How to prepare your business website for Google’s AI-powered search

What does Google say about appearing in AI answers?

Google’s documentation explains that SEO fundamentals still apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode. A page must be indexed and eligible to appear with a snippet. There are no additional technical requirements or special structured data that guarantee inclusion. Meeting the requirements does not guarantee that a page will be indexed or shown. [1]

In a guide announced on 15 May 2026, Google emphasised unique content, the continuing importance of SEO, and reviewing common assumptions about AEO and GEO. [2]

Our practical reading at CROMBA: before buying a service package with a new label, ask for a clear diagnosis of what your website actually lacks. Is the problem access to pages, shallow information, or the absence of a clear route to contact you?

Start with the buying questions your team hears

Collect questions from sales calls, customer messages and introductory meetings. Group them into understanding, comparison and selection questions. Then choose one your team can answer through direct experience and useful detail.

For a service business, the question might be: what affects the cost of building a multilingual website? An article can explain templates, content volume, bookings, integrations and maintenance, then identify the information needed for a suitable proposal. That helps readers more than repeatedly rewording a service description.

Give a direct answer first, then expand it with examples and clear boundaries. Explain when an option fits and when a project needs an alternative. This is CROMBA’s editorial recommendation for content that helps people make decisions.

Make your expertise visible on the page

Include something that cannot easily be copied from a generic definition: a tested requirements checklist, an explanation of a decision in a project you have permission to show, a comparison using explicit criteria, or questions that prepare a customer for a meeting.

• Explain who provides the service, whom it serves and the limits of the scope.
• Connect figures to their source, date and market; remove claims you cannot support.
• Use illustrations that support the idea and alternative text describing their content.
• Review paragraphs when the product or service changes and show the actual revision date.

Do not publish a case study suggesting results that never happened. A clearly labelled hypothetical example can be useful when it explains the thinking rather than claiming agency performance.

Check access, indexing and internal links

Google’s guidance includes allowing crawling, providing important content as text, linking pages internally and matching structured data to what visitors can see. [1]

Turn this into a review with your website manager: open the page without signing in, check for unintended indexing blocks and make sure the canonical URL points to the correct version. Test readability on mobile, links, buttons and the form.

Link the guide to the relevant service page and an article answering the reader’s next question. Use descriptive link text, such as “tracking leads in GA4”, rather than a vague label. Start with our guide to measuring the journey from visit to customer.

Separate visibility, visits and business outcomes

On 3 June 2026, Google announced dedicated Search Console reports for website visibility in generative search features, with an update stating global availability on 31 August. The announcement describes visibility, pages, countries, devices and time periods within these reports. [3]

Review three separate questions: are our pages appearing for relevant topics? Are suitable visitors arriving? Do some become qualified enquiries? Do not treat an impression as a visit or a submitted form as a completed sale.

Record each change and allow a review period appropriate to the customer’s decision cycle. If visits rise without better enquiries, review the connection between topic and service, the offer’s clarity and ease of contact before adding more articles.

A starting plan for one page

1. Choose a priority service and the question holding back its purchase.
2. Write an answer supported by experience and sources, with a clear example.
3. Review indexing, the mobile experience and links.
4. Add an appropriate contact invitation and record the resulting enquiries and their quality.
5. Update the page as new questions reach your team.

This makes content planning part of service and sales development, evaluated by what it adds to the customer journey.

Frequently asked questions