If you’re still optimising for 10 blue links, you’re optimising for a version of Google that doesn’t exist anymore. It’s like training for the Olympics in a sport that got discontinued while you were still lacing up your running shoes.
Here’s what’s actually happening: Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) isn’t just changing search results—it’s obliterating the entire concept of traditional search results. Instead of showing you a list of websites to click through, Google’s AI is now generating comprehensive answers that pull from multiple sources and serve them up as the final word.
For local businesses, this isn’t just another algorithm update to weather. This is a complete restructuring of how customers find and evaluate local services. And if you’re not prepared for it, you won’t just rank lower—you’ll disappear entirely.
Local search isn’t what it used to be—and that’s not a warning, it’s an opportunity. The businesses showing up in SGE results aren’t just optimised—they’re interpreted, summarised, and prioritised by AI. Which means the rules of the game have fundamentally changed.
Most businesses are about to get filtered out of the conversation entirely. But the scrappy ones who understand what’s happening? They’re about to eat everyone else’s lunch.
Let me paint you a picture of what local search looks like now. Someone searches for “best plumber in Perth,” and instead of getting a list of plumbing websites, they get an AI-generated summary that says:
“Based on reviews and local data, here are the top-rated plumbers in Perth: [Business A] specialises in emergency repairs with 24/7 availability and 4.8-star reviews mentioning fast response times. [Business B] focuses on residential renovations with expertise in bathroom upgrades, averaging 4.9 stars for quality workmanship…”
Notice what’s missing? There’s no list of blue links to click through. The AI has already done the research, made the comparison, and presented the recommendation. The user gets their answer without ever visiting a website.
SGE doesn’t care about your keyword density or how many backlinks you’ve built. It cares about whether you can provide clear, trustworthy, contextually relevant information that helps it answer user questions comprehensively.
The AI is pulling data from:
It’s not just crawling your content—it’s understanding your business context and using that understanding to either include you in the answer or ignore you completely.
Remember when getting into the local 3-pack was the holy grail of local SEO? Those days are numbered. SGE is replacing traditional local packs with AI-generated summaries that might mention 5-7 businesses in a comprehensive answer, or it might focus on just 2-3 that best match the user’s specific needs.
The businesses getting mentioned aren’t necessarily the ones with the highest traditional SEO rankings—they’re the ones with the strongest signals for the AI to interpret and recommend.
Businesses without structured, trustworthy, and current local content are simply vanishing from visibility. Not ranking lower—disappearing entirely. If the AI can’t understand what you do, where you do it, or why someone should choose you, you don’t exist in the answer.
It’s like having a brilliant conversation at a party where everyone’s speaking a different language. You might be the most knowledgeable person in the room, but if you can’t communicate in a way others understand, you’re invisible.
Here’s where most businesses are getting it wrong. They’re still thinking in terms of traditional SEO—keywords, backlinks, domain authority. But SGE operates on entirely different signals.
Your Google Business Profile isn’t your business card anymore—it’s your primary communication channel with Google’s AI. Every post, every update, every response to reviews is teaching the AI what your business is about and why it should recommend you.
Businesses with active, detailed, constantly updated GBPs are getting pulled into AI summaries because they’re giving the AI rich context to work with. Those ghost-town profiles that haven’t been updated since 2022? They might as well not exist.
Fresh, Structured Content: The AI prioritises businesses that regularly post updates, answer common questions, and provide current information. A plumbing company that posts about seasonal maintenance tips, emergency availability, and service area updates gives the AI much more context than one with a static profile.
Review Quality and Recency: Not just the number of reviews, but their quality and recency. Recent reviews that mention specific services, response times, and problem-solving capabilities give the AI detailed information to work with.
Q&A Engagement: Businesses that actively answer questions on their GBP and provide detailed, helpful responses are building a knowledge base that AI can draw from.
Structured Data and Schema: This is your entry fee—not your competitive advantage. Proper schema markup helps the AI understand your business, but it won’t make you stand out from competitors who also have it implemented correctly.
Here’s a real example: An HVAC company with a well-maintained GBP that posts seasonal maintenance reminders, answers common questions about system efficiency, and responds professionally to reviews will consistently outperform a competitor with better traditional SEO rankings but a dormant online presence.
Why? Because when someone searches for “HVAC maintenance Perth,” the AI has rich, current context about the first company’s expertise, availability, and customer satisfaction. The second company might have a prettier website, but the AI has nothing meaningful to say about them.
Here’s the beautiful irony of the SGE era: you don’t need to out-spend big brands—you need to out-signal them.
Large corporations with massive SEO budgets but neglected local presence are getting beaten by small businesses that actively engage with customers online. A local electrician who responds to messages within minutes, posts regular updates, and maintains an active presence is building stronger AI signals than a national chain with a static online presence.
The AI values recency, relevance, and engagement over domain authority and link volume. This levels the playing field in ways traditional SEO never could.
Accept this now: many of your potential customers will never visit your website. They’re getting the information they need directly from SGE results, and they’re making contact decisions based on what the AI tells them about your business.
This isn’t a problem to solve—it’s a reality to optimise for. Your goal isn’t to drive traffic to your website; it’s to get mentioned, recommended, and chosen by the AI when it generates answers.
Your homepage isn’t your frontline anymore. Your GBP, your reviews, your service area content, and your real-time engagement are where the battle is being fought. Most businesses are still fortifying the wrong position while the actual war is happening somewhere else entirely.
Small teams can absolutely win this with focused, intelligent content and presence strategies. You don’t need a massive SEO budget—you need consistency, authenticity, and smart positioning.
Look, I could tell you to go figure out SGE optimisation yourself, but that would be like telling you to perform surgery after watching a YouTube video. Technically possible, but probably not the best approach.
At Scale and Grow, we’ve been tracking SGE’s impact on local search since its rollout and developing strategies that actually work in this new environment.
We don’t just optimise your Google Business Profile—we turn it into an AI communication strategy. This includes:
We help you build comprehensive Q&A libraries that AI can draw from when generating answers about your services. This isn’t just customer service—it’s AI education. We’re teaching Google’s AI why your business should be recommended over competitors.
We create content strategies based on how AI actually processes and uses local business information. This includes service descriptions, area coverage details, and expertise demonstrations that AI can interpret and recommend effectively.
We monitor how often your business appears in SGE results, what context you’re mentioned in, and how your visibility changes based on optimisation efforts. This isn’t vanity metrics—it’s actionable intelligence about your AI presence.
We focus on outcomes that impact your business: qualified phone calls, message inquiries, and meaningful visibility in AI-generated results. Traffic to your website might be down, but if your phone’s ringing more and you’re closing more deals, that’s what actually matters.
Google isn’t listing you anymore. It’s interpreting you. And if you’re not sending the right signals in the right format with the right consistency, you don’t just rank lower—you disappear from the conversation entirely.
SGE doesn’t care how pretty your homepage is if no one ever sees it. It doesn’t care about your keyword strategy if you can’t communicate context effectively. It cares about whether you can provide the AI with the information it needs to recommend you when someone needs your services.
If your SEO strategy hasn’t changed since 2021, you’re optimised for invisibility. The businesses winning in the SGE era are the ones that recognised the fundamental shift and adapted their entire approach to local visibility.
This isn’t about adding another tactic to your marketing mix—it’s about recognising that the entire game has changed and positioning your business accordingly.
Ready to show up when it actually matters? The businesses getting mentioned in AI-generated results aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets—they’re the ones with the smartest positioning and most consistent execution.
At Scale and Grow, we help Australian businesses navigate the SGE transition and build local visibility that actually drives business. Because in 2025, it’s not about keywords anymore—it’s about context. And AI is judge, jury, and search result.
Contact us today to audit your SGE readiness and start building local visibility that works in the age of AI-generated search results.
P.S. – If you think you can wait this one out like you did with mobile-first indexing, remember how that worked out for businesses that were still optimising for desktop when everyone moved to mobile. Except this time, there’s no catch-up period. You’re either relevant to the AI or you’re not.