Search has a new front page

For twenty years the goal was page one of Google. Now many questions are answered before anyone scrolls. Google's AI Overviews reach over 2.5 billion people a month1, OpenAI's products have 1.2 billion weekly users2, and 45% of consumers use ChatGPT or other AI tools for local recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier3.

This changes what visibility means. In a Pew Research Center study, people clicked a regular search result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, compared with 15% without one, and clicked a link inside the summary in just 1% of visits4. Ahrefs found AI Overviews cut clicks to the top-ranked result by 58%5. If the AI answer names your competitor, ranking first below it is worth less than it used to be.

What AI tools read

AI assistants build answers in two ways. They draw on what they learned in training, and when they search the web, they read a handful of pages that match the question and summarise them. In both cases they rely on information that is easy to find, easy to read and repeated by sources they trust.

For a business that means four places. They are your own website, your Google Business Profile, your reviews, and other sites that mention you, such as directories, press, partner pages and lists of recommended businesses.

Hands holding a phone
Most questions are now typed into a phone.
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What the research shows

Researchers at Princeton and IIT Delhi tested how changes to content affect its visibility in AI-generated answers, an approach they named Generative Engine Optimization. They found it can boost visibility by up to 40%6, and that what works best varies from one field to another. There is no single trick.

AI tools also make mistakes. When the Columbia Journalism Review tested eight AI search engines, they gave incorrect answers to more than 60% of queries about news articles7. Clear, consistent, well-sourced information about your business lowers the chance that an AI tool gets you wrong.

What a business can do

  • Make your website readable for machines. Clear headings, short answer-first paragraphs, structured data that states your name, services, location and prices, and an llms.txt file that summarises the site.
  • Keep your facts consistent. Name, address, opening hours, services and prices should match on your website, Google Business Profile and every directory. Conflicting information gives an AI tool a reason to leave you out.
  • Answer real questions. Pages that answer what customers actually ask, in plain language, with numbers and sources, are the pages AI tools quote.
  • Earn mentions and reviews. 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses3, and 80% are likely to choose a business that replies to all of them3. AI tools draw on the same signals.
  • Measure it. Ask the main AI tools the questions your customers ask, every month, and record whether you are mentioned and how you are described.

What no one can promise

No agency controls what an AI tool says, and anyone who guarantees a mention is guessing. What can be done is to improve the information these tools rely on and to track the result over time. That is how we approach AI search.

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