Want Google’s AI Overview to quote your site? Write the page that answers “how to choose.”
Hasmord ran 60 shopping questions on Google US. Every “how to choose” AI Overview cited a brand’s own page. In brand-vs-brand comparisons, a compared brand’s own site was cited once in 11.
When a shopper asks Google “how to choose a yoga mat”, the AI Overview at the top writes the answer, and the sites it cites decide whose words the shopper reads. A small study from Hasmord looked at who gets cited. It is one run on one day, so treat it as a first look.
What Hasmord tested
Hasmord is a software company that sells tools in this space: it reads AI answers about your products. Its team ran 60 shopping questions on Google US, in English on a desktop, on Oct 17, 2026. There were 5 questions in each of 12 categories, in four shapes: “best X for Y”, “X vs Y”, “is X worth it” and “how to choose”.
AI Overviews appeared on 55 of the 60 questions. Each overview cited a median of 7 sites, from 3 to 18. All 60 were research questions. Hasmord did not test product-name or “buy” searches.
The correction
Hasmord published the study on Oct 17 and corrected it on Oct 18. The first version counted only the short source list Google shows, usually three sites, and missed the sites cited next to the overview’s paragraphs. A reader noticed that 45 of 55 overviews listed exactly three sources.
After the recount, brand websites appeared in 49% of overviews, not 22%. Retailers appeared in 27%, not 7%. Hasmord also removed conclusions the data did not test. Every number here is from the corrected page.
Every “how to choose” overview cited a brand
Nine of the 12 “how to choose” questions showed an overview. All 9 cited at least one brand’s own page. Hasmord says most of those pages were titled as buying guides, such as Gaiam’s guide to choosing a yoga mat and Infantino’s guide to choosing a baby carrier.
The groups are small: 9 to 23 overviews each. Hasmord itself says to read them as examples, not estimates.
In comparisons, other people describe you
In 11 “X vs Y” overviews, a compared brand’s own site was cited once. That was a ClickUp help-centre page in “Notion vs ClickUp”. Videos, review sites and forums told the rest of the story.
So for comparison questions, the page that matters may not be yours. Hasmord’s advice is to read what the videos, forums and reviews that Google cites say about your product.
YouTube and Reddit are part of the answer
Review sites or media appeared in 49 of 55 overviews (89%), YouTube in 47 (85%) and Reddit in 28 (51%). Brand sites appeared in 27 (49%). An overview can cite several types, so these add up to more than 100%.
One more number: 236 of the 368 citations (64%) were from sites outside the organic top 10 for the exact question. Hasmord did not check rankings for the related searches Google may run behind an overview, so this does not show that ranking does not matter.
What Hasmord says it cannot tell you
The 60 questions were written to sound like real buyers. They are not a sample of real searches, so the percentages describe these questions only. It was one search per question on one day, and AI Overviews change between searches and people. One person at Hasmord assigned the site types, with no second coder. Hasmord says it is re-running the questions to measure the variation.
What to do this week
Four steps, built from Hasmord’s list.
How Shopthru.ai helps
Shopthru.ai is an AI agents team for consumer brands. It asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI, Perplexity and Copilot what your shoppers ask, finds where AI gets your products, prices or policies wrong, and drafts each fix into an approval inbox. It ships only on your yes, then checks again. Instagram and Amazon are next.