Everyone Hates Google's AI Overviews. Ours Just Became Our Best Salesperson.

What an AI Overview actually is

An AI Overview is the short summary Google's AI writes at the top of some search results. It's built from pages Google trusts, and it has small links back to the places it got its information from.

It doesn't appear for every search. But when it does, it sits above everything else. It's the first thing people read, and for a lot of people it's the only thing they read.

Why everyone's so annoyed

Let's be fair to the complainers. They have a point.

If someone searches "how do I bleed a radiator?", the AI Overview often gives them the answer right there. They never click through to the plumber's blog post that explained it. For websites that lived on those clicks, that hurts, and the anger is real.

But here's the thing most people miss.

Your customers aren't asking how to bleed a radiator

They're asking who to hire.

When someone searches your business name, or "is this lot any good?", the AI Overview isn't stealing your click. It's introducing you. It's the receptionist who says, "Ah yes, them. Here's what they do, and here's where to find them."

Ours says we build multi-page websites, automated Google review systems and job management dashboards for UK tradespeople and small service businesses. Then it lists our key services. Then it links to us.

That's a better sales pitch than most businesses manage on their own website. And it's sitting in the most valuable spot on the page, for free.

The dangerous part: it'll describe you anyway

Here's what should worry you. Google's AI doesn't wait for your permission. It writes about you using whatever it can find, whether you've helped it or not.

Picture a kitchen fitter in Swansea. Five years ago he stopped doing bathrooms. But his old directory listing still says bathrooms. His Facebook page says kitchens and bedrooms. His website doesn't say which towns he covers at all.

So the AI does its best with the mess. It tells people he fits bathrooms. He gets calls for jobs he doesn't do, and misses the ones he wants. Or worse, it can't work out who he is, and summarises a firm with a similar name instead.

Same for the barber in Leeds whose opening hours are three years out of date. The cleaner in Bristol listed under her old business name. The tutor in Norwich who isn't mentioned at all.

And the cruel part? You'll never see it unless you go looking. The AI is talking about you to your customers every day, and you've no idea what it's saying.

Try this: what does AI say about you?

• ●Open a private window on your phone and search your business name. If there's an AI Overview, read every word of it.
• ●Ask an AI assistant directly. Type "What does [your business name] in [your town] do?" into ChatGPT or Gemini.
• ●Check the details. Are the services right? The towns? The phone number? Does it say you're still trading?
• ●No summary at all, or one about somebody else? That means Google doesn't know enough about you yet. That's fixable.

How we got Google to describe us properly

Look closely at what the AI wrote about us. It's very close to the wording we use ourselves, on our website and on every listing. That's not luck. It's the result of telling the same clear story everywhere.

• ●One clear sentence about what we do, used the same way on our website, our Google Business Profile and every directory listing.
• ●A page for each thing we do, so each one answers one question clearly instead of a single page trying to say everything.
• ●The same name, address and phone number everywhere, written identically, so Google can be sure every listing is the same business.
• ●Fresh wording on every directory, but the same facts. Google tends to ignore copies of identical text, but it needs the facts to agree.
• ●Behind-the-scenes labels on our website (called structured data) that tell Google our business name, our founder and where our profiles live.
• ●The rest of the checklist, from map listings to directories, is in how we took 6 of 9 Google page-one spots.

Here's what happens next

More and more searches are going to be answered by AI. On Google, on phones, through voice assistants, in apps people haven't even downloaded yet.

When someone asks, "Who's a good electrician near me?", the AI won't show them ten blue links and let them choose. It'll pick a few names and explain why.

The businesses it can describe clearly and confidently are the ones it'll recommend. The rest won't be criticised. They'll simply never come up.

Where we fit

Getting your details right everywhere is a job we do for our customers as a done-for-you setup service. You can also do it yourself, for free, if you've got the time and the patience to get every detail identical.

It works best alongside the Complete Business Package: a 40+ page website where every page reaches Google as real text, so the AI has proper information to work with, plus review requests that go out automatically when you mark a job done. Reviews feed the AI too, so here's how to get Google reviews without chasing anyone.

It's the same approach whether you need website design for small business or a site for a trade.

So, love them or hate them?

You don't have to like AI Overviews. Plenty of people never will.

But they're not going anywhere, and they're going to talk about your business whether you like it or not. The only question is whether they get it right.

Start with a free report on your business. We'll check what Google and the AI tools say about you, what they get wrong, and what's missing. Trev's on it.

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