Ivan BuildsResearch
Original research

Original research on AI search

Studies of what ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews cite, quote and recommend, run on real searches. Every number is computed from the collected data and checked twice, and anything that tells you what to do is marked as a bet to test.

4 studies · newest first

  1. 64%
    of the passages AI Overviews quoted start at a heading or right below one, against 31% of other passages on the same page
    AI OverviewsOn-page SEOPublished 25 September 2026

    64% of the Passages Google's AI Overviews Quote Start at a Heading or Right Below One, Against 31% of Other Passages on the Same Page (Study of 3,224 Quotes)

    TL;DRIf you want Google's AI Overviews to quote your page, my bet is: put the answer in the block right under its heading, use the searcher's words in that heading and passage, and answer early on the page, in the first sentence of its paragraph. And question-style headings didn't stand out: quoted passages sat under one no more often than other passages on the same page.

    900 Google searches run 24 September 2026 · Google AI Overviews

  2. 83%
    of Google AI Overviews for how-to questions cited a YouTube video
    AI OverviewsYouTubePublished 23 September 2026

    83% of Google AI Overviews for How-To Questions Cite a YouTube Video (Study of 1,777 AI Overviews)

    TL;DRIf you want your videos cited in Google's AI Overviews, my bet is: answer the question in the first 30 seconds, say the words people search out loud, and start the answer with "Here's how to..." right before you show it. And you don't need to be YouTube's top result: most cited videos weren't in its top 20.

    1,800 searches run 22 September 2026 · Google AI Overviews and YouTube

  3. 82%
    of the pages ChatGPT cites when it recommends a local business are directories and review sites
    ChatGPTAI OverviewsLocal searchPublished 19 September 2026

    82% of the Pages ChatGPT Cites When Recommending a Local Business Are Directories and Review Sites (Study of 2,112 AI Searches)

    TL;DRIf you want AI to recommend your local business, my bet is: for ChatGPT, get onto the directories it cites and work on the Google Business Profile behind its map cards; for Google's AI Overviews, get your own site onto Google's first page. And ChatGPT almost never cites the business's own site: when it recommended a business, that site was among its sources 1% of the time.

    2,112 AI searches run 18 September 2026 · ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews

  4. 66%
    of the pages ChatGPT cites when it recommends SEO agencies are published by agencies
    ChatGPTAI OverviewsSEO agenciesPublished 14 September 2026 · Updated 24 September 2026

    66% of the Pages ChatGPT Cites When Recommending SEO Agencies Are Written by SEO Agencies (Study of 3,000 AI Searches)

    TL;DRIf you want ChatGPT to recommend your agency, my bet is: get onto the directory pages it cites for city searches, and say plainly on your homepage and industry pages what you do and for whom. And being cited is not being recommended: when ChatGPT cited an agency's own "best agencies" list, it recommended that agency only 35% of the time.

    3,000 AI searches run 13 September 2026 · ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews

Things I've built

Open-source tools from my own work, and what each one does.

Python · MIT
claude-convo-archive
Copies every Claude Code conversation to Markdown once a minute, so Codex or ChatGPT can pick up where an expired session left off.
JavaScript · MCP · MIT
session-archive
Searches your ChatGPT and Claude exports on your own computer and carries context between assistants through a read-only MCP server.

About the author

IS
Ivan Smiljkovic
Independent research on search and AI answers

I study how Google and AI assistants choose what to cite, using public data I collect myself, and I publish the method and limits with every study.