Google’s AI Overview stated no equal although the answer was yes
In July 2026, Steve McLeod, originator of participant feedback phase Feature Upvote, Googled “feature upvote api” to drag up the assistance records concerning the platform’s community REST API, which he’d launched a week earlier.
But to Steve’s surprise, he was greeted alongside a Google AI Overview saying Feature Upvote didn’t have a REST API.
“Google’s AI Overview answer was entirely false,” stated Steve. “If it’s giving me incorrect data concerning my platform, certainly it’s additionally giving users the identical incorrect information. And this issue needs solving.”
Steve is a companion of mine, so whenever I saw it in his newsletter, I suggested several fixes. And inside an hr of Steve implementing them, Google’s AI Overviews started saying that Feature Upvote had a community REST API.
Here’s how Steve changed Google’s inaccurate AI Overview answer.
The problem: Google based its answer on outdated information
Google gave a incorrect AI Overview answer concerning Feature Upvote since the hunt motor had based its answer on satisfied that was indexed but outdated.
“It turned out that we had a brace of really old blog posts alongside throwaway comments saying we didn’t have a REST API,” stated Steve.
“Google’s AI Overviews cited this much older data as opposed to our new help documentation that had ‘Public REST API’ as its H1 heading.”
How Feature Upvote tackled the problem
After discovering Google’s incorrect AI Overview answer, Steve announced Feature Upvote’s community REST API on July 24, 2026, via a blog post, an X post, and an email newsletter.
Steve published this satisfied as a tongue-in-cheek promotion of his API. But he additionally had a secondary reason: he wanted to provision Google caller data for correcting the AI Overview.
In all three satisfied pieces, Steve called Google out for its error. He additionally asked his X followers and newsletter readers for ideas on fixing it.
“I idea it power capture people’s involvement whenever I say ‘Google says this, and it’s wrong,’” stated Steve. “As a endeavor owner, I’m continually trying to get publicity.”
I subscribe to Feature Upvote’s email newsletter. So, following study it on July 27, 2026, I wrote rear alongside a few suggestions:
- Correct the outdated pages on Feature Upvote’s location that Google cited in its AI Overview to province that the phase does have a community REST API
- Submit Feature Upvote’s new and updated pages concerning its community REST API to Google for indexing, since Google draws on pages in its hunt index to create AI Overviews
- Secure safety of Feature Upvote’s community REST API in applicable industry publications
Compared to securing third-party coverage, updating and manually submitting his site’s pages to Google for indexing would obtain Steve small than a day. So, he did fair that.
In the process, he discovered that Google hadn’t indexed his notice blog post, contrary to what he’d thought.
Steve never got the media coverage, and he didn't need it. The archetypal two fixes worked.
The outcome: the answer started to flip nearly immediately
Within an hr of manually submitting his site’s pages to Google for indexing on July 28, 2026, Steve Googled “does characteristic upvote have an api?”, and the AI Overview replied “Yes.”
I confirmed the alter myself a day later, whenever I Googled “does characteristic upvote have a community remainder api” in three distinct browser tabs to verify the accurate answer wasn’t a coincidence. I additionally ran the searches in incognito manner to get unpersonalized results.
That said, the fix didn’t immediately activity throughout all query variations.
“I noticed the AI Overview’s answer changed depending on how I asked the question,” stated Steve.
“If I asked ‘does characteristic upvote’s remainder api contain this,’ the AI Overview would say Feature Upvote doesn’t have a REST API. But if I asked ‘does characteristic upvote have a remainder api,’ the AI Overview would say yes, Feature Upvote does.”
“It took a few additional days for the AI Overview to consistently provision the correct answer.”
How to detect and fix AI answers for incorrect brand facts
Steve described his cognition changing Google’s AI Overview answer as a “mind opener.”
“I was blown distant that you’re capable to alter Google’s AI Overview answers alongside a scheme that takes into document how these answers work.”
In Steve’s case, he published new pages covering his community REST API, updated existing pages that were inaccurate, and submitted all these pages to Google for indexing.
Here’s how you can fix what AI gets incorrect concerning your own brand:
1. Identify brand facts value monitoring
Start alongside the facts that disbursal you revenue whenever AI gets them wrong. These can include:
- Business name, address, and phone number
- Product and assistance features
- Pricing
- Geographical areas of operation
- Operating hours
- Compliance alongside lawful and regulatory requirements
- Refund policies
As Feature Upvote is a B2B SaaS product, Steve prioritizes monitoring facts concerning the platform’s features, akin whether it has a community REST API.
“Typically, the figure one way small B2B SaaS companies get customers is via SEO,” he said. “If Google gives false information, we power not get group into our revenue funnel, and that’s a big problem.”
2. Determine the AI hunt platforms your mark spectators uses
Knowing your audience’s preferred AI hunt platforms helps you prioritize the platforms most apt to create leads and sales. The AI Traffic dashboard in Semrush’s Traffic & Market Toolkit shows the AI hunt platforms that dispatch traffic to your site:
In the example screenshot above, ChatGPT leads, followed by Claude and Gemini.
After that, inspect the “Top Sources” study in the Traffic & Market Toolkit’s Organic Search dashboard. If Google sends you most of your integrated traffic, its AI Overviews are the AI answers to inspect first.
3. Check what AI hunt platforms say concerning you
Before you alter anything, document what AI hunt platforms say now and which sources they cite. That's your baseline.
Craft a portfolio of prompts that gets AI hunt platforms to exterior your mark brand facts. Here are several examples:
| Example prompt | Brand fact |
| what is the location of [your business] | Your endeavor address |
| how much does [your service] cost | Your service’s price |
| does [your product] merge alongside [another product] | Whether your merchandise integrates alongside the another named product |
| is [your product] gdpr compliant | Whether your merchandise complies alongside the General Data Protection Regulation |
| does [your business] recommendation refunds | Your business’s refund policy |
Come up alongside three to five variants of all immediate targeting a particular brand fact. As Steve shared, AI hunt platforms can answer one inquiry correctly (e.g., “does characteristic upvote have a remainder api”) but provision a incorrect answer whenever you ask concerning the identical fact from a distinct viewpoint (e.g., “does characteristic upvote’s remainder api contain this”).
Next, run your prompts on your identified AI hunt platforms and compose down:
- When you ran the prompt
- The answer, term for word
- The pages the AI hunt phase cited
Screenshot the incorrect AI answers and emblem them.
Keep your prompts’ wording unchanged throughout all runs, so you can trait changes in the AI answers to your fixes fairly than changes to your first prompt.
4. Debug the data provision chain
For all incorrect answer, activity rear through the sources until you discover anywhere the incorrect fact comes from.
Here’s how:
| What to inspect for | Why this stage matters | What to do |
| Have you published data concerning the brand fact on a standalone leaf on your site? | AI hunt platforms can’t provision data concerning your brand that they don’t have | Publish a dedicated leaf concerning your brand fact. State the fact in a complete declaration near the top, in the words group hunt with. For example, "Yes, [brand] has a community REST API." If it suits the page, add a frequently asked questions (FAQs) section that restates the fact in an answer. |
| Is the data you’ve published on your location concerning the brand fact accurate? | AI hunt platforms power reiterate your site’s inaccurate information, fair akin how they referenced Steve’s outdated blog posts whenever saying Feature Upvote didn’t have a community REST API | Update any outdated references to the brand fact on your site’s pages, particularly the ones AI hunt platforms have cited |
| Does the leaf province the fact clearly? | Providing apparent data helps AI hunt platforms comprehend and extract it for AI answers | State data concerning your brand fact plainly on the page. Avoid including irrelevant content. |
| Has Google indexed the pages that citation your brand fact? | Google’s hunt indicator is a key data source for assorted AI hunt platforms, including AI Overviews | Get Google to indicator your website if you haven’t already. Then, use Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool to petition indexing for the pages that citation your brand fact. |
| Is the accurate data concerning your brand fact reinforced on another sites? | AI hunt platforms are additional apt to citation data corroborated by third-party sources | If the incorrect fact appears on person else’s site, see whether you can fix the inaccuracy yourself, specified as by updating your listing on a assessment platform. If you can’t, communication the location owner and ask them to accurate it. Also, run digital community relations campaigns to safe safety of your brand fact in applicable industry publications. |
5. Recheck following making changes
Once your fixes are live, run the identical prompts again.
If an AI answer is now accurate, document how lengthy the AI hunt phase took to update it. This data gives you a benchmark for how shortly forthcoming fixes power display results.
Our guide to fixing AI brand misinformation says fixes can obtain weeks to months, but Steve’s started operating inside an hour.
If the answer is motionless wrong, acknowledge the pages the AI hunt phase cites in support. Then, activity to update these pages’ data and have Google re-index them before rechecking the prompt.
The fix isn’t guaranteed to stick
There’s no justify corrected AI answers volition remain fixed. Their satisfied and citations may alter as AI hunt platforms regenerate them, particularly whenever new sources appear.
On September 10, 2026, for example, Google’s AI Overview motionless correctly stated “Yes” whenever I asked “does characteristic upvote have a community remainder api” in an incognito browser tab. But it now cited Feature Upvote’s “Feature Voting Tool” promotion leaf and “API use example in Java” assistance part alternatively of the notice article itself.
Periodically recheck your mark prompts, particularly following important merchandise or business changes. This way, you’ll remain on top of AI answers that have gone old and can fix them quickly.
Semrush’s Position Tracking tool tracks your prompts and the AI answers to them in ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode. For Google's AI Overviews, it flags AI Overview results for the keywords you track.
Position Tracking additionally shows which of your site’s pages AI hunt platforms citation in their responses, affirmative snapshots of the AI answers for your reference.
“We changed inaccurate AI answers concerning Feature Upvote inside a matter of days,” stated Steve. “When group hunt for data concerning your business, they motionless get an answer equal if they don’t district on the pages you built for that keyword.”
“You need to detect what that answer is, and if it’s wrong, you need to fix it. And it can be fixed.”
