Organic search results
Organic search results are the unpaid results a search engine ranks by relevance, as opposed to the ads placed around them.
Organic search results are the results a search engine shows because it judged them relevant, with nobody paying for the spot. They're the list of pages that sits among the ads, maps, shopping boxes and other features on a results page. SEO is the work of earning a place in them.
You can't buy a higher organic ranking. That's what makes it valuable, and what makes it slow to earn.
What's on a results page now
A search results page used to be ten blue links. Now the organic results share the page with ads, the local pack, product listings, People Also Ask boxes, videos and, for many searches, an AI Overview at the top. Each of those can push the first organic result further down.
For example, someone searches "best coffee subscription UK." Above the first organic result there might be four shopping ads, an AI Overview naming five brands, and a People Also Ask box. Kestrel Roasters ranks first organically and still sits well below what the person sees first.
Organic results and AI answers
Organic results matter twice in AI search. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode are built on Google Search, and their links point to pages from its index. And other AI platforms that search the web before they answer read the pages near the top of their own search results.
So ranking organically still matters, even when fewer people click. The page that ranks for a question is the page an AI answer is likely to read, and the brands on that page are the ones it's likely to name. Having the pages that rank mention you can count for as much as ranking yourself.
In AnswerOrbit
For Google AI Overviews, we keep each search and show you how often an overview appears for each prompt, as How we count explains. If you run Google Ads, connecting it in Settings puts the keywords you bid on next to your visibility on each topic, so you can see paid, organic and AI side by side.