Google AI Overviews Are Changing SEO. Here's What to Do About It.

If you've searched something on Google recently and noticed a big block of AI-generated text at the top of the page before any actual links, you've seen AI Overviews in action. They've been rolling out broadly over the past year, and the impact on organic search traffic is real enough that it's worth understanding, especially if your business depends on people finding you online.

Here's what's changing, what it means for small businesses, and where to focus your energy.

What Are AI Overviews?

AI Overviews are Google's way of answering search queries directly on the results page using a generated summary pulled from across the web. Instead of clicking through to a website to get an answer, users can read a condensed response right there in the search results.

For informational searches -- "how to," "what is," "best way to" -- AI Overviews often appear above everything else on the page. That means even if you rank number one, you may now be below the fold.

What This Means for Your Traffic

The honest answer is that for purely informational queries, organic click-through rates are dropping. If someone searches "how often should I post on social media" and Google answers it in an Overview, fewer people are clicking through to read a full blog post about it.

That's a real shift. But it's not the end of SEO -- it's a signal to do SEO differently.

Where the Opportunity Still Lives

Branded and local searches are largely unaffected. When someone searches your business name, a competitor's name, or "marketing agency Logan Utah," AI Overviews don't dominate those results the same way. Local intent searches still drive to maps, listings, and websites.

Complex, specific, and opinion-based content holds its value. AI Overviews are good at summarizing general information. They're much weaker at nuanced takes, firsthand experience, and content that reflects a specific point of view. A blog post that says something a generative model wouldn't say- something opinionated, specific, or rooted in real experience - is harder to replace with a summary.

Getting cited inside AI Overviews is a real opportunity. Google pulls its Overview content from somewhere. Businesses with well-structured, authoritative content are increasingly showing up as cited sources inside Overviews, which puts your brand in front of searchers even when they don't click. That's brand exposure at the top of search with zero ad spend.

What to Focus On Right Now

Build content that demonstrates real expertise. Google calls this E-E-A-T -- Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. First-person insights, case studies, client results, and opinions backed by experience are exactly what AI can't replicate and what Google's systems are increasingly rewarding.

Optimize for structured content. Clear headings, concise answers to specific questions, and schema markup all increase the likelihood that your content gets pulled into AI Overviews as a cited source rather than bypassed entirely.

Double down on local SEO. Your Google Business Profile, local citations, and location-specific content are more important than ever. Local search is where small businesses still have a clear lane, and AI Overviews haven't taken that over.

Don't abandon informational content -- reframe it. The goal shifts from ranking for a generic query to being the source Google trusts for that topic. That means going deeper, being more specific, and covering topics in a way that earns authority over time rather than chasing quick traffic.

The Bigger Picture

AI Overviews are part of a broader shift that's been building for years: Google wants to answer questions, not just point to websites that might answer them. That puts pressure on thin, generic content and rewards businesses that have something real to say.

For small businesses with genuine expertise and a specific audience, this is actually good news in the long run. The gap between businesses that invest in real content and businesses that don't is getting wider. The ones who show up consistently with something worth reading are the ones who will own their corner of search -- AI Overviews or not.

Wondering how your current content holds up?

Let's take a look together.