Google is answering for you now. Deal with it.
When someone types your business name into Google, they used to get a tidy list: your website at the top, maybe your Google Business Profile on the right, done. That customer was already looking for you. Predictable. Safe.
Not anymore.
By the end of September 2025, two independent datasets both put AI Overviews appearing on more than 80% of branded keyword searches—one covering all markets and devices, one focused on U.S. desktop results specifically. The U.S. desktop dataset found them on 82.91% of branded searches. One researcher tested 100 enterprise brands and found AI Overviews on 93 of them. Google hasn't made a formal announcement. It just happened.
An AI Overview is the box of AI-generated text Google places above the regular search results—a synthesis pulled from multiple sources that tries to answer the query right there on the page. On a branded search, that means a customer who already knows your name might read Google's summary of your business before they ever click through to your site.
Here's the problem: Google decides what goes in that summary and which sources it cites. If your website, your Google Business Profile, or the third-party sources that describe you aren't the strongest available signals, Google will pull from whatever is. That could be a directory with wrong hours. It could be a review site quoting an old complaint. According to published guidance on branded AI Overviews, it's worth investigating whether competing businesses are introduced into a response alongside yours—that's a real possibility marketers are now being told to check for.
Ranking at the top for your own brand name used to mean you controlled that first impression. Now it means less than it did.
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Why This Hits Local Service Businesses Hard
National brands have entire marketing teams watching this stuff. You have a busy Tuesday.
For a local plumber, HVAC company, dental practice, or fitness studio, branded searches are some of the highest-intent traffic there is. Those searchers already heard of you—from a yard sign, a referral, a truck on the highway. They're not browsing. They're checking you out before they call.
If the AI Overview describes you accurately and cites your own pages, you're still in good shape. If it's thin, outdated, or skewed by a weaker source, you've lost a warm lead without ever knowing it happened.
Click-through rate—the percentage of people who search and then actually click your link—is the number to watch. When an AI Overview answers the question on the page, fewer people click anywhere. The diagnostic is straightforward: compare your click-through rate on branded queries for a week before AI Overviews showed up heavily versus a week after. In Google Search Console (a free tool from Google that shows you how your site performs in search), filter the Performance report to branded queries and look at CTR, not raw clicks. Your total search volume goes up and down with your own advertising and word of mouth, so raw clicks can be misleading.
If your rankings held steady but CTR dropped, the AI Overview is the first place to investigate.
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What Google Is Actually Pulling From
Google doesn't generate AI Overview content from thin air. It synthesizes from sources it already trusts. For a local business, those sources tend to fall into a few categories:
- Your own website pages — especially pages with clear, direct language about what you do, where you operate, and who you serve
- Your Google Business Profile — the information panel that appears on Maps and search, which you control directly and which is one of the key sources Google draws from for local businesses
- Third-party directories and review platforms — major listings wherever your business appears online
- Any third-party content that discusses or describes your business
Google is looking for consistency and authority. If your website says one thing, your Google Business Profile says another, and a directory has your old address, those inconsistencies don't inspire confidence in any AI trying to summarize who you are.
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What to Do This Week
1. Search your own brand name, signed out of Google
Open a private or incognito browser window so you're not logged into your Google account. Search your business name. Read whatever AI Overview appears as if you were a customer seeing it for the first time. Ask yourself: Does it describe you accurately? Which sources does it cite? Are those sources current? Is anything missing or wrong?
If no AI Overview appears yet, check again over the next few days. Tracking data showed the rate moving across a wide range throughout September 2025—from around 26% early in the month to a peak above 90%—so appearances can vary day to day.
2. Check your click-through rate in Google Search Console
Log into Google Search Console (it's free and set up through Google directly). Go to the Performance report. Filter by your brand name queries. Look at the CTR column. Compare recent weeks against earlier in the year. A drop in CTR while impressions hold steady is a signal worth taking seriously.
If you're not sure when AI Overviews first started showing for your brand, try comparing the week of September 8–14, 2025 against September 29–October 5, 2025. Tracking data showed the rate sitting between 28% and 34% in that first window and above 80% by late September—so those two windows give you a reasonable before-and-after comparison.
3. Audit your Google Business Profile for accuracy
Your Google Business Profile is one of the key sources Google draws from when summarizing local businesses, making it worth getting right. Make sure your business name, address, phone number, hours, and service descriptions are current and complete. Fill out every field you can. Add photos. Answer questions people have asked. Respond to recent reviews—both positive and negative.
A profile that looks maintained signals to Google that the information is reliable. One that hasn't been touched in two years signals the opposite.
4. Strengthen the pages Google is most likely to cite
Look at which pages the AI Overview cites when you do that signed-out search. If it's citing a third-party directory instead of your own site, ask yourself: is my website's content about my services, location, and credentials more thorough and trustworthy than that directory? If not, that's where to start.
Clear, specific service pages with real detail—not vague marketing copy—are what Google's AI is better positioned to pull from. Write for the customer reading it, not for the algorithm. Explain what you do, where you do it, who you serve, and what makes you different. Thin pages with three sentences and a phone number don't give Google much to work with.
5. Clean up your directory listings
Inconsistent business information across the web weakens your authority as a source. If your name, address, or phone number varies across directories, Google has to guess which version to trust. Audit your major listings and make sure they match what's on your website and Google Business Profile exactly—same formatting, same phone number, same business name.
This isn't glamorous work. It's also the kind of thing that quietly costs you citations in AI Overviews while you're focused on everything else.
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What You're Really Managing Now
Branded search used to be something you could set up once and mostly forget. Your site ranked, customers found you, life was good.
Now it's an ongoing conversation between your digital presence and Google's AI—and Google is going to have that conversation whether you're prepared or not.
Businesses that get cited accurately in AI Overviews tend to share a common trait: clear, consistent, well-structured information across their website, their Google Business Profile, and the third-party sources Google already reads. That's achievable for a local business with focused effort. The ones who get left out—or described inaccurately—are usually the ones who set something up years ago and never looked at it again.
You don't need to be an SEO expert to start. SEO, or search engine optimization, just means making your business easy for Google to understand and trust. Start with that signed-out search today. Read what Google says about you. Then decide what needs fixing.