Well, Actually: Google's AI Overviews Have Consumed Local Search, and Your Location Pages Are Probably Wrong
AI Overviews now appear in 68% of local searches. That is nearly double the 39% appearance rate for traditional local packs. The shift means search engines now synthesize answers rather than merely list businesses.
This teaches you that visibility now requires being quotable by a summarization system, not merely indexable by a database. Your location pages must be structured as citable evidence. The workflow change is fundamental: you now optimize for citation extraction, not just ranking position.
Search Engine Journal analyzed these figures and published guidance on rebuilding location pages for AI citation. No specific business results were attributed to named companies in the source.
Step 1: Open one of your location pages and read it aloud. If it sounds like a brochure, rewrite the first paragraph as three factual sentences a machine could quote: what you do, where you do it, and who you serve. Expected outcome: a citable summary block. Step 2: Add a specific local detail (landmark, neighborhood name, service radius) that does not appear on your other location pages. Expected outcome: unique entity signals for disambiguation. Step 3: Submit the page URL through Google Search Console's URL Inspection tool and request indexing. Expected outcome: faster processing of your revised content.