AI Mode Searches Are Three Times Longer. Is Your Website Answering the Whole Question?

"Who can replace a misted double glazed pane in an old sash window in Westmeath without changing the frame, and how long would it take?" That is one search. Not a keyword. A whole question, the kind people now type into Google's AI Mode while standing at a fogged-up window. And it is exactly the kind of search a glazier in Westmeath should win, because sash repairs are half of what that business does.

Treat that glazier as a composite, built from the conversations I have with tradespeople most weeks rather than from any one customer. Good at the work. Busy through word of mouth. A website put together a few years ago: five pages, a gallery, a phone number. The homepage says "All aspects of glazing. Domestic and commercial. Free quotes." Every word is true. None of it answers the question above.

So AI Mode answers it anyway, using somebody else's pages. A tidy paragraph explains that misted units can usually be replaced without touching the frame, and it names firms whose websites say so in plain English. The customer rings one of them. Our glazier never learns the question was asked.

The news: Google says the questions got longer

Last Wednesday, on Alphabet's third-quarter earnings call, Sundar Pichai said that "queries in AI Mode are on average three times longer than traditional searches", and that one in five AI Mode searches globally now use voice, images or documents ^[1]. He also said query growth in Search was the highest it had been in five years.

Three times is an average, and averages hide a lot. Some of those searches will be students pasting in essay questions. Others will be people describing a pain in their knee. But the direction has been steady. In April 2025 Google described AI Mode queries as twice as long as traditional searches ^[6]. Eighteen months later, it is three times. People are getting used to describing their situation instead of squeezing it into two words.

That matters here because AI Mode is not a US curiosity. RTÉ reported Google rolling it out in Ireland on 8 October 2025, as a tab on the results page and in the Google app ^[2]. Then in May, Google's Irish blog said the search box itself is now "dynamically expanding to give you space to describe exactly what you need" in every country where AI Mode is available ^[3]. The box is literally getting bigger to invite longer questions. If you are still finding your feet with AI and websites in general, our overview of what AI-powered WordPress means for business owners covers the ground underneath all this.

Why a two-word website struggles with a twenty-word question

For twenty years most small business websites were built for short searches. "Glazier Westmeath." "Plumber near me." Put the service and the place on the homepage, collect a few reviews, done. I told owners as much myself. For years I said five tidy pages was plenty, and I kept saying it a good while after it stopped being true.

Long questions work differently. Google's documentation for site owners explains that AI Overviews and AI Mode may use a "query fan-out" technique, issuing multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources to build a response ^[4]. In plain terms, the AI breaks the glazier question into pieces. Can misted units be replaced without the frame? Who works on sash windows locally? How long does the job usually take? Then it goes looking for pages that answer each piece.

So what does that mean for you? Every piece your website does not answer is a piece someone else's website will. "All aspects of glazing" answers none of them. A page called "Misted sash window units" that says, in its first paragraph, that you replace the sealed unit and keep the original frame, which towns you cover, and what turnaround to expect, answers three.

The invoice you never see

There is a cost to getting this wrong, and you never see the invoice. A missed phone call at least shows up on your phone. A question answered with your competitor's name leaves no trace at all. Revenue gone before you even knew it existed.

The decision: write down what the phone already answers

Back to the composite glazier. Once the pattern is clear, the fix is not technical. It is an afternoon with a notebook.

Every business already holds the raw material. It sits in the questions customers ask on the phone, at the counter, in the comments under a Facebook post. Our glazier would list something like:

• Can you replace the glass without replacing the whole window?
• Do you work on old sash windows?
• How far do you travel?
• How long between the quote and the fitting?
• Is there anything you do not do?

That last one is underrated. A line that says you do not repair uPVC door hinges, but can point people to someone who does, tells an AI system and a human reader exactly where your expertise starts and stops.

Now think about who is best placed to write those answers. Not an agency copywriter who has never stood at a misted sash window, producing "bespoke glazing solutions for discerning homeowners" and billing by the hour for every change afterwards. The owner is. Nobody knows the questions better than the person who answers them every day. That is the real argument for building and running your own site: AI handles the design and structure, and you supply the knowledge only you have.

What the rewrite actually involves

None of this needs new software. It needs a different way of organising pages you probably already have.

1. One page per job, not one page per business. A "Services" page with a bulleted list of twelve things gives AI Mode almost nothing to work with. Separate pages for the four or five jobs that bring in most of your money give it something specific to find.
2. Answer first, sell second. Put the direct answer in the opening paragraph of each page. Google's guidance asks site owners to make sure important content is available in textual form ^[4]. A photo of a beautifully fitted window is lovely, but it cannot tell anyone which towns you cover.
3. Give ranges you can stand over. A typical turnaround stated honestly as a range is far more useful than "fast, reliable service", which every competitor also claims.
4. Say what you do not do. As above. It saves you wasted quotes as well.
5. Make your Business Profile agree with your website. Google specifically tells site owners to keep their Business Profile information up to date ^[4]. If the site says you work Saturdays and the profile says closed, you have handed the AI a contradiction to resolve, and it may not resolve it in your favour.

What to expect afterwards, and what not to

Expect the change to be gradual rather than dramatic. The sign worth watching for is subtle. Callers arrive further along. They open with "I saw you do sash windows and keep the frame" rather than "do you do windows?" Fewer quotes go to people who wanted something else entirely.

What nobody can promise you

Now the honest part, because you should hear it from me before someone tries to sell you a package. Google states plainly that there are no additional requirements or special optimisations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode ^[4]. Nobody outside Google knows exactly how it picks which pages to cite, and anyone promising you a guaranteed spot in AI Mode is selling a guess. A well-written page can still be skipped. Google itself told RTÉ that, as with any early-stage AI product, AI Mode "won't always be right" ^[2].

There is also a second route into AI answers that has nothing to do with your own pages: third-party roundups and directories, which we covered in our piece on why AI search sometimes names a competitor instead of you. Clear service pages will not fix that on their own.

What a clear page does is improve your odds on every long question, and it helps the human reader whether or not an AI ever reads it. Not a bad return on an afternoon's writing.

When this matters less

To be fair, not every business needs to rush. If nearly all your work comes through main contractors, or customers already find you by searching your name because you have been on the same street for thirty years, rewriting service pages will move little. A shop selling one well-known branded product online, where people search the product name, also has less to gain than a trade answering messy, situational questions.

Most local service firms, though, sit squarely in the long-question zone. Trades, clinics, solicitors, accountants, tutors: anyone whose customer starts with a problem rather than a product name.

What the right setup looks like

If you are going to treat your website as a set of answers rather than a brochure, the platform has to make that easy. Four things matter:

• You can add and edit pages yourself, the same day, without raising a ticket or paying for a change request.
• Pages load quickly on a phone, because a lot of these long questions are spoken into one.
• It runs on a standard, widely supported platform, so the next change in how search works does not mean starting again.
• The cost stays fixed, so writing ten more pages does not push you into a higher tier.

Web60 is built around that list. The AI builder lays down a full WordPress site from your own description of the business in under a minute, which gives you the structure, and from then on you own every page and can add another whenever a new question comes in. WordPress runs roughly four in ten of all websites, according to W3Techs ^[5], so you are not betting on a niche tool. The hosting underneath is optimised for fast page loads, support comes from a real Irish team, and the whole thing is €60 a year, all-inclusive. You can see how the AI builder turns your own description into a working WordPress site step by step before you commit to anything.

The questions are the content

Customers have always asked long questions. They used to ask them on the phone, after they had already picked you. Now they ask them before they pick anyone, and Google assembles the answer from whichever websites bothered to write it down.

You already know the answers. Most of them come out of your mouth several times a week. Write five of them onto the pages where they belong, in plain words, and the next time someone types out the whole question, your business has a fair chance of being part of the answer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Google AI Mode available in Ireland?

Yes. Google rolled AI Mode out in Ireland in October 2025. It appears as a tab on the Google results page and in the Google app for Android and iOS, and people can ask questions by typing, speaking or using the camera. Since May 2026 the Google search box itself also expands to give people room to describe exactly what they need.

Do I need to do anything special for my website to appear in AI Mode?

Google says there are no additional requirements or special optimisations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Your pages need to be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet. Beyond that, Google points to the usual basics: helpful content written for people, important information available as text rather than only in images, a good page experience, and an up-to-date Business Profile.

Should I add an FAQ page to my website for AI search?

An FAQ page does no harm, but the stronger move is to answer each question on the page where it naturally belongs. If customers ask whether you replace misted glass without changing the frame, that answer belongs on your page about that job, in the opening paragraph. AI Mode breaks long questions into smaller ones and looks for pages that answer each piece, so specific service pages give it more to work with than one long list.

Will longer AI searches mean fewer people visit my website?

Possibly fewer casual visits, but not necessarily fewer customers. Google says clicks from its AI features tend to be higher quality, though that is Google's own assessment and results vary by business. People who reach your site from a long, specific question have usually already described their problem, so the visitors who do arrive tend to be further along in deciding. Track enquiries and calls, not just visitor numbers.

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