Branded Queries and AI: What Customers See When Searching for You
A person who enters your company name into Google has already decided whom they are looking for. But what will they see first — your website or an artificial intelligence answer compiled from other people's pages? We found no public data on this for Ukraine, so we checked it ourselves.
What We Checked
On November 1, 2026, we reviewed Google search results using a Ukrainian IP address, signed out of our account, on a desktop. The sample included 47 Ukrainian brands: 15 national, 20 medium, and 12 local — cafes, dental clinics, salons, auto repair shops. For each brand, we checked the name in its primary spelling, alternative spelling (Cyrillic or Latin), and the query "name + reviews". For small businesses, instead of the second spelling, we used "name + city". In total — 129 branded queries and 10 control informational queries.
This is a single-day snapshot from a single location rather than a comprehensive study, so look at the order of magnitude rather than decimal fractions.
You Are Still Found by Name
On control queries like "what is SEO", the AI overview appeared in 10 out of 10 cases and almost always ranked above all websites. For brand name queries, the picture is different: the AI block appeared in only 31 out of 82 cases (38%), and in 28 of those, the company's website ranked higher. For comparison: in the US, according to Ahrefs, by the end of September 2026, the AI block appeared in 83% of branded queries and mostly took the top spot.
That means in Ukraine, the navigational query still belongs to you. A notable detail: the AI block appeared more often with Latin spelling than Cyrillic — in half of the cases versus a third. Therefore, you should calculate brand demand across all spellings: Ukrainian, Russian, Latin, and with typos.
"Reviews" Are Already AI Territory
It is completely different with the query "name + reviews". The AI block appeared in all 47 cases, and in 40 of them it ranked above all websites. The company's own website was first in organic search results only 7 times. Sources for the overview included aggregators like Hotline, GoToShop, and the "First Independent Review Site", catalogs, Facebook, and Instagram.
Two findings are worth knowing for every owner. In at least 11 overviews, AI mixed customer reviews with employee reviews about the employer — mostly for retail chains. A customer asks about service, but reads about salaries and schedules. And at least 15 overviews immediately stated the average rating: for one of the largest banks, 1–1.6 out of 5, taken from independent aggregators.
Small Business: What They See Instead of the Website
Local companies have an advantage that large chains do not. For a Kyiv dental clinic with over 1,500 reviews on Google, AI named its Google rating at the beginning of the overview — 4.8–4.9. In other words, AI also reads the reviews that the company collects on its own profile and can rank them first.
The weak spot is different: for 6 out of 12 local businesses searching by "name + city", the top result was not the website, but a social media page or a catalog. A person found you by name, but sees a social page rather than a page with prices, services, and an application form first.
What to Do About It
Measure demand. The branded queries filter in Google Search Console will show how many people are searching for you by name. For sites with a low number of impressions, it is unavailable — then a regular filter by name in all spellings will work. Google Trends will help you compare yourself against competitors.
Claim your layer of reviews. Collect reviews on your Google Business Profile, reply on aggregators, and set up a dedicated page with real reviews on your website. We discussed separately why 4.5 stars sell better than a perfect 5. Large employers should work separately with employee reviews, as AI does not separate them.
Protect your search results. A competitor has the right to purchase your name as a keyword in Google Ads, but Google can prohibit its use in the ad text upon your complaint. Therefore, a branded campaign of your own is a defense. Performance Max automated campaigns should be shielded from branded queries via a brand list; otherwise, reports will show a return on investment generated by the brand itself.
Get into AI recommendations. A person might first ask a chatbot whom to choose and then search for the name on Google. According to Similarweb, in the US, brands featured in ChatGPT recommendations receive visits 2.5 times more often within a week, and 56% of such visits come through brand search. Basic steps to help you get into such recommendations are in our video, and detailed guidance is in the article GEO in Simple Terms.
Conclusion
People in Ukraine still find Ukrainian businesses by their websites when searching by name. But at the very next step, when a person checks reviews, the narrative about the company is driven by AI — based on what others have written about you. The winner is the one who took care of these sources in advance: the review profile, aggregator pages, and a website that ranks first across all name spellings. This is systematic work with search, and SEO promotion by MAS Agency is built precisely around it.
Sources: MAS Agency's proprietary Google search results snapshot as of November 1, 2026 (47 Ukrainian brands, 139 queries); Ahrefs study on AI overviews in US brand search results; Similarweb report on the impact of AI recommendations on website traffic; Google Search Console documentation on branded query filters; Google Ads trademark policies.
