Google’s AI Overview stated no despite the fact that the reply was sure
In July 2026, Steve McLeod, founding father of participant suggestions platform Characteristic Upvote, Googled “characteristic upvote api” to tug up the assistance documentation concerning the platform’s public REST API, which he’d launched every week earlier.
However to Steve’s shock, he was greeted with a Google AI Overview saying Characteristic Upvote didn’t have a REST API.
“Google’s AI Overview reply was utterly false,” stated Steve. “If it’s giving me fallacious details about my platform, certainly it’s additionally giving customers the identical fallacious data. And this drawback wants fixing.”
Steve is a buddy of mine, so once I noticed it in his publication, I urged some fixes. And inside an hour of Steve implementing them, Google’s AI Overviews began saying that Characteristic Upvote had a public REST API.
Right here’s how Steve modified Google’s inaccurate AI Overview reply.
The issue: Google based mostly its reply on outdated data
Google gave a fallacious AI Overview reply about Characteristic Upvote as a result of the search engine had based mostly its reply on content material that was listed however outdated.
“It turned out that we had a few actually previous weblog posts with throwaway feedback saying we didn’t have a REST API,” stated Steve.
“Google’s AI Overviews cited this a lot older data versus our new help documentation that had ‘Public REST API’ as its H1 heading.”
How Characteristic Upvote tackled the issue
After discovering Google’s incorrect AI Overview reply, Steve introduced Characteristic Upvote’s public REST API on July 24, 2026, by way of a blog post, an X post, and an e mail publication.
Steve printed this content material as a tongue-in-cheek promotion of his API. However he additionally had a secondary purpose: he wished to offer Google recent knowledge for correcting the AI Overview.
In all three content material items, Steve known as Google out for its error. He additionally requested his X followers and publication readers for concepts on fixing it.
“I believed it would catch individuals’s curiosity once I say ‘Google says this, and it’s fallacious,’” stated Steve. “As a enterprise proprietor, I’m at all times making an attempt to get publicity.”
I subscribe to Characteristic Upvote’s e mail publication. So, after studying it on July 27, 2026, I wrote again with a couple of recommendations:
- Right the outdated pages on Characteristic Upvote’s website that Google cited in its AI Overview to state that the platform does have a public REST API
- Submit Characteristic Upvote’s new and up to date pages about its public REST API to Google for indexing, as a result of Google draws on pages in its search index to generate AI Overviews
- Safe protection of Characteristic Upvote’s public REST API in related business publications
In comparison with securing third-party protection, updating and manually submitting his website’s pages to Google for indexing would take Steve lower than a day. So, he did simply that.
Within the course of, he found that Google hadn’t listed his announcement weblog put up, opposite to what he’d thought.
Steve by no means acquired the press protection, and he did not want it. The primary two fixes labored.
The end result: the reply began to flip nearly instantly
Inside an hour of manually submitting his website’s pages to Google for indexing on July 28, 2026, Steve Googled “does characteristic upvote have an api?”, and the AI Overview replied “Sure.”
I confirmed the change myself a day later, once I Googled “does characteristic upvote have a public relaxation api” in three separate browser tabs to verify the right reply wasn’t a coincidence. I additionally ran the searches in incognito mode to get unpersonalized outcomes.
That stated, the repair didn’t instantly work throughout all question variations.
“I observed the AI Overview’s reply modified relying on how I requested the query,” stated Steve.
“If I requested ‘does characteristic upvote’s relaxation api embrace this,’ the AI Overview would say Characteristic Upvote doesn’t have a REST API. But when I requested ‘does characteristic upvote have a relaxation api,’ the AI Overview would say sure, Characteristic Upvote does.”
“It took a couple of extra days for the AI Overview to persistently give the correct reply.”
Tips on how to monitor and repair AI solutions for incorrect model info
Steve described his expertise altering Google’s AI Overview reply as a “thoughts opener.”
“I used to be blown away that you simply’re capable of change Google’s AI Overview solutions with a technique that takes into consideration how these solutions work.”
In Steve’s case, he printed new pages masking his public REST API, up to date present pages that have been inaccurate, and submitted all these pages to Google for indexing.
Right here’s how one can fix what AI gets wrong about your own brand:
1. Establish model info value monitoring
Begin with the info that value you gross sales when AI will get them fallacious. These can embrace:
As Characteristic Upvote is a B2B SaaS product, Steve prioritizes monitoring info concerning the platform’s options, like whether or not it has a public REST API.
“Sometimes, the primary approach small B2B SaaS corporations get prospects is by way of web optimization,” he stated. “If Google provides false data, we’d not get individuals into our gross sales funnel, and that’s a giant drawback.”
2. Decide the AI search platforms your audience makes use of
Figuring out your viewers’s most well-liked AI search platforms helps you prioritize the platforms more than likely to generate leads and gross sales. The AI Traffic dashboard in Semrush’s Traffic & Market Toolkit exhibits the AI search platforms that ship site visitors to your website:
Within the instance screenshot above, ChatGPT leads, adopted by Claude and Gemini.
After that, examine the “Prime Sources” report within the Visitors & Market Toolkit’s Organic Search dashboard. If Google sends you most of your natural site visitors, its AI Overviews are the AI solutions to examine first.
3. Test what AI search platforms say about you
Earlier than you alter something, file what AI search platforms say now and which sources they cite. That is your baseline.
Craft a portfolio of prompts that will get AI search platforms to floor your goal model info. Listed below are some examples:
|
Instance immediate |
Model reality |
|
what’s the deal with of [your business] |
What you are promoting deal with |
|
how a lot does [your service] value |
Your service’s value |
|
does [your product] combine with [another product] |
Whether or not your product integrates with the opposite named product |
|
is [your product] gdpr compliant |
Whether or not your product complies with the Common Information Safety Regulation |
|
does [your business] provide refunds |
What you are promoting’s refund coverage |
Give you three to 5 variants of every immediate concentrating on a selected model reality. As Steve shared, AI search platforms can reply one query appropriately (e.g., “does characteristic upvote have a relaxation api”) however give a fallacious reply once you ask about the identical reality from a special angle (e.g., “does characteristic upvote’s relaxation api embrace this”).
Subsequent, run your prompts in your recognized AI search platforms and write down:
- While you ran the immediate
- The reply, phrase for phrase
- The pages the AI search platform cited
Screenshot the fallacious AI solutions and flag them.
Hold your prompts’ wording unchanged throughout all runs, so you may attribute modifications within the AI solutions to your fixes relatively than modifications to your preliminary immediate.
4. Debug the data provide chain
For every fallacious reply, work again by way of the sources till you discover the place the fallacious reality comes from.
Right here’s how:
|
What to examine for |
Why this step issues |
What to do |
|
Have you ever printed details about the model reality on a standalone web page in your website? |
AI search platforms can’t present details about your model that they don’t have |
Publish a devoted web page about your model reality. State the very fact in a full sentence close to the highest, within the phrases individuals search with. For instance, “Sure, [brand] has a public REST API.”
If it fits the web page, add a frequently asked questions (FAQs) section that restates the very fact in a solution. |
|
Is the data you’ve printed in your website concerning the model reality correct? |
AI search platforms may repeat your website’s inaccurate data, identical to how they referenced Steve’s outdated weblog posts when saying Characteristic Upvote didn’t have a public REST API |
Replace any outdated references to the model reality in your website’s pages, particularly those AI search platforms have cited |
|
Does the web page state the very fact clearly? |
Offering clear data helps AI search platforms perceive and extract it for AI solutions |
State details about your model reality plainly on the web page. Keep away from together with irrelevant content material. |
|
Has Google listed the pages that point out your model reality? |
Google’s search index is a key information source for numerous AI search platforms, together with AI Overviews |
Get Google to index your website for those who haven’t already. Then, use Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool to request indexing for the pages that point out your model reality. |
|
Is the right details about your model reality strengthened on different websites? |
AI search platforms usually tend to point out data corroborated by third-party sources |
If the fallacious reality seems on another person’s website, see whether or not you may repair the inaccuracy your self, corresponding to by updating your itemizing on a evaluation platform.
When you can’t, contact the positioning proprietor and ask them to right it.
Additionally, run digital public relations campaigns to safe protection of your model reality in related business publications. |
5. Recheck after making modifications
As soon as your fixes are stay, run the identical prompts once more.
If an AI reply is now correct, file how lengthy the AI search platform took to replace it. This data provides you a benchmark for a way quickly future fixes may present outcomes.
Our information to fixing AI brand misinformation says fixes can take weeks to months, however Steve’s began working inside an hour.
If the reply continues to be fallacious, establish the pages the AI search platform cites in assist. Then, work to replace these pages’ data and have Google re-index them earlier than rechecking the immediate.
The repair isn’t assured to stay
There’s no assure corrected AI solutions will keep fastened. Their content material and citations could change as AI search platforms regenerate them, particularly when new sources seem.
On September 10, 2026, for instance, Google’s AI Overview nonetheless appropriately stated “Sure” once I requested “does characteristic upvote have a public relaxation api” in an incognito browser tab. Nevertheless it now cited Characteristic Upvote’s “Characteristic Voting Instrument” advertising and marketing web page and “API utilization instance in Java” assist article as an alternative of the announcement put up itself.
Periodically recheck your goal prompts, particularly after main product or firm modifications. This manner, you’ll keep on prime of AI solutions which have gone stale and may repair them shortly.
Semrush’s Position Tracking device tracks your prompts and the AI solutions to them in ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode. For Google’s AI Overviews, it flags AI Overview outcomes for the key phrases you monitor.
Place Monitoring additionally exhibits which of your website’s pages AI search platforms cite of their responses, plus snapshots of the AI solutions in your reference.
“We modified inaccurate AI solutions about Characteristic Upvote inside a matter of days,” stated Steve. “When individuals seek for details about your small business, they nonetheless get a solution even when they don’t land on the pages you constructed for that key phrase.”
“It’s worthwhile to monitor what that reply is, and if it’s fallacious, you must repair it. And it may be fastened.”
