Google is testing a new placement for citation icons in AI Overviews (Google’s AI-generated answer panels in search results): moving them from the top of the response to the very bottom, Search Engine Roundtable reported on November 11, 2026. Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable writes that the change may make sources even harder to find and could reduce clicks to publisher sites further.
What exactly changed with AI Overviews source icons?
Brodie Clark, the SEO consultant who spotted the test, describes the element as the count of sites referenced in the AI Overview. In an earlier version of this experiment it sat at the top of the AI Overview, directly above the citations. In the new version it sits at the bottom of the response, and hovering over it displays the full list of citations.
Clark shared a video of the test on X and published more details and examples on his SERP Alert notes. Schwartz, who said he could not see the top of the results in the example, asked why Google would move source links to the bottom when it will result in even fewer clicks. Google has not commented on the test.
- Earlier version of the test: the sources icon at the top of the AI Overview, directly above the citations
- New version: the sources icon at the bottom of the AI Overview response
- Interaction: hovering over the icon displays the full list of citations
What this means for AI-search visibility
The following is editorial analysis and opinion from Hingewise, not reported fact.
Being cited in an AI Overview and getting a visitor to your website are two different things. If this test rolls out, that gap could widen.
Consider a user who reads a full AI-generated answer about, say, “best project management tools,” then scrolls past to the next result. If the source icon sits at the bottom, it may never enter their line of sight. The citation happened; the click did not. It can work like a footnote at the back of a book rather than a hyperlink mid-sentence: present, but easy to skip.
This highlights an important distinction for anyone working on GEO (getting a brand cited or mentioned by AI systems in search results): citation-slot inclusion and inline text mentions are not equivalent. If the AI-generated text says something like According to [Brand X], the recommended setup is…, that mention is visible to every reader, regardless of where the source icon sits. A citation-slot entry that only surfaces on hover likely gets less exposure.
In Hingewise’s view, Google is only testing this placement, and tests often change or disappear. Still, a practical priority for publishers is to earn mentions within the generated text itself, not only a place in the citation list. That kind of mention stays visible whether source icons sit at the top, the bottom, or behind a hover interaction.
Before this test becomes a rollout, check these five things
- Whether your site currently appears in AI Overview citations for your core queries (manual searches or SERP monitoring tools can surface this)
- How clicks and click-through rate move in Search Console for queries where AI Overviews appear (Search Console does not report AI Overview clicks separately)
- Whether the AI-generated text mentions your brand name or specific content inline, not only in the citation slot
- Whether your content is structured to provide direct, quotable answers that AI systems can surface as inline text
- How any citation-based referral traffic trends in your data if hover-based source lists become the default
Source: Search Engine Roundtable, November 11, 2026. Original report by Brodie Clark (SERP Alert) on X.
Lam Nguyen · Hingewise
This article was drafted with AI assistance from the sources cited above and checked against them before publishing. The "What this means for AI-search visibility" section is Hingewise's editorial analysis, built on the frameworks and positions we use in our GEO work. How we work: Editorial policy.