AI Overview citation loss: what to fix when the summary stops naming you

Record what the overview cites now

Save the query, the date, and the cited URLs. Compare their headings with yours. The replacement is often a page that answers in the first lines or includes a newer figure.

Check whether your URL still returns the passage in raw HTML and still ranks. A citation loss with an indexing loss is a technical incident. A citation loss while you still rank is a passage problem.

Rewrite the passage that used to be quoted

Tighten the definition, add the missing condition, and update the stale step. Do not add a new introduction above the answer. That pushes the citable lines down.

If a forum thread replaced you, the query may want experience, not a polished explainer. Add a concrete case or stop chasing that query.

• Compare the new cited passage with yours.
• Confirm your HTML still contains the answer.
• Update stale steps rather than adding more keywords.

Give the recrawl a chance

Request indexing after the passage changes. Overviews do not update the moment you hit publish.

Judge success by whether the accurate claim is cited again, not by whether every click returns. Some of those clicks were never coming back.

Why did an AI Overview stop citing my page?

A clearer or fresher source is being quoted, or your page became harder to fetch. Compare the current citations and your raw HTML before rewriting the whole site.

Should you noindex a page that lost clicks to an overview?

No. Noindex removes the chance of being cited at all. Improve the passage and the reason to click.