What should you do when AI recommends another business?
Read the complete answer and its sources before deciding what to change. Check whether the question describes a need you serve, whether the product is represented accurately and whether relevant information is accessible. Improve the specific gap supported by evidence. Another brand appearing in one answer does not by itself identify the cause or justify rewriting the whole website.
Check whether the question fits your offering
A buyer may ask for a feature, location, delivery model or use case your business does not provide. Another option may then fit better. Preserve that constraint when reading the result. Changing the question simply to force your inclusion would conceal the product-fit issue.
Sources: Buyer questions for AI visibility; How Ready Scan builds an AI visibility scorecard
Read the recommendation in context
A list can mention several businesses without recommending any of them. A conditional suggestion can be useful even if the product is not described as the first choice. Keep qualifications about team size, integrations or operating needs: they explain the decision the answer is making.
Sources: How Ready Scan builds an AI visibility scorecard; The Ready Scan report guide
Find a gap you can address
This table is a decision aid, not a measured provider result or a guarantee of inclusion.
From an observed problem to a useful action
Scroll to read all columns.
| Observation | Inspect | Improve |
|---|---|---|
| The offering is described incorrectly. | Retained wording and cited product information. | Correct unclear or outdated facts on pages you control. |
| A needed capability is unexplained. | Product details and supporting sources. | Add a precise description, conditions and worked use case. |
| A cited source is incomplete. | What it actually says about the product. | Improve your source; request factual corrections elsewhere when appropriate. |
| Useful information is hard to reach. | Navigation, public access and page response. | Make the page accessible and link it in context. |
| The question asks for an unsupported need. | Buyer constraints and the actual offering. | Explain fit honestly; do not invent a capability. |
| No answer completed. | The missing observation and disclosed failure. | Resolve incomplete evidence before interpreting absence. |
Sources: Sources behind AI answers; How Ready Scan builds an AI visibility scorecard; AI features and your website
A worked example of a page improvement
Consider a hypothetical scheduling service described only as “simple appointments”. A buyer asks about staff availability, reminders and rescheduling. If those features are supported, the page can explain how they work, who controls them and which limits apply. If they are not supported, it should make that clear. This is a content example, not a captured AI answer. The improvement is clearer fit and verifiable information.
Sources: Buyer questions for AI visibility; Optimizing your website for generative AI features
Repair information in its canonical home
Update the relevant product or guide page, link supporting detail and preserve readable context. Separate supported facts from your interpretation of an answer. A clearer page can help customers immediately. Keep useful existing material and its sources rather than replacing the whole site in response to one result.
Sources: Sources behind AI answers; Optimizing your website for generative AI features
Use guidance for the relevant platform
Search-based answers can depend on accessible, relevant source pages. Google explains its own AI-search requirements and says eligibility does not guarantee appearance. Apply that guidance to the experience it covers. A special file, extra markup or a crawler visit cannot establish why a particular answer preferred another option.
Sources: AI features and your website; Optimizing your website for generative AI features
Finish a useful action
Clarify the offering, add supported detail, repair access or correct a source. Keep the original issue understandable so the change has a clear purpose. Use answer evidence already available; the action should improve information customers can use rather than create a recurring task to check rival brands.
Sources: How Ready Scan builds an AI visibility scorecard; Sources behind AI answers
Sources
- Optimizing your website for generative AI featuresGoogle Search Central · Accessed
- AI features and your websiteGoogle Search Central · Accessed
- How Ready Scan builds an AI visibility scorecardReady Scan · Accessed
- Buyer questions for AI visibilityReady Scan · Accessed
- Sources behind AI answersReady Scan · Accessed
- The Ready Scan report guideReady Scan · Accessed
Read next
Read the answer before choosing the fix.
Use a Ready Scan scorecard to see what was mentioned, cited and recommended for your buyer questions.
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