Google AI Overviews now expand by default on definition searches

Google is showing AI Overviews fully expanded by default on definition searches, so the summary fills the first screen and the organic results sit below it. SEO consultant Glenn Gabe posted examples on X on 11 November, adding that his saved snapshots showed the same AI Overviews collapsed until recently, or missing altogether. Google has not confirmed it.

A long AI Overview normally opens in a shortened form with a "Show more" link, and the searcher decides whether to read the rest. On a search such as "define expandable" the full version now opens on its own and takes over the visible part of the results page. The first web result only appears after a scroll.

Check your own definition searches in Australian results

Gabe's post called the change a "big heads-up for sites providing definitions and meanings", and that is the group with the most to lose. A definition is the one query type where a complete answer fits inside the summary, so the title and snippet that used to win the click now sit under a block of text that has already answered the question.

The examples so far are English-language searches, and nothing in the reports says which countries are affected. Australian results are worth checking by hand on a few of your own terms before assuming either way.

Google limited dynamic expansion to selected topics

Google has acknowledged a narrower version of this before. In August, Google's Robby Stein said that "AI Overviews only dynamically expand for topics where our systems determine it to be most useful", and that the expansion stops if the person has already started scrolling. He added that Google was always testing and tuning the experience.

Definition searches were already among the queries seen auto-expanding in late August, when Google confirmed dynamic expansion. Gabe's snapshots show them collapsed or absent more recently, so the expanded view appears to be back and, going by his examples, now opens by default on definition searches. That is based on observed examples; Google has said nothing publicly about definitions in particular.

Google's own guidance for site owners says AI Overviews are shown only when its systems judge them additive to classic Search, and that they often do not trigger at all. Definition searches appear to clear that bar, and now clear it at full length.

Glossary and FAQ pages are easy to summarise

Most business sites have a few of these pages, usually a glossary, an FAQ or a cluster of "what is" articles written to pull in top-of-funnel traffic. They tend to rank well because the answer is simple and the page is tightly focused on one term. That same simplicity is what makes them easy to summarise.

Informational searches are where AI Overviews have cut clicks most visibly, which is the pattern behind zero-click search. Expanding definitions by default moves one more class of query from "scan the summary, click a result" to "read the summary, leave".

Can Search Console show AI Overview clicks?

Measuring the effect takes some work, because Google reports clicks and impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode inside the ordinary Performance report under the Web search type. Google's documentation lists no way to separate a click on an AI Overview link from a click on a standard listing. The separate Generative AI performance report, available to all sites since 31 August, shows AI Overview and AI Mode impressions by page, country, device and date, but not clicks or queries.

The workable route is a before-and-after comparison on the queries themselves:

• Filter the Performance report to queries containing "what is", "define", "definition" or "meaning", and to the glossary or FAQ pages that rank for them.
• Compare the 28 days from 11 November with the 28 days before it. If impressions hold while clicks and click-through rate fall, the expanded summary is the likeliest cause.
• Open the Generative AI performance report for the same glossary and "what is" pages. It shows whether they are getting AI Overview impressions, which means they are being cited, and whether that changes after 11 November. It reports impressions only, not clicks.
• Check the earlier window for noise. Some sites saw Search Console click spikes of 2x to 6.5x between 31 October and 2 November while impressions stayed flat, which would make a later drop look larger than it is.
• Keep the November 2026 core update in mind as well. It began rolling out on 10 November and can move the same pages for reasons that have nothing to do with AI Overviews.

Treat the Zyppy 21% figure as directional

The only hard number on what AI feature clicks are worth comes from a single-site test. SEO consultant Cyrus Shepard removed his company Zyppy's site from Google's AI features on 1 September using the Search Console generative AI control, a setting Google began offering some UK sites in June and rolled out to all sites on 31 August, and opted back in on 29 September.

The site vanished from AI Overviews and AI Mode in under an hour, while still ranking first in the standard results for the example query he showed. Before the test, AI features had been delivering 500 to 1,000 impressions a day, about 10% of the site's Google impressions.

Comparing the 28 days out with the 28 days back in, on the same queries and positions, Shepard estimated a click-through rate of about 0.9% on AI impressions against a site average of around 0.4%. On that basis AI features produced about 21% of the site's search clicks, and 23% once he added a small lift in clicks on regular listings when the site also appeared in the summary.

Shepard said the figures should be treated "more as a directional yardstick than Google gospel" and that other sites could land higher or lower. Zyppy had done a fair amount of work to win AI citations, which he says may explain the high share. Google's guidance makes a similar point from the other side: it says clicks from results pages with AI Overviews tend to be higher quality, with people spending more time on the site.

For a definition page, being cited inside the expanded summary can still send traffic, and on Zyppy's numbers did so at a better rate than the site's average listing. The damage comes when the page is neither cited nor clicked.

Blocking with nosnippet also removes normal snippets

Blocking is the wrong response. Google says a page needs no special treatment to appear as a supporting link in an AI Overview beyond being indexed and eligible for a snippet, and the page-level controls it lists (nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex) also limit or remove the page's normal snippet. The Search Console opt-out Shepard used has been available to all sites worldwide since 31 August 2026. It works per Search Console property rather than per page, and Google says it is not used as a ranking signal elsewhere in Search, but Shepard's numbers suggest it costs clicks.

A better use of the time is to give each definition page two jobs:

• Keep the definition itself short and plain in the first paragraph, with any structured data matching the visible text, so the page stays a candidate for citation inside the summary.
• Below it, add what a summary cannot give: a worked example from your industry, Australian pricing or availability, a calculator or checklist, and a clear path to the service page the term relates to.
• Move the keyword targeting of thin "what is" posts toward comparison and buying queries, where the searcher still has a decision to make after reading the summary.

Start with the five glossary or "what is" pages that bring in the most clicks today, and pull their 28-day comparison from Search Console once four weeks of data from 11 November have come through. That tells you whether the expanded summaries have reached your queries, and which pages are still earning the click, before anything gets rewritten.