Quick question: when someone searches for a business like yours on Google, are you actually showing up?
Not “are you ranking on page one” — that’s the old question. The new question is whether you’re showing up in the AI-generated summary that now appears at the top of most Google searches, before anyone even scrolls down to the traditional blue links.
That AI summary is called an AI Overview, and it’s not a small experiment anymore. AI Overviews are now reaching over 2.5 billion people every month, according to Dataconomy. That’s billion, with a B. For a lot of searches, the AI Overview is the search results page now — and if your business isn’t part of that summary, you’re invisible to a huge and growing share of the people looking for you, no matter how well you rank the old-fashioned way.
Here’s the part that made us sit up and pay attention this week: Google also just added a way to actually see this in Search Console, the free tool that shows how your site performs in search. Up until now, there was no clean way to know whether AI Overviews were sending you traffic, impressions, or nothing at all. Now there’s a real report for it. Which means “how do we show up in AI search” just went from a vague, hand-wavy concept to something we can actually measure.
Why This Matters More Than It Might Sound Like
Ranking well in classic Google search and showing up well in AI Overviews are related, but they’re not the same thing. AI Overviews pull from a different mix of signals — how clearly your site answers a question, how your content is structured, how trustworthy and consistent your information is across the web. A site can rank on page one the traditional way and still get completely skipped by the AI summary. Or vice versa.
For a local business, that gap is a big deal. Think about how people search now: “best [your service] near me,” “how much does [your service] cost,” “is [your service] worth it.” Those are exactly the kinds of questions AI Overviews love to answer directly — sometimes without the searcher ever clicking through to a website at all. If you’re not positioned to be part of that answer, a competitor down the street might be, and most business owners have no idea whether they’re in that game or not.
What We’re Doing About It
We like to be the people who translate stuff like this into something you can actually act on, instead of just another thing to worry about. So we’re rolling out an AI-Search Readiness Audit — a straightforward look at how your website actually shows up in AI Overviews and AI-powered search, not just where you rank in the traditional results.
Here’s what it covers:
- Whether your business is currently appearing in AI Overviews for the searches that matter to you, and where you’re being left out
- How your site’s structure and content are helping or hurting your chances of being pulled into an AI summary
- A clear, prioritized list of fixes — not a 40-page report you’ll never open, but the handful of things that will actually move the needle
- A baseline so we can track your progress in Search Console’s new AI reporting as changes take effect
This isn’t about chasing every new shiny thing in search. It’s about making sure the strategy behind your website still holds up now that the way people search has genuinely changed — and it did, this week, in a measurable way.
Want to Know Where You Stand?
If you’ve been wondering whether your website is keeping up with how people actually search these days, this is a good time to find out. Not ready for a full audit yet? Start with 5 Signs Your Website Isn’t Ready for AI-Powered Search for a quick self-check.
Or skip straight to the answer: book a free discovery call and we’ll run an AI-Search Readiness Audit on your site and walk you through exactly what it means for your business — no jargon, just a clear next step.
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About The Author
I'm KT and I'm the face behind Trulove Webworks. I live in Montgomery, TX with my husband and 3 beautiful daughters. I love design and business strategy but the real reason I do what I do is because I want to see more small businesses thrive.
- Katelyn Trulove
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