AI is reshaping how people search - and how Google decides what to show. Here is what it means for local businesses.
AI hasn't killed SEO - it's changed where and how people find you. Between Google's AI Overviews and assistants like ChatGPT, more searches now end with an answer rather than a click. For local businesses that's both a threat and an opportunity, depending on whether you adapt.
What's actually changing
For years, SEO meant "rank a blue link on page one". Now a growing share of searches are answered directly - Google summarises the web in an AI Overview, and millions of people ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity instead of searching at all. The result: fewer clicks on some informational queries, and a new battleground for being the source the AI quotes.
AI hasn't killed SEO - it's changed where and how people find you.
What hasn't changed (and won't)
The fundamentals matter more than ever, because AI systems are built on top of them:
- Genuine expertise and trust - AI leans heavily on credibility signals: reviews, consistent information, real authorship.
- Clear, well-structured content - content that directly answers a question is what gets pulled into AI answers.
- Technical health and schema - machines can only quote what they can crawl and understand.
- Local relevance and reviews - for "near me" intent, your Google Business Profile still decides who wins.
The new discipline: GEO
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is SEO's natural extension - optimising to be the answer AI assistants give, not just a link they list. In practice that means structuring content as clear questions and answers, earning mentions and citations across the web, keeping your business facts consistent everywhere, and using schema so machines can read you cleanly. We've built a dedicated AI Search (GEO) service around exactly this.
What local businesses should do now
Don't panic, and don't abandon SEO - double down on the parts AI rewards. Publish content that genuinely answers customer questions. Keep your Google Business Profile and reviews strong. Make sure your site is fast, crawlable and marked up with schema. And track your visibility in AI answers, not just classic rankings.
The firms that treat AI as a reason to get the fundamentals right will come out ahead - showing up in the blue links, the map pack and the AI answer. That layered visibility is what our SEO and AI Search work is built to deliver.
