Google AI wrong about my business: what to check

The answer to “why is Google AI wrong about my business?” may be sitting on your own website: old pages can feed an outdated description. On 17 September 2026, Barry Schwartz reproduced an AI Overview, Google's AI-written answer in search, inside a local business information box and found stale details that reflected his own old website content. For businesses whose customers check Google before calling or visiting, that makes the accuracy of the summary worth a look.

What changed in September

AI-written summaries have been observed inside some local business listings. In a study published on 26 September 2026, 26% of 100 tested local businesses triggered an AI Overview when searched by business name alone on mobile. The searches were anchored to New York and taken as a same-day snapshot.

That is evidence of a feature appearing in a particular test, not confirmation that every UK business listing has changed. It also does not tell us how often those summaries contain mistakes. Treat it as a reason to inspect your own result, rather than proof that your customers are seeing incorrect information.

Your Google Business Profile is the listing you manage for details such as opening hours and contact information. An AI-written summary appearing within a business listing is not necessarily a copy of the description you entered. Updating your profile and correcting an AI answer are related tasks, but they are not the same thing.

Check what Google actually says about your business

Search for your business name on your phone, then try adding your town if the name could refer to another business. Look at the business information box as well as the ordinary website links. A desktop check can help you see whether the presentation differs, but it cannot establish what every customer sees.

Read the description as a customer making a decision. Does it give the right location, services and contact details? Could it make someone think you offer emergency appointments, serve food or provide treatments that you do not actually offer?

Save a screenshot of anything wrong and note the date, search wording and device. Record the incorrect statement separately from your preferred wording. “We no longer offer that treatment” identifies a factual problem; “we would describe ourselves differently” may only identify a style preference.

Prioritise mistakes that could send someone to the wrong place or create a false expectation. A slightly clumsy description matters less than a claim that your clinic accepts walk-ins when it operates by appointment. If nothing inaccurate appears, record that too rather than hunting for a problem to fix.

Correct the source pages behind the description

To correct Google AI business information, start with any source links shown alongside the answer. Open them and look for the actual claim, rather than assuming the link points to current information. If no source is shown, begin with the pages you control and the listings customers commonly use.

Check your homepage, contact page, service pages and About page for conflicting details. Also inspect old articles and downloadable brochures if they describe services you have stopped offering. A new homepage does not make an outdated service page accurate.

Suppose a salon has stopped offering a treatment but its old treatment page still says bookings are available. Remove or correct that claim and check the relevant links elsewhere on the site. Do not simply add a fresh paragraph about current treatments while leaving the old booking message intact.

Keep useful history where it genuinely belongs, but label it clearly. An article about a former premises can remain useful if readers can see that the business has moved and find the current address. You do not need to erase every mention of the past to make the present clear.

Next, compare your Google Business Profile with your corrected website. Check the address, hours, services and business description for contradictions. If a linked directory contains the wrong facts, update the entry where you have access or ask its operator to correct it.

If the Google result offers a feedback or reporting option, use it to explain the specific error and identify a current source. Do not treat that as a guaranteed correction or assume there is a direct editor for the generated summary. Correcting source material is sensible housekeeping, but neither supplied report establishes how quickly a particular answer will change.

Measure factual errors and lost visits separately

A wrong business description on Google can cause a customer problem without producing an obvious fall in website visits. Someone might call about a service you no longer provide, or decide against visiting because of an inaccurate claim. Keep a note of those enquiries and ask where the information came from rather than guessing.

For website traffic, use Google Search Console, Google's free tool for checking how your website appears in search. Compare clicks over periods of equal length and look separately at searches containing your business name where the report allows it. A change in clicks deserves investigation, but it does not prove an AI summary caused it.

If visits have fallen while your usual search positions appear stable, our guide to Google traffic down but rankings unchanged? explains what else to check. Keep the questions separate: whether Google describes you accurately, and whether fewer useful visitors are reaching your website.

After correcting a source page, revisit the original search and record what you see. A changed answer is useful evidence about that search at that moment, not proof that every version has updated. Likewise, an unchanged answer does not mean the corrected page was a waste of effort: customers reading it now have better information.

When you can skip paid AI monitoring

Start by checking your own result and correcting outdated source pages. The September evidence is a US snapshot, not proof of a UK-wide rollout or a reason every business needs paid AI monitoring. If you can edit your website and manage your business listing, you can do much of this yourself.

Doing nothing specifically about AI summaries is reasonable when your result contains no factual errors and your source pages are current. You do not need to rewrite your website because another business in another country saw a new display. Keep ordinary business information accurate and check again when you change a service, address or opening pattern.

More regular checking may be worthwhile if you find recurring errors, manage several locations or receive confused enquiries. The reason is the problem you have observed, not the existence of an AI feature. Fix a misleading claim before spending time polishing wording that is already accurate.

Keep your business facts clear as search changes

Your organic traffic means the visitors you get from ordinary, unpaid search results, along with the enquiries those visits produce. An AI summary can influence a customer's decision before they reach your website. Accurate source pages therefore matter both to people reading your site and to services that may use it to describe your business.

PageNumberOne runs automated SEO, the ongoing work of helping search engines understand and find your website. The automation runs every day, with a weekly check for technical problems and fixes to page titles, descriptions and hidden labels that describe your business to search engines. It also tracks search positions and provides a plain-English monthly report.

Our Page One plan includes content work, links between relevant pages, local listing updates and work on visibility in AI answers. For this kind of change, the purpose is to keep improving the information available about your business and track how it appears, rather than chase every unfamiliar screen layout.

Real-world changes, such as a discontinued service or a move, still need accurate information from you. We cannot control Google's wording or promise a place in its results. The value of ongoing automation is keeping the underlying work moving week after week, while judging changes against useful visits and enquiries rather than screenshots alone.