Local SEO is not dead, but AI has changed the hand-off

It made me wonder why we love a crisis so much.

The shift in how people find us is certainly real enough, but I suspect it is far less of an apocalypse and much more of a quiet detour. The road we are driving down is exactly the same; it is just that the signposts have been painted a slightly different colour. The foundations remain untouched.

The basics still matter (Google says so)

Google's own documentation for 2026 is unusually clear on this point. AI Overviews and AI Mode are not run on some separate, mystical technology. Under the hood, they run on the very same machinery, using the same ranking algorithms and quality filters that Google has been tinkering with for decades. They use the same search index. They show clickable links to supporting pages. That is about it.

Google has even come out and said, quite bluntly for them, that we do not need to perform any weird technical voodoo to show up in these AI summaries. None. We do not need obscure code, weird formatting, or any of the pricey "AI optimisation" hacks popping up in our inboxes. In fact, Google's official advice warns against wasting time chasing shortcuts. To win in AI search, we just need what we have always needed: helpful content, clean technical setup, and accurate business data.

Not long ago, someone messaged me directly on LinkedIn asking about optimising for AI. Their Google Business Profile didn't show any opening hours or even a phone number, but they still wanted to look at the AI angle first.

I often find myself looking back at the Google Business Profile, the website content, and the reviews. These have always done the heavy lifting. They still do. They tell Google who we are, what we offer, and where we operate. That foundation remains rock solid.

What has changed is the journey

The real shake-up seems to be happening earlier in the story, long before a finger actually hovers over a mouse link.

According to Ofcom's 2026 research, 75% of online adults read AI search summaries at least some of the time. What is more, 54% of UK adults are actively using tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini. That is a massive, undeniable shift in daily habits. A huge portion of our potential market is now reading machine-generated text before they ever see a standard blue link.

I try to picture a customer looking for services. Before they ever touch a homepage, they might read a quick AI summary of a business, spot a bullet point pulled from a Google profile, or get a direct recommendation from an assistant. The old hand-off is different. In the past, a website acted like that first, slightly nervous handshake. Now, I suspect it plays a different part, behaving more like the quiet nod of agreement at the very end of a meeting.

It feels as though the website has a new job. It has to stop trying to make a loud first impression, and instead focus on proving that the AI summary was accurate about you. Say an AI told a user that you offer a particular service in their town. When that user clicks through, your site must confirm it straight away. Don't make them search for proof. Show it immediately.

AI visibility is harder to earn than a Google ranking

Here is where things get interesting. And perhaps a little challenging.

If you look at the latest industry testing, these AI bots are remarkably fussy about who they choose to vouch for when a local user asks for a recommendation. Far pickier than Google. In fact, across tested locations, these AI assistants recommended a measly 1% to 11% of the businesses that usually show up in standard Google results. Think about that. You might rank well on page one, but the AI assistant could still completely ignore you.

Accuracy is another headache. Business information on ChatGPT and Perplexity sat at around 68% accuracy in early tests, whilst Google's Gemini hit 100% simply because it hooks directly into Google Maps data.

Of course, these are early days. I suspect we shouldn't treat these initial numbers as permanent, immutable benchmarks. Even so, we can spot a definite pattern starting to emerge, which is that landing a spot on page one of the old Google doesn't mean a machine assistant will ever mention your name.

When I was first building some of the tools at Local Roots Digital, an AI agent kept giving me different answers about how many directories a business appeared in. I had to cross-check it with a third-party checker to make sure the result was accurate. Newer models have improved, but I still check the underlying data.

Who gets left behind? Usually, it is the business whose hours, phone numbers, and addresses are a jumbled, mismatched mess across three different directories. If your Google listing says you shut at 5 PM but your website says you are open until 6, you are forcing a machine to guess which one is true. A confused algorithm won't try to solve the mystery; it will just move on to your competitor.

What agencies are actually selling

If an agency approaches you promising "AI search optimisation" or "GEO" (generative engine optimisation), it is worth taking a breath. We should know what we are actually buying.

The local SEO market has not shifted nearly as much as the marketing pitches suggest. Look at any agency directory. You'll see the exact same core services they've sold for a decade: Google Business Profile work, technical SEO, content writing, and monthly reports. It's the same engine.

It seems to me that agencies are mostly just taking the exact same service they sold you in 2018 and wrapping it in some crisp, futuristic-looking foil. I don't think it is necessarily a scam, but it does get confusing if we believe we are investing in some revolutionary, futuristic technology.

Google's own Search Central team practically admitted this recently, pointing out that you should probably just stick to the classic fundamentals of search, because behind all the fancy chat interfaces, the underlying machine works exactly the same way it always did.

I've always believed in keeping things simple. If you are going to hire an agency, find the person who can sit down over a cup of tea and explain, without a single syllable of corporate jargon, exactly what they are doing to get you found and how they'll prove it's working. If they can't explain it without using buzzwords, it's usually best to walk away.

What should your business actually do?

Here is some good news. Google recently added AI visibility reporting to its Search Console, showing you exactly how many impressions and pages you get in AI-driven search results. This proves it's a real, measurable metric now. Not just guesswork.

For a business operating in the Tees Valley or across the wider North East, you don't need a massive budget or a complex new strategy. The practical steps are incredibly straightforward.

First, keep your Google Business Profile flawless. The hours you open, the exact list of things you do, and your phone number are the absolute lifeblood of your online presence. They are exactly what these automated scrapers pull to build their answers, so they need to be spot-on.

Second, match your website to your profile. You can't have conflicting stories online. If your Google map listing says you shut the doors at 5 PM but your contact page claims you're open until 6, you're setting off alarm bells. A confused algorithm won't try to solve the mystery; it will just move on to your competitor.

Third, nail the technical basics. Is your site painfully slow, or does it load in a snap? Does the text resize nicely when you open it on a cheap smartphone, or do you have to pinch and zoom? Can the automated indexers actually navigate through your pages without hitting a dead end? If those indexers get locked out, the AI brain won't ever know you exist.

Fourth, write clear, dedicated service pages. Resist the urge to dump every single thing you do onto one giant, scrolling homepage. If you offer several distinct services, give each of them its own dedicated page. Write down exactly what the service involves and the specific towns you cover, which helps both the search crawlers and a real customer understand what you do within a few seconds of landing.

Finally, stay on top of reviews. Make it a habit to ask customers for feedback every week, and write a quick reply as soon as they post. Having a steady stream of recent reviews shows people you're still in business, and the natural phrases your customers write act as perfect, real-world signals for the AI algorithms to chew on.

One thing I notice when reading reviews is how often they sit at one extreme or the other: either hugely congratulatory or downright rude. I don't mean reviews of my own work, but reviews across plenty of other businesses.

And please, ignore the self-proclaimed gurus offering shortcuts. Google has said repeatedly that they aren't hiding any secret entrance criteria for AI search. In the long run, the businesses that get recommended are going to be the ones with the cleanest, most trustworthy facts scattered across the web. It won't be the companies spending hundreds of pounds trying to outsmart a system that updates its rules every single Tuesday.

The honest picture

AI search is here, and it is growing. But for most local businesses, I don't think the right response is to panic or buy a shiny new marketing package. It is simply about doing the basics a bit better. Being accurate. Keeping your site clear. Making sure your phone number and address are written exactly the same way on every directory you can find.

The route your customers take to find you has drifted a bit. They might click through to your contact page already knowing your prices or your specialties because an AI told them. I suspect our job now is simply to make sure those details match up perfectly, so they don't get cold feet and click back to their search results. The Get Found overview sets out the practical visibility checks behind that work.

It makes me wonder what other small details we've been taking for granted that are suddenly more important than ever.