Why Google is moving AI Overviews for brand searches to the side

Google has started showing AI Overviews for many brand searches in the right-hand column of desktop results, in the space long occupied by the knowledge panel, rather than at the top of the main results column. The change appears to be an unannounced rollout rather than a formal update. It looks like Google treating brand queries as a different layout problem to open-ended research queries. A right-column AI summary sits next to the brand's own site and sitelinks instead of pushing them down the page, which is the likely reason behind it.

What changed

SEO professional Chris Long spotted the shift and posted about it on X, writing that Google was "changing the way they're showing AI Overviews for brand searches" and that "instead of a Knowledge Panel, they're showing AI Overviews for brand terms in the right column." Search Engine Roundtable's reporting lists examples including Apple, Zillow, Coca-Cola, Google and Search Engine Roundtable itself, all of which have seen AI Overviews move out of the top-or-middle main results position and into the side panel. The rollout is uneven. PPC Land's coverage notes that David McSweeney saw some AI Overviews land further down the page rather than to the side, and none of the observers who spotted the pattern published a count of how many brand queries carry the new layout.

How we got here

AI Overviews on branded queries went from rare to routine in a matter of months. Ahrefs, analysing 232.8 million US desktop result crawls between July and September 2026, 92.5 million of them for branded keywords, found AI Overviews appeared on 82.91% of branded keyword results by 29 September 2026, with the monthly average climbing from 61.3% in July to 73.3% in September. A separate Ahrefs panel tracking 100 bare brand names found AI Overviews on 63 of them by 30 September, up from just five of 98 usable results on 1 July, and 48 of those 63 appeared in position one. DemandSphere's daily tracking told a similar story, moving from 26.12% of tracked branded keywords on 1 September to a peak of 90.48% on 27 September, per PPC Land. The main-results layout was never built to carry that much AI text above a brand's own homepage link. Our piece on Sited vs Scrunch AI and why AI Overviews now dominate brand search goes into more detail on how that happened.

Why Google likely made this change

Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable described the move as "essentially replacing brand knowledge panels with AI Overviews," and added that the right column suited the AI Overview format far better than the main results, while also questioning whether an AI summary should be trusted to describe a brand better than the brand's own site. David McSweeney, who spotted the pattern two days earlier on 31 October 2026, called it "a good one" if it turns out to be a deliberate change, according to Search Engine Roundtable. A Google spokesperson told PPC Land that AI Overviews "create new opportunities for brands," though that doesn't explain the layout choice itself. Cramming a long AI summary above a brand's own homepage and sitelinks was always an odd fit for navigational searches, where the user usually just wants the official site. Moving the AI text sideways lets the main column go back to doing what it has always done for brand queries.

What the right-column placement replaces

For more than a decade the right-hand column belonged to the knowledge panel, a box of facts a brand could claim, correct and largely control. That space has carried mostly knowledge panels since Google stopped placing text ads there in February 2016, per PPC Land's reporting. Swapping a structured, brand-editable panel for an AI-generated summary changes who controls the narrative next to a brand's name, and the evidence suggests the AI version isn't always more accurate. A Zillow example cited by PPC Land showed the AI text giving 2006 as the company's founding year, while a fact row in the same panel gave 2004, a direct contradiction sitting in the same box. Ahrefs also found that across 57 brand-name AI Overviews where sources were visible, Wikipedia was cited in 41, YouTube in 22, LinkedIn in 13 and Yahoo Finance in 9, according to an analysis published on The Robert Hu's blog. Third-party sites are doing much of the talking about a brand in its own search results.

What this means for click-through and brand control

In PPC Land's examples of the new layout, the official site and its sitelinks lead the main column again, making the page look more like the old results for navigational queries, which should help click-through on brand terms specifically. But the broader click picture for AI Overviews generally is still weak. Ahrefs found that of the 63 AI Overviews in its sample, 48 appeared in position one with an average position of 1.49, and its research suggests AI Overviews reduce click-through rates universally, with the worst impact when the AI summary sits in position one ahead of the brand's own domain, as detailed in Ahrefs' study. A Pew Research Centre study of 900 US adults across 68,879 Google searches in March 2025 found users clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, compared with 15% without one, and clicked a link inside the AI summary itself in only 1% of visits, per AI Weekly's write-up of the study. The same study found sessions ended after seeing an AI summary 26% of the time versus 16% without one, according to Campaign.

The limitation here is measurement. PPC Land notes that Search Console's generative AI report shows impressions but no clicks or queries, so brands cannot measure the effect of this layout change on their own traffic first-hand. Our guide on finding the Generative AI performance report in Search Console and our piece on whether Gary Illyes' comments rule out AI click data in Search Console are useful starting points for understanding what that report can and can't tell you. The label itself is also getting harder to track, which is part of why Google quietly dropping the AI Overviews label is a measurement problem.

Our view: moving AI Overviews off brand searches into the side column looks like a sensible fix to a layout that was never right for navigational queries, but it doesn't resolve the underlying issue that an AI summary, sourced largely from Wikipedia and other third parties, is now describing a brand before the brand gets to describe itself. The Zillow founding-date contradiction shows these summaries can be wrong even within their own panel, and brand searches are exactly the queries where accuracy should matter most.

What to do about it

Don't assume brand search traffic is safe just because the page layout has shifted. Check what your own AI Overview says about your brand, where it pulls its facts from, and whether it's accurate, since Wikipedia, YouTube and LinkedIn carry disproportionate weight in these summaries. Search Engine Roundtable's examples and PPC Land's reporting are both US-only, so treat the pattern as directional rather than confirmed globally until more markets are checked. AI Overviews now cover a large share of buying-intent searches too, so getting your facts straight on the sites that feed these summaries is worth doing regardless of where the box sits on the page. A free AI visibility scorecard can show you how your brand currently appears across AI answers, which is a useful starting point before chasing layout changes you can't directly measure.

Frequently asked questions

Is this an official Google update?

No. Chris Long and David McSweeney spotted and posted about the pattern on X, and Search Engine Roundtable and PPC Land reported on it, but Google has not made any announcement about the change.

Which brands have been affected so far?

Reported examples include Apple, Zillow, Coca-Cola, Google and Search Engine Roundtable itself, according to Search Engine Roundtable's coverage. All the published examples are from US desktop results.

Does this mean knowledge panels are gone?

The right column that used to hold knowledge panels is now showing AI Overviews instead on many brand queries, which Barry Schwartz described as essentially replacing the knowledge panel. It isn't clear from the reporting whether knowledge panels still appear for some brands or queries.

Can I see how this affects my own click-through rate?

Not precisely. PPC Land notes that Search Console's generative AI report shows impressions but no clicks or queries, so there's no first-hand way to measure the layout change's impact on your traffic yet.

Should I worry about factual errors in my brand's AI Overview?

It's worth checking. PPC Land cited a Zillow example where the AI text gave 2006 as the founding year while a fact row in the same panel gave 2004, showing these summaries can contradict themselves within the same result.