Google now answers the question itself. Where does that leave you?
For many searches Google writes its own answer above the results. Here is which searches that affects, what it costs a local business, and the few things worth doing about it.
The short version
Since 2024, Google has put an AI-written answer above the results for many searches, so fewer people click through to read. For a local business the map results and the answer’s own sources still send people your way. The work is to be the page it quotes: one job per page, a direct answer near the top, real prices and hours, and a Google listing that agrees with it.
Search for “how much does a boiler service cost” and look at what comes back. Above the familiar links there is now a paragraph, written by Google, that answers the question. Beside it, a short list of the pages that answer came from. Google calls it an AI Overview. In 2025 it added an AI Mode tab that goes further and answers in a full conversation.
Owners ask us two things about this. Does it mean fewer people visit my website? And what am I supposed to do about it? The honest answers are yes, for some searches, and a short list of things that are mostly worth doing anyway.
What you now see at the top of Google.
For a local search there are three things stacked on the page. Sometimes an AI Overview at the top. Then the map with three businesses, which Google has shown for years. Then the ordinary links. Which of the three appears, and in what order, depends on what was typed.
The overview is built the same way the AI tools in the previous article build theirs. Google reads a handful of pages, writes a summary, and shows where it came from. If one of those pages is yours, your name is in the answer and your link is beside it.
Which searches get an answer, and which get a map.
Questions get overviews. “How much does a boiler service cost.” “How often should a dog be groomed.” “Do I need planning permission for a garden room.” Anything a person would ask a knowledgeable friend.
Searches for a business, or for a service nearby, mostly still get the map. “Plumber near me.” “Dog groomer Oadby.” “Dev K Plumbing.” Google knows the person wants a place to call, not an explanation, and the map is the answer.
That split matters. For a local business, the map has always sent most of the calls, and it is not going anywhere. The overview mostly touches the searches where someone is still working out what they need, which is earlier, and where being the trusted source is worth a lot.
“Why is my boiler making a banging noise?”
“Emergency plumber Leicester.”
“How long does a first dental check-up take?”
“Dentist open Saturday near me.”
“What should a wedding cake cost per slice?”
“Cake shop Wigston.”
What it costs you, honestly.
When the answer is on the results page, fewer people need to click. If your website had a page that explained boiler noises and quietly brought in enquiries, it will bring in fewer visits now. That is real, and it is not coming back.
Two things soften it. The people who do click after reading an overview know more and are closer to picking up the phone. And a business named inside the answer is in front of everyone who reads it, click or no click. A name and a line of trust, shown to a hundred people, is not nothing.
So stop measuring visits. Count calls, bookings and messages. Those are the numbers that pay the bills, and they are the ones a clear website still moves. Our own sites are set up so you can see them in one place.
Fewer clicks is only a problem if clicks were the point. Calls are the point.
Be the page it quotes.
Google picks sources the way a careful reader would. It favours a page that is about one thing, answers the question in its opening lines, and gives specifics: a price, a duration, a place, a date. It skips pages that circle the topic without landing.
Give each service its own page and open with the answer. “A standard boiler service takes about an hour and costs a fixed price, shown below.” Then the detail. Then how to book. The homepage check applies to every page, not only the first one.
Say who is talking.
A page with a named owner, a real address, photographs of real work and a date it was last updated reads as a business. A page with none of those reads as anyone. Google leans on those signals when deciding whose answer to trust, and so does a customer.
Add the questions people ring you with, and answer them the way you would on the phone. Short, specific and honest beats long and careful. Keep prices current. A page that says “from” and then names a figure is quotable. A page that says “contact us for pricing” is not.
Try this now
Type your best service page’s question into Google and read the overview. Whose page is beside it? Open that page and look at its first five lines. Then look at yours.
Keep the map working for you.
For the searches that bring calls, the map is still the front door. The three businesses shown there are picked from Google Business Profile, and the profile is free. Check the category, the hours, the phone number and the link to your site. Add photographs from this year.
Reviews decide who gets shown and who gets chosen, and Google now summarises them in the listing and in AI answers. Ask for them steadily and reply to every one. The Business Profile guide and the reviews article cover both.
One older figure is still worth keeping in mind: 84% of the searches that surface a business on Google are for a service, not for the business by name (BrightLocal, 2019). People find you by what you do. Say what you do.
A check to do this month.
None of this is a rebuild. It is a list of short, checkable jobs.
- I have searched my three most common customer questions and read the AI answer for each.
- Each main service has one page that answers the question in its first lines.
- Prices, or starting prices, and durations are written as text on those pages.
- The owner’s name, the address and recent photographs are on the site.
- My Google listing’s category, hours and phone number are right, and I reply to reviews.
- I am counting calls and bookings, not visits.
0 of 6 checked
A few common questions.
Can I opt out of AI Overviews?
You can stop Google using your pages in them, but that also stops your pages being named as a source, which is the one benefit. For a local business it is better to be quoted than to be absent.
Does an AI Overview appear for every search?
No. Questions and how-to searches get them most often. Searches for a business name or a service nearby usually get the map and the links, as before.
Do I need to write more articles to compete?
Not more, better. One clear page per service, with real prices, hours and answers, does more than a dozen general articles. Add a piece only when customers keep asking a question the site does not yet answer.
Is this the same as getting named by ChatGPT?
The same work serves both. Google’s overview, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity all read pages and quote the clearest ones. The article before this one covers the tools outside Google, and the section above on being the page it quotes applies to all of them.
