The kinds, and how each finds businesses
| What it is | Where it gets answers | How a business appears | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google AI Overviews | A generated summary above the normal results on some searches | Google’s index; cites pages | Being a cited page; on local queries, usually replaced by the map pack |
| Google AI Mode | A conversational search tab that runs several searches and synthesises | Google’s index, including Business Profiles and Maps | Cited pages and Business Profile data |
| ChatGPT (with search) | An assistant that searches the web when a question needs current information | A live web search; cites pages | Being in the retrieved results and stated clearly |
| Perplexity | A search-first assistant that always cites | Live web search | As above; heavy citation of clear, sourced pages |
| Microsoft Copilot | Bing’s assistant | Bing’s index | Bing Places and cited pages |
Source: Publicly documented product behaviour as of September 2026; specifics change frequently.
What we saw on live UK results
On 4 September 2026 we read 14 UK search results for our own market. Eight carried an AI Overview. They appeared on the informational and national queries: cost questions, “what is” questions, agency comparisons. On “website design cost uk” the overview cited twelve small UK studios’ cost guides. On the local commercial queries — “web design manchester”, “seo agency manchester”, “google ads agency manchester”, “wordpress web design manchester” — there was no overview; a map pack of three businesses with 20 to 70 reviews sat above the results instead.
What changes for a local business
- Fewer clicks on informational searches. If the overview answers “how much does a driveway cost”, some people never click. The page that is cited still earns the trust and the later enquiry; the page that is not cited earns nothing.
- Being the source beats being fourth. Position four on a traditional result got clicks; on an AI-answered result it gets nothing unless cited. Clear, sourced, dated pages get cited.
- Entity consistency matters more. Assistants cross-check who a business is across its site, its Business Profile, directories and reviews. Different names or descriptions in different places read as noise.
- Structured data matters more. Machines writing answers prefer facts they can read without inference.
- Trust signals matter more. A named person, real reviews, sources and dates are what a system uses to decide which of several pages to quote.
What does not change
- Local searches. The map pack and the Business Profile decide “near me” and “trade + town”, with or without AI. Reviews still decide the map pack.
- Retrieval. AI search finds pages the way search always has: reachable, relevant, trusted. The technical, on-page and off-page work is unchanged.
- Conversion. Whoever arrives still lands on your site, and the site still has to say what, where and how much and have a working form.
- Measurement. Search Console reports impressions and clicks including from AI features; your enquiry log still tells you what worked.
What to do about it
- Keep the Business Profile complete and the review habit going. It is the AI answer for local searches.
- Answer your customers’ questions on pages with the answer in the first paragraph, a date, a named author and sources. Those are the pages that get cited.
- Make the business one consistent entity across the site, the profile, directories and social profiles.
- Carry structured data for the business, the founder, articles and FAQs.
- Ask the assistants your customers’ questions monthly and record whether you appear.
That list is the same work as good search practice with two additions, consistency and the monthly check. The AI optimisation page on this site describes it as exactly that, and publishes no AI-visibility score because there is no honest one yet.
