A few months ago, imagine a business owner sitting in his office, looking at his website analytics. His website is live, his services are listed, and he has published several blog posts. He has even invested time and money in SEO because he wants more customers to discover his business online.
But one question keeps coming to his mind: When someone asks Google or an AI tool to recommend a business like mine, will my website be part of the answer?
This is a question I believe more business owners should be asking today.
Online search is changing. People still use Google to find products, services and information, but they can also receive AI-generated summaries that help them understand a topic without going through several websites individually. Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode are part of this shift.
For website owners, this creates new opportunities as well as new questions. Does traditional SEO still matter? Do businesses need a completely different strategy for AI search? And is there a special trick that can make a website appear in AI-generated answers?
Google has provided some important answers.
In May 2026, Google Search Central introduced a dedicated guide explaining how website owners can approach generative AI features in Google Search. The guidance covers content quality, technical SEO, local information, shopping content, images, videos and common misconceptions about AI-focused optimisation. Read Google’s official guide.
As the founder of Digi Ustad, where we work on SEO, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), I believe this is a useful development for businesses trying to understand what actually matters in the changing search landscape.
Let’s look at what this guidance means in everyday language.
The day I started looking at search differently
Imagine a local business that provides a useful service but has a website that looks much like hundreds of others.
The homepage says the company offers quality service at affordable prices. The service page lists a few benefits. The blog contains general articles that could easily appear on almost any competitor’s website.
Nothing is necessarily wrong with the business itself. Its team may be experienced, its customers may be happy, and its service may be excellent.
Yet, when someone searches online, the website has little distinctive information to offer.
Now imagine another business in the same industry. Its website explains how the service works, answers common customer questions, provides useful examples, shares genuine photographs and makes its experience clear. Customers can quickly understand what the business does, where it operates and what they should expect.
Which website gives a visitor more useful information?
The second website has a clearer opportunity to serve the customer. That doesn’t guarantee higher rankings or inclusion in AI-generated answers, but it illustrates an important principle behind Google’s guidance: useful, distinctive content matters.
In my view, this is where businesses should begin their AI search strategy—not by chasing every new trend, but by improving the information they already provide.
What has Google actually announced?
Google’s dedicated guide explains how established SEO practices remain relevant to its generative AI search experiences, including AI Overviews and AI Mode.
This is important because there has been plenty of discussion about whether businesses need an entirely new set of rules for AI search.
Some marketing discussions make it sound as though website owners must completely rewrite their content, add special files, or follow a secret formula to appear in AI responses.
Google’s guidance takes a more practical approach. It emphasises established SEO fundamentals alongside content that offers genuine value to people.
The guide highlights several areas worth reviewing:
- Creating original, useful content rather than repeating information available everywhere.
- Maintaining a website that search engines can crawl and understand.
- Providing helpful local and shopping information where relevant.
- Using quality images and videos to support website content.
- Following established SEO and search spam policies.
- Measuring performance through the available Search Console reporting.
These are not separate shortcuts to guaranteed AI visibility. They are practical areas businesses can improve as part of a broader search strategy.
1. Original content matters more than generic articles
Let’s take the example of a dog grooming business.
Its website might contain a page titled “Professional Dog Grooming Services.” The page lists bathing, brushing, nail trimming and other services. This information is useful, but many competing businesses can provide the same list.
What could make the page more valuable?
The business could explain how it handles nervous dogs, what owners should prepare before an appointment, how grooming needs differ by coat type, and what customers can expect during a visit.
It could include genuine photographs of its work, details about its experience and answers to questions customers frequently ask.
These additions make the page more specific to the business and more useful to potential customers.
This is what I mean when I talk about original content. It doesn’t mean adding complicated language or writing thousands of words just to make a page longer. It means sharing information that helps a visitor understand something, make a decision or solve a problem.
Google’s guide specifically encourages valuable, non-generic content that provides something beyond a basic summary of information already available elsewhere.
For businesses, the lesson is simple: before publishing another article, ask what useful information your website can contribute that a customer would struggle to find on a generic competitor page.
2. Local businesses should provide clear, useful information
Local search is particularly important for businesses such as plumbers, dentists, cleaning companies, salons, restaurants and pet care providers.
When people search for these services, they often need practical details. They may want to know which areas a business serves, what services it offers, whether appointments are required or how to contact the company.
A page that simply repeats a location keyword several times does not necessarily answer those questions.
Consider a cleaning company serving Hamilton, New Zealand. Instead of creating a page that only repeats “cleaning services in Hamilton,” the business could explain its available cleaning options, the types of properties it serves, how customers can request a quote and what is included in each service.
The information should reflect what the business genuinely offers.
Local details must also be accurate. A business shouldn’t claim to serve a neighbourhood where it doesn’t operate just to attract additional search traffic.
Google’s guidance encourages useful local information as part of its wider approach to generative AI search. For a local business, that is a reason to review existing service and location pages rather than creating dozens of nearly identical pages.
3. Shopping information should help people make decisions
The new guidance is also relevant to online stores.
When someone is considering a product, they may want to understand its features, dimensions, materials, compatibility, availability or differences from similar products.
A page containing only a product name and a short generic description may leave important questions unanswered.
For example, an online furniture store could provide accurate measurements, material details, assembly instructions, care advice and useful photographs showing the product from different angles.
A store selling technical equipment could explain compatibility, specifications and the situations in which a particular product is suitable.
The goal is not to add unnecessary text. It is to help customers understand what they are buying.
For ecommerce websites, accurate product information, relevant images and clear descriptions can improve the shopping experience while supporting a stronger overall search strategy.
4. Images and videos are part of the search experience
Many businesses treat images and videos as decoration. They publish written content first and add visuals only when time permits.
However, useful visuals can help people understand a service or product more clearly.
A home renovation company might show genuine before-and-after project photographs. A trainer could demonstrate an exercise through a short video. A product business could provide detailed images that answer questions about size, construction or use.
The important point is relevance.
Adding random stock photographs to a page does not automatically make it more valuable. The image or video should support the information and give the visitor something useful.
Businesses should also pay attention to image quality, appropriate file sizes, descriptive alternative text where useful, and accessible page design.
Google’s guidance recognises that relevant, high-quality images and videos can contribute to how websites are discovered through generative AI search experiences. This does not mean every page needs a video. The format should suit the subject and the customer’s needs.
5. Does traditional SEO still matter in the age of AI?
This is probably the biggest question business owners ask me.
My answer is yes: SEO remains important.
Google’s guide explains that its generative AI search experiences are built on core Search ranking and quality systems. It also states that a page needs to meet the relevant technical requirements and be eligible to appear in Google Search to qualify for inclusion as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
In simple terms, if your important service page cannot be crawled or indexed properly, creating more AI-focused content is unlikely to solve the underlying problem.
This is why technical SEO still matters.
Businesses should check whether their pages are accessible to search engines, whether important content can be processed, whether internal links help visitors navigate the site, and whether duplicate or outdated pages need attention.
Page experience matters too. A website should be usable on mobile devices, load reasonably well and make its main information easy to find.
Structured data can also support appropriate search features when implemented correctly. However, Google does not require special AI-specific schema markup for a page to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
The real opportunity is to combine sound technical foundations with useful content and a clear customer experience.
6. AEO and GEO are useful concepts—but avoid the hype
At Digi Ustad, we discuss Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) because businesses increasingly want to understand how their content can be discovered in AI-powered search experiences.
These terms can help describe the work involved in making information clear, useful and accessible across different discovery platforms.
However, businesses should be cautious about claims that a particular technique guarantees AI citations.
There is no reliable shortcut that ensures Google will quote a website in an AI Overview or include it in an AI Mode response. Search systems select information according to their own processes, and results can vary.
Google’s guidance specifically addresses common misconceptions about AEO and GEO. It advises website owners to focus on effective SEO practices rather than unnecessary AI-specific tactics.
That means businesses should be careful about paying for services that promise guaranteed inclusion in AI-generated answers or claim access to secret Google ranking signals.
A responsible strategy should explain the work being done, identify measurable improvements and be honest about what cannot be guaranteed.
7. What I would review on a client website today
If I were reviewing one service page for a client, I would start with a few practical questions.
Is the page genuinely useful? Does it explain the service clearly, or does it rely on generic marketing statements?
Does it answer real customer questions? Think about price factors, the process, suitability, preparation, service areas and common concerns where relevant.
Does it show real experience? Genuine project examples, original photographs, accurate service details and relevant expertise can make the information more helpful.
Is the technical foundation sound? Check indexing, crawlability, internal links, mobile usability and any technical problems that prevent important information from being discovered.
Are the visuals useful? Add relevant images or videos when they help explain the service or product.
Can performance be measured? Use available analytics and Google Search Console reporting to understand how people discover and interact with the website.
These checks won’t guarantee AI visibility, but they provide a sensible starting point for improving the quality and discoverability of a page.
8. How should businesses measure progress?
Another mistake is judging an AI search strategy only by whether a business appears in one manually tested response.
AI answers can change depending on the question, context and search experience. One result is not enough to establish consistent visibility.
Businesses should continue monitoring traditional organic search performance, relevant landing-page traffic, enquiries, conversions and the quality of leads.
Google has also introduced a Generative AI performance report in Search Console for AI Overviews and AI Mode. It provides information about impressions from these generative AI features and which pages receive them, where sufficient data is available.
You can read the official Search Console reporting guidance.
Use the available reporting to look for meaningful trends, while remembering that impressions alone do not prove that a campaign generated customers.
The ultimate goal is not simply to appear in an AI answer. It is to make your business easier to discover and give potential customers good reasons to choose you.
My final thoughts as the founder of Digi Ustad
Google’s new guidance is a useful reminder that the fundamentals of search have not disappeared just because AI is changing how people find information.
Businesses do not need to panic, abandon their existing SEO strategy or rewrite every page to satisfy a new set of supposed AI rules.
They need to understand their customers, publish original and useful information, maintain a technically sound website and make important details easy to find.
For some businesses, that may mean improving an existing service page. For others, it could mean fixing indexing problems, adding genuine project examples, improving product descriptions or making local service information clearer.
At Digi Ustad, I see SEO, AEO and GEO as connected parts of a wider effort to improve online visibility. The right approach depends on the website, its audience and the problems that need to be solved.
One thing I would not promise is guaranteed inclusion in Google AI Overviews, AI Mode or any other AI-generated answer. No honest SEO strategy should depend on that guarantee.
Instead, focus on building a website that deserves attention because it provides accurate, relevant and useful information.
The takeaway is simple: don’t chase a secret AI-ranking trick. Build a better website, answer real customer questions and give search engines and people something genuinely valuable to discover.
Official Source
Google Search Central: Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search.
Google’s guidance reinforces the continued importance of foundational SEO, original and helpful content, technical accessibility, and a useful website experience. It does not guarantee that any particular page will appear in AI-generated answers.
