How to show up in Google's AI search results

If you've searched for anything on Google recently, you've probably noticed something different at the top of the page. A neat little summary, sometimes with photos, sometimes pulling in reviews, answering your question before you've even clicked a link.

That's an AI Overview, and it's becoming a normal part of how people search. Which means it's becoming a normal part of how people find you, or don't.

I know that sentence alone is enough to make some business owners want to close the laptop and go and do something else. Stay with me. The good news, straight from Google's own guidance, is that none of this needs technical wizardry. It needs the same things that have always mattered, just applied a bit more deliberately.

What's actually different about AI search

A normal Google search shows you a list of links and lets you do the sorting. AI search does more of the sorting for you. It reads a customer's question, breaks it down into what they're actually asking, and pulls together an answer using web pages, Google Business Profiles, photos and reviews, then cites where it got the information from.

The upside for small businesses is that AI search doesn't just favour the biggest website with the most backlinks. It favours whoever actually answers the question best. That's a fairer fight than it sounds.

The advice that actually matters

Google's own guidance boils down to four things.

Share real experience, not generic advice. If a therapist writes "5 tips for managing anxiety", that's the same article as a thousand other therapists have written. If she writes about the specific technique she uses with clients who freeze up before a big presentation, that's something AI search can point to as genuinely useful, because nobody else has written it.

Answer the specific questions people actually ask. A customer isn't typing "personal trainer". They're typing something closer to "personal trainer for someone getting back into exercise after an injury". If your website only talks about training in general terms, you're invisible to that search. If a page spells out exactly who you work with and what for, you're not.

Make sure Google can actually read your site. Hours, services and prices need to exist as real text on the page, not locked inside a pretty photo or a graphic. It sounds obvious, but a lot of websites still bury the useful information inside an image because it looks nicer. AI search can't read a picture the way it can read a sentence.

Keep your Google Business Profile properly filled in. AI features pull directly from your profile, your photos, your services list, your reviews. A profile that's been left untouched since you set it up is quietly working against you.

What this looks like in practice

For a yoga teacher, that might mean writing honestly about the class you run for people who've never done yoga and are nervous about it, rather than another generic "benefits of yoga" post.

For an interior designer, it might mean a page that spells out you work specifically with period properties in Worcestershire, rather than a vague "we do interiors" line.

For a retreat facilitator, it's making sure your Google Business Profile actually lists what the retreat includes, not just "wellness retreats", so someone searching "yoga retreat with private rooms" has a reason to find you

None of this is about chasing an algorithm. It's about being specific about who you help and how, which is good practice regardless of what Google's doing this month.

Where to actually start this week

Pick one page on your website, your homepage or your main service page, and read it as if you were a stranger. Does it say exactly what you do and who for, or does it say what everyone in your industry says?

Then have a quick look at your Google Business Profile. Are your services listed properly? Is there a recent photo on there? Small, unglamorous updates, but they're the ones that actually move the dial.

If you want a hand working out where to focus first, a Social Brew Call is a good place to start. Book a Social Brew Call.