How to Get Your Site Mentioned by Google Gemini

To rank in Google Gemini, your pages need to be in Google's Search index, allowed for Gemini grounding through the Google-Extended robots.txt token, and clear enough to be quoted as a source. There is no separate Gemini submission and no special markup. This guide separates what Google documents from what agencies guess, and shows how to check whether Gemini mentions your site.

Published: 2026-10-16 · 7 min read · Satelo

Gemini, AI Overviews, and AI Mode are three different things

People say "rank in Gemini" and mean different products. They have different controls, so it helps to name them first:

The Gemini models power all three, which is where the confusion comes from. But your levers differ. This guide focuses on the Gemini app and covers the shared groundwork. If AI Overviews are your main target, read our post on AI Overviews and brand mentions.

What Google-Extended does, and what it does not

Google-Extended is the most misunderstood part of this topic. Google's common crawlers documentation describes it as a robots.txt product token that lets you control whether content Google crawls is used for two things:

• Training future generations of Gemini models.
• Grounding, which Google defines as providing content from the Google Search index to the model at prompt time. The documentation ties this to Gemini Apps and to Grounding with Google Search on Vertex AI.

And the two things it explicitly does not do, per the same page:

• It "does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search."
• It is not used as a ranking signal in Google Search.

Google-Extended also has no separate user agent. Crawling still happens with Google's regular crawlers; the token only tells Google how the content may be used. You will never see "Google-Extended" in your server logs.

So the decision is simple. If you block Google-Extended with User-agent: Google-Extended followed by Disallow: /, you stay in Google Search, but you also opt out of Gemini grounding, which is the mechanism that lets the Gemini app use your page as a live source. If your goal is to be mentioned by Gemini, do not add that block. Check your robots.txt, and check whether an SEO plugin or CDN "AI bot" setting added it for you. Our guide to blocking AI crawlers in robots.txt lists which tokens affect training only and which affect AI search.

Google Search indexing comes first

Grounding pulls from the Google Search index. A page that is not indexed cannot be grounded on. That makes ordinary technical SEO the foundation of Gemini visibility. Google's own document AI features and your website is blunt about AI Overviews and AI Mode: there are "no additional requirements" and no special optimizations needed beyond being indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet. It also says you do not need new machine-readable files or special schema.org markup for AI features.

Your baseline checklist:

1. Verify the site in Google Search Console and submit your XML sitemap.
2. Inspect your key URLs with the URL Inspection tool. "URL is on Google" is the goal.
3. Allow Googlebot in robots.txt and your CDN or firewall.
4. Remove nosnippet and overly tight max-snippet values from pages you want quoted. Google lists these as the controls that limit what is shown from your pages in AI features.
5. Fix pages stuck in "Crawled, currently not indexed." Our walkthrough of that status covers the common causes on small sites.

Write pages Gemini can quote

Gemini's help center says responses can show a Sources button with links, and that when Gemini quotes a large amount of text from a webpage, it lists a link to that webpage in the sources. It also notes that not every response includes sources. You cannot force a link, but you can make your page the easiest one to quote accurately:

• Answer first. Put a one- or two-sentence direct answer right below each question-style heading.
• One topic per URL. A focused page matches a specific question better than a catch-all.
• Use specific, checkable facts. Your own measurements, prices with the date you checked them, steps you tested. Link primary sources for everything else.
• Use tables for comparisons. Plain HTML tables are easy to parse and quote.
• Keep the text in HTML. Content that only appears after JavaScript runs, or only inside images, is harder for any system to use.

Illustrative example of an answer-first opening: "A 10x20 ft vegetable bed needs about 2 cubic yards of soil at 4 inches deep. Here's how to calculate it for any size." (Numbers for illustration only.) That sentence can stand alone as a quote; a paragraph that starts with "Gardening is a rewarding hobby" cannot.

Google's AI features page also describes "query fan-out": AI features may run several related searches across subtopics. A page that covers the follow-up questions a reader would ask (costs, alternatives, common mistakes) has more chances to match one of those sub-searches.

Help Google understand who you are

When someone asks Gemini about your site, brand, or product by name, it can only answer well if consistent information about you exists. Steps that cost nothing:

• An About page that states plainly who runs the site, what it covers, and how to contact you.
• Consistent naming. Use the same site name and author name across your site, social profiles, and directories.
• Author bylines that link to an author page with real background.
• Organization or Person structured data that matches what is visible on the page. Google's AI features page says structured data should match visible text; it is not a special AI signal, but it removes ambiguity.

Earn mentions on other sites

Gemini answers often draw on several sources. If the only place your site is described is your own site, you depend on one page being picked. Mentions on other relevant sites add more places where your name appears in context.

• Publish something original others want to reference: a test, a dataset, a free tool.
• Contribute genuinely useful answers in communities in your niche.
• Collaborate with sites of a similar size in your topic: guest articles, interviews, roundups, with clear disclosure.

Do not buy links to manipulate rankings. Google's spam policies list buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam, and paid links must carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". Satelo is one disclosed option for the collaboration route: a public beta network where similar small sites publish labeled articles about each other in a circle, links marked rel="sponsored". The network is small for now, so treat it as one channel for mentions, not a Gemini shortcut. More on why mentions matter in brand mentions vs backlinks.

How to check whether Gemini mentions you

Google does not offer a Gemini app report in Search Console. Here is what you can track:

1. Manual prompts. Make a list of 10 to 20 questions your pages answer plus 2 or 3 questions about your brand by name. Ask them in the Gemini app once a month and log whether your domain shows up in the Sources panel.
2. Search Console for AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google says traffic from these features is included in the overall Search traffic under the "Web" search type in the Performance report. It is not broken out separately, so watch your question-style queries over time.
3. Analytics referrals. Look for visits from gemini.google.com in your referral reports. Some app traffic arrives without a referrer and is counted as direct, so treat the number as a minimum.
4. robots.txt audit. Re-check quarterly that no plugin update added a Google-Extended block.

Gemini responses vary between sessions and users. Look at patterns over months, not one screenshot.

Myths to ignore

What to do next

Today: open your robots.txt, search for Google-Extended, and remove the block if you want Gemini to use your pages. Then run URL Inspection on your five most important pages. This week: rewrite their openings so the answer comes first and every claim has a source. This month: start a simple log of Gemini prompts and sources, and compare it in 30 days. Our guide to getting mentioned by AI covers the same routine for other assistants.

Want to see how your site looks to an outsider before you start outreach? Check your site's Quality Score, built mostly from open data, and see the evidence behind each number in about 30 seconds.

FAQ

What is Google-Extended?

A robots.txt product token Google uses to let sites control whether their content is used to train future Gemini models and for grounding in Gemini Apps and Vertex AI. It has no separate user agent; crawling happens with Google's existing crawlers.

Does blocking Google-Extended affect my Google rankings?

No. Google's crawler documentation says Google-Extended does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search and is not used as a ranking signal. It does opt your content out of Gemini grounding, which can reduce your chances of being used as a source in the Gemini app.

How does Google Gemini choose sources?

Google does not publish a formula. Its documentation says grounding provides content from the Google Search index to the model at prompt time, so your page must be indexed and not opted out via Google-Extended. Clear, focused, well-sourced pages are easier to quote.

Do I need special markup to appear in Gemini or AI Overviews?

No. Google's AI features documentation says there is no special schema.org structured data you need to add and no new AI text files are required. Structured data you do use should match the visible text.

How can I see if Gemini cites my website?

Ask the Gemini app the questions your pages answer and check the Sources panel, look for referrals from gemini.google.com in analytics, and watch question-style queries in Search Console, where AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic is included under the Web search type.

Is Gemini SEO different from regular SEO?

Mostly not. Google says normal Search best practices apply to its AI features. The additions are making sure Google-Extended is not blocked if you want grounding, writing answer-first pages, and earning mentions on other relevant sites.

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