A growing share of searches now end in an answer written by an AI system rather than a list of links. The businesses that appear in those answers are not chosen at random. This guide explains what the systems are looking for and what to do about it.
What has changed
Google now shows AI Overviews on many searches and offers an AI Mode that answers in conversation. Assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity answer questions directly and cite sources. In each case, the system reads pages, extracts facts and composes an answer. If your business is not clearly described somewhere the system trusts, it is not in the answer.
Google's own guidance for AI features says there are no special requirements beyond its existing search guidance: helpful content, technical accessibility and accurate structured data.
Source: Google Search Central: AI features and your website, read 9 October 2026.
What makes a page worth citing
- A direct answer near the top, in plain language, followed by the evidence.
- Facts a system can extract: prices, locations, opening hours, numbers with sources, dates.
- Comparisons and definitions, because those are the questions people ask assistants.
- Consistency: the same facts about your business on your site, your Google Business Profile, directories and social profiles.
- Structured data that describes the organisation, its services, its FAQs and its reviews in the vocabulary machines read.
A practical plan
- Baseline: write down the twenty questions a buyer in your category would ask an assistant, run them, and record how you and your competitors are described.
- Structure: rewrite your core pages so each one answers one question directly, with the evidence underneath.
- Entities: align your business facts everywhere they appear, and add organisation, service and FAQ markup.
- Evidence: publish original data, case studies with sources and honest comparisons, because those are what get cited.
- Monitor: rerun the twenty questions monthly and log the changes.
What not to do
Do not stuff pages with questions and answers nobody asked. Do not publish invented statistics, because assistants are increasingly good at checking sources. Do not treat this as separate from SEO: the technical foundations are the same, and a page that is slow, blocked or thin will not be cited by anything.
How we measure it
We keep a set of category questions for each client, run them through Google AI features and the main assistants every month, and record whether and how the client is cited. It is the only honest measure, because nobody controls what an AI system chooses to say.
Questions people ask
Can an agency guarantee we will appear in AI Overviews?
No. Anyone who guarantees it is guessing. The work makes you the clearest, best-evidenced candidate; the system decides.
Does this matter for local businesses?
Yes. Assistants answer "best Italian restaurant near Whetstone" the same way they answer anything else, and local facts, reviews and profiles are exactly what they read.
Is structured data enough on its own?
No. It helps machines read what is on the page, but the page still has to answer the question and be trustworthy.