Is Your Website Ready for AI Search? What Google Just Told Us
If you’ve been running a business on the Costa del Sol and wondering whether all this talk about AI is going to turn your marketing strategy on its head, we’ve got some good news for you. Google just published a brand new guide specifically about optimising for AI-powered search features — and the headline is reassuring: good marketing is still good marketing.
Here’s what it means for you, in plain English.
Why This Matters Right Now
You’ve probably already noticed that Google search results look a little different these days. AI-generated summaries are now appearing at the top of the page before you get to the traditional links. These are called generative AI features, and they’re changing how people find, and choose, businesses like yours.
Google’s new guide is designed to help website owners and marketers understand what actually influences whether your content gets picked up and featured in these AI results.
What Google Is Actually Telling Us
SEO Is Still Relevant
The first thing Google makes clear is that SEO hasn’t been made redundant by AI. If anything, solid SEO foundations matter more than ever. Follow Google’s established best practices, and you’re on the right track for both traditional and AI-powered search.
Content That Genuinely Helps People Wins
This is the big one. Google is emphatic that what sets content apart in the AI era is having a real, unique point of view, not just rehashing what everyone else is saying.
For businesses on the Costa del Sol, this is actually an advantage. You know your market. You understand your clients. Content that reflects genuine local expertise, real experience, and honest opinions is exactly what Google’s AI is looking for. Generic, surface-level content that’s been written by ChatGPT? That’s what will get left behind.
Your Website’s Technical Health Still Counts
A well-structured, technically sound website remains essential. This means clean page architecture, good crawlability, sensible use of HTML, and a strong page experience –particularly on mobile. If your website loads slowly or feels clunky on a phone, that’s still a problem, AI or no AI.
It’s also worth reducing duplicate content across your site. If you’ve got similar pages or product descriptions that say the same thing in slightly different ways, it’s worth tidying those up.
Local Businesses and E-commerce Should Optimise Their Details
If you’re a local business – whether you’re a restaurant in Puerto Banús, a property agency in Benahavís, or a dental practice in San Pedro – making sure your local business details are accurate and complete is increasingly valuable. Google’s AI pulls from this information when generating local results.
The Myth-Busting Section
Google’s guide includes a section dedicated to busting myths – things people in the industry have been told they need to do for AI search, but actually don’t. This is worth reading carefully, because a lot of businesses (and some agencies, frankly) have been chasing the wrong things.
You do NOT need to:
- Add an LLMS.txt file to your website. This has been touted in some circles as a must-have for AI visibility. Google says otherwise.
- Use any other special markup or code specifically aimed at AI systems.
- “Chunk” your content into bite-sized pieces for AI consumption. Write for your human readers, not for a machine.
- Rewrite your existing content for AI. If it’s good content, it’s already doing its job.
- Seek out inauthentic mentions – manufactured links, fake PR, that sort of thing. This has always been a bad idea, and it still is.
- Obsess over structured data. It has its place, but it shouldn’t be your primary focus.
If someone has been telling you that you need to do any of the above to stay competitive in AI search, you might want to think twice.
What’s Coming Next: Agentic Experiences
The guide also touches on something called “agentic experiences”, which is essentially AI that can take actions on your behalf, like booking a table, requesting a quote, or completing a form. This is the next frontier, and while it’s still emerging, it’s worth knowing it’s on the horizon. Businesses with clear, well-structured websites and accurate information will be best placed to take advantage of it when it becomes mainstream.
What Should You Actually Be Doing?
If you take nothing else from this, take these three things:
- Keep producing content that reflects your real expertise. Nobody knows your business and your clients better than you do. That genuine knowledge is your biggest asset in an AI-driven search landscape.
- Don’t let anyone sell you unnecessary technical fixes. The fundamentals of good SEO and a well-built website are what matter. Fancy AI-specific add-ons are, for the most part, a distraction.
- Think about your local presence. For businesses on the Costa del Sol, local visibility is everything. Make sure your information is accurate, up to date, and consistent across your website and any directory listings.
Need a Hand Making Sense of It All?
At Peppermint, we work with businesses across the Costa del Sol to help them cut through the noise and focus on what actually helps you and your business. Whether you’re looking at your SEO strategy, your content, or your wider digital presence, we’re here to help.
Get in touch with our team today and let’s see how we can help you move forward.