Plenty of local business owners have a version of the same story this spring. Website traffic down by almost half. No obvious cause. Rankings haven't moved. Reviews are good. The Google Business Profile looks the same as it always has. The phone just stopped ringing.
The answer isn't in Google Search Console. It's at the top of the Google results page, in the AI Overview box that now answers most searches before the user ever sees the blue links.
What the new Google looks like
Google's AI Overview is the box at the top of the search results page. It pulls together an answer from sources Google decides are most relevant, names a few of those sources, and gives the user the option to stop searching right there.
Most of the time, they do. According to Search Engine Land's coverage of the Seer Interactive study, organic click rates for searches that show an AI Overview fell 61 percent in a single year. Paid click rates fell 68 percent. The blue links are still there. People just aren't clicking them anymore.
Where the clicks went
They didn't all disappear. They reorganized.
The same research found that brands cited inside an AI Overview earned 35 percent more organic clicks than they did before AI Overviews existed. Paid clicks for cited brands jumped 91 percent. Being named inside the summary is now more valuable than ranking number one underneath it.
This is the part most local business owners haven't grasped. The page hasn't gotten smaller. The opportunity has moved from ranking for the keyword to getting cited inside the answer. Most SMB owners are still spending time chasing the rank that no one clicks.
Why most local businesses are missing it
Three problems show up over and over in AIMention scans for SMBs.
First, the site doesn't answer questions clearly near the top of the page. AI Overviews pull from content that states the answer first, then explains. Most local business websites bury the answer under hero images, sliders, and "About Us" preamble. By the time the actual answer shows up, AI has already moved on to a competitor's page that opened with it.
Second, the information AI uses to verify a business, name, address, phone, services, hours, is inconsistent across the web. A clean Google Business Profile is not enough. AI checks across review sites, directories, and your own pages, and any mismatch makes it cautious about citing you.
Third, almost no SMB site has structured content for the questions their customers actually ask. "What does a roof inspection cost in Naperville?" "How long does a metal roof last in Illinois winters?" AI cites the page that answers the specific question with specific numbers, not the page that says "Quality work, fair prices."
What actually changes things
The fix isn't building backlinks or chasing keyword rankings. It's making the page easier for AI to cite.
That starts with putting the direct answer to a specific local question at the top of the relevant page, with the city named and a real number attached. Where there's a price range, write the price range. Where there's a timeline, write the timeline. Vague claims like "quality work" or "fast service" don't get cited.
Add an FAQ section with the questions your team actually answers on the phone. Lead with the answer, not the explanation. Keep names, addresses, phone numbers, services, and hours consistent across your site, your Google Business Profile, and any directory listings AI might check.
None of this requires a developer. None of it moves your Google rankings. It makes your page citable, which is where the new traffic is.
Knowing where you stand
There is no easy way to check whether you appear in AI Overviews. Google does not show citations in Search Console. Most rank trackers ignore them.
That is what AIMention scans for. It checks whether your business is named inside the AI answers your customers are getting on Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude, and shows you where the gaps are. Run a free scan at aimention.co to see where you currently stand.