Google’s AI Overview is transforming how users interact with local search results, offering quick, AI-generated answers directly on the search engine results page—often before users scroll to traditional organic listings or the local map pack. While this benefits users with streamlined information, it creates challenges for businesses aiming to boost their local SEO. The rise of AI Overview means less visibility and fewer click-throughs for business websites, making citations, content quality, and trust signals more important than ever.
To adapt, businesses must focus on strategies that improve E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), optimize their Google Business Profile, create high-quality local content, use natural long-tail keywords, and adjust how they measure success—emphasizing brand visibility and engagement rather than clicks alone. By staying proactive and fine-tuning local SEO strategies, business owners can remain competitive in an AI-enhanced search landscape.
Google has always been the number-one search engine for internet users worldwide, with a market share of roughly 90%. (Its greatest contender, Bing, only has a share of approximately 4%.)
As the most prominent search engine, Google is constantly evolving to best serve its users and discover the next great thing in search capabilities.
One of the most notable advancements that Google has launched recently is the introduction of AI Overview (formerly known as Search Generative Experience or SGE). AI Overview uses artificial intelligence to summarize complex queries and deliver concise yet information-rich answers directly within the search results.
It’s extremely helpful to those conducting information-based searches. But while beneficial for users, AI Overview brings new challenges and opportunities for businesses working to rank in local searches.
If you’re a business owner or decision-maker who wants to see your company’s local SEO improve, understanding how AI Overview affects local search is critical.
In this article, we’re exploring AI Overview, how it changes user behavior, and what strategies you should consider to stay visible in local search results.
What Is Google’s AI Overview?
AI Overview is Google’s AI-powered feature that provides concise, aggregated responses at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). Rather than listing only sponsored ads and organic search results (the blue links), AI Overview pulls content from multiple sources. It presents users with a summarized answer to their query. Depending on the nature of the search, this could include text summaries, citations, product suggestions, or maps.
While this can streamline users’ search processes, it also means that traditional organic listings are pushed further down the page. For businesses relying on local SEO, this shift has major implications.
How AI Overview Affects Local Search Visibility
1. Local Listings May Get Less Visibility
AI Overview can reduce the visibility of traditional local search results like the Local Pack (map listings) and standard organic links. If Google answers a user’s query directly, users may never scroll to see your business’s listing.
2. There’s Less Click-Through to Business Websites
With AI Overview presenting quick answers or summarized lists (sometimes with embedded reviews, business hours, or directions), users can often receive the info they need without clicking through to your website. This can lead to decreased traffic, even if your business is cited in the summary.
3. Citation Is Becoming Critical
While AI Overview often includes source links, not all featured businesses will receive clicks. However, being cited by AI Overview boosts your likelihood of getting a click-through, enhances your credibility, and still contributes to brand visibility.
If your site is a trusted source, it may be included in the AI summary, so optimizing your content for helpfulness and accuracy matters now more than ever.
4. Local Search Intent Is Changing
AI Overview may handle more complex or conversational queries. For example, instead of searching “pizza restaurant Macon GA,” users might ask, “Where’s the best place to grab a pizza with kids in Macon?” AI Overview will attempt to answer this directly, pulling insights from reviews, business profiles, and trusted articles.
Google’s new approach to gathering and presenting information in a search changes how businesses should approach content and keyword targeting for local SEO optimization. Obtaining Google reviews, beefing up your business profile, and producing trustworthy content on your website on a regular basis are all critical moves to make.
What Can Businesses Do to Adapt Their Traditional and Local SEO?
SEO has always been the key to appearing in searches, both traditional and local. And it still is. However, the strategies to boost SEO are changing.
1. Optimize for E-E-A-T
Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) are central to how AI Overview chooses sources now. What that means is that your web content needs to be well-written, helpful, accurate, and supported by local credentials or testimonials.
Google’s goal is for AI Overview to provide users with the most accurate content when answering a question or satisfying a query (although it has failed on several occasions, especially early after it launched). But how can AI Overview know that the content it presents to users is correct? It looks at a number of signals that indicate E-E-A-T—the more signals it sees, the more reliable the content is likely to be.
Examples of E-E-A-T signals include:
- Experience: Travel bloggers writing about their first-hand experience in a particular city or their review of a particular hotel or resort; a dermatologist reviewing the performance of various skincare products available at their clinic; a lawn care company evaluating the benefits of a new lawn care solution that has recently hit the market, etc.
- Expertise: A cardiologist providing information on conditions relevant to their practice, like congestive heart failure, hypertension, thrombosis, etc.; an IT company producing insightful content about IT-related topics like cybersecurity, network cabling, audio/visual installations, etc.; a law firm covering topics related to their practice area(s), etc.
- Authoritativeness: An allergist’s content or work being cited in an online allergy-related publication; an eye care practice receiving lots of positive reviews on their Google Business Profile; a women’s health clinic gaining lots of positive engagement on their social media profiles.
- Trustworthiness: A company of any kind producing content that corroborates the content that companies in the same market or vertical are also producing; a company of any kind producing content on a secure and user-friendly website; a company of any type that cites other reliable, well-respected, and well-trusted sources, etc.
The more valuable your content’s E-E-A-T scores are, the more likely AI Overview is to cite you and list your site as a source link.
2. Focus on Long-Tail and Conversational Keywords
Use natural language in your content that mirrors the types of questions users might ask to find solutions like yours. Include location-specific phrasing in your content and address common pain points or needs in your area.
For example, if you are an exterminator who serves the Middle Georgia area, you’re going to want to include content on your website that naturally promotes the work you do in the various communities you serve. It’s not considered natural for your content to say something like, “We’re your pest control in Macon, GA, pest control in Warner Robins, GA, pest control in Perry, GA, and pest control in Forsyth, GA.” That’s just keyword stuffing in an attempt to target users searching “pest control _____, GA.” Keyword stuffing has been a big no-no with Google for a while now, mainly because it doesn’t sound natural. Google would rather promote sites that prioritize natural-sounding language, such as “ABC Exterminators provides pest control to homeowners and property owners in Middle Georgia, including those in Macon, Warner Robins, Perry, and Forsyth.”
3. Keep Your Google Business Profile (GBP) Up to Date
AI Overview pulls data from Google Business Profiles—including hours, reviews, and photos. Make sure your profile is accurate, complete, and regularly updated to optimize your chances of the algorithm finding you and using you as a source in searches.
AI Overview or not, your Google Business Profile is one of your most important assets online, especially when you want to rank well in local searches.
Your GBP is one of the first things Google evaluates when a user conducts a search that is relevant to your company. It checks to:
- Make sure you have one.
- See if the key information the user needs is there.
- Determine if the information you present in your profile matches the information you have featured elsewhere online.
If you don’t have a GBP or if the info on your GBP doesn’t match what is listed on your social media profiles or other listings, you’re not going to rank well, regardless of whether it’s a local search or a traditional search.
Beyond accurate information, you also need to optimize your profile with original and high-quality photos and videos, complete with detailed descriptions that include relevant keywords. It’s also extremely helpful to gain reviews, respond to reviews, use Google posts, feature FAQs, and use the Q&A feature to round out your profile and better serve both AI’s algorithm and your users.
Pro tip: When gathering reviews, the best ones are those that mention your location, service, or specialty, because those signals help AI better understand your business. Ask satisfied customers to mention specific details in their feedback.
4. Generate High-Quality Local Content
Your blog is your not-so-secret weapon for getting attention from Google’s AI algorithm and boosting your chances of being used as a source card in relevant overviews or organic search results.
Using your blog, you can (and should) create content that answers local queries. Examples include blog posts like “Top 5 Spots for Family-Friendly Pizza in Macon, GA” or “What to Look for in a Middle Georgia HVAC Company.” The more relevant your content is and the more it aligns with E-E-A-T, the more likely it is to be cited by AI Overview.
5. Consider Tracking Metrics Differently
With fewer users clicking through to websites now, traditional SEO metrics like click-through rate (CTR) and bounce rate may change. If these seem to be plummeting in your reports, that is not necessarily an indication that your website is “failing”—your brand/site may be performing exceptionally well in other ways.
Start evaluating things that indicate brand visibility:
- Keywords: The more keywords you rank for, the more visible your brand is in relevant searches. See how many keywords your site ranks for month to month or quarter to quarter. See how many keywords are landing you on page 1 of Google, how many are landing you in the top three positions, and how many are landing you in the coveted #1 organic spot on Google’s 1st results page.
- Local pack rankings: Landing in the local pack is huge for brand visibility. It increases the likelihood of a user either clicking on your result to be taken to your website or using the information presented right there to call your business or visit your location. Evaluate how many times you land in the local pack and the keywords that are getting you there.
- Reviews and mentions: The more reviews and mentions you gain, the more your brand will boost, increasing the chance of other users seeing your branding and pursuing your business as a solution to their needs.
AI Overview and M&R Marketing
AI Overview is reshaping the local SEO landscape. While it may be reducing website traffic from local searches, it also presents new ways to get noticed—through citations, high-quality content, and trusted local authority. Business owners should adjust their local SEO strategies to ensure they’re staying visible in a world where AI is increasingly the first point of contact for users.
How can you make that happen? With help from the marketing pros at M&R! We are staying on top of the changes happening with AI Overview and Google searches in general, studying new methods, testing new strategies, and finding the keys to success for businesses looking to boost their SEO, increase brand visibility, and grow their business.
Conquer AI Overview and Local SEO—Talk to M&R Marketing Today: 478-621-4491
With an in-house team of SEO-focused copywriters, designers, web developers, and digital strategists, M&R Marketing is ready to help your business tackle AI Overview and optimize your position in Google’s local search results. We’re a full-service, fully engaged team of pros who cannot wait to help you grow with effective, customized online marketing tactics explicitly designed for the benefit of your business.
For more information, call 478-621-4491 to speak with one of our business development managers today!
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