No. Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to show a snippet before AI Overviews or AI Mode can cite it, and ChatGPT search needs its crawler allowed in. SEO stopped being the whole game and became the entry requirement for AI answers.
SEO is not dead. It is the qualifying round for AI visibility. Google says that to appear as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet, and that there are no additional requirements. OpenAI says sites that block its search crawler will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. Fail the fundamentals and you are not in the pool the AI picks from.
Search gets an obituary with every platform shift, and 2025 brought a louder one than most: AI Overviews passed 2 billion monthly users, AI Mode reached India, and researchers found fewer clicks when an AI summary appears. What changed is the presentation layer. The selection layer still rewards the same fundamentals.
- monthly users of Google's AI Overviews, July 2025
- 2 billion+
- monthly users of Google's AI Overviews, July 2025
- monthly active users of AI Mode in the US and India, July 2025
- 100 million+
- monthly active users of AI Mode in the US and India, July 2025
- searches a year on Google, by its own May 2025 count
- 5 trillion+
- searches a year on Google, by its own May 2025 count
- of visits with a click on an ordinary result, with and without an AI summary (Pew, US, March 2025)
- 8% vs 15%
- of visits with a click on an ordinary result, with and without an AI summary (Pew, US, March 2025)
01
What actually changed
The AI layer arrived in stages, and India was early for most of it.
Aug 2023
Search Labs opens in India
Google's experimental generative search arrives with an English and Hindi toggle.
May 2024
AI Overviews for everyone in the US
Google begins the rollout, expecting to reach over a billion people by the end of the year.
May 2025
AI Mode in the US
Google's AI Mode starts rolling out to everyone in the US, breaking each question into subtopics and searching for each.
June 2025
AI Mode reaches India
An English-language experiment in Search Labs.
July 2025
Open to everyone in India
No Labs sign-up needed. AI Overviews pass 2 billion monthly users worldwide.
Sept 2025
AI Mode adds Hindi
Rolled out for Hindi users around the world.
02
Where AI answers get their sources
AI Overviews and AI Mode do not conjure sources from nowhere. Google says both may use query fan-out: running several related searches across subtopics and data sources, then choosing pages from what comes back. A page that cannot be crawled, is not indexed or is barred from showing a snippet is not a candidate. ChatGPT search applies its own gate: OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot has to be allowed in through robots.txt.
Google's message to site owners has been unusually direct.
The underpinnings of what Google has long advised carries across to these new experiences.
The same post lists the advice: unique, valuable content made for people; a good page experience; technical requirements met so pages can be crawled and indexed; structured data that matches the visible page; and an up-to-date Business Profile and Merchant Center. None of it is new. All of it now shapes whether an AI answer can use you.
03
The stack, bottom to top
We think of AI visibility as four layers, each depending on the one beneath it, and we audit in that order.
| Layer | What it means | Five-minute check |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Technical health and speed | Google can crawl and index the page, it returns a 200 status, and it works well on a phone | URL Inspection in Search Console; PageSpeed Insights on mobile |
| 2. Consistent business facts | Name, address, phone and hours match everywhere, and structured data matches the visible page | Compare footer, contact page, Business Profile and markup side by side |
| 3. Answer-shaped content | Pages that answer real customer questions directly, with specifics only you can supply | Can a stranger find your price range, service area and process within a minute? |
| 4. Authority and reviews | Evidence that people trust you: reviews, mentions, credentials, first-hand experience | Search your business name and read what other sites say about you |
Google's documentation points the same way. Its minimum technical requirements are that Googlebot is not blocked, the page returns a 200 status and it has indexable content. Core Web Vitals are used by its ranking systems, though Google says relevance still comes first. And of the qualities it groups as E-E-A-T, it calls trust the most important.
04
What the click data says
The change in presentation is real, and it costs clicks. Pew Research Center tracked the browsing of 900 US adults in March 2025. When a Google results page showed an AI summary, people clicked an ordinary result in 8% of visits, against 15% when there was none. They clicked a link inside the summary itself in just 1% of visits, and were more likely to end their browsing session altogether: 26% of the time, against 16%.
Google disputes the wider picture. In August 2025 its head of Search, Liz Reid, wrote that total organic clicks from Google to websites had been relatively stable year on year, that click quality had risen, and that some third-party reports of dramatic declines rested on flawed methods. The two findings need not conflict: a summary can settle a simple question outright while people still click through to choose, book or buy.
05
What it means for an Indian business
India is not a late market for any of this. Google said in May 2025 that in its biggest markets, such as the US and India, AI Overviews were driving an increase of over 10% in usage for the queries that show them. AI Mode opened to everyone in India in English on 8 July 2025 and added Hindi on 8 September, and Google says more people use Google Lens in India every month than in any other country.
So a hypothetical clinic in Kozhikode or supplier in Kochi may now meet a customer through a map result, an AI summary, a voice question or a photo search. The groundwork for all of them overlaps: an indexable site, consistent facts and a complete Business Profile, which Google's advice for its AI experiences explicitly tells owners to keep up to date.
What to do this quarter
- In Search Console, confirm every important service page is indexed, using URL Inspection on each.
- Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and check you are not blocking Googlebot, or OAI-SearchBot if you want to appear in ChatGPT search.
- Run your three most important pages through PageSpeed Insights on mobile.
- Make your name, address, phone and hours identical on the site, in your structured data and on your Business Profile.
- Rewrite one key page so its first paragraph answers the question customers actually ask.
- Track enquiries by source, not just visits.
Our SEO and AEO work starts with a technical and content audit, and a free audit is the easiest first step.