Guide · Business information
Review an incorrect AI answer
Investigate an incorrect AI statement, find the current business fact and track page corrections separately from later answers.
Save the disputed answer
Save the question, full reply and source links before asking again. Mark the exact statement under dispute rather than calling the entire answer wrong.
Don't edit the saved answer to fit what you now believe. The original shows the owner the problem and gives the later review a starting point.
Save the conversation around the answer as well. An earlier question in the same chat can shape the reply, so keep the turns that came before it. Note whether you were signed in and which country and device you used.
Copy the answer text as well as taking a screenshot. Text can be searched and quoted exactly. A screenshot shows the layout and any links the text copy missed.
Check your own evidence
Use a current business record and the responsible person. An answer that disagrees with your preferred wording is not necessarily a factual error.
If your internal records disagree, settle that first. Keep the detail unknown until the owner can confirm which source should back a public correction.
Decide which record is the authority for each kind of fact. Opening hours might come from your booking system, prices from your price list and service areas from the owner. Write that choice down so the next review uses the same source.
Check whether the fact changes with the season or by location. A detail that is true in summer, or at one branch, needs that condition written beside it.
Follow each visible source
Read the page linked beside the statement and record whether it contains that detail. The answer may cite an old page or blend several places.
Keep the page address and the date you read it. If no source is visible, mark it missing and don't guess where the assistant learned it.
Search your own website for the old detail before you look elsewhere. Old blog posts, downloadable menus and price lists saved as documents can outlast the change they describe.
Then check the places that copy business details, such as directories, review sites and local listings. Note each page that carries the old detail, even when the answer didn't link to it.
Record the date each page was last updated, where it shows one. An old page with no date is harder to judge, so note that too.
When the wrong detail has no visible source
Keep the source as unknown. Searching for a similar old statement may suggest an investigation but cannot prove where the model obtained the information.
In that case a page change may take a long time to reach the answer, if it reaches it at all. Reporting the answer to the company is the step that applies most directly.
Still check your own pages and profiles for the old detail. If any of them carry it, correct them anyway, because readers see those pages too.
Rule out a business with a similar name
Check names, locations and services before preparing a correction. A reply about a similarly named organisation needs a different explanation.
Compare the address, the phone number and the services in the answer with your own. If they match another business, the error is a mix-up rather than an old fact about you.
A mix-up needs different evidence. Make sure your own pages state your full name, town and contact details plainly, so a reader can tell the two apart. Record the other business's details only as far as the comparison needs.
If an answer links to the other business's website, that page is not yours to change. Your evidence is your own record and the differences you found.
Decide who can change it
Separate pages you control from third-party publications. Assign a task to the right owner and distinguish a request from a completed edit.
Record both responsibilities. A proposal or a request sent isn't evidence that the public source has changed.
Sort each source into one of three groups. Some you publish yourself, such as your website. Some you manage on another platform, such as a business profile or a directory listing you have claimed. The rest belong to other publishers entirely.
Work through the first two groups with the owner's sign-off. For the third, find the publisher's contact or correction route and record the date you used it.
Leave unrelated claims out. A correction to opening hours doesn't need a new claim about being the best business in the area. Ask the owner to check every word before it goes live.
Put the current fact where a reader looks first, close to the heading it belongs to. If the detail changed recently, a short dated line about the new hours can help readers. Ask the owner whether that line suits the page.
Deal with old pages rather than leaving them live beside the new one. The owner can update an old page, remove it or point it to the current page. Two live pages that disagree leave the conflict in place.
Check the profiles you control
Your website is not the only public record you manage. Business profiles, map listings and directory entries you have claimed all carry facts that an answer can repeat.
Google's Business Profile guidance asks owners to give complete and accurate information. That covers the address, opening hours including special hours, and the type of business.
Google's guidance for site owners on AI Overviews also lists checking that Merchant Center and Business Profile information is current.
Check each profile against the same current record you used for the website. A correction in one place and the old fact in another leaves both versions available.
Report the answer to the AI company
You can also tell the company that runs the assistant. Reporting doesn't change the source, and the company decides what happens next. It still puts the error on record with the people who build the answer.
Google's help for AI Overviews describes a route. Select the thumbs down icon, choose Report a problem and pick the category that fits. You can add details in a text box before you submit.
Google says the feedback you submit includes your most recent search query and its results. The same help page says AI Overviews can make mistakes.
For other assistants, look for the feedback route in that company's own help pages. If you can't find a documented route, record that rather than guessing one.
Let search engines know a page changed
Once the owner publishes a correction, search engines still need to fetch the page again. Google says crawling can take from a few days to a few weeks.
Google describes two ways to ask for a recrawl. The URL Inspection tool in Search Console handles individual pages, and you must be an owner or full user of the property. A sitemap suits many pages at once.
Google also says a request doesn't mean the page is included quickly, or at all. Asking again for the same page doesn't speed it up.
Microsoft Bing describes IndexNow as a protocol that notifies several search engines when you add, update or delete content. Some content management systems and delivery networks offer it built in.
Check robots.txt as well. OpenAI documents separate crawlers for search and for model training, each controlled in robots.txt. It says its search systems can take about a day to adjust after a robots.txt change. Make sure your file doesn't block a crawler you want to read the corrected page.
Repeat the observation
Later, repeat the same prompt in the same context and save the new answer in full. Check the specific disputed detail again.
Record unchanged, corrected or unavailable according to what you see, and keep the old record. A later answer may use a different source or show another error.
Pick a few fixed intervals for repeating the prompt, and stick to them. Use the same assistant, the same settings and, where it matters, the same location. Record each repeat as a new observation with its own date.
Read the later answer for the disputed detail first, then for anything new. A correction can settle one fact while a different error turns up in the same reply.
Record what the owner published and when, and note any other changes in the same period.
That helps a later reviewer follow the sequence. It doesn't show the assistant read the change or used it.
Note where else the change was made, such as a business profile or a directory listing. One correction can touch several places, and the record should show each one with its date.
If the old wording was removed, keep a copy of it with the date it came down. A later reviewer can then see exactly what changed.
A corrected answer in one experience is useful evidence about that capture. It doesn't show that every assistant or customer now sees the corrected information.
Keep the report short and dated. Name the disputed fact, the source that changed, the date it went live and each later observation. End with what is still unresolved.
If the owner asks whether the problem is solved, answer for each assistant separately. Then say which assistants you haven't checked.
A worked example
Fern Workshop changed its opening hours. An answer still links to a page with the old hours.
| Detail | Observation | Review or next step |
|---|---|---|
| Current record | The owner confirms Monday to Friday opening. | Attach the current record to a proposed page correction. |
| Old source | The cited page still says Sunday opening. | Record the page and ask its owner to review the conflict. |
The current record and the cited page disagree. The page owner has to review the correction before you record it as published.
Common questions
Can I tell the model to fix every answer?
A request doesn't show a lasting correction. Review the source and save later observations.
Should I delete the earlier wrong answer?
Keep the original record for comparison. Handle any personal information through your usual privacy process.
Can I tell the model to fix every answer?
A request doesn't show a lasting correction. Review the source and save later observations.
Should I delete the earlier wrong answer?
Keep the original record for comparison. Handle any personal information through your usual privacy process.
Check your understanding
The owner publishes a correction. What does that show?
Read the answer and explanation
- Every future assistant answer is corrected.
- The correction caused more customers.
- The public source changed, under the recorded publication evidence.
Answer. The public source changed, under the recorded publication evidence.
Review later answers separately. Publishing doesn't show that an assistant read or used the correction.
Answer and explanation
The public source changed, under the recorded publication evidence.
Review later answers separately. Publishing doesn't show that an assistant read or used the correction.
Your next steps
Sources and method
A Carqo review method. Provider statements link to the relevant documentation.
- Google Business Profile guidance Link checked 13 October 2026
- Google guidance on AI features Link checked 4 November 2026
- Google Search Help, AI Overviews in Google Search Link checked 29 October 2026
- Google Search Central, Ask Google to recrawl your URLs Link checked 29 October 2026
- Microsoft Bing Webmaster Tools, Why IndexNow Link checked 4 November 2026
- OpenAI crawler documentation Link checked 4 November 2026