Google’s AI Overviews now appear on roughly 43% of searches, up from just 15% a year ago. For small and medium businesses that depend on organic traffic, this means Google increasingly answers questions on its own results page, so fewer people click through to your website, even when you rank well. The good news: with the right approach, your business can still get found. Here’s what’s changing and five practical moves to protect your visibility.

What’s actually changing in Google Search

• AI Overviews (the AI-generated answer box at the top of results) nearly tripled in coverage over the past year, from 15% to 43% of searches, according to Similarweb data reported by The AI Insider.
• Google’s dedicated “AI Mode” is growing fast too: visits jumped from 126 million in June 2025 to 279 million in May 2026.
• Users are changing how they search, average query length is rising as people type longer, conversational questions instead of short keywords.
• AI assistants are becoming discovery channels: ChatGPT cited websites in about 6.8% of U.S. desktop queries, and its referral clicks to websites more than doubled between March and May 2026.

Put simply, the top of Google is being taken over by answers rather than links, and that top slot is where most attention goes. The shift is gradual, but the direction is clear, and it applies to Vietnamese search results as much as anywhere else.

Why this matters for SMEs in Vietnam

For a real estate, retail, F&B, wellness, or education business, organic search has long been one of the cheapest, most sustainable ways to get leads. When Google answers a question directly in an AI Overview, users may get what they need without ever visiting your site, the so-called “zero-click” search. That can quietly erode the traffic and inquiries you used to count on, even if your rankings haven’t dropped.

Take a Da Nang boutique hotel as an example: a traveler searching “best time to visit Da Nang” may now read Google’s AI summary and never open a single hotel blog, yet if that hotel is cited as a source inside the summary, it still earns trust and, often, the booking. Visibility is moving from the click to the citation.

At the same time, a new opportunity is opening: being cited inside AI answers (in Google’s AI Overviews and in assistants like ChatGPT) is becoming its own form of visibility. The businesses that adapt early will capture attention while competitors are still optimizing only for the old blue links.

5 practical moves to stay visible

Answer real questions, clearly and early

AI systems pull from content that answers a question directly and concisely. Structure your key pages around the actual questions customers ask, and put a clear 2–3 sentence answer near the top before expanding with detail. This helps you get cited in AI Overviews while still reading well for humans.

Add structured data (schema)

Marking up your pages with schema, FAQ, Product, LocalBusiness, Review, helps both Google and AI systems understand and trust your content. For local SMEs, LocalBusiness and Review schema are especially valuable for appearing in map and answer results.

Build brand and entity authority

AI answers favor sources they recognize as credible. Consistent business information (name, address, phone) across your website, Google Business Profile, and directories, plus mentions on reputable Vietnamese sites, strengthen your “entity” signals, making you more likely to be the source an AI cites.

Don’t depend on Google alone

With clicks harder to win from search, diversify. A strong Google Business Profile, an active Facebook and Zalo presence, an email list, and short-form video (TikTok, Reels) reduce your reliance on a single channel and create multiple paths for customers to find you.

Measure AI and referral traffic

Start tracking where visits come from, including referrals from ChatGPT and other AI tools, which are rising. Watch impressions vs. clicks in Google Search Console: if impressions hold but clicks fall, that’s the AI Overview effect, and a signal to double down on the moves above. Reviewing this monthly turns a vague worry into a clear, data-backed plan you can act on.

FAQ

Want to future-proof your website’s visibility as search shifts to AI? Webie Vietnam helps Vietnamese SMEs with SEO, content, and digital marketing built for the AI era. Explore our digital marketing and SEO services. Call +84 969 838 467 or email huyen.dang@webie.com.vn for a free consultation.

Source: The AI Insider, “Google’s AI Overviews Nearly Triple in Search Coverage” (July 28, 2026)