A client sent me a screenshot a few weeks ago with one line: "This isn't true". Google's AI overview had confidently told a searcher that a particular service was available at every one of the company's more than 2,000 locations and that it was available at any time. The problem: that service is only available at a handful of locations, and even then, you need a referral. Nobody at the company wrote what Google claimed. A competitor didn't publish it. Google simply connected a few dots and confidently answered that question wrong.
AI overviews don't always quote your website directly. They collect information, interpret it, and produce a summary. And when your website leaves a gap, AI may fill that gap with the most reasonable-sounding answer, not necessarily the correct answer. Maybe you have a service page that explains what you do, but never says where you do it. Maybe an FAQ answers, "Do you offer this?" without explaining the conditions. Maybe an old blog post still describes how your business operated three years ago. Or maybe there's a directory listing you forgot existed that contains outdated information. Any one of those sources can make an incorrect answer sound believable, plausible.
And when that happens, the natural instinct is to find someone at Google and ask them to fix it. Unfortunately, there isn't really someone to call. There's a feedback link attached to AI overviews, but there's no guarantee that submitting feedback is going to change the answer or when that'll ever change. So, the only meaningful lever you control is the source material—in other words, your website.
So, for this client, we did the unglamorous work. Found the pages that made Google's incorrect answer sound possible or maybe just not fully answered. Then, we rewrote them so the important qualifiers were impossible to miss. Which locations offer the service? What does someone need before receiving it? Under what conditions is it available? And just as importantly, what is not offered?
Because the cost of incorrect information goes beyond one misinformed searcher. It creates wasted time for employees answering calls from people expecting something that the company doesn't even provide. And it frustrates customers who arrive with the wrong expectations. And it creates a bad first impression before the business has even had an opportunity to speak for itself.
The AI overview didn't create that confusion; it just scaled it. And that leads to a bigger lesson that I keep seeing: the thing that confused Google was probably already confusing your customers. If a machine can't determine where a service is available, a potential customer may not be able to either. If AI can't tell whether a referral is required, that information probably isn't clear—at least not clear enough for the person trying to make a decision
So, say exactly what you do. Say where you do it. Say what someone needs to get it. And say what you don't do. Write it for the person, the machine is reading over their shoulder.
So, here's your activity: go to Google and search for your business name alongside questions your buyers commonly ask, or maybe even try less common questions that you might hear—the specific ones that someone might ask immediately before calling, visiting, or making a purchase. If an AI overview appears, read every claim carefully. Ask yourself: is everything in this answer actually true? If something is wrong, which page on your website could have made that answer seem reasonable? That's what you need to investigate. Does any page on my site state the correct answer plainly using the same language my customers would use? Don't just check the questions you want people to ask. Check the awkward questions, the edge cases, and the questions that expose the limits of what you offer.
Here's your output. You should have three things. First, a short list of anything Google is saying about your business that isn't accurate. Second, the specific pages that might have made those incorrect answers sound reasonable. And third, one rewritten page that makes the correct answer unmistakable.
The goal isn't to stuff the page with keywords or write for a robot; it's to remove the ambiguity for the person making a decision. The outcome is Google has a better chance of describing your business the way you would describe it and answering the questions the way you would answer them. You get fewer incorrect calls and inquiries, fewer people showing up expecting something that you don't offer or provide. And the people who do contact you already understand what they're getting, so every conversation starts further along.
You can't directly edit an AI overview, but you can improve what it's reading. The businesses getting this right aren't gaming anything; they're simply becoming the clearest source in the room.
Do you want a human to do this for you? Let's chat to see if you'd be a good fit for working with Avalanche, where we take ownership of your website and its performance to build the trust signals that make you the clear choice wherever customers search.
