Ranking in AI Overviews: Kevin Indig’s key insights 💡

Can you really rank in Google’s AI Overviews? Kevin says...

Author

Victoria Kurichenko
August 29, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Hello, my friend!

How’s your last week of summer going? 😊

Yesterday, I watched the latest Ahrefs podcast with Kevin Indig, an Organic Growth Advisor who’s worked with well-known companies, like Reddit, Dropbox, and Shopify.

Pretty cool, right?

I watched the entire hour-long episode and summarised the most important information below, so you can learn it in just a few minutes.

The main topic is AI + SEO.

I was really curious to hear Kevin’s thoughts on how AI-generated search is changing SEO and what we, as site owners, can do to show up in Google’s AI Overviews.

Plus, I wanted to see if I’m on the right track with my own blog growth or if there’s more I could be doing.

Here’s what Kevin said matters most if you want to rank in AI Overviews nowadays:

  • Content freshness

  • Content relevance

  • How well you align your content with user search intent

  • Strong brand authority + trust

  • Having mentions on external platforms (Reddit, YouTube, forums, review platforms, Google maps) because users use them to validate info from AI overviews

Sound familiar?

Yep!

We’ve all heard about these concepts as they are part of the “traditional” SEO approach that we were supposed to follow for years.

Although SEOs could historically manipulate search results with backlinks, the impact of backlinks isn’t as strong as it used to be.

Instead, SEO has gone omnichannel, meaning it’s not just what’s on your site, but also who’s talking about you and where.

What does “content relevance” really mean?

Kevin has talked a lot about content relevance. However, his responses seemed somewhat vague to me. That’s because the concept of “relevancy” is subjective.

But here’s an example that he mentioned in the podcast that I believe explains the concept really well:

“It’s hard to get what people want to see when they search for “SEO tools.” That’s why your content may not be super relevant.

Let’s take another search prompt as an example: “Best rank tracking tools for 5-person companies in the legal space under $200 a month.”

It’s much more specific and easier to understand what people want. Chances are your response to the second question will be much more relevant and will likely have more chances to show up in AI Overviews.”

Kevin Indig

I get what Kevin means by “relevancy” using this example.

But you should also keep in mind that keywords that are specific usually have very low search volume.

Therefore, I’d suggest adding them to the FAQ section, instead of creating a dedicated landing page. But again, this could be different for your company depending on your priorities.

Another key point Kevin made: The number of AI Overviews in search results and the content featured there change fast.

Not long ago, 99% of AI Overviews showed up for informational searches. Now, Google is starting to display them for commercial and transactional queries too.

It’s important to remember that Google is still experimenting with the level of AI integration into search results.

My ultimate conclusion is that nobody knows how to optimize for AI just yet, because everything changes super fast. So, be careful when somebody promises you that.

The old-school SEO tactics still work. 💪

Personally, I’ve always focused on content and brand authority over fast and cheap strategies. Despite all the constant Google updates, my website continues to perform really well, both in terms of traffic and income. You can check my monthly affiliate reports here.

Here’s the proof of performance. 👇

P.S. I break down my full SEO approach, including how my content consistently ranks in top positions, inside my SEO ebook.

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Have a great weekend!

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

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