Local search results have changed shape. Where a query once produced a tidy map pack and three website links, searchers now often meet a written summary that answers part of the question before they scroll. That summary is a Google AI Overview, and it has become a regular feature of the results page for a wide range of searches.
For a plumber in Greenock, a roofing contractor in Edinburgh or an engineering supplier in Renfrewshire, the practical question is simple. Does the AI summary put your business in front of more people, or does it quietly push you down the page? The answer sits somewhere in the middle, and it depends heavily on how your local presence is built.
AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that sit above or alongside traditional results. An analysis published by Wellows in December 2025 put it neatly: these summaries are reshaping local SEO by changing how nearby businesses are surfaced, evaluated and trusted. That is a different challenge from ranking a single page for a keyword. The way a searcher judges a business now starts earlier, often before any map pin is visible.
One consistent observation from Search Engine Land’s guide to AI and local search is that the Overview experience is wordier and less streamlined than the traditional local pack. More text means more scrolling, and the familiar map results sit further down the screen than they used to. From a user experience standpoint that is a trade-off, and local businesses feel it directly when a customer has to work harder to find them.
There is a positive side. Google’s own guidance, published in May 2025, noted that with AI Overviews and AI Mode people are using Search more often, asking new and more complex questions, and reporting higher satisfaction. More searching is generally good news for businesses that can answer those questions well. The catch is that the questions are longer, more specific and less predictable than the short phrases many local pages were written around.
Not every local query triggers an AI Overview. Reporting from October 2025 found that local queries such as “restaurants near me” or “best dentist in Dublin” continue to show a lower incidence of AI Overviews than broader informational searches. In other words, the classic local pack has not disappeared.
That creates a split landscape. Some searches serve a map pack, some serve an AI summary, and many serve both. A business that ranks well in the map pack but has nothing quotable on its website may appear in one format and vanish from the other. Planning for only one of them leaves half the results page unaddressed.
Coverage from Forbes in August 2025 noted that AI Overviews can boost impressions, meaning the number of times a site appears in search results, when the AI generates a summary or snippet that draws on the page. That sounds like progress, and in part it is. Visibility has value.
The complication is that an impression is not an enquiry. Someone who reads an AI summary and gets a partial answer may never click through to a website or pick up the phone. Tracking impressions alone can flatter a report while the phone stays quiet, so enquiries and calls need to sit alongside visibility metrics rather than behind them.
AI systems tend to favour clear and authoritative information, so optimising for them can mean more visibility in AI-generated overviews. That rewards a particular style of writing: plain sentences, specific services, named locations and evidence that you actually do the work you claim to do.
Vague copy gives a model nothing to work with. A page that says “we offer quality solutions for all your needs” is hard to summarise usefully. A page that spells out the services, the areas covered and the type of customer served is far easier to quote accurately.
Analysis from July 2025 described AI Overviews as broader and more comprehensive than earlier snippets, and noted a notable impact on how people interact with search results. Commentary through 2026 has continued to treat AI Overviews as a force shaping traditional SEO rather than a passing experiment.
For local businesses this means the map pack competes for attention with a summary that may already have answered the query. Ranking third in the map pack is still worth having, but it is no longer the whole job.
| Element | Traditional local pack | AI Overview era |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Map pins and short business listings | Longer written summary, often with the map pushed further down |
| What earns visibility | Proximity, profile completeness, relevance | Clear and authoritative content that can be quoted |
| Likelihood of appearing | High for most local intent queries | Lower for “near me” style local queries, higher for broader questions |
| Primary measurement | Calls, direction requests, website clicks | Impressions and enquiries read together |
Your Google Business Profile remains the anchor for map visibility. An accurate profile with the right categories, a clear service list and consistent contact details still gives Google the signals it needs to place you on the map, and it feeds the local results that appear beneath an AI summary.
What has changed is that the profile can no longer carry your visibility on its own. The AI summary draws on content from across the web, including your website. If the profile says one thing and the site says something vague or contradictory, the summary has less to work with, and your business is less likely to be mentioned in it.
Look at the longer, more specific questions customers ask before they buy, then answer them on the page. Service pages that explain what is included, how a job is priced in principle and what a customer should expect give an AI system material it can summarise accurately.
State the towns, cities and regions you cover in plain language on the page, not only in a footer or a map embed. A roofer serving Greenock, Paisley and the wider Renfrewshire area should say so clearly, because that phrasing is what connects a local query to your business.
Search Console can show whether impressions are rising. Your own records show whether calls and enquiries are following. Reading both together tells you whether AI visibility is turning into work on the books, or simply into a bigger number on a chart.
At Wicked Spider we work with established businesses across Scotland and the UK, with a particular focus on the construction and engineering supply chain. The pattern is consistent. Firms that describe their services and coverage in straightforward language, and keep their Google Business Profile aligned with their website, hold their ground in local results as the page layout shifts around them.
Our local SEO work is fixed price with a clear scope from the start, because visibility changes are easier to act on when you know what you are paying for. If you want to understand how AI Overviews are affecting your own listings, a review of your profile and your key service pages is a sensible first step.
Sometimes, but less often than on broader informational queries. Research from October 2025 found that local queries such as “restaurants near me” continue to show a lower incidence of AI Overviews. That means the traditional map pack still appears for plenty of local searches, while AI summaries turn up more often on questions about how to choose, compare or plan a purchase.
They are useful as a signal, not as a result. AI Overviews can lift impressions when a page is summarised, which shows your content is being found and considered relevant. On its own, though, an impression does not pay wages. Read impressions alongside calls, form fills and enquiries to judge whether that visibility is turning into business.
Yes, and the route in is the same as good local SEO has always been. Clear, accurate information about what you do and where you do it gives AI systems something authoritative to quote. Businesses with thin or vague pages give them nothing, which is why plain, specific service and location content matters more now than it did a few years ago.
No. Map pack visibility still drives calls, direction requests and website visits for local businesses, and Google Business Profile data feeds the results that appear alongside AI summaries. Treat map visibility and AI visibility as two parts of one job. Neglecting either leaves a gap that a competitor will happily fill.
