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# Google AI Mode: where it gets its sources and how to get cited > How Google AI Mode picks its sources, why ranking first is not enough and what a brand can do to get cited: 2026 data and Google's own guidance. URL: https://geosnap.ai/en/blog/google-ai-mode-fonti-come-farsi-citare Language: English Version IT: https://geosnap.ai/blog/google-ai-mode-fonti-come-farsi-citare Author: Rinald Sefa, CMO Geosnap · Category: GEO strategy Publisher: Geosnap (Maind Group S.r.l.), https://geosnap.ai ## In short Google AI Mode splits each question into many parallel searches and cites the pages that answer each subtopic, often outside the organic top 10. A large share of its links point to Google itself, YouTube, Reddit and Business Profile listings. To get cited, answer your customers' secondary questions and look after your presence beyond your own site. - AI Mode uses query fan-out: it splits the question into subtopics and finds sources for each one. - For Google a page only needs to be indexed and eligible for a snippet: no special markup or llms.txt required. - According to Moz data reported by SEO.com, 88% of AI Mode citations do not rank for the exact same query. - In February 2026 google.com accounted for 17% of AI Mode citations, with many links to Business Profile listings. - Search Console shows only part of the picture: to see who gets cited instead of you, monitor the answers. Written by the Geosnap AI agent, reviewed and approved by Rinald Sefa. Translated from the Italian original. [Read the original](https://geosnap.ai/blog/google-ai-mode-fonti-come-farsi-citare) A year ago, on October 8, 2025, [Google launched AI Mode in Italy](https://blog.google/intl/it-it/ai-mode-arriva-anche-in-italia/) and dozens of other countries. Since then more and more people ask Google long questions and get a written answer with a column of links next to it. For a brand the question becomes: why do some sites show up in that column and not mine? 2026 data and Google's official documentation give a fairly precise answer. And that answer changes how you work compared with classic SEO. ## How does Google AI Mode choose its sources? AI Mode does not just search for your question: it splits it into many smaller questions and searches them all at once. Google calls this *query fan-out*, and in its launch post it explains that AI Mode breaks your question into subtopics and runs many searches at the same time. The pages found in these parallel searches become the candidates for the answer and its links. Take a travel agency in Turin. Someone asks "where to go in Puglia in September with two small kids". AI Mode may search in parallel for September weather, child-friendly beaches, family-friendly places to stay and travel times. The agency's page can be cited even if it does not rank first for the full question, as long as it answers one of those subtopics well. The entry rules are the same as for Search. On its [AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features) page, Google says a page can become a supporting link if it is indexed and eligible to be shown in Search with a snippet. There are no additional technical requirements and no special Schema.org structured data to add. ## Why ranking first on Google is not enough AI Mode's sources only partly match the top ten organic results. Three studies, using different methods, point the same way: - in 2025 [Semrush](https://www.semrush.com/blog/ai-mode-comparison-study/) compared 5,000 keywords: domains cited by AI Mode were also in the organic top 10 about 54% of the time, exact URLs only 35% of the time. For AI Overviews the figures were 86% and 67%; - in 2026 a Moz study, reported by [SEO.com](https://www.seo.com/blog/ai-mode-citations/), found that 88% of AI Mode citations do not rank in the organic results for the exact same query; - according to an Ahrefs analysis cited by [Search Engine Journal](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-ai-mode-cites-itself-more-often-with-more-organic-links/568955/), AI Mode and AI Overviews cite the same URLs only 13% of the time. The reason is fan-out: citations come from the secondary searches, not only from the main one. So a good Google ranking helps but does not guarantee a citation. And a site that does not rank first for the main keyword can still make it into the answer. ## Which sites AI Mode cites most User-generated platforms, video and Google itself take a large share of citations. Every month Ahrefs publishes a ranking of the [domains AI Mode cites most](https://ahrefs.com/blog/most-cited-domains-ai-mode/) in the United States. These are the leaders in the September 2026 update, as a share of citations: | Domain | Share of citations | | --- | --- | | reddit.com | 17.9% | | youtube.com | 17.8% | | google.com | 12.5% | | facebook.com | 10.2% | | instagram.com | 5.7% | | en.wikipedia.org | 4.0% | Google's own weight has grown fast. SE Ranking analyzed 1.3 million citations across 68,313 keywords in February 2026: google.com accounted for 17% of citations, more than three times the level of nine months earlier. Of those links, 59% pointed to search results pages and 36% to Google Business Profile listings. The share varies a lot by industry: 53% in travel, 31% in real estate, 5% in finance. Ahrefs and SE Ranking figures differ because they measure different samples and periods, but the picture is the same: part of your visibility in AI Mode runs through Google itself and through the platforms where users talk. ## What a brand can do to get cited The way forward is to work on every place AI Mode takes information from, not just your own site. In its [guide to optimizing for generative AI features](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide), updated in July 2026, Google says SEO best practices still apply and sets out a few priorities. Here is how to put them into practice: 1. **Answer the secondary questions.** List the doubts a customer has before choosing (prices, timing, differences, special cases) and answer them on pages with a point of view of their own. Google calls content that brings first-hand experience, rather than repeating what is everywhere, "non-commodity". Be careful, though: creating a page for every variation of a question just to chase fan-out counts, for Google, as scaled content abuse. 2. **Check the technical side.** Pages must be crawlable and indexed. If you use `nosnippet` or a very low `max-snippet`, you also limit what Google can show in its answers. If your site blocks crawlers by mistake, start from our [guide to AI crawlers](https://geosnap.ai/en/blog/il-tuo-sito-blocca-chatgpt-guida-crawler-ai). 3. **Keep Google Business Profile and Merchant Center up to date.** Google says they can help products and services appear in AI responses. With such a large share of links pointing to Business Profile listings, current hours, categories, photos and reviews really matter, especially if you have a physical location. 4. **Be present where AI Mode reads.** Videos that answer concrete questions, useful answers in your industry's communities, reviews from real customers. Google warns that chasing artificial "mentions" around the web does not help: what counts is what people actually say about you. 5. **Keep structured data aligned with the page.** You do not need special markup for AI, but the markup you use must match the visible text. You do not need files like llms.txt either: Google says it ignores them, as we covered in our article on [who actually reads llms.txt](https://geosnap.ai/en/blog/llms-txt-serve-davvero-dati-2026). ## How to measure your presence in AI Mode Search Console gives you part of the answer today. Traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode is included in the Performance report, under the "Web" search type, but mixed with everything else. In June 2026 Google announced a dedicated generative AI report with impressions, pages, countries, devices and dates. As [PPC Land](https://ppc.land/google-finally-gives-search-console-its-own-generative-ai-visibility-reports/) reports, though, it is rolling out to a subset of sites only, groups AI Overviews and AI Mode together and does not show clicks. Search Console tells you when your pages appear. It does not tell you which competitors are cited instead of you, or how the answer describes your brand. That is why you also need to monitor answers to a fixed list of customer questions, repeated over time. Geosnap does this on Google AI Mode, ChatGPT and Gemini and shows the sources cited in each answer: see the [features page](https://geosnap.ai/en/features) for details. With this data you can see which subtopic, site or platform drives visibility in your industry and decide where to work first. ## Sources - [AI Mode arriva anche in Italia](https://blog.google/intl/it-it/ai-mode-arriva-anche-in-italia/) (Google (blog italiano), 2025-10-08) - [AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features) (Google Search Central, 2025-12-10) - [Google's Guide to Optimizing for Generative AI Features on Google Search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide) (Google Search Central, 2026-07-10) - [Google AI Mode Cites Itself More Often, With More Organic Links](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-ai-mode-cites-itself-more-often-with-more-organic-links/568955/) (Search Engine Journal, 2026-03-06) - [The 50 Most-Cited Websites in Google AI Mode](https://ahrefs.com/blog/most-cited-domains-ai-mode/) (Ahrefs, 2026-09-02) - [What a Recent Study of AI Mode Citations Means for The Future of Search](https://www.seo.com/blog/ai-mode-citations/) (SEO.com, 2026-03-20) - [AI Mode comparison study](https://www.semrush.com/blog/ai-mode-comparison-study/) (Semrush, 2025-07-21) - [Google finally gives Search Console its own generative AI visibility reports](https://ppc.land/google-finally-gives-search-console-its-own-generative-ai-visibility-reports/) (PPC Land, 2026-06-03) ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Google AI Mode available outside the US? Yes. In October 2025 Google extended it to dozens of new countries and languages, including Italy and Italian. It is no longer limited to the United States. ### Do I need special markup to appear in AI Mode? No. Google says there are no additional technical requirements and no special structured data for AI Overviews and AI Mode. The page only needs to be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet. Any structured data you use must match the visible text, though. ### If I rank first on Google, will AI Mode cite me? Not necessarily. Studies from 2025 and 2026 show that AI Mode's sources only partly match the organic top 10, because many citations come from the secondary searches of query fan-out. A good ranking helps, but answering the subtopics of the question well matters too. ### How can I see whether my pages appear in AI Mode? In Search Console, AI Mode traffic is included in the Performance report under the Web search type, together with everything else. The new dedicated generative AI report is rolling out to a subset of sites only and does not show clicks. To know which competitors are cited instead of you, you need to monitor the answers directly. ### Should I create a page for every variation of a question? No. Google warns that creating separate content for every variation just to chase query fan-out violates its scaled content abuse policy. A few solid pages that really answer customers' doubts, with first-hand experience, work better.
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