AI Overviews have been part of Google results in the UK since August 2024: a written summary at the top of the page that answers the question and links to a handful of sources. In July 2025 Google added AI Mode in the UK, a separate tab on the results page and in the Google app for longer, more complex questions and follow-ups. If search results look different to you lately, this is why.
For a small business, the worry is usually traffic. If Google answers the question itself, will anyone still visit your website? That depends on what kind of searches bring you customers, and Google’s own guidance on what to do about it is shorter than you might expect.
How AI Overviews and AI Mode choose their sources
Google says AI Overviews appear only when its systems judge they’ll add something beyond ordinary results, while AI Mode is designed for questions that need more exploration, reasoning or comparison. Both use a technique Google calls “query fan-out”: running several related searches behind the scenes, then showing links to the pages that support the response. In June 2026 Google said it had increased the number of links shown within AI responses and added website previews to encourage clicks.
Crucially, the sources come from Google’s normal search index and ranking systems. Google’s page on AI features and your website says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special optimisation is necessary. A page needs to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet in Google Search, exactly as for an ordinary result.
Which searches are affected most
Broad informational questions, such as “how often should a boiler be serviced” or “what’s the difference between a combi and a system boiler”, are where an AI summary can satisfy someone without a click. Searches with clear local or buying intent, like “boiler service Cheltenham”, still end with the person choosing a business to contact.
Local businesses can also appear within AI answers. Google’s guide to optimising for generative AI features notes that AI responses can include information about local businesses, and that a Google Business Profile helps your services show up in both AI responses and ordinary results.
What’s worth doing
None of this needs a new strategy, but a few habits help.
Answer the question early. If a page is about what a service costs or how long a job takes, say so in the first couple of sentences, then add the detail. That helps human readers first, and it makes the page easy for Google to use.
Say things only you can say. Google’s guide warns against simply recycling what’s already online and encourages content with a genuine point of view or first-hand expertise. A generic “10 benefits of double glazing” article competes with thousands of others and with the AI summary itself. A page explaining how you survey a period property before quoting, with photos of your own work and a realistic price range, is much harder to replace.
Keep your Business Profile and reviews in order. They feed the map results and AI answers about local businesses alike. Our list of Google Business Profile mistakes that cost you enquiries makes a good checklist.
Make sure Google can read your site. Slow pages, pages accidentally blocked from indexing or content that only loads through scripts can keep you out of ordinary results and AI features alike. That’s the focus of our onsite technical SEO work.
Measuring AI Overviews in Search Console
There are two places to look.
Clicks and impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in the standard Performance report in Search Console, under the “Web” search type. They aren’t separated out there, so they’re mixed in with ordinary results.
Google also introduced a Generative AI performance report in June 2026 and finished rolling it out to all sites on 31 August 2026. It shows how often links to your pages appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode, broken down by page, country, device and date. It currently shows impressions only, with no clicks or search queries, and smaller sites may not have enough data for it to show much yet.
A practical check: compare the last three months with the same period a year earlier, first for your informational pages and then for your service and location pages. If clicks have dropped on broad “how to” content while service pages hold steady, that fits the pattern you’d expect from AI Overviews rather than a wider problem. Then judge the result by enquiries, not visits. Our guide to working out which marketing brings in enquiries explains how to track that.
The opt-out setting, and why most businesses should leave it alone
Search Console now has a setting under Settings called Search generative AI, which lets a site exclude its links and content from Google’s generative AI features. Google says the choice isn’t used as a ranking signal for ordinary search, but excluded sites won’t receive impressions or traffic from AI Overviews or AI Mode. The setting was first offered to a group of UK sites in June 2026 and has been available worldwide since 31 August 2026.
For a publisher whose articles are being summarised, that trade-off might be worth weighing up. For a local business that wants to be recommended, being left out of AI answers rarely helps. Including your site is the default, and for most small businesses it’s the right choice.
Don’t write off Google Ads
Google’s advertiser help pages confirm that in the UK, search ads can appear above or below an AI Overview. For searches where someone is ready to book, a well-run Google Ads campaign puts you in front of them whether or not a summary appears, which makes it a useful counterweight if organic clicks on informational content start to fall.
What to avoid
Be sceptical of anyone selling “AI Overview optimisation”, “AEO” or “GEO” as something separate from good SEO. Google’s own guide tackles these ideas directly: it says Google Search doesn’t use llms.txt files, there’s no need to break content into tiny chunks for AI, and you don’t need to write in a special way for generative AI search. The features also change often, so chasing every reported trick is a poor use of a small budget compared with getting the fundamentals right.
If you’d like a clear picture of how AI Overviews are affecting your site, book a call and we can look through your Search Console data together, or see how our SEO services could help.
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