Gemini SEO is making your pages the ones the Gemini app, the Google AI chat assistant, draws on when it answers. Gemini grounds its answers in the Google Search index, so most of the work is ordinary Google SEO. The part that trips people up is the controls: Google-Extended governs the Gemini app, not Google’s AI features in Search.
| Period | Gemini app monthly users (millions) |
|---|---|
| May 2025 | 400 |
| May 2026 | 900 |
| Jul 2026 | 950 |
| Aug 2026 | 1000 |
400 million and 900 million+ from the I/O 2026 keynote[6], 950 million from the Q2 2026 remarks[7], and “surpassed 1 billion monthly users” on 11 August 2026[5].
What Gemini SEO means
“Gemini” covers two things people mix up. The Gemini app is Google’s AI chat assistant. Google’s AI features in Search, AI Overviews and AI Mode, run on Gemini models but are part of Google Search. They are governed by different controls, so Gemini SEO starts with knowing which one you mean. The AI Overviews and AI Mode guides cover the Search side.
How Gemini uses Google Search
Google defines grounding as “providing content from the Google Search index to the model at prompt time to improve factuality and relevancy”[1]. For developers, Google documents the flow step by step[4], and the consumer app works on the same idea:
In the app, sources appear through a Sources button at the bottom of a response or inline, and Google notes that not all responses include related links or sources[3].
What Google-Extended controls, and what it does not
Google-Extended is a robots.txt product token, not a separate crawler. Google says it manages whether content it crawls “may be used for training future generations of Gemini models that power Gemini Apps and Vertex AI API for Gemini and for grounding” in Gemini Apps and Grounding with Google Search on Vertex AI. And: “Google-Extended does not impact a site’s inclusion in Google Search nor is it used as a ranking signal in Google Search”[1].
Every control, and what it affects
| AI Overviews and AI Mode | Gemini app grounding | Gemini training | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disallow Googlebot | Removed with Search | Not documented | Not documented |
| Disallow Google-Extended | ✕No | ✓Yes | ✓Yes |
| noindex | Removed with Search | Not documented | Not documented |
| nosnippet, max-snippet, data-nosnippet | Limits what is shown | Not documented | Not documented |
Google lists nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex as the controls for its AI features in Search, and says traffic from them is counted under “Web” in Search Console’s Performance report[2]. The robots.txt generator writes a Google-Extended rule for you.
How to get cited by Gemini
For Google’s AI features, Google says there are “no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary”: a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet[2]. For the Gemini app, the same index is the starting point.
The rest is the work that helps any AI engine: pages that answer the question directly, facts that agree across the web, and coverage on the sites your buyers trust. The entity SEO guide covers making Google sure who you are, and the AI search engines guide compares Gemini with the rest.
Questions people ask
How does Gemini decide which websites to show?
The Gemini app can ground its answers in Google Search, which Google describes as providing content from the Google Search index to the model at prompt time. So a page has to be in Google's index to be used. Google does not publish how Gemini chooses among those pages.
Does blocking Google-Extended remove me from Gemini?
It stops Google using your content to train Gemini models and to ground answers in the Gemini apps and Grounding with Google Search on Vertex AI. Google says it does not affect your inclusion in Google Search, and AI Overviews and AI Mode are Search features.
Is Gemini the same as AI Overviews?
No. AI Overviews and AI Mode are features of Google Search, governed by Googlebot and Search's snippet controls. The Gemini app is a separate assistant; its grounding and training use is governed by the Google-Extended token.
Does the Gemini app show its sources?
Often, through a Sources button at the bottom of a response or inline links. Google notes that not all responses include related links or sources.
Do I need special markup for Gemini?
Not for Google's AI features in Search: Google says there are no additional requirements beyond being indexed and eligible to show with a snippet. Google has not published separate requirements for the Gemini app.
How many people use Gemini?
Google said the Gemini app passed 1 billion monthly users in August 2026, up from 400 million monthly active users at I/O 2025.