Google’s AI Overview said no even though the answer was yes
In July 2026, Steve McLeod, founder of player feedback platform Feature Upvote, Googled “feature upvote api” to pull up the help documentation about the platform’s public REST API, which he’d launched a week earlier.
But to Steve’s surprise, he was greeted with a Google AI Overview saying Feature Upvote didn’t have a REST API.
“Google’s AI Overview answer was completely false,” said Steve. “If it’s giving me wrong information about my platform, surely it’s also giving users the same wrong information. And this problem needs solving.”
Steve is a friend of mine, so when I saw it in his newsletter, I suggested some fixes. And within an hour of Steve implementing them, Google’s AI Overviews started saying that Feature Upvote had a public 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The problem: Google based its answer on outdated information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 wrong AI Overview answer about Feature Upvote because the search engine had based its answer on content that was indexed but outdated.
“It turned out that we had a couple of really old blog posts with throwaway comments saying we didn’t have a REST API,” said Steve.
“Google’s AI Overviews cited this much older information 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 public REST API on July 24, 2026, via a blog post, an X post, and an email newsletter.
Steve published this content as a tongue-in-cheek promotion of his API. But he also had a secondary reason: he wanted to give Google fresh data for correcting the AI Overview.
In all three content pieces, Steve called Google out for its error. He also asked his X followers and newsletter readers for ideas on fixing it.
“I thought it might catch people’s interest when I say ‘Google says this, and it’s wrong,’” said Steve. “As a business owner, I’m always trying to get publicity.”
I subscribe to Feature Upvote’s email newsletter. So, after reading it on July 27, 2026, I wrote back with a few suggestions:
- Correct the outdated pages on Feature Upvote’s site that Google cited in its AI Overview to state that the platform does have a public REST API
- Submit Feature Upvote’s new and updated pages about its public REST API to Google for indexing, because Google draws on pages in its search index to generate AI Overviews
- Secure coverage of Feature Upvote’s public REST API in relevant industry publications
Compared to securing third-party coverage, updating and manually submitting his site’s pages to Google for indexing would take Steve less than a day. So, he did just that.
In the process, he discovered that Google hadn’t indexed his announcement blog post, contrary to what he’d thought.
Steve never got the press coverage, and he didn't need it. The first two fixes worked.
The outcome: the answer started to flip almost immediately
Within an hour of manually submitting his site’s pages to Google for indexing on July 28, 2026, Steve Googled “does feature upvote have an api?”, and the AI Overview replied “Yes.”
I confirmed the change myself a day later, when I Googled “does feature upvote have a public rest api” in three separate browser tabs to confirm the correct answer wasn’t a coincidence. I also ran the searches in incognito mode to get unpersonalized results.
That said, the fix didn’t immediately work across all query variations.
“I noticed the AI Overview’s answer changed depending on how I asked the question,” said Steve.
“If I asked ‘does feature upvote’s rest api include this,’ the AI Overview would say Feature Upvote doesn’t have a REST API. But if I asked ‘does feature upvote have a rest api,’ the AI Overview would say yes, Feature Upvote does.”
“It took a few more days for the AI Overview to consistently give the right answer.”
How to monitor and fix AI answers for incorrect brand facts
Steve described his experience changing Google’s AI Overview answer as a “mind opener.”
“I was blown away that you’re able to change Google’s AI Overview answers with a strategy that takes into account how these answers work.”
In Steve’s case, he published new pages covering his public 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 wrong about your own brand:
1. Identify brand facts worth monitoring
Start with the facts that cost you sales when AI gets them wrong. These can include:
- Business name, address, and phone number
- Product and service features
- Pricing
- Geographical areas of operation
- Operating hours
- Compliance with legal and regulatory requirements
- Refund policies
As Feature Upvote is a B2B SaaS product, Steve prioritizes monitoring facts about the platform’s features, like whether it has a public REST API.
“Typically, the number one way small B2B SaaS companies get customers is via SEO,” he said. “If Google gives false information, we might not get people into our sales funnel, and that’s a big problem.”
2. Determine the AI search platforms your target audience uses
Knowing your audience’s preferred AI search platforms helps you prioritize the platforms most likely to generate leads and sales. The AI Traffic dashboard in Semrush’s Traffic & Market Toolkit shows the AI search platforms that send traffic to your site:
In the example screenshot above, ChatGPT leads, followed by Claude and Gemini.
After that, check the “Top Sources” report in the Traffic & Market Toolkit’s Organic Search dashboard. If Google sends you most of your organic traffic, its AI Overviews are the AI answers to check first.
3. Check what AI search platforms say about you
Before you change anything, record what AI search platforms say now and which sources they cite. That's your baseline.
Craft a portfolio of prompts that gets AI search platforms to surface your target brand facts. Here are some examples:
| Example prompt | Brand fact |
| what is the address of [your business] | Your business address |
| how much does [your service] cost | Your service’s price |
| does [your product] integrate with [another product] | Whether your product integrates with the other named product |
| is [your product] gdpr compliant | Whether your product complies with the General Data Protection Regulation |
| does [your business] offer refunds | Your business’s refund policy |
Come up with three to five variants of each prompt targeting a specific brand fact. As Steve shared, AI search platforms can answer one question correctly (e.g., “does feature upvote have a rest api”) but give a wrong answer when you ask about the same fact from a different angle (e.g., “does feature upvote’s rest api include this”).
Next, run your prompts on your identified AI search platforms and write down:
- When you ran the prompt
- The answer, word for word
- The pages the AI search platform cited
Screenshot the wrong AI answers and flag them.
Keep your prompts’ wording unchanged across all runs, so you can attribute changes in the AI answers to your fixes rather than changes to your initial prompt.
4. Debug the information supply chain
For each wrong answer, work back through the sources until you find where the wrong fact comes from.
Here’s how:
| What to check for | Why this step matters | What to do |
| Have you published information about the brand fact on a standalone page on your site? | AI search platforms can’t provide information about your brand that they don’t have | Publish a dedicated page about your brand fact. State the fact in a full sentence near the top, in the words people search with. For example, "Yes, [brand] has a public REST API." If it suits the page, add a frequently asked questions (FAQs) section that restates the fact in an answer. |
| Is the information you’ve published on your site about the brand fact accurate? | AI search platforms might repeat your site’s inaccurate information, just like how they referenced Steve’s outdated blog posts when saying Feature Upvote didn’t have a public REST API | Update any outdated references to the brand fact on your site’s pages, especially the ones AI search platforms have cited |
| Does the page state the fact clearly? | Providing clear information helps AI search platforms understand and extract it for AI answers | State information about your brand fact plainly on the page. Avoid including irrelevant content. |
| Has Google indexed the pages that mention your brand fact? | Google’s search index is a key information source for various AI search platforms, including AI Overviews | Get Google to index your website if you haven’t already. Then, use Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool to request indexing for the pages that mention your brand fact. |
| Is the correct information about your brand fact reinforced on other sites? | AI search platforms are more likely to mention information corroborated by third-party sources | If the wrong fact appears on someone else’s site, see whether you can fix the inaccuracy yourself, such as by updating your listing on a review platform. If you can’t, contact the site owner and ask them to correct it. Also, run digital public relations campaigns to secure coverage of your brand fact in relevant industry publications. |
5. Recheck after making changes
Once your fixes are live, run the same prompts again.
If an AI answer is now accurate, record how long the AI search platform took to update it. This information gives you a benchmark for how soon future fixes might show results.
Our guide to fixing AI brand misinformation says fixes can take weeks to months, but Steve’s started working within an hour.
If the answer is still wrong, identify the pages the AI search platform cites in support. Then, work to update these pages’ information and have Google re-index them before rechecking the prompt.
The fix isn’t guaranteed to stick
There’s no guarantee corrected AI answers will stay fixed. Their content and citations may change as AI search platforms regenerate them, especially when new sources appear.
On September 10, 2026, for example, Google’s AI Overview still correctly said “Yes” when I asked “does feature upvote have a public rest api” in an incognito browser tab. But it now cited Feature Upvote’s “Feature Voting Tool” marketing page and “API usage example in Java” help article instead of the announcement post itself.
Periodically recheck your target prompts, especially after major product or company changes. This way, you’ll stay on top of AI answers that have gone stale 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 also shows which of your site’s pages AI search platforms cite in their responses, plus snapshots of the AI answers for your reference.
“We changed inaccurate AI answers about Feature Upvote within a matter of days,” said Steve. “When people search for information about your business, they still get an answer even if they don’t land on the pages you built for that keyword.”
“You need to monitor what that answer is, and if it’s wrong, you need to fix it. And it can be fixed.”
