Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Listen to this post
Key Takeaways
- AI Overviews have transformed informational search, but traditional local-service searches remain heavily dominated by Google’s Local Pack and Maps results.
- According to Whitespark’s research into AI Overviews and local search, AI Overviews appeared on just 15% of traditional local-intent queries, compared with Local Packs appearing on 93%.
- For service businesses, ranking still matters because consumers searching for a nearby provider often need a business, not an AI-generated answer.
- Google Business Profiles may also provide useful information to the broader AI search ecosystem, making strong local SEO an investment in both traditional and AI visibility.
There’s a growing narrative in marketing that traditional search matters less every year. AI Overviews answer questions directly in Google, ChatGPT and Claude recommend businesses, and consumers discover companies on social media and other platforms.
All of that is true. But after a decade in local SEO, I’m still focused heavily on one decidedly traditional strategy: scaling Google Business Profiles and physical locations for local businesses.
The reason is simple: AI has disrupted informational search far more than the search for a local service provider. A person searching “roofing companies near me” or “personal injury lawyer St. Louis” isn’t looking for an explanation. They’re looking for a business. Google still has an extraordinarily effective product for that: Google Maps and the Local Pack.
Local search has resisted AI disruption
Whitespark’s 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors report describes local search as “insulated” from the AI disruption affecting the broader industry. Informational publishers have been hit hard, but local business discovery still happens mostly through Google’s local results.
A separate Whitespark study of AI Overviews in local-business searches shows why. It divided searches into three types of intent:
- Local queries, such as “personal injury lawyers in Phoenix”: AI Overviews appeared 15% of the time, while the Local Pack appeared 93% of the time.
- Informational queries: Whitespark found AI Overviews on 92% of searches and Local Packs on 6%.
- Hybrid queries: AI Overviews appeared 97% of the time, compared with 17% for Local Packs.
“How much does a new roof cost?” and “roofing company near me” may come from the same customer, but Google treats them very differently. That’s why local SEO still matters.
Ranking still matters when the customer needs a business
When someone needs a business, Google still shows the Local 3-Pack, and so do AI Overviews when they appear. That result is built from Google Business Profile data. It gives searchers nearly everything they need to decide, from reviews and hours to photos, services and directions, without a website click. That’s why so many local SEO professionals focus on maximizing Google Business Profile visibility. For single-location businesses, though, that’s usually where the strategy stops.
Location is a distribution strategy
For businesses that can scale, each new location creates another geographic point from which to compete. I’m not only asking how to get a website more leads, but how to expand the footprint from which a company acquires them.
A legitimate new location adds more than an office. It adds another Google Business Profile, another Maps presence, another review profile and another proximity point. For businesses that depend on local demand, a physical location is a customer-acquisition asset as well as an operational decision.
Google’s local algorithm is inherently geographic. Google’s own documentation names relevance, distance and prominence as the primary local ranking factors, and Whitespark’s 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors confirms that proximity remains a major signal for Local Pack and Maps visibility.
A highly authoritative website can still struggle in Maps searches far from its office. Opening legitimate locations closer to where customers search solves a problem that backlinks and content often can’t. For service businesses that cover large areas, like attorneys and home service companies, this approach has worked for years.
AI may make Google Business Profiles more important
AI systems still need real-world information: who you are, what you do and where you do it.
In January 2026, Local Falcon analyzed more than 50 million U.S. Google search results across 1,993 business categories. It observed that AI-generated local recommendations often drew on public information from Google Maps, reviews, ratings and Business Profiles.
That doesn’t mean a profile directly causes an AI recommendation; the relationship is still developing. But it reinforces a larger point. Accurate business data, service pages, strong reviews and third-party citations help wherever a customer finds you. The choice isn’t local SEO versus AI optimization.
Reviews are a conversion layer
According to BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey, 97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, and 71% use Google for those reviews, more than any other platform.
Reviews also decide whether visibility turns into a customer. Separate BrightLocal consumer-search research published in 2026 found that 65% of consumers who rejected a local business did so for at least one review-related reason, such as negative reviews, low ratings, or too few or outdated reviews.
A business can win the Local Pack impression and still lose the customer to a competitor with a stronger reputation one listing over.
Reviews also have a growing second audience: machines, which use their natural-language detail to understand what a business does.
Prepare for AI without abandoning what works
None of this means ignoring AI search. BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found that use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools for local recommendations jumped from 6% to 45% in a single year, making AI the third-most-popular source in the survey. Businesses should be thinking about mentions, citations, structured data and how AI represents their brands.
But preparing for where search is going is different from abandoning where customers are today. In March 2026, Local Falcon compared 189,905 ChatGPT results with millions of Google local results for restaurant queries. Local Falcon found that 83% of restaurants were completely invisible in ChatGPT, compared with only 14% in Google.
That study covers only restaurants, but it shows how far apart the two kinds of visibility remain. AI is a new discovery layer, not yet a replacement for the existing ones.
Local SEO is becoming more specialized
The biggest mistake marketers can make in 2026 is treating search as one channel. Informational search is changing fast, but transactional local search works differently because geography changes the answer.
Ask an AI system what compound interest is, and everyone gets essentially the same answer. Ask who should replace your roof, and location, availability, reputation and service area suddenly matter. Those answers require local signals, and Google has spent decades building an ecosystem to organize them. Local Services Ads also draw on Google Business Profile data, which adds another layer of protection.
The best strategy isn’t chasing the channel undergoing the biggest change. It’s finding where customers still show purchase intent and building a defensible presence there. For many local businesses in 2026, that place is still Google Maps. Until consumer behavior says otherwise, I wouldn’t bet against it.