OUTLINE OF CHAPTERS
If you’ve searched for anything on Google recently, you’ve probably noticed something different sitting above the usual list of blue links, a neat, AI-generated summary that pulls together information from multiple sources into one digestible answer. That’s Google’s AI Overview, and it’s fundamentally changing how people find businesses like yours.
For business owners, this raises an obvious question: how do you make sure your website is one of the sources Google’s AI chooses to reference?
We’ve been watching this shift closely at Grizzly. As a Bristol web design agency that’s spent over a decade helping businesses get found online, we’ve seen search evolve from simple keyword matching to something far more nuanced. AI Overviews represent the biggest change yet, and the businesses that adapt first will have a serious advantage.
Here’s our practical guide to getting your content in front of AI-powered search.
First, What Actually Is an AI Overview?
Google’s AI Overview uses generative AI to synthesise information from across the web and present it as a concise answer at the top of search results. Rather than making the user click through five different websites to piece together an answer, Google now does the heavy lifting. According to Google’s own documentation on AI features, AI Overviews are designed to help people get to the gist of a complicated topic quickly, while still providing links to supporting websites for deeper exploration.
Sometimes it quotes sources directly. Sometimes it paraphrases. Sometimes it links back to the original pages, and sometimes it doesn’t. The key takeaway? If your content is clear, trustworthy and well-structured, you stand a much better chance of being the source Google reaches for.
Understanding What Google’s AI Actually Wants
Forget everything you know about gaming the system. AI Overviews don’t reward keyword stuffing, thin content or clever tricks. They reward usefulness.
The content that gets pulled into AI-generated summaries tends to share a few characteristics: it answers questions directly, it’s written by people who clearly know what they’re talking about, and it’s structured in a way that’s easy for both humans and machines to parse.
That last point is worth dwelling on. Google’s AI doesn’t just scan for keywords anymore, it tries to understand meaning. This is where something called semantic SEO comes into play.
Write for Meaning, Not Just Keywords
Semantic SEO is about helping AI understand the full context of what you do, who you serve and what problems you solve. It goes well beyond sprinkling target phrases across your page.
Say you’re a Bristol-based accountancy firm. Instead of repeating “accountant Bristol” throughout your homepage, you’d be better off explaining that you specialise in tax planning for owner-managed businesses, that you handle HMRC compliance for companies turning over between £500k and £5m, and that your clients are typically in construction and professional services.
That kind of specificity gives AI systems the context they need to match your content with real-world search queries, particularly the longer, more conversational ones that are becoming increasingly common.
This is something we think about constantly when building websites for our clients. Every web design project we take on includes careful consideration of how content will perform in this evolving search landscape.
Structure Your Content So AI Can Actually Use It
AI tools, much like humans, prefer content that’s well-organised. If your page is a wall of text with no clear hierarchy, it’s going to get skipped over in favour of a competitor who’s laid things out more thoughtfully.
Here’s what good structure looks like in practice.
Lead with the answer. If someone’s searching “how much does a website cost in Bristol,” your page should answer that question in the first paragraph, not three-quarters of the way down after a lengthy preamble about the history of web design. Put the direct answer up front, then expand with supporting detail for people who want to go deeper.
Use a clear heading hierarchy. Your H1 is your page title. H2s break the page into major themes or questions. H3s handle supporting points. This isn’t just good for AI, it makes your content more scannable for visitors too.
Break up dense information. Tables, numbered steps and short paragraphs all make content easier to digest. If you’re explaining a process or comparing options, format it accordingly rather than burying everything in prose.
Go deep, not wide. AI Overviews tend to favour comprehensive content that thoroughly covers a topic rather than shallow pages that touch on many things without saying much about any of them. One genuinely useful 2,000-word guide will outperform ten 200-word pages every time.
Our SEO services are built around exactly this kind of content strategy, helping businesses create pages that are structured to perform in modern search.
Write Like a Human, Not a Content Factory
Here’s something that might seem counterintuitive: AI is getting better at spotting content that was produced without genuine thought or expertise. Generic, template-driven copy that reads like it could have been written for any business in any industry is exactly the kind of content that gets overlooked.
The content that performs well in AI Overviews tends to be specific, opinionated (where appropriate) and clearly written by someone with actual knowledge of the subject. Google’s own guidance on creating helpful, people-first content reinforces this, asking creators to consider whether their content provides original information and substantial value compared to other pages in search results.
A few principles we follow at Grizzly.
Be direct. Say what you mean without corporate waffle. If your web hosting is fast because you use SSD servers with CDN distribution, say that, don’t hide behind vague claims about “industry-leading infrastructure.”
Be specific. Numbers, examples and real scenarios are far more useful than generalities. Instead of “we build beautiful websites,” explain what makes them perform, mobile responsiveness, sub-three-second load times, conversion-optimised layouts.
Sound like yourself. Every business has a voice. The best content sounds like an expert in the room explaining something clearly, not like a press release or a textbook.
Build the Kind of Trust That AI Can Verify
Google’s AI doesn’t just look at what you say, it looks at the signals around your content to determine whether you’re a credible source. This is where E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust) becomes critical. Google introduced the additional “E” for Experience in December 2022, recognising that first-hand knowledge adds a valuable dimension to content quality beyond formal expertise alone.
In practical terms, this means your website should demonstrate genuine knowledge rather than just claim it.
Show your work. Case studies, project examples and real client outcomes carry far more weight than generic capability statements. When we showcase our portfolio of work, we include the challenges each client faced and how we solved them, that kind of transparency signals expertise to both visitors and AI systems.
Make authorship visible. If you’re publishing blog content or guides, attach it to real people with real credentials. Author bios, dedicated team pages and professional credentials all help AI systems verify that your content comes from knowledgeable sources.
Back claims with evidence. Link to reputable external sources when citing data. Reference industry standards. Include customer reviews and testimonials. Every trust signal helps.
Use structured data. Implement author schema, organisation schema and relevant content markup (article schema, FAQ schema, how-to schema) to give search engines a machine-readable layer of context about your content. This is something we handle as standard on every website we design and build.
Get the Technical Foundations Right
Outstanding content on a technically poor website is like putting a Ferrari engine in a car with flat tyres. Google’s AI favours pages that load quickly, render cleanly and follow modern web standards.
Speed matters more than ever. AI Overviews prioritise fast-loading, mobile-friendly pages. If your site takes more than a few seconds to load, particularly on mobile, you’re already at a disadvantage. Our approach to web development prioritises performance from the ground up, because a website that looks incredible but loads slowly isn’t doing its job.
Clean up technical debt. Broken links, redirect chains, missing alt text, poor mobile rendering, these issues erode your site’s credibility with search engines. A regular technical audit should be part of your ongoing SEO maintenance.
Internal linking is your secret weapon. Connect related content across your site with purposeful internal links. This helps AI understand the breadth and depth of your expertise on a given topic, and it keeps visitors engaged for longer. Think of it as building a web of knowledge that demonstrates you’re a genuine authority in your space.
What Winning Content Actually Looks Like
When you analyse the content that consistently appears in AI Overviews, a clear pattern emerges. These aren’t pages that have found some secret hack, they’re pages that have done the fundamentals exceptionally well.
They answer the searcher’s question within the first few sentences. They use clear headings and logical structure. They include schema markup and structured data. They demonstrate genuine expertise through examples and original insight. They load fast and work perfectly on mobile. They link intelligently, both internally to related content and externally to authoritative sources.
None of this is revolutionary. It’s simply a matter of doing the basics consistently and thoroughly, which is harder than it sounds when you’re running a business at the same time.
How We Approach This at Grizzly
We’ve been helping Bristol businesses improve their search visibility for over a decade, and AI-powered search is simply the latest chapter in that story. Our approach combines three things: websites that are technically excellent, content that demonstrates real expertise, and ongoing SEO strategy that evolves as search does.
Every project starts with understanding what your customers are actually searching for and what they need to find. From there, we build websites that are fast, accessible and structured for both human visitors and AI systems. We create content strategies that position your business as a genuine authority. And we implement the technical SEO and structured data that gives your content the best possible chance of being selected.
The businesses that invest in this now, while their competitors are still figuring out what AI Overviews even are, will have a significant head start.
Ready to Make Your Website AI-Ready?
If your website was built more than a couple of years ago, there’s a good chance it wasn’t designed with AI-powered search in mind. That doesn’t mean starting from scratch, often, strategic improvements to content structure, technical health and schema implementation can make a substantial difference.
We’d be happy to take a look and give you an honest assessment of where you stand. Get in touch with us to start the conversation.