How to Stop Google AI Overviews Using Your Content

Stopping AI Overviews: searcher or site owner?

People ask how to get rid of AI Overviews for two different reasons, and the answers are not the same.

• As a searcher, you want to stop seeing the summary at the top of your own results.
• As a site owner, you want to stop Google using your pages to write those summaries.

For searchers, Google does not offer a setting that switches AI Overviews off. What you can do is use the Web filter under the search box, which shows a plain list of links without the summary. That filter uses the URL parameter udm=14, so you can make it your default by adding a custom search engine in your browser settings with this address:

https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14

In Chrome, go to Settings, Search engine, Manage search engines and site search, add it, and make it the default. Results from that engine show only web links.

The rest of this guide is for site owners. You have real controls over how Google uses your content, but every one of them also changes how your pages look in normal search, so it pays to know the cost before you switch anything on.

The controls Google gives site owners

Google treats AI Overviews as part of Search, so the controls are the same preview controls that already govern snippets in normal results. There is no separate opt-out that removes you from AI Overviews while leaving your normal listing untouched.

The last row surprises many people. Blocking Google-Extended is a sensible choice if you do not want your content used for Gemini apps or model training, but Google states it does not affect inclusion or ranking in Search, and that includes AI Overviews. The AI crawler blocks guide explains the other AI user agents.

How to add nosnippet to a page or a whole site

The simplest control is a robots meta tag in the page head:

<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">

To target Google only and leave other search engines alone, use googlebot as the name instead of robots. If the page already has a robots tag, add the value with a comma, for example index, follow, nosnippet. Do not leave two robots tags with conflicting values, because Google applies the most restrictive combination. The robots meta guide covers how the values combine.

Sending it as a header

For PDFs and other files with no HTML head, or to cover a whole folder, send an X-Robots-Tag header from the server. On nginx:

location /members-guides/ {
    add_header X-Robots-Tag "nosnippet" always;
}

On Apache with mod_headers, in the site configuration or .htaccess:

<FilesMatch "\.pdf$">
    Header set X-Robots-Tag "nosnippet"
</FilesMatch>

On Plesk, add the Apache lines under Apache and nginx Settings, Additional directives, or the nginx block under Additional nginx directives, depending on which server answers the request.

WordPress and other platforms

Some SEO plugins offer this directly: Rank Math has No Snippet and Max Snippet options in the advanced robots settings of each post. If yours does not, add the tag with a small function in a child theme or a code snippets plugin, limited to the posts you choose. On Shopify, add a conditional robots tag in theme.liquid for the templates you want to cover.

Protecting only part of a page with data-nosnippet

If you are happy for Google to show most of the page but want to hold back one part, such as a members' answer, a price table or a recipe method, wrap that part in an element with the data-nosnippet attribute:

<p>Our full weekend sourdough schedule is below.</p>
<div data-nosnippet>
  <p>Friday 6 pm: feed the starter at 1:5:5...</p>
  <p>Saturday 9 am: mix the dough at 75% hydration...</p>
</div>

Google supports the attribute on span, div and section elements. A few rules decide whether it works:

• The HTML must be valid, with the element properly closed, or Google may not be able to tell where the protected part ends.
• If the protected text is added by JavaScript, the attribute must be present in the rendered HTML Google sees. URL Inspection's view of the crawled page shows whether it is.
• Wrapping most of the page has the same practical effect as nosnippet, and Google may then write a snippet from whatever is left, such as navigation text.

Limiting length with max-snippet

The max-snippet value sets the maximum number of characters Google may use as a text snippet from the page:

<meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:80">

A value of 0 is the same as nosnippet, and -1 means no limit. Google applies the limit across its search features, so it caps how much of your text can be used in AI Overviews as well as in the normal snippet. It does not stop your page being linked; it limits how much of it can be quoted.

This is a compromise rather than an opt-out. A summary can still draw on a short passage, and a value of 50 to 100 characters often produces snippets that cut off mid-sentence. Test it on a few pages and look at the results before applying it site-wide. If your concern is one specific block of content, data-nosnippet is usually the cleaner tool.

Check what Google can actually see after any change:

curl -sI https://www.example.com/guides/weekend-bake/ | grep -i x-robots-tag
curl -s https://www.example.com/guides/weekend-bake/ | grep -io '<meta name="\(robots\|googlebot\)"[^>]*>'

What these controls cannot do

Before you switch anything on, be clear about the limits:

• They cannot remove you from AI Overviews alone. Every control that works also changes your normal listing. There is no AI-only switch in Search.
• They cannot stop summaries of other pages about you. If a directory, forum or news site writes about your business, Google can draw on those pages. Your tags only govern your own pages.
• They are not instant. Google has to recrawl the page before the change applies. Watch your server logs for Googlebot's next visit to confirm it fetched the new version.
• The Removals tool is not an opt-out. It hides a URL from Search as a whole for about six months, then the page returns unless it has noindex or is gone.
• They do not affect other AI services. ChatGPT, Perplexity and others have their own crawlers. See the AI crawler access guide.

For many small businesses the better choice is the opposite: stay in AI Overviews, but make sure the page gives people a reason to click. The AI Overviews citation guide covers that approach.

The fix, step by step

Edge cases worth knowing

• Your meta description disappears. With nosnippet, Google shows no description at all, even the one you wrote. That is expected, not a bug; see meta description not showing for other causes.
• Conflicting tags from plugins. A theme and an SEO plugin can each print a robots tag. Google combines them and applies the most restrictive, so a forgotten nosnippet can hide snippets site-wide.
• Header set on some responses only. nginx drops add_header on error responses unless you add always, and a location block with its own add_header does not inherit the parent's headers.
• CDN caching. If the CDN caches HTML, purge it after changing tags so Googlebot sees the new head.
• Images and video. nosnippet also stops video previews. Use max-image-preview and max-video-preview for finer control over media.

Keeping the setting under control

Snippet controls are easy to forget and expensive when they spread. Write down which pages carry them and why, then check after every theme, plugin or template change.

• Run a crawl monthly and list every page with nosnippet, max-snippet or noindex, so nothing is restricted by accident.
• Compare clicks and impressions for restricted pages in Search Console before and after the change. If clicks fall sharply, the cost may outweigh the benefit.
• Review the decision every six months. Google's AI features change, and the trade-off for your business may change with them.