How to Show Up in Google's AI Overviews: A Guide for UK Local Businesses

Search for your trade and your town, and the first thing you see may not be a list of businesses. It’s a paragraph written by Google’s AI, answering the question and linking to a handful of websites. Sometimes it names a competitor. It rarely seems to name you.

The useful part is less exciting than an “AI optimisation” pitch: Google says there is no special trick. AI Overviews and AI Mode are built on the same ranking and quality systems as ordinary Google search, and any page that is indexed and allowed to show a snippet can be picked as a supporting link. In the UK you can’t switch an AI Overview on for a search or pay to be quoted inside one, and nobody can promise you’ll be mentioned.

So the job is practical: make sure you haven’t accidentally shut yourself out, give Google pages worth citing, and keep your Business Profile accurate. Below are five steps using free Google tools, the “hacks” Google itself tells you to ignore, and where to find your AI impressions in Search Console.

What AI Overviews and AI Mode are

AI Overviews are the AI-written summaries at the top of some Google results, with links to the pages they drew on. Google calls those supporting links; you’ll also hear “citations”. According to Google’s AI Overviews help page, they are available to all users in the United Kingdom, in English and Welsh among other languages. Google describes them as a core Search feature that “cannot be turned off”, though searchers can pick the “Web” filter to see plain links instead.

You can’t make one appear either. Google shows an AI Overview only when its systems decide it adds something to the normal results, and its developer documentation says they “often don’t trigger”. If you search your own trade and see no summary, nothing is broken.

AI Mode is the fuller, conversational version: you ask a question, get a longer AI answer, and can keep asking follow-ups. Google launched AI Mode in the UK on 28 July 2025, as a tab on the results page and in the Google app. Google’s AI Mode help page lists three ways in: google.com/ai, the AI Mode option after you search on google.com, or the Google app.

What happened to AI Mode?

It hasn’t gone away; Google has folded it more closely into normal search. In January 2026 people could carry on from an AI Overview into AI Mode with a follow-up question, first on mobile. In May 2026 Google said that was live on desktop and mobile worldwide and that a new AI-powered search box was starting to roll out “in all countries and languages where AI Mode is available”. The UK is still on Google’s AI Mode availability list at the time of writing. When we ran one search on google.co.uk on desktop on 28 September 2026, an AI Mode tab was still showing among the results tabs. That’s one search on one day, so your phone may differ, and it could change as the new search box rolls out.

How many UK customers see these answers?

Enough to take seriously. Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 report says 82% of UK adults use Google Search. It also reports that about 30% of searches now show AI Overviews (a figure from third-party measurement that Ofcom cites) and that 53% of adults say they see these summaries often.

A separate Ofcom survey, the Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes Report 2026, found that 75% of online adults say they read AI search summaries at least some of the time, and 42% say they read them “often” or “always”. That’s a different measure from the 30% (how many people read summaries, not how many searches show one), so don’t combine them.

Reading a summary can replace a click. In a US study, Pew Research Center tracked 900 adults’ Google searches in March 2025. When an AI summary appeared, people clicked a normal result in 8% of visits, against 15% when there was no summary, and clicked a link inside the summary in just 1% of visits. That’s US data, not UK, but it shows why being one of the few linked sources matters.

How Google picks the pages it links to

Google’s AI features documentation is unusually direct: “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.” To be eligible as a supporting link, a page must be indexed (stored in Google’s index so it can appear in results) and eligible to be shown with a snippet, the short text preview under a search result. Google adds that “Indexing and serving isn’t guaranteed.”

Its newer guide to optimising for generative AI features, published in May 2026 and updated in July, explains why. The AI features are “rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems”. When the AI writes an answer, it uses those ranking systems to fetch relevant, up-to-date pages and bases the answer on them. Google’s summary: “From Google Search’s perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO.”

Query fan-out, in plain English

Both features may use what Google calls query fan-out: instead of one search, the AI runs several related ones across subtopics and pulls the answer together. As an illustration (not a recorded example), someone asks whether it’s worth repairing a 15-year-old boiler. The AI might also look up common faults, how long boilers last and what replacement involves. A page that clearly answers one of those side questions could be linked even if it isn’t the top result for the original one.

Google also says AI Overviews and AI Mode “may use different models and techniques”, so the answers and links each one shows will vary. Showing up in one doesn’t mean you’ll show up in the other.

Do you have to be on page one first?

Several guides say you must rank in the top ten before an AI Overview will cite you. The evidence is shakier than that.

In July 2025, the SEO tool company Ahrefs analysed AI Overview citations and found 76% of cited pages ranked in the top ten for the search. Its March 2026 update, covering 863,000 keyword results, put the figure at 37.9%, with about 31% of cited pages ranking outside the top 100. Ahrefs says it improved its method in between, so the numbers aren’t directly comparable, and it points to query fan-out as part of the explanation. We couldn’t see which country either study’s data comes from, so don’t read them as UK figures.

The safer reading is that strong standing in ordinary Google search is still the foundation, because that’s what the AI draws on. But page one for the exact search isn’t a documented entry ticket.

Step by step: give your business a fair chance of being cited

You’ll need access to Google Search Console, Google’s free tool that shows how your site performs in search. If you haven’t set it up, Google’s guide to establishing your business details covers verifying your site there and claiming your Business Profile. Do that first; steps one and five depend on it.

Step 1: Check you haven’t shut yourself out

It’s the quickest step, and a mistake here can rule you out however good your pages are. Check four things.

The Search Console AI setting. Google says that since 31 August 2026 every site has a Search generative AI control, under Settings > Search generative AI. It decides whether your content can appear in AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI features in Discover. You can include, exclude, or inherit the setting from a parent property. Include is the default, so most sites need do nothing, but anyone with access could have switched it. Exclude, and Google is blunt: “You won’t receive any traffic or impressions from these features.” It doesn’t affect the rest of your Search rankings, and changes take a few days. The control is new, so menu names may shift.

This is how Google’s two statements fit together: nothing extra is needed to qualify, as long as you haven’t switched your site out.

Indexing. Use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console on your homepage and main service pages. It tells you whether each page is in Google’s index. A noindex tag on a page keeps it out of search altogether.

Snippet settings. Google’s robots meta tag documentation says nosnippet “will also prevent the content from being used as a direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode”, and max-snippet limits how much of a page can be used. Because a page has to be snippet-eligible to be linked, a stray nosnippet is enough to rule it out. data-nosnippet does the same for sections of a page. These tags can be set site-wide in a theme or SEO plugin, so if you’re unsure, ask whoever manages your site.

robots.txt and your hosting. Your robots.txt file tells search engines which parts of your site they may crawl. Google says crawling must be allowed there “and by any CDN or hosting infrastructure”, so a firewall or security service blocking Googlebot causes the same problem. You’ll also see Google-Extended in robots.txt advice. It controls whether your content is used to train Google’s Gemini models, and Google’s crawler documentation states it “does not impact a site’s inclusion in Google Search”. Blocking it doesn’t remove you from AI Overviews, and allowing it doesn’t add you.

If you find a problem: fix it, then recheck the page with URL Inspection. Google warns that recrawling “can take anywhere from several days to several months”, so don’t expect an overnight change. Our 10-point website health check covers these basics in more detail, and how long SEO takes sets realistic timescales.

Done when: the Search Console setting shows include, your key pages show as indexed, none carries noindex or nosnippet by mistake, and nothing blocks Googlebot.

Step 2: Answer the questions customers actually ask, with content only you can give

Google’s generative AI guide asks for “valuable, non-commodity content”: pages with a unique point of view and first-hand experience rather than generic advice anyone could write. Its example of commodity content is a post called “7 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers”. Most trades have an equivalent: the article that appears, near-identical, on site after site.

For a local business, that means the things only you know. Which jobs you take on and which you don’t. How a job runs from first call to finish. The areas you actually cover. The questions customers ask on the phone, answered the way you’d answer them. None of that can be copied from a competitor’s site. That’s the point.

Query fan-out gives this a practical shape. Write down the follow-up questions customers ask once they’ve decided they need your service, and make sure your main pages answer them. There is one line not to cross. Google says creating separate pages for question variations “primarily to manipulate rankings or generative AI responses” breaks its scaled content abuse spam policy. Answer questions where they belong rather than churning out a page per phrase.

Google’s guidance on helpful, people-first content adds a lens: E-E-A-T, short for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Google says “trust is most important” of the four, and that E-E-A-T isn’t itself a ranking factor. It also warns against “extensive automation” and pages that mainly summarise what others have said. For a local firm, that means showing who does the work and what qualifies them.

Done when: each main service page answers the questions you hear most often, in your own words, with details a competitor couldn’t simply copy.

Step 3: Keep your Business Profile and business details right

Your Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows your business on Google Maps and in local results. Google’s AI features documentation lists “Checking that your Merchant Center and Business Profile information is up-to-date” among the basics that still matter. Its generative AI guide goes a little further, saying Business Profiles “can help your products and services to be visible in both AI responses and other Google Search results”.

Note the wording: “can help”. Google doesn’t say your profile is where AI Overview text comes from, whatever some guides claim. But at least one Google AI product reads this kind of data. Gemini’s help page says the Gemini app uses public Google Maps information such as addresses, descriptions, websites, ratings and opening hours. That’s the Gemini app, not AI Overviews, but it’s another reason to keep those details accurate and consistent with your website.

In practice:

• Claim and verify your profile if you haven’t. Our guide to setting up a Google Business Profile covers doing it without getting suspended.
• Check your address, phone number, website link, description and opening hours match what’s on your site.
• Keep collecting reviews. Google’s local ranking help page says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. That’s about Maps and local results, not AI Overviews, but they’re worth winning anyway. See how to get more Google reviews.

The same Google page says “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google”, and local results depend mainly on relevance, distance and popularity. The map listings and the AI Overview are separate features; our guide to the Google 3-pack explains the map results, and our local SEO service covers this work if you’d rather hand it over.

Done when: your profile is verified and every detail on it matches your website today.

Step 4: Make your pages easy for Google to read

Google’s list of basics that still apply is short and unglamorous: link to your important pages from elsewhere on your site, put important information in text rather than only in images or video, keep the site pleasant to use, and make sure any structured data matches what’s visible on the page.

Structured data, sometimes called schema markup, is code that labels information on a page, such as your business name, address or opening hours, so machines can read it reliably. Google’s structured data introduction says it helps Google understand a page and can make a page eligible for rich results, the enhanced listings some searches show. But for AI features, Google’s documentation says “There’s also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add”.

Outside evidence points the same way. In a May 2026 study, Ahrefs compared 1,885 pages that added structured data with 4,000 matched control pages that didn’t, and found that adding it “produced no major uplift in citations on any platform”. It’s one company’s study, and it doesn’t show structured data does harm. Treat structured data as housekeeping, not a lever for AI citations.

Done when: your services, areas covered and contact details appear as text, those pages are linked from your menu or other pages, and any structured data matches what’s visible.

Step 5: Measure it in Search Console

Until recently you couldn’t see AI Overview performance on its own. Google says that since 31 August 2026, Search Console has a generative AI performance report. It shows impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode, broken down by page, country, device and date. Google defines an impression here as each time a link to your site was shown to someone in a generative AI feature.

The same page says not every property has access yet, and sites with few AI impressions may see no data. If yours is missing, check Step 1: an excluded site shows nothing. Like the control, the report is new and may change.

Your normal Performance report already includes AI traffic. Google says visits from AI features are counted in the overall figures under the “Web” search type. A few of Google’s counting rules help when reading the numbers:

• An AI Overview takes up a single position in the results, and every link inside it is given that same position.
• A click on a link in an AI Overview or AI Mode counts as a click.
• In AI Mode, a follow-up question counts as a new search.

Search Console tells you when you appeared, not who else did. Our suggestion, not something Google recommends, is a simple manual routine: keep a short, fixed list of the searches your customers use, check them once a month, and note whether an AI Overview appeared and which businesses it linked. Treat each check as a snapshot: the answers change, and one appearance doesn’t mean you’ll be there next time.

Done when: you know where the generative AI report sits in your Search Console, you’ve noted this month’s figures, and you have a list of searches to recheck.

What to ignore

Google’s generative AI guide lists “a few things you can ignore”, and they cover much of what you may be pitched:

• llms.txt files and other “special” AI files. Google says Search doesn’t use them, and creating one “will neither harm nor help”.
• “Chunking” your content into small AI-friendly blocks. Google says there’s no ideal page length.
• Rewriting pages just for AI. Google says you don’t need to worry about having enough “long-tail” keywords.
• Chasing inauthentic “mentions” of your business around the web.
• Overfocusing on structured data. It isn’t required for AI features, although it’s still useful for rich results.

Google adds a warning about tools: “No third-party tool has access to our internal ranking or AI systems.” Be wary of any service that claims otherwise.

Two more for the list. Google-Extended doesn’t change whether you appear in AI Overviews (see Step 1). And anyone who guarantees you’ll be cited in an AI Overview is promising something Google itself doesn’t guarantee.

Can you pay to appear in AI Overviews in the UK?

Not inside the summary. According to Google Ads help, ads can show above or below an AI Overview in every market where AI Overviews are available. Ads inside AI Overviews are offered only in a list of countries that, as of 28 September 2026, doesn’t include the UK.

So paid ads can put you on the same page as an AI Overview, just not in it. If you’re weighing the two routes, our comparison of SEO and PPC sets out what each is good for.

Beyond Google

This guide covers Google only. ChatGPT, Perplexity and other AI assistants work differently; we cover them in why ChatGPT recommends your competitor.

Getting help

An owner with a Search Console login can do everything above. The harder part is Step 2: producing pages that say something useful, and keeping at it.

Get Found is a local SEO, AI SEO and web design agency with 22 years’ experience, based in Worcester with a second office in Stockport and working with businesses across the UK. There are no long contracts. And, as with anyone offering this work honestly, we can’t guarantee an AI Overview mention.

If you’d like a second pair of eyes, our free visibility audit checks where you appear on Google, on Maps and in the main AI tools, compares you with your local competitors and lists the fixes we’d make first. It’s yours to keep. If you’d rather hand the work over, see our Google AI Overview optimisation service or get in touch.