By David Tonic, Founder, Tonic Enterprises

Here’s the thing most business owners miss. Google didn’t die. It grew a second layer. Today your business ranks in two places (the classic blue links and the AI answers above them) or it ranks in neither. This guide walks through how we approach both at Tonic Enterprises.

What are AI Overviews, and how do they choose sources?

AI Overviews are the AI-generated summaries Google shows at the top of some search results. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini do something similar when they answer a question and link to sources.

These tools don’t invent their sources from scratch. They pull from pages they can crawl, understand, and trust. In Google’s case, AI Overviews lean heavily on pages that already rank well for the query or a related one. So if you’re nowhere on page one, your odds of being cited are slim.

Think of it like a reporter writing a quick summary. They grab quotes from the sources that are easiest to find and easiest to quote. Your job is to be both.

Step 1: Fix the foundation before anything else

AI visibility is built on top of regular search visibility. Before you rewrite a single paragraph for AI, check the basics:

• Rankings: Which of your pages already sit in the top 10 for your important keywords? Those are your best candidates for AI citations.
• Core Web Vitals: These are Google’s page experience measurements for loading speed, responsiveness, and visual stability. Slow, jumpy pages lose on both layers.
• Crawlability and indexing: If Google can’t crawl or index a page, no AI tool built on that index will see it either. Check Google Search Console for pages marked “excluded” or “not indexed.”
• No orphan pages: An orphan page has no internal links pointing to it. Search engines struggle to find it and treat it as unimportant. Link every key page from at least one relevant page on your site.

If this list surfaces problems, fix those first. It’s the least exciting step and the one that pays off most.

Step 2: Write for query fan-out

When someone asks an AI tool a question, it often breaks that question into several smaller ones behind the scenes. This is called query fan-out.

For example, a question like “best way to get more local customers” might fan out into:

• How does Google Business Profile (GBP) affect local rankings?
• How many reviews does a local business need?
• Does local SEO work for service-area businesses?
• How much does local SEO cost?

The page that covers all of those sub-questions in one place has a much better chance of being pulled into the answer. Practically, that means:

Step 3: Answer first, explain second

AI tools quote passages, not whole pages. Make every section easy to quote.

• Put the direct answer in the first 50 words of the page and of each major section.
• Keep paragraphs to 3 or 4 sentences. Long walls of text are hard to lift cleanly.
• Use tables, numbered steps, bullet lists, and short definitions. These are the formats AI tools reuse most easily.
• Define jargon in plain English the first time it shows up.

A quick test: read only the first two sentences under each H2. If someone could act on those sentences alone, you’ve done it right.

Step 4: Add proof AI can’t fake

AI tools can generate generic advice all day. What they can’t generate is your experience. That’s exactly what makes a page worth citing.

Add things only your business can provide:

• Original data: a simple survey of your customers, numbers from your own operations, or pricing ranges you actually charge.
• Screenshots and real examples: before-and-after shots, a walkthrough of your process, photos from real jobs.
• Named authors with real credentials: a byline with a bio that explains why this person knows the topic.
• First-hand experience: “Here’s what we saw when we tested this” beats “experts say” every time.

This lines up with what Google calls E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust). It isn’t a ranking switch, but it’s a useful checklist for whether a page deserves to be trusted.

Step 5: Build mentions off your website

Your website is only part of the picture. AI tools also learn about your business from what other sites say about it.

Brand mentions now work a lot like backlinks. Places worth showing up:

• Review platforms: Google, Facebook, Yelp, and industry-specific sites.
• Reddit and forums: genuine, helpful answers in communities where your customers hang out (not spam).
• Podcasts and interviews: a guest spot creates a mention plus a transcript that can be indexed.
• Partner and industry sites: associations, suppliers, local chambers, and trade publications.

AI tools sometimes cite pages that Google itself ranks lower, so a strong presence across these sources matters. We covered this in more depth in What Is Off-Site SEO? Tactics That Build Real Authority.

Proof: what this looks like in practice

Here’s a real example from our own work. A regional moving and packing company came to us in 2025 needing authority fast, in a market where national chains carry far stronger backlink profiles. Like most movers, they had leaned on reviews and GBP. Authority was the gap.

We focused on Step 5 (earning mentions and links off the site), using relevant editorial links, premium placements on credible niche-adjacent sites, and contextual insertions in existing articles. To avoid over-optimization, we spread links across location pages and then service pages instead of piling them on the homepage.

According to the case study, early results included:

• 210 backlinks from 39 unique referring domains
• A 39% lift in organic traffic value
• 21 new keywords in the top 3 (97 top-3 keywords in total)
• 36 new AI citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI search tools

The takeaway: stronger authority in classic search fed visibility in AI answers too. Read the full moving company case study.

Step 6: Keep your best pages fresh

AI citations rotate often. A page cited this month might be replaced next month by something newer.

A simple routine:

• Identify your top 20 pages by traffic or business value.
• Review and update them every quarter: new examples, current details, removed outdated advice.
• Show a “last updated” date, and only change it when you’ve made real updates.

Fake freshness (changing the date without changing the content) erodes trust with readers and search engines alike.

Step 7: Track your share of answer

Rankings alone no longer tell the full story. You also want to know how often AI tools mention you. We call this share of answer.

Here’s a lightweight way to start:

Over a few months you’ll see which topics you own, which competitors keep showing up, and where to focus next.

Quick checklist

The bottom line

There’s no shortcut into ChatGPT or AI Overviews. Most of this is classic SEO done well, with more attention to structure and proof. The businesses that win both layers are the ones willing to do the boring work consistently.

If you’d like help figuring out where you stand today, Tonic Enterprises can review your rankings, site health, and AI visibility and show you where to start. Our DiscoverOS program combines fully managed SEO with AI visibility tracking for businesses that want to show up in both places.

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