How to Make Your Business the Answer Google's AI Recommends

Ask Google a question today and there is a good chance you get an AI answer before you see a single website. For a local business that can feel like bad news. Fewer people scroll down to your listing.

On 15 October 2026 Google changed how those AI answers show links. Links now sit higher and stand out more. When only a few official sites cover a task, Google shows them in their own section at the top of the answer, with a note on why each one is useful.

That is an opening. If your website is the clearest, most official source for the jobs you do, you have a better chance of being that link. It is the same principle we cover in our guide to tracking AI visibility in Search Console and Bing.

What Google means by "official"

Google has not published a checklist for this section, so treat what follows as good practice, not a guarantee. In practice, an official source is the business that actually does the work, saying clearly what it does, where, for how much and who is behind it. A national directory or a vague blog post is not that. Your own well-built service page can be.

Most small business websites fall down here. One "Services" page lists eight things in a paragraph each. Google and its AI have nothing solid to quote.

The five-step checklist

1. List the jobs people search for. Write down the 5 to 10 tasks customers actually look up, in their words. "Boiler service cost Derby" or "EICR for landlords Ripley", not "heating solutions". Your Google Business Profile and Search Console show the real searches.

2. Give each job its own page. One page per service, with:

• a plain title: Boiler Servicing in Derby | Smith Heating
• a unique meta description that promises the answer
• one clear heading that matches the title

3. Put the facts AI answers pull on the page. Price range, how long the job takes, areas you cover, certifications (Gas Safe, NICEIC, FENSA), what is included and what is not. Add a short FAQ with the questions customers ask you on the phone.

4. Make it obvious you are the real business. Your name, address and phone number should match your Google Business Profile exactly. Add real photos of your work, a short "about us" and LocalBusiness structured data so Google can read the details reliably.

5. Link it together. Link each service page from your homepage and your Business Profile, and link related services to each other. A page nothing links to is a page Google barely notices.

A quick before and after

Before: a "Services" page that says We offer a wide range of heating and plumbing services across the East Midlands.

After: a "Boiler Servicing in Derby" page that says A standard gas boiler service costs £80 to £110, takes about an hour and includes a flue gas check and a written report. We are Gas Safe registered (number 123456) and cover Derby, Ripley, Alfreton and Belper.

The second version answers the question. That is the version an AI answer can quote and link to.

How to tell if it is working

Note your Search Console clicks and impressions for each service page before you start. Check again after six to eight weeks. Google does not yet report clicks from AI answers separately, so also search your main questions yourself in Google's AI Mode and see whether you are cited. We cover what to look for in Search Console's AI reports in more detail in this post.

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I build these pages for local businesses at a fixed price: an audit of your current site plus five service pages written and built to this checklist. No retainer. Get in touch and I will tell you which five pages I would start with.