There’s a question I’ve been hearing more often lately, usually from clients who’ve noticed that when they search for something on Google, they now get a paragraph of AI-generated text at the top of the page before any website links appear.
The question is some version of: “If people are just asking AI for answers now, does my website still matter?”
It’s a fair question. And the answer is yes – more than ever, actually.
Here’s why.
AI doesn’t know things on its own
I’ve written before about how search engines work like a giant library – Google being the librarian who decides which books are worth recommending when someone walks in with a question. If you’re not familiar with the term SEO (search engine optimisation), that post is a good place to start.
What’s changed in 2026 is that there are now more librarians. Tools like Claude, ChatGPT and others have joined Google in the reference section. But here’s the thing – they all work basically the same way. They don’t generate answers from nothing, they read websites, assess which ones are credible and relevant, and draw on that content to form a response.
The librarian analogy still holds. It’s just that instead of one librarian directing people to the right shelf, there are now several – and they’re all consulting the same collection of books.
If your website isn’t in that collection – or if it’s thin, vague, or hard to navigate – you won’t be recommended. Your competitor with a well-built, content-rich site will be.
What these librarians are actually looking for
This is where I’d push back gently on anyone who thinks the solution is to stuff their website full of keywords or churn out lots of content for the sake of it. That approach was never great, and it’s even less useful now.
What AI tools are looking for – and what Google has always rewarded – is content that genuinely answers the questions real people are asking. Not the keyword phrases that nobody ever actually types, but the real questions: “How much does a website cost?”, “What’s the difference between a counsellor and a coach?”, “How do I know if my organisation needs a new website?”
If your site has clear, honest answers to those kinds of questions, written in plain language, you’re already doing the right thing.
A word about using AI to write your website copy
This is something I’m asked about more and more, and it’s worth addressing directly.
AI tools can be genuinely useful for a lot of things. But if you’re using one to write the copy for your website, there’s a limitation worth understanding. An AI tool writes based on what already exists online. It can tell you what other businesses in your industry tend to say about themselves, which is useful as a benchmark – it can help you make sure you haven’t missed anything obvious.
What it can’t do is tell your story or notice what’s worth mentioning about you. It doesn’t know that you left a corporate career to do something that actually mattered to you. It doesn’t know that you’re the only provider of your kind within 50 kilometres, or that your clients tend to come back because of how you handled a difficult situation, not just because of your qualifications. It doesn’t know the specific language your best clients use when they refer you to a friend.
Those are the details that differentiate you – and they’re exactly what makes a website worth reading, and worth recommending. A librarian can only point people to books that exist. The job of good website copy is to make sure your book is the one worth picking up.
The bottom line
Search has changed in how it looks and feels, but not in what it rewards. A well-structured website with genuinely helpful content written in your own voice has always been the long game. It still is – it’s just that now, instead of only showing up in a list of Google results, that content can also find its way into AI-generated answers.
Your website is still your most valuable piece of online real estate. It’s worth looking after.