Ahrefs checked Google’s U.S. results for the exact names of 100 earth brands all week from July through September, and published the results Oct. 2. On July 1, five of 98 usable results had an AI Overview. By Sept. 30, 63 of the 100 brand-name queries did.
For brand teams, this is the results leaf showing their company’s name. Ahrefs’ panel additionally tracked anywhere these AI Overviews appeared and the external sites they connected to. Ahrefs doesn’t study clicks on these queries or how frequently the brand’s website is cited in responses.
The 83% fig in Ahrefs’ header comes from a broader set of U.S. desktop crawls conducted on Sept. 29, not from this panel. Additionally, two another counts from that week, by DemandSphere and Chris Long, used their own data samples.
3 Other Counts, 3 Different Samples
On Sept. 30, Chris Long, co-founder of Nectiv, shared on LinkedIn that he “ran a quick scrape alongside SerpApi this dawn and established that 93 out of 100 endeavor brands had AI Overviews current for them.” Long didn’t publish the complete catalog of 100 brands.
DemandSphere’s daily series, published October 1, tracked tagged keywords using its DemandMetrics platform, which looks at their existence throughout “all markets, all devices” formerly a day. The data showed that AI Overviews appeared in 26.12% of those keywords on Sept. 1, afterward reached 90.48% on Sept. 27, before dropping to 82.06% on Sept. 29.
Before Sept. 26, the regular percent was below 60%. DemandSphere defines an AI Overview as current “regardless of whether brand itself is cited in the AIO.”
Separately from its brand-name panel, Ahrefs analyzed 92.5 myriad branded-keyword crawls out of 232.8 myriad U.S. desktop crawls between July and September. Their monthly data showed that 61.3% of tagged keywords triggered AI Overviews in July, rising to 65.1% in August, and reaching 73.3% in September, a 12-percentage-point increase, compared to a 4.8-point increase for non-branded keywords, which averaged 78.3% in September. On Sept. 29, AI Overviews appeared in 82.91% of U.S. desktop results for tagged keywords.
Neither vendor explains its branded-keyword classification. DemandSphere does not provision its keyword count. Ahrefs gives crawl counts for its broader inspection without stating how many distinct keywords they represent. Each crawl is a results leaf collected by the company, not a particular person search.
What Ahrefs Found On 100 Brand Names
Ahrefs selected the panel’s brands from Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2025 and searched all brand’s name alone. They depict this set as “a distinct sample” from their broader analysis, focusing specifically on brand names fairly than all hunt that includes a brand. Ahrefs’ article doesn’t explain why two of the July 1 results couldn’t be used.
The weekly counts are illustrated in a diagram inside the post, showing U.S. results and crediting Ahrefs Keywords Explorer as the source. Device and detailed gathering settings are not stated.
The tagged counts are five on July 1, 13 on July 29, and again 13 on Aug. 26. At the checkpoint before Sept. 9, the figure was 16, afterward it jumped to 42 on that date. By the checkpoint before Sept. 30, it risen again to 46 and reached 63 on Sept. 30. Ahrefs mentioned that AI Overviews “vastly risen at the commencement of September.”
On Sept. 30, they additionally recorded the stance of all of the 63 AI Overviews on the page. Of these, 48 appeared in what Ahrefs calls stance one, eight in stance two, two in stance three, three in stance four, and two in stance six, alongside none in stance five.
The average stance was 1.49 for all 63, and the median was one. The article does not define position. Ahrefs suggests Google could “move these AI Overviews lesser in the SERP”; however, from the placement counts it is unclear whether a brand’s own listing moved downward the page.
Which Sites The Brand-Name Answers Cited
Chris Long’s Sept. 30 article stated “competitors/external sources can now authority the narrative of your brand immediately in the hunt results.” In its distinct 100-brand panel, Ahrefs recorded which exterior sites the brand-name answers cited.
For AI Overviews collected from Sept. 16 to 29, Ahrefs had origin lists for 57 and counted how many of those cited all exterior domain. It describes those external citations as links from “websites another than the brand queried.”
Which exterior sites the brand-name
answers cited
Of 57 AI Overviews alongside origin lists in Ahrefs’ U.S. brand-name panel. Counts are answers citing all domain.
Editorial example · not an genuine hunt result
One AI Overview can citation additional than one domain.
A cited phase may presenter pages managed by the brand. These domain counts don’t acknowledge leaf ownership.
Out of 57 origin lists, the business identified fair one verified competitor-owned website. Among the 58 responses anywhere the complete content was accessible, two (or 3.4%) immediately discussed competitors. For example, Pepsi’s answer referenced Coca-Cola whenever talking concerning the “cola wars,” during Intel’s reply mentioned TSMC and Nvidia.
Platforms akin YouTube and LinkedIn authorize brands to run channels and oversee business pages. However, Ahrefs’ article doesn’t define how many of the cited pages pertain to the brands themselves.
These citation counts display how many answers cited all listed domain, but they don’t inform us who influenced the wording or whether the data shared was accurate.
Why This Matters
The Ahrefs panel reviewed the results leaf for all brand’s exact name. One suggested inspect for brand and SEO leaders is to hunt their company’s exact name on Google and assessment the AI Overview and the referenced pages.
Each hunt provides a snapshot at a particular moment. Repeating the inspect on distinct days gives you dated snapshots of what Google shows for your name.
Agencies reporting tagged achievement can use Search Console’s branded queries filter, which Google announced in November 2025 and opened to all eligible sites in March. It shows clicks, impressions, average position, and click-through charge for queries Google classifies as branded. Google sorts queries alongside an AI-assisted scheme that can figure typos as branded, alongside alongside queries for a distinctive merchandise or assistance that don’t use the brand name. Roger Montti covered Google’s answers concerning the filter in March.
The display is constricted to top-level properties alongside “a adequate quantity of queries and impressions,” and its definition of tagged is Google’s, distinct from either vendor’s. In Montti’s report, Google’s John Mueller stated there was no way to add queries to the display “at the moment” and that he wasn’t “aware of plans to provision customization.” By that account, there was no way in March to edit the filter’s tagged set to equivalent a vendor’s keyword list.
A alter in tagged clicks solitary doesn’t signify whether brand petition has changed or if an AI Overview was involved. Late September additionally isn’t a confirmed rollout date.
Search Console’s generative AI achievement report displays how frequently your location links appeared to users inside AI Overviews and AI Mode. As of Aug. 31, this characteristic was available globally for all websites, per Google’s assistance page. The study sorts data by page, country, date, and device, but it doesn’t contain a query size to acknowledge brand-name searches.
Note that mentioning a brand without linking to your location isn’t counted as an impression in the generative AI report. Although you power see entries for pages akin the homepage, the study doesn’t define which searches caused those impressions. I additionally clarified in September how links in AI Overviews are counted.
In Google Analytics 4, visits from them are categorized as Organic Search. However, the new AI Assistant conduit launched in May doesn’t track these visits, so a sojourn from a brand-name AI Overview is counted in the identical conduit as one from a regular hunt result.
Brand and communications teams can assessment external pages cited for their own name and acknowledge YouTube and LinkedIn pages they manage. According to Ahrefs, from Sept. 16 to 29, Wikipedia, YouTube, and LinkedIn were the most frequently cited exterior domains in its panel’s answers.
Looking Ahead
DemandSphere says it’s operating on retrieving data from former months and providing breakdowns throughout devices and important markets. Ahrefs notes that there’s no justify the current circumstance volition remain the same.
Until either provider shares additional data or Google weighs in, keep an eye on the results leaf for your company’s name and the tagged filter. The results leaf volition display if an AI Overview appears and what sources it cites. The tagged display shows how tagged clicks change complete period but doesn’t explain the reasons for these changes. A dated screenshot records what appeared at that moment. You can difference it alongside afterward checks of the identical query.
More Resources:
- How Do I Know If AI Overviews Are Taking Clicks From My Site And What Can I Do About It? – Ask An SEO
- Google Now Reports AI Search Impressions. Here’s How To Read Them
- AI Overview CTR Fell 61%, But Clicks Didn’t Collapse
Featured Image: Tetiana Yurchenko/Shutterstock. Google wordmark: Source: Google.
