Gemini

Gemini Optimization: What Gemini Says About Your Brand

Gemini optimization is a different job from AI Overviews, even though both come from Google. 99Visibility asks Gemini your buyers' prompts through the Gemini API with Google Search grounding, records the sources it grounds on, and checks the crawlers that control what Google may use.

Last reviewed: 2026-10-16

10%of the coverage weight in the 99Visibility score. The weights are our model of reach, not a measured market share.

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How Gemini works for AI visibility

Gemini with grounding runs its own Google searches over pages Googlebot indexed and returns sources; without it, none — Through the Gemini API, grounding sends model-written searches to Google and returns the sources. If a grounded call fails, our audit asks again without grounding. Source: Google AI for Developers and Google crawler documentation; how we ask, from our audit configuration.

Grounded on Google Search

Through the Gemini API, a developer can turn on Grounding with Google Search. Google documents that the model then "automatically generates one or multiple search queries and executes them", and answers with links to the sources. Google bills that grounding separately from tokens.

Four Google products, not one

The Gemini app, the Gemini API, AI Overviews and AI Mode are separate products. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode "may use different models and techniques" and return different links, and it publishes no default model for the Gemini app. Being named on one tells you little about the others.

What Google-Extended controls

Google-Extended is a robots.txt token, not a crawler: it tells Google whether content it crawls may train Gemini models and ground answers in Gemini Apps and Vertex AI. Google states it does not affect inclusion in Google Search nor ranking. Google's crawler page does not say whether it applies to grounding through the Gemini API, which our column uses.

The pages it reads

Grounding runs Google searches, so a page outside Google's index is unlikely to be a source. Googlebot renders JavaScript, unlike the OpenAI and Anthropic crawlers in Vercel's study, so script-loaded content is less of a risk here than on other engines.

How it cites

A grounded answer comes with the sources the search returned; through the API they arrive as Google redirect links, with the source's domain as the title. An answer that was not grounded has no sources at all.

The crawlers that reach Gemini

Googlebot (Google Search, AI Overviews, AI Mode)
Pages drop out of Google Search. AI Overviews and AI Mode are built into Search and use the same crawler — Google states there is no separate robots.txt token for them.
Vendor-documented: developers.google.com →
Google-Extended (Gemini and Vertex AI training/grounding)
Your content is excluded from training future Gemini models and from Vertex AI grounding. Google states it does not impact inclusion in Google Search nor is it used as a ranking signal.
Vendor-documented: developers.google.com →

What is not documented

When Gemini decides to search, and what for. The model writes its own queries, and publishers never see them.
How it picks sources from the results. Google publishes no ranking factors for grounding.
Which model the Gemini app serves by default. Google publishes none, so our API column, gemini-3.8-flash, is a proxy for the app.
Whether blocking Google-Extended changes grounding through the Gemini API. Google's crawler page names Gemini Apps and Vertex AI; we have not found it stated for the API.

What 99Visibility does for Gemini

How we ask it: Gemini API, gemini-3.8-flash, grounded on Google Search
Web search in our audit: On. Answers come from what it finds on the web when it answers
Weight in the score: 10% of platform coverage
Plans: Starter ($49/mo) and up
Crawlers checked: Googlebot, Google-Extended: robots.txt, plus a firewall probe for each one that crawls

Asks Gemini with grounding on

Each keyword goes to the Gemini API as gemini-3.8-flash with Google Search grounding, exactly as you typed it. If a grounded call fails, we ask again without grounding rather than lose the answer, and that answer has no sources. Gemini is on Starter ($49/mo) and up.

Records its sources

The sources Gemini grounds on are stored with the answer and matched to your site by domain, and the citation rate counts the share that are yours. Links written into the answer text count too.

Checks Google's controls

The access check reads robots.txt for Googlebot and for the Google-Extended token, and requests your page as Googlebot to see what your firewall answers. A Google-Extended block is ranked low, as a training choice; a Googlebot block is ranked critical.

Flags wrong facts

Every Gemini answer is read against the price, founding year, location and features in your brand profile. Each flag puts the claim beside your fact, with a severity of critical, moderate or minor.

A platform note in the fix list

When the Gemini column scores more than 20 points under your overall score, the fix list adds a note for it. It tells you to check that the page is reachable by Googlebot, readable without JavaScript and free of snippet controls, then to look at what Gemini cited instead.

Agent V for Gemini

Agent V is the assistant in your dashboard, on every plan. It reads your audits, your accuracy flags and pages on your own site, so you can ask what an engine said for a prompt and which fix applies.

V's robots.txt draft includes Google-Extended, with a note that it does not block AI Overviews or AI Mode and does not affect Google Search ranking. Allowing it lets Google train Gemini on your pages, which is a business decision, and V says so before recommending it.

V can also check a page on your site or run a new audit. Each change it proposes shows up as a "V wants to" card and does nothing until you confirm, and V never edits your site: drafts are text you paste yourself.

How Agent V works

Gemini optimization: what to fix first

Make sure the pages you want Gemini to find are in Google's index. Grounding runs Google searches, so check indexing in Search Console and remove any stray noindex.

Decide on Google-Extended on purpose. Blocking it opts you out of Gemini training and of grounding in Gemini Apps and Vertex AI; it does not touch Google Search or AI Overviews.

Leave Googlebot allowed, and check that your firewall lets it through. A page Googlebot cannot fetch cannot be in the index Gemini searches.

Fix wrong facts at the source. A grounded answer is only as right as the pages it found, so state each fact once, the same way, on your own pages.

Do not rewrite pages for Gemini. The best-designed test of rewriting content for AI citation found most methods ineffective and often harmful.

Gemini optimization FAQ

Is Gemini the same as Google AI Overviews?

No. AI Overviews appear on Google's results page and we read them from there; Gemini is a model we ask through its API with Google Search grounding. They can name different brands and link different pages for the same keyword, so the score counts them as two columns.

Does blocking Google-Extended hide me from Gemini?

By Google's description it opts your content out of Gemini training and of grounding in Gemini Apps and Vertex AI. Whether it affects grounding through the Gemini API is not stated, and it does not affect Google Search.

Why does Gemini weigh less than AI Overviews in the score?

The weights are our model of reach: AI Overviews gets 20% and Gemini 10%, because a search shows an overview by default and the Gemini app has to be opened. They are not measured market shares.

Why is Gemini not on the Free plan?

The Free plan audits ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. Gemini starts on Starter ($49/mo), with a 7-day trial that takes a card.

Sources

Google-Extended "does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search nor is it used as a ranking signal."

Source: Google crawler documentation (updated 2026-07-14) →

With Grounding with Google Search, the model "automatically generates one or multiple search queries and executes them."

Source: Google AI for Developers, Grounding with Google Search →

AI Overviews and AI Mode "may use different models and techniques."

Source: Google Search Central, AI features and your website →

"Our experiments reveal that most current C-SEO methods are not only largely ineffective but also frequently have a negative impact on document ranking, which is opposite to what is expected."

Source: C-SEO Bench, arXiv:2506.11097 (NeurIPS 2025) →

The other platforms we audit

See what Gemini says about your brand

Gemini is on Starter ($49/mo) and up, which starts with a 7-day trial. The Free plan audits ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews and checks AI crawler access, with no card.