Top 10 Google AI Overviews Sources

Published:

September 3, 2026

Update:

September 3, 2026

Author:

Florian Chapelier

AI Search & GEO expert

Summarize with ChatGPT

Summarize with Perplexity

Summarize with AI Overview

Summarize with Claude

Summary: we analysed more than 50,000 Google AI Overviews responses on the French market, across every industry. The verdict: YouTube dominates the ranking with 8.36% of all citations, followed by Google Business Profile listings (4.27%) and Facebook (2.31%). French news outlets (Ouest-France, Le Parisien, Le Figaro) round out a Top 10 that accounts for only 18% of citations in total: the rest is spread across more than 17,000 domains. Discover the ranking, what it reveals about how AI Overviews work and our tips for making the most of it.

Google's AI Overviews now appear at the top of a growing share of searches. For a brand, showing up in these AI-generated answers has become a major visibility issue. But which sources does Google rely on to write these summaries? That is the question this BotRank study answers.

After our Top 100 sources used by LLMs (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and others), we have this time isolated a single engine, Google AI Overviews, on a single market, France. The result is very different from the multi-LLM ranking. And it changes how you should approach your GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) strategy.

Methodology: 50,000 AI Overviews responses analysed

Every day, BotRank collects AI engine responses directly from their interfaces on behalf of its clients. For this study, we extracted the links cited by Google AI Overviews in those responses, then aggregated them by root domain.

Engine: Google AI Overviews only (AI Mode, Gemini and ChatGPT results are not included).
Market: France (French-language queries, Google.fr results).
Volume: more than 50,000 AI Overviews responses extracted over the past few weeks.
Scope: all BotRank clients, across every industry (e-commerce, B2B, healthcare, finance, travel, services, manufacturing and more) and every query type (informational, comparative, transactional, local).
Diversity: more than 17,000 unique domains cited at least once.

The percentage shown for each source is its share of all citations observed, across every domain. If YouTube shows 8.36%, it means that 8.36% of all links cited by the AI Overviews in our sample point to youtube.com. This calculation differs from our Top 100 LLM study, where shares were expressed within the Top 100 only: the two sets of percentages are therefore not directly comparable, although the ranks are.

Keep in mind

This ranking reflects a cross-industry reality. In your market, the sources that actually feed AI Overviews are often specialist sites that do not appear in this generalist Top 10. BotRank's source analysis shows you exactly which domains are cited on your own prompts, engine by engine.

The Top 10 Google AI Overviews sources in France

Here are the 10 domains most cited by Google AI Overviews on the French market, with their share of all citations.

Top 10 AI Overviews sources (France, 2026)

Rank	Source	Type	Share of citations
1	youtube.com	Social	8.36%
2	google.com (Google Business Profile)	Local listing	4.27%
3	facebook.com	Social	2.31%
4	instagram.com	Social	1.08%
5	reddit.com	Forum / UGC	0.65%
6	linkedin.com	Social	0.42%
7	ouest-france.fr	News	0.36%
8	leparisien.fr	News	0.31%
9	dailymotion.com	Social	0.26%
10	lefigaro.fr	News	0.23%

Source: BotRank.ai, more than 50,000 Google AI Overviews responses extracted over the past few weeks, French market, all industries. Share = citations of the domain / all citations observed (more than 17,000 domains).

18.25%

of citations for the whole Top 10

17,000+

unique domains cited by AI Overviews

12.6%

of citations go to Google-owned properties (YouTube + Business Profile listings)

Analysis: what this ranking reveals

This Top 10 tells a very different story from conversational LLMs. Five lessons stand out from our data.

1. Video is the number one source for AI Overviews

YouTube alone captures 8.36% of all citations, nearly twice the second source. Add Dailymotion (0.26%) and video accounts for 8.6% of cited links. No surprise there: YouTube belongs to Google, its transcripts are indexed and Google knows how to pull the exact passage of a video that answers a question. AI Overviews often embed a video thumbnail directly in the answer. For a brand, a well-structured YouTube video now has a better chance of being cited by AI Overviews than an average blog post.

2. The Google Business Profile listing is a major lever

Second in the ranking with 4.27% of citations, Google Business Profile listings (formerly Google My Business) confirm that AI Overviews draw heavily on the Google ecosystem whenever a query has a local dimension or concerns a specific business: opening hours, reviews, address, services, prices. This source is completely absent from our Top 100 LLM sources. It is a strong AI Overviews specificity, consistent with what we observed about Gemini's local citations. For any company with one or more physical locations, local SEO becomes a GEO workstream in its own right.

3. Socials account for 4.5% of citations, led by Facebook

Facebook (2.31%), Instagram (1.08%), Reddit (0.65%) and LinkedIn (0.42%) add up to 4.46% of citations. The hierarchy says a lot about the French market: Facebook is far ahead of Reddit, whereas Reddit is the number one source for LLMs worldwide. Here Google cites public pages, posts and events from brands or local communities. Public, indexable social content is therefore read by AI Overviews, which argues for complete, active and open Facebook and Instagram pages.

4. French news outlets remain trusted sources, regional press first

Three media outlets make the Top 10: Ouest-France (0.36%), Le Parisien (0.31%) and Le Figaro (0.23%). The fact that Ouest-France, France's leading regional daily, outranks the national titles is a strong signal: AI Overviews answer a huge number of locally anchored queries (shops, events, local news) and rely on the media covering those topics. Press relations, including regional press, therefore have a direct impact on your presence in AI answers.

5. The Top 10 is only 18%: the long tail rules

This is probably the most important lesson. The top 10 sources combined account for only 18.25% of citations. The remaining 82% is spread across more than 17,000 domains: brand websites, online retailers, comparison sites, specialist blogs, institutional sites, industry directories. Unlike LLMs, which concentrate their citations on a handful of authority platforms, AI Overviews rely on Google's index and cite very broadly the pages that already rank for the query. In other words, your own website is a first-rate potential source, provided it ranks well and is easy to extract from.

AI Overviews vs LLMs: two citation logics

Cross-referencing this ranking with our Top 100 LLM sources (1.2 million responses from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Mistral, Claude and others), the gaps are striking.

Rank comparison for the Top 10 sources

Source	AI Overviews rank (FR)	Top 100 LLMs rank
youtube.com	1	2
google.com (Business Profile)	2	Not in Top 100
facebook.com	3	13
instagram.com	4	20
reddit.com	5	1
linkedin.com	6	5
ouest-france.fr	7	32
leparisien.fr	8	12
dailymotion.com	9	97
lefigaro.fr	10	6

The Top 100 LLMs is multi-engine and multi-market; the AI Overviews Top 10 is limited to France. Ranks are comparable, percentages are not.

Wikipedia and Trustpilot, the 3rd and 4th LLM sources respectively, are absent from the AI Overviews Top 10. Google has its own entity signals (Knowledge Graph) and review signals (Business Profile) and has less need for these intermediaries.
Reddit drops from 1st to 5th place. Community content matters, but far less than in the United States, where Reddit is everywhere in Google results.
Facebook, Instagram, Dailymotion and regional press climb dramatically. AI Overviews reflect French usage and everyday local queries.
Google favours its own ecosystem: YouTube and Business Profile combined account for 12.6% of citations. No third-party engine shows such a concentration on its own properties.

6 GEO tips to get cited in AI Overviews

This data draws a clear roadmap. Here are 6 concrete actions, in order of priority, to increase your citation rate in AI Overviews.

How do you get cited in Google AI Overviews?

AI Overviews primarily cite pages that already rank well in Google, then complement them with horizontal sources: YouTube videos, Google Business Profile listings, public social media pages and news outlets. To get cited, you need to combine solid SEO (structured content, direct answers, structured data) with an active YouTube presence, a complete Business Profile listing and mentions in the media of your market.

Produce YouTube videos that answer specific questions

With YouTube as the number one source, every frequent customer question deserves a short, well-named video. A title phrased as the question, a detailed description, timestamped chapters and clean subtitles let Google extract the right passage. Tutorial, comparison and "how to choose" formats are the most cited.

Action: list your 20 priority prompts in BotRank and check which ones have no video from your brand.

Treat your Google Business Profile listing as a strategic page

Precise categories, services and products filled in, recent photos, up-to-date opening hours, replies to reviews, a populated Q&A section, regular posts: everything on your listing can be picked up in an AI Overview. Multi-location businesses need to industrialise these updates.

Action: audit the completeness of your listings and collect detailed reviews that mention your products or services.

Make your social pages public, complete and consistent

Facebook and Instagram are read by AI Overviews. Check that your pages are public, that the "About" section describes your business precisely and that your key posts (events, launches, practical information) are indexable. On LinkedIn, the company page and long-form articles count more than short-lived posts.

Action: align your brand name, description and contact details across all your social pages with your website and your Business Profile listing.

Activate press relations, including regional press

A mention in Ouest-France, Le Parisien or Le Figaro is a trust signal immediately used by AI Overviews. Regional press and the specialist press of your industry are often more accessible and just as cited on local or professional queries. A press article is also an authority backlink that strengthens your SEO.

Action: identify in BotRank the media cited on your prompts and build your PR plan from that list.

Make your website an extractable source

82% of citations go to the long tail: your website can be part of it. Structure your pages as questions and answers, give the answer in the first lines, use lists and tables, add structured data (FAQ, Product, Organization, LocalBusiness) and keep your content up to date. Google cites the passage, not the page: every section must stand on its own.

Action: run a technical GEO audit of your priority pages to spot what blocks extraction.

Measure your citations engine by engine

AI Overviews sources are not ChatGPT's sources, nor Perplexity's. Steering GEO with an average "all engines" view hides these gaps. Track your AI share of voice and your influence sources separately for each engine, then allocate your efforts according to the engines that matter for your audience.

Action: compare in BotRank your cited sources on AI Overviews and on LLMs, then prioritise the biggest gaps.

Want to know which sources really influence AI Overviews in your market? BotRank analyses your prompts every day on Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and the other AI engines. It identifies the domains cited, your share of voice and the actions to take. Our GEO agent, Bob, then turns that data into a prioritised action plan.

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Florian Chapelier

About the author

AI Search & GEO expert

After nearly 15 years in digital strategy on the client side (including 10 years at Olympique Lyonnais, where he was notably in charge of SEO).
Florian co-founded BotRank.ai in 2025, the GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) tool used by more than 2,500 companies to manage their visibility in AI-generated search results. He writes regularly about GEO and AI Search.