Google AI Overviews: What Small Businesses Need to Know in 2026

Here's the honest take that most SEO articles won't give you: Google AI Overviews are genuinely good news for real local businesses. They're bad news for content farms, thin websites, and anyone who was ranking primarily on SEO tricks rather than actual expertise.

If you run a real service business in Denison, Sherman, or anywhere in North Texas — real reviews, real photos, real work — the shift to AI-powered search is not your enemy. But you do need to understand what changed.

What AI Overviews Actually Are

When you search for something on Google today, there's often a box at the top — above the regular results — where Google's AI reads through multiple web pages and generates a direct answer. These are AI Overviews, and they now appear for roughly 15-25% of all searches.

For a search like "how do I know if my roof needs replacing," Google synthesizes information from several sources and gives the answer right there. The sites it draws from get a citation link. The sites it doesn't use get pushed further down.

The stakes are not small.

The One Thing That Actually Gets You Cited

Google's AI is looking for content that directly answers specific questions — clearly, authoritatively, and without burying the answer in filler paragraphs. That's it. It's not a mystery algorithm.

The most effective thing you can do is structure your website and blog content to answer the real questions your customers ask. Not vague industry questions — the actual questions. "How long does a roof replacement take?" "What's the average cost of a new AC unit in Texas?" "Do I need a permit to build a fence in Grayson County?"

Write a direct, honest answer. Attribute it to a real person with real credentials. Back it up with specifics. That's the content Google cites.

Your Google Business Profile Feeds Directly Into This

For local searches — "roofer near me," "pool cleaning Sherman TX" — your Google Business Profile data is part of what Google's AI reads. An incomplete profile with no photos, generic service descriptions, and six reviews from 2021 is working against you.

Every field on your GBP matters. Services listed, photos added, questions answered, reviews responded to. We cover the full optimization checklist in this post.

Schema Markup: The Shortcut Most Businesses Skip

Schema markup is code you add to your website that helps Google understand exactly what your business is, what you do, and where you do it. It's invisible to website visitors but very visible to search engines.

LocalBusiness schema, Service schema, and FAQ schema are the three that matter most for service businesses. If your developer hasn't added these, or if you don't know whether they're there, it's worth checking. We add them to every site we build.

The Review Factor

Detailed, specific reviews help your business appear in AI Overviews for service-related searches. A review that says "great service" does almost nothing. A review that says "called on a Monday morning after our AC went out, had someone at the house by noon, back up and running same day" — that's the kind of content Google can use.

When you follow up with customers, make it easy to leave a detailed review. A direct link to your Google review page with a gentle nudge ("let us know how we did — it really helps") is enough.

Not sure how your site is positioned for AI search? Contact us for a free review and we'll tell you specifically what to address first.