For many searches, the first thing people see on Google is no longer a list of links. It is a summary written by AI, assembled from a few pages, with small links back to the sources it used. Plenty of people read the summary and stop there.
That changes the question. It is no longer just "what position am I in?" but also "am I one of the pages the answer is written from?". You can be on page one and still be absent from where people are looking.
The sign that gives it away
In Google Search Console, in the performance report, compare the last few months with the same period before. The pattern worth investigating: average positions barely moved, impressions normal, but clicks falling, especially on searches phrased as questions ("how long does...", "what documents do I need...", "what is the difference between...").
It is not proof, and there can be other causes. But if the pattern shows up exactly on the questions the AI summary already answers, you have a good hint that the person got their answer from someone else.
The exercise: one page, five questions
Pick the page that should bring you the most customers. Read it as if you were a program looking for a good sentence to quote, not a person admiring the design.
1. Does it answer the question in the first lines?
If the page is about a service, the first two sentences should say what you do, for whom and where. Not an introduction about passion and quality. A system building an answer looks for exactly this pattern: a clear question, a direct answer right after it.
2. Is there anything here you would not find on ten other sites?
If your text could have been written by anyone in your field, there is no reason to cite it. What makes you a source is information only you have: how you actually work, what the service includes and what it does not, the questions you usually get and how you answer them, the mistakes you see customers make before they reach you.
3. Can you see who wrote it and why they would know?
A name, a profession, a link to a real "about" page. In fields where wrong information costs something (health, law, money), this matters even more. An anonymous text on a serious subject starts at a disadvantage.
4. Can the sentences be quoted on their own?
An AI answer takes pieces, not whole pages. A paragraph that opens with "As mentioned above" cannot be lifted out. Every important paragraph should make sense by itself. Headings phrased as your customers' real questions help a lot.
5. Does the page have structured data?
Structured data is a block of code the visitor never sees, usually in JSON-LD format, that tells the search engine explicitly what is on the page: a local business (LocalBusiness), a service (Service), a product (Product), frequently asked questions (FAQPage). You can check it for free with Google's Rich Results Test.
To be honest: structured data guarantees no citation. It helps Google understand the page without guessing, and that is all I will promise for it.
What the difference looks like in one paragraph
Take an imaginary plumber. The usual version on the services page:
We offer professional plumbing services, with an experienced team and fair prices. Quality comes first.
None of this can be cited, because it says nothing anyone could check. The version that can serve as a source would say which towns he covers, what kinds of jobs he does and which he does not, how booking works, what the customer should prepare before the visit and how the price is worked out. The same things a customer would ask on the phone, written down once, clearly.
What is not worth doing
- Generating dozens of pages with AI on the same questions. You would produce exactly the generic content the system ignores.
- Adding blocks of made-up FAQs that nobody ever asked you.
- Rewriting the whole site at once. One page done properly tells you more than twenty done halfway.
The order I would go in
Start with the pages that bring in money: your main services, not the blog. Run each page through the five questions, fix what is missing, then watch the same searches in Search Console over the following weeks. Do not rebuild the site. Most of the time the structure is the problem, not the design.
If you want a second pair of eyes on your most important page, send me its address through the contact form. How I work on this side of things is described under SEO.