searches.
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So what do you need to do?

Simply create YouTube Explainer videos. I will cover this process in another blog - however my favorite tools to do this are the following…
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1. Lumen5
2. ChatGPT Agent
3. Canva AI
4. ElevenLabs
5. VidIQ
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If you check out our website - you will see we use this exact tech stack to develop explainers that help increase the SERP features of our website - while also help influence us getting ranked #1 for our relatively competitive brand terms. (We developed the site less than 4 weeks ago and already being cited in AI mode due to our on page AIO enhancements)
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Why you should create an LLMS.TXT file for your website?

LLMS like Google’s AI overview reads your website’s HTML5 in order to quickly understand what you do. But if your HTML5 is difficult to understand - the LLM looks at the next business down in its initial pull.
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Now obviously you could improve your HTML5 and site architecture to ensure it’s legible and AI friendly… but that’s not always the easiest lift… So what can you do about this without completely rehauling your website for AIO?
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Simple. Just create what is called an LLMS.TXT file.
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This file is much like your sitemap. Now if you don’t know what your sitemap is, it is how Google normally crawls your website to get it indexed. It lives on a page like this yourwebsiteurl.com/sitemap.xml The LLMS.TXT file will do the same thing. It will live on a URL like this yourwebsiteurl.com/llms.txt.
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This txt file is what the LLM will read first. So by having this, you can quickly inform the LLM of what pages you want the LLM to read and cite. By doing this, you won’t have to worry about the LLM trying to ready your entire sites HTML… instead it can read 1 simple markdown text file.
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How to create an LLMS.TXT file for your website

You’re in luck, we recently developed a whole tutorial on how you can do this from start to finish. You can check it out here: https://www.thrasherandvine.com/video-resources/how-to-create-an-llms-txt-file-for-your-website
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But in short, the process is simple - take this template - You can download it here → https://www.thrasherandvine.com/free-seo-ppc-tools/llms-txt-file-template Then, update it with your site’s information.
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Finally either upload it to your Webflow website - or manually create a page that is indexed (don’t place robots.txt on it) and publish it to your website.
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That’s it!

If you have trouble doing this, reach out to us - we can create one for you ;)
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Why you should focus on getting mentioned by listicles?

Simply put - if you want to show up for “Best companies for [your product/service]” then you need to be cited in listicles. Based on the data presented by Profound, we can see that directories like Gartner, Nerdwallet, Forbes and BusinessInsider are being cited a disproportionate amount more than normal backlinks.
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These specific directories are influencing AIOs more than regular Backlinks that influence SEO rankings - according to an Ahrefs study.
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This being said, it places more emphasis on securing mentions from these specific directories and listicles over just normal high domain ranking links.
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How to get cited by listicles & other brand mentions easily?

There are 2 ways to get listed in listicles & high visibility directories mentioned above. The first way is actually very easy and something you can do on your own - which is to develop directory profiles on websites like Trustpilot, Gartner, G2, Capterra, etc.
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By making these profiles, you are getting “mentioned” by these higher DR websites already… and since Gartner has made an appearance on the bran mention list published by Profound, then you will be getting a free high intent mention almost immediately.
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That one brand mention can help a ton.

And as you request reviews from existing clients - you get placed on more listicles “Best of lists” which adds more mentions that can influence AIOs. This process can take you pretty far by itself… but let’s get into another way.
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How to do PR for you brand to secure listicle placements?

If you already have directory profiles, then it’s time to graduate into securing more listicle placements. The best way to do this is to compile a list of all the listicles you’d like to be cited in.
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You can use tools like Clay or just ChatGPT Agent Mode to find these listicles by giving it a simple prompt like… Can you please find all of the “Best companies/firms/agencies/etc for [yourindustry]” and all other variations of this and compile them into a table format that I can quickly review?
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This prompt, will help you find a comprehensive list of websites you can then reach out to the editors/writers/journalists of. This is where good ole fashion outreach comes in.
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My recommendation… use tools like Hunter, Apollo, and Wyze to find the emails and/or LinkedIn’s of the writers/journalists. Reach out to them manually, and try to ask when the next update is going to be made to their article.
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Most of the time, they will not respond, so following up consistently every week or so is key here. Just keep an organized Google Sheet or CRM table that you can use to followup with them on email or linkedin over time.
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Patience is key here - you can’t buy these placements - and generally speaking if you are pitching your brand, you better actually be better than who is already cited in the article - otherwise you will be better off looking at smaller listicles.
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But if you know you have a great product/service - then as a marketer, it’s crucial to pitch yourself to these outlets to get traction in the AIOs.
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What to expect after doing these 3 things?

If you do these things, you will start to recognize an increase in SERP features as well as more recognition in AI overviews for your branded, as well as niche keywords. Want help with all of this? Reach out today. We have an AIO package that takes care of all of this for your business. Just fill out our form and we will get in touch!
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