Search has changed quietly but significantly over the past year. Around half of all Google searches now show an AI-generated summary at the top of the results, answering the question directly before the searcher ever clicks through to a website. For residents looking up bin collection days, opening times, or planning application details, this means they may never actually land on your website at all – they’ll just see the answer.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean councils need to think differently about how their website information is structured, so that when a resident asks “what time does the council office open” or “when is my bin collected,” your website is the source that AI tools are pulling that answer from.
Why this matters for council websites
Residents expect quick, accurate answers to practical questions, and increasingly they’re getting those answers from AI rather than by browsing a website themselves. If your information is buried in a PDF, written in a way that’s hard to parse, or simply out of date, there’s a real risk residents get the wrong answer – or no answer at all – and that reflects on the council either way.
What helps
- Clear, well-structured content – straightforward headings and short, direct paragraphs are far easier for AI tools (and residents) to pull accurate information from than dense blocks of text or scanned documents.
- Structured data – schema markup that clearly labels opening hours, contact details and services helps search engines and AI tools understand exactly what your page is telling them.
- Keeping information current – out-of-date opening times or old contact details are one of the most common ways councils end up being misrepresented in search results.
- Accessible content – the same principles that make a page accessible to residents using assistive technology also make it easier for AI tools to read and summarise correctly.
The good news is that a well-built, accessible council website is already most of the way there.
If you’d like us to take a look at how your site’s information is structured and suggest any improvements, just get in touch.