CentriWebGoogle AI Overviews draw on pages that are already indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet, so getting your business into them comes down to the same basics as showing up in search at all: a site Google can crawl, pages that answer real questions clearly, structured data that matches the page, and a complete Google Business Profile. Google’s own documentation says there are no additional requirements and no special optimisation needed. There’s no form to submit, and appearing is never guaranteed.
This guide sticks to what Google itself has published, then turns it into a checklist for a local business. If you’re more interested in being named by ChatGPT and other AI assistants, see our guide to getting recommended by ChatGPT.
What are AI Overviews and AI Mode?
AI Overviews are the AI-written summaries that appear at the top of some Google results, with links to the pages they draw on. AI Mode is a more conversational search experience where people can ask follow-up questions.
Google’s page on AI features and your website explains that both may use a “query fan-out” technique, running related searches across subtopics to find supporting pages. Google says this helps them display a wider and more diverse set of helpful links. For a small business, that means a page answering one specific question well can be picked up, even if it doesn’t rank first for the broad search.
Clicks from these features count as normal search traffic. Google says they’re included in the Search Console Performance report, under the “Web” search type.
What does Google say you need to appear in Google AI Overviews?
Less than most “AI SEO” sales pitches suggest. According to Google’s documentation:
- a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet
- there are no additional technical requirements
- you don’t need to create new machine readable files, AI text files or markup
- there’s no special schema.org structured data you need to add
- indexing and serving aren’t guaranteed, even when everything is in order
Google’s newer guide to optimising for generative AI features goes further. It says there’s no requirement to break content into tiny pieces for AI, there’s no ideal page length, and you should make pages for your audience rather than for AI search.
The basics Google lists, applied to a local business
Google’s AI features page lists the SEO best practices that still apply. Here’s what each one means in practice.
| Google’s best practice | What it means for a local business |
|---|---|
| Allow crawling in robots.txt and in any CDN or hosting setup | Check that a security plugin, firewall or hosting setting isn’t blocking Googlebot |
| Make content easy to find through internal links | Link each service page from your menu and home page, and link related pages to each other |
| Provide a good page experience | Fast on a phone, easy to read, no popups covering the content |
| Keep important content in text | Hours, service areas and price guidance written on the page, not only inside images or PDFs |
| Support text with quality images and video | Real photos of your work, your team and your premises |
| Make structured data match the visible text | If your markup says you open at 8am, the page should say 8am too |
| Keep Business Profile and Merchant Center information current | Up-to-date hours, holiday hours, services and products |
Writing pages that answer real questions
People type and speak longer questions into Google now. Pages that answer those questions plainly give AI Overviews something clear to work with.
- Answer first. Put the direct answer in the opening sentence or two, then the detail.
- Use your customers’ questions as headings. “How long does a first appointment take?” is a better heading than “Our process”.
- One page per main service. What it is, who it’s for, where you offer it, what affects the price and what happens next.
- Add what only you know. Google’s AI optimisation guide encourages unique content with a distinct point of view, such as first-hand experience, rather than summaries of what’s already out there.
Google’s guidance on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content is the best checklist for this. It asks why the content exists in the first place, encourages clear authorship, and says that of experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust, trust matters most. It also notes that Google doesn’t prefer content written to a particular word count.
Your Google Business Profile and reviews
For local searches, much of what Google knows about you comes from your Google Business Profile, and Google’s AI features page lists keeping it current as a best practice. Check the basics every quarter:
- categories and services that match what you actually do
- service areas or address, and hours including public holidays
- a description written in plain words, with your main services and areas
- recent photos
- the same name, phone number and address as your website
Reviews give people, and Google, evidence that you do what you say. Ask every happy customer, reply to reviews including the critical ones, and never buy or fake them.
Can you stop Google using your content in AI Overviews?
Yes, with trade-offs. Google’s AI features page points to the nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex controls to limit what’s shown from your pages in Search. Google’s robots meta tag documentation says nosnippet applies to all forms of search results, including AI Overviews and AI Mode, and stops the content being used as a direct input for them. max-snippet limits how much text can be used. These are the same controls that shape snippets in regular results, so use them carefully. data-nosnippet is the most targeted: it marks a specific section of a page, such as a price table you’d rather people see in full, so it isn’t used as a snippet.
Google’s documentation on controlling what you share also describes a site-wide Search generative AI control in Search Console for managing your site’s inclusion in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google-Extended is a separate setting for some of Google’s other AI systems. After any change, Google says to allow time for recrawling, which can take several days to several months.
For most local businesses, the bigger risk is being left out, not being included. Think hard before blocking anything.
What about llms.txt?
llms.txt is a proposal, published by Jeremy Howard in September 2024, for a Markdown file at the root of a website that summarises the site for AI tools. The proposed file starts with the site’s name, a short summary and then lists of links to the most useful pages. It’s an informal proposal rather than an agreed standard, and the idea is that AI tools can read a short, tidy summary instead of working through every page.
Google has been clear about its own position. Its AI optimisation guide says Google Search doesn’t use llms.txt or similar AI text files, and that creating one will neither help nor harm your visibility or rankings in Google Search. Other tools may read these files, so there’s no harm in having one, but it shouldn’t come before the basics in this guide.
Where to start
- Check in Search Console that your important pages are indexed and nothing is blocking Googlebot.
- List the ten questions customers ask most, and make sure your site answers each one clearly.
- Rewrite the opening of each service page so it answers the main question in the first two sentences.
- Check your structured data matches what the page actually says.
- Bring your Google Business Profile up to date and set a quarterly reminder.
- Ask for reviews as a normal part of finishing every job.
CentriWeb handles SEO and marketing for small businesses, built on what Google actually documents rather than shortcuts. We work with clinics, trades and other local services businesses.