Search basics / Field notes
Will AI replace your local business website?
AI is changing how people find businesses. It is also making a clear, honest website more useful, not less.
By Ben Foskey ·
The honest short answer
No, but it is changing the job a website does. More people now get a quick answer from an AI summary at the top of Google, or by asking ChatGPT or a similar assistant, before they click anything. For some questions, they never click at all.
That sounds like bad news for websites, and for some kinds of sites it is. For a local service business, the picture is different. Here is what the evidence actually shows and what to do about it.
What the research shows
In July 2025, Pew Research Center published a study based on the actual web browsing of 900 U.S. adults during March 2025. When a Google search showed an AI summary, people clicked a regular search result in 8 percent of visits. When no summary appeared, they clicked in 15 percent of visits.
So the click-through drop is real. When AI can answer a question on the spot, fewer people visit websites to get the answer. Anyone who tells you AI will automatically send you more traffic isn’t reading the data.
But look at what kinds of questions those are. “How often should I clean my pool filter?” can be answered in a summary. “Who should I hire to clean my pool in Venice this week?” can’t, not completely. That second question ends with a person picking a company, and that decision still needs somewhere to happen.
What AI can’t make up
An AI assistant can summarize what is known about your business. What it can’t legitimately invent is the stuff a customer actually needs to hire you:
- Whether you are taking new customers this month.
- Real photos of your actual work.
- Your current prices and what is included.
- Which towns you really go to.
- A phone number that reaches a real person.
All of that has to come from somewhere. If your business only exists as a thin listing and a Facebook page, the AI has little to work with, and so does the customer. A website you control is where those facts live, written your way and kept current.
What Google says to do
Google has been unusually clear here. Its documentation on AI features in Search says the same SEO best practices still apply, and that there are no additional requirements to appear in its AI features. You don’t need a special file or a new kind of markup. A page has to be indexed and eligible to appear in search, and then the usual rules about helpful, people-first content apply.
In practice, that means the basics get more valuable, not less: clear pages, accurate business details, real proof of your work and content written for people rather than for a ranking.
Being a good source
If you want AI tools to describe your business accurately, make it easy for them to find accurate information:
- Put your services, service area, hours and contact details on your website in plain text, not only inside images.
- Keep those details identical on your website, your Google profile and other listings.
- Answer the questions customers really ask, like pricing approach, what is included and how scheduling works, on your own pages.
- Make sure your site isn’t accidentally blocking search engines. Some AI tools use their own crawlers. OpenAI, for example, publishes how its search crawler differs from the one it uses for training, and site owners can allow one without the other.
What to avoid
Some people respond to AI by using it to churn out dozens of generic articles. Don’t. Google’s spam policies specifically address mass-produced content made mainly to rank, however it is made. A hundred bland pages won’t help a customer decide and may hurt you.
Use AI the way you would use a sharp assistant: to organize your notes, clean up a rough draft or brainstorm questions customers ask. Then put in what only you know: the jobs you have done, the photos you took, the way you actually work. That part can’t be copied, and it is what makes a customer pick up the phone.
The bottom line
AI is changing where the customer journey starts. It isn’t changing how it ends. Someone still has to decide to trust you with their home, their pool or their yard, and they still want to see your work, check your area and call a real person. That is what a small, clear website is for.
If you want one that does that job, request a free preview. You see it before you pay anything.