Rivals can show up when people search your brand name
AI answers on brand name searches are spreading, and the links inside them are not always the brand's own pages.
Google is showing a lot more AI Overviews (the AI written answer at the top of search results) on branded searches, and the links inside those answers do not always point at the brand. Lily Ray posted the pattern this week, crediting @chris_nectiv and @demandsphere for spotting it. This is a step on from the earlier sighting of AI answers appearing on brand name queries at all.
Other companies can get cited for your name
Ray says multiple sites can appear in the citations for a branded query, not just the brand itself. The practical result is that another company can end up with a number one ranking in Search Console (Google's free tool showing how your site performs in search) for a search term that is your own name. She expects the clicks from those rankings to be terrible, describing the traffic as abysmal.
Glenn Gabe posted screenshots backing this up, pointing out cards from third-party sites inside the answers.
Your impressions may jump for no good reason
Ray also says the Generative AI filter in Search Console might show a big spike in impressions. Gabe tweeted about the same spike recently, and Ray says she is seeing it across many client accounts this week. An impression just means your page was shown, so a jump there without more clicks is not new business. It is a sign your pages are being pulled into AI answers, including answers about other people's brands.
She is not sold on the change.
What to do
Open Search Console, go to Performance, apply the Generative AI filter, and compare the last week to the week before. If impressions jumped but clicks did not move, that is this change, not a problem with your site.
Then search your own business name in Google and read what the AI Overview says and which sites it links to. If a competitor is cited in an answer about you, there is no setting to switch that off. The only lever you have is making sure your own pages answer the basic questions about your business clearly, so you are the obvious source when the answer is written.
One caveat. Ray says this is what happens if it sticks. Google tests things on branded searches and pulls them back. Nobody has said how long this will stay.
we have all been conditioned to search Google for brands as a way of finding their website for 25+ years…