Google AI Overview: What impact on your local SEO?

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ome time ago, Google set up a test phase of the SGE, Search Engine Experience, before developing a new feature that you may have heard of: Google AI Overview. The goal is to improve the user experience when they make requests on the leading search engine. These are more fluid and readable and allow you to avoid having to click on different links to find the information you are looking for.

This will explicitly lead to a change in consumer habits , but what will the impact be on your local SEO ? We explain everything in this article.


1. What is Google AI Overview, formerly Google SGE?
2. How does Google AI Overview work?
3. What impact on your local SEO?
4. Our advice to overcome the negative effects of Google AI Overview?
Conclusion


google ai overview local seo

1. What is Google AI Overview, formerly Google SGE?
But first, what is Google AI Overview ? It's a new portugal phone number library feature that uses artificial intelligence to generate direct and relevant answers to users' queries. This saves them time by providing information that they are potentially looking for, without having to click on a multitude of links.

Google AI Overview replaces Google SGE, a feature already created by Google to provide insights directly from Google search results. The principle is pretty much the same, but new features are implemented: conversational responses, dynamic content, shopping advice and generative images.

SGE Google AI Overview search result
Google AI Overview: Optimized experience in Google searches

In short, the experience is even more complete and interactive and will require fewer visits to websites providing the right information. How does it work?



2. How does Google AI Overview work?
First of all, Google AI Overview is based on different sources : the Knowledge Graph, databases, Google tools, different websites hosted on the internet, user content (UGC, User Generated Content). As briefly mentioned above, new options are being implemented, here they are:

Generative responses
Google AI Overview is able to generate complete answers in the form of a summary to condense all the relevant information it has been able to find through its various sources. They are based on these as well as your behavior on the internet to provide you with an answer as close as possible to your potential expectations. These summaries have a name, they are called “ snapshots ”.

This new Google feature is also capable of generating images created by artificial intelligence to illustrate its words and/or respond to submitted queries.

Conversational mode
You have already been able to do the test on different artificial intelligences like ChatGPT or Gemini: it is possible to converse with an OA to obtain contextual information. Google is also implementing it, without leaving the SERP (Search Engine Result Page, your search results page). You will therefore be able to ask more precise questions to the AI ​​to obtain developed answers , without having to click on a link or change pages. These are called “ follow-up questions ”.

To answer these new questions, Overview AI keeps the context of your first query and provides details. It remembers your exchanges and takes them into account to improve its feedback. Like a banal conversation that you could have with a trainer or a random person.

So you will have understood, the user has not visited any site and has not made a single click, but he surely already has the answer to his question, or even more.

Personalization
Google's AI Overview may collect and analyze your responses and personal data (such as search history) to provide recommendations and responses tailored to the preferences of the person you are talking to.

It also knows how to do local and nearby searches thanks to geolocation, if it is activated.


local SEO impact Google AI Overview

3. What impact on your local SEO?
So, even if this new feature is a great advantage as a consumer, the question of the impacts on local SEO arises, but which ones?

The end of the Google Local Pack
Until then, if you optimize your Google My Business listings as best you can, you may be lucky enough to be part of the Google Local Pack , i.e. the first three search results on local queries around your sector of activity.

Now, Google AI Overview offers local results that take up more space on the search page and that correspond more closely to consumer expectations , according to the data collected. By finding an answer that suits them, users will certainly not seek to go down further, which risks making your establishments invisible.

However, it seems that the AI ​​results are very close to those offered by the Google Local Pack. It would therefore be advisable to continue optimizing your Google My Business listings to maintain your pole position.

Loss of traffic to your sites
As we mentioned earlier, by providing complete answers directly on the SERP, Google AI Overview allows users to find their information without having to navigate to different sites. This can lead to a significant loss of traffic on your websites. Visit volumes may indeed drop because they will have no interest in visiting the source sites.


SEO local google ai overview

4. Our advice to overcome the negative effects of Google AI Overview
In order to mitigate its harmful impacts on your local SEO, here are some tips to apply or reinforce if you already do so:

Create EEAT content : that is, high-quality content that can be used as a source by Google and appreciated by it.
Continue to optimize your Google My Business listings : collect customer reviews, publish Google Posts, update your information regularly, etc.
Use visual and graphic content : publish quality images or videos to be favored by Google's AI
Adapt your content to respond to broader queries in natural language . In short, think about favoring long-tail keywords .


Conclusion
As is often the case, announcements are made indicating that your local visibility is threatened , that you have to start all over again, that Google My Business listings will be deleted (in particular with the Digital Market Act )... and as is very often the case, this is not necessarily the case, it is important to qualify this.

Yes, the arrival of Google AI Overview changes the user experience when searching on Google. It certainly presents a risk of invisibility and loss of traffic . But it can also be seen as an opportunity!

If your content is high-quality and your Google Business Profile listings are optimized and up-to-date, this new feature can be an opportunity to propel you even higher in your prospects' search results .