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Transcript

Google’s Pickier Click: What AI Overviews Mean for Small Business SEO · Modularity Podcast

• 0:00
  Google didn't kill the click...
• 0:02
  but it absolutely turned it into a bouncer.
• 0:06
  Recent reporting on AI Overviews suggests click-through rate may actually be
• 0:09
  RECOVERING a bit, which is not the same as "everything's fine,"
• 0:14
  but it's a big difference from the early panic where people acted like organic
• 0:17
  traffic had been dragged behind a shed.
• 0:21
  That word -- recovering -- matters.
• 0:25
  Because if CTR is recovering, that means the click still exists,
• 0:29
  it's just choosing favorites now.
• 0:32
  Not everybody gets in the club.
• 0:33
  Exactly.
• 0:34
  And the favorites, at least from what we've been seeing after the March 2026 core
• 0:40
  update, look a lot like brands, official sources, and what I'd call destination
• 0:47
  content.
• 0:48
  Meaning pages people actually want to LAND on.
• 0:49
  Not weird intermediary pages that summarize six better
• 0:56
  pages and add nothing except, like, three stock photos and an email popup.
• 1:02
  Ah yes, the sacred SEO relic: "Top 10 Tips" written by committee and a toaster.
• 1:08
  We should preserve one in a museum.
• 1:10
  Yeah.
• 1:11
  If your page reads like it was assembled by committee and a toaster,
• 1:15
  do not be shocked when Google says, "Cool, I can summarize this myself."
• 1:21
  That's the tension right now.
• 1:23
  AI Overviews are still stealing attention, no question.
• 1:27
  But the pages getting clicked are often the ones cited in the overview,
• 1:32
  the recognized sources, or the pages that solve the user's problem better than a
• 1:36
  summary can.
• 1:38
  Let me try to explain that back.
• 1:40
  So the recent core updates didn't just shake rankings -- it also sharpened what kind
• 1:45
  of page deserves a visit after the AI answer shows up.
• 1:49
  And "deserves" now means specific, useful, probably trusted,
• 1:54
  and definitely not thin.
• 1:56
  That's it.
• 1:56
  The volatility from March 2026 was real, and a lot of people felt it.
• 2:02
  But the pattern wasn't random.
• 2:03
  Google seemed to favor official sources, recognizable brands,
• 2:08
  and deeper destination pages over thin intermediaries.
• 2:11
  So if you're a local contractor, a law office, a med spa, a niche B2B shop --
• 2:17
  whatever -- this is not a sign to panic.
• 2:19
  It's a sign to stop making filler.
• 2:23
  I wanna push on the "brands" part, though.
• 2:25
  Because a small business owner hears that and thinks, "Great,
• 2:29
  so unless I'm Nike or Mayo Clinic, I'm cooked."
• 2:32
  When you say brand, you don't just mean Fortune 500 logo recognition,
• 2:36
  right?
• 2:37
  Right, not at all.
• 2:38
  I mean brand in the practical sense: a business with a clear identity,
• 2:43
  a real point of view, visible proof, and pages that look like they came from actual
• 2:49
  humans who do the work.
• 2:51
  For a small business, "brand" can be as simple as a page that says,
• 2:56
  "Here's exactly how basement waterproofing works in Erie clay soil,"
• 3:01
  or "Here's what Pennsylvania LLC owners need to know before filing this form."
• 3:07
  Specific beats generic.
• 3:10
  Erie clay soil -- that's the thing.
• 3:12
  The local detail is what a generic content farm can't fake well.
• 3:17
  Anybody can publish "Signs You Need Waterproofing."
• 3:20
  Fewer people can say, "In northwest Pennsylvania, freeze-thaw cycles crack this
• 3:25
  exact type of foundation wall, here's a photo, here's what we see every March."
• 3:31
  That's destination content.
• 3:33
  That's a page I might actually click.
• 3:35
  Yes.
• 3:36
  And here's the analogy I keep coming back to: the old SEO game let a lot of sites
• 3:42
  survive by being highway billboards.
• 3:45
  Quick glance, vague promise, keep moving.
• 3:49
  AI Overviews are changing that.
• 3:51
  Now your page has to be more like a real store on Main Street.
• 3:55
  If someone walks in, they need to get an answer fast, see evidence,
• 3:59
  understand why YOU, and know what to do next.
• 4:03
  And if they walk in and all they see is "Welcome to our comprehensive guide to
• 4:07
  solutions"...
• 4:09
  they're backing out slowly like they opened the wrong bathroom door.
• 4:13
  Correct.
• 4:14
  So the big takeaway on what's happening: AI Overviews still absorb a lot of
• 4:19
  attention, but the click isn't dead.
• 4:21
  It's getting pickier.
• 4:23
  Google is rewarding pages that are citable, trustworthy, and actually worth visiting
• 4:28
  after the summary.
• 4:29
  That's why this matters.
• 4:31
  If you're still publishing generic rehash content, you're competing directly with
• 4:35
  the machine's favorite task: summarizing mush.
• 4:40
  So let's make this painfully practical.
• 4:42
  If I'm a small business owner and I have, say, one decent afternoon this week -- not
• 4:47
  a quarter, not a rebrand, one afternoon -- where do I start?
• 4:50
  Start with ONE page and ONE real question.
• 4:54
  Not "everything about HVAC."
• 4:57
  More like, "How much does AC repair cost in Pittsburgh?"
• 5:01
  or "Do I need a permit for a fence in Erie?"
• 5:05
  Put the direct answer near the top -- fast.
• 5:09
  Then support it with proof, local context, and next steps.
• 5:14
  That's the formula.
• 5:16
  That phrase -- direct answer near the top -- is huge.
• 5:20
  Because a lot of pages bury the answer under a giant hero section,
• 5:24
  a stock image of two people high-fiving, and three paragraphs that basically say,
• 5:29
  "At our company, we value excellence."
• 5:32
  Which tells me nothing except you may own a Canva subscription.
• 5:37
  Yeah, cut the throat-clearing.
• 5:39
  If the page is about emergency plumbing, open with the answer.
• 5:43
  "Yes, we provide 24/7 emergency plumbing in X area.
• 5:48
  Typical response time is Y.
• 5:50
  Here's what counts as an emergency.
• 5:52
  Call here."
• 5:53
  Then build outward.
• 5:56
  Add proof -- reviews, photos, certifications, before-and-afters,
• 6:01
  or even one simple example.
• 6:03
  Add local context.
• 6:05
  Add a CTA that's so obvious a sleep-deprived person can still find it.
• 6:11
  Let's get into the fundamentals, because these are not glamorous,
• 6:15
  but they matter.
• 6:15
  Tighter titles.
• 6:17
  Clearer H1s.
• 6:19
  FAQ sections.
• 6:21
  Internal links.
• 6:23
  Simple schema on service pages and local pages.
• 6:26
  None of that is sexy, but neither is wiring inside a wall and you still very much
• 6:31
  want it there.
• 6:32
  Exactly.
• 6:33
  Titles first.
• 6:34
  Your title tag should say what the page IS and who it's for.
• 6:38
  Not something clever.
• 6:40
  Clear beats clever.
• 6:42
  H1 next -- make it match the actual search intent.
• 6:47
  Then add a short FAQ section with the obvious follow-up questions.
• 6:51
  That's useful for users, and it helps search engines understand the page's scope
• 6:55
  without you writing a 2,000-word oatmeal blob.
• 6:59
  On internal links -- because people hear that and think, "Okay,
• 7:03
  toss some links around."
• 7:04
  But the specific move is what?
• 7:06
  Link from broad pages to specific pages?
• 7:09
  Service to location?
• 7:11
  FAQ to service?
• 7:12
  Yes -- all of that, but with intent.
• 7:16
  If you have a service page for roof repair and a location page for Erie,
• 7:21
  those should reinforce each other.
• 7:23
  If you mention insurance claims, link to the insurance claims page.
• 7:27
  Internal links help Google understand the relationship between pages,
• 7:31
  and they help users continue the journey without hunting.
• 7:35
  Think of it like good signage in a building.
• 7:38
  Nobody praises the signage...
• 7:40
  until it's terrible.
• 7:42
  "Good signage in a building" is gonna stick with me.
• 7:45
  Because that's exactly what a lot of websites are missing.
• 7:48
  The page exists, but nobody knows where to go next.
• 7:51
  And schema fits that same bucket.
• 7:53
  Not magic dust -- just clearer labels on the box.
• 7:57
  Perfectly said.
• 7:58
  Simple schema on service and local pages can help search engines understand what the
• 8:03
  page represents.
• 8:04
  It's not a rankings cheat code.
• 8:06
  It's clarity.
• 8:07
  And clarity is kind of the whole game right now.
• 8:11
  Alright, quick wins.
• 8:12
  Give me the three things somebody can actually do this week before they get pulled
• 8:16
  back into the chaos of running their business.
• 8:19
  One: refresh a single page and put a direct answer in the first few lines.
• 8:24
  Two: add one local proof point -- a city-specific example, a case,
• 8:30
  a photo, a review, something real.
• 8:33
  Three: make the CTA painfully obvious.
• 8:38
  If the page should generate calls, put the phone number there.
• 8:42
  If it should generate form fills, make the button impossible to miss and make the
• 8:47
  form simple.
• 8:48
  That second one -- one local proof point -- is the easiest miss.
• 8:53
  People will spend six hours tweaking adjectives and zero minutes adding the thing
• 8:58
  that actually makes the page believable.
• 9:00
  A named town.
• 9:02
  A project photo.
• 9:03
  A customer quote.
• 9:05
  One concrete detail can do more than twenty fluffy sentences.
• 9:09
  And that's the broader shift.
• 9:11
  We're moving away from content that merely exists toward content that earns the
• 9:15
  visit.
• 9:16
  For small businesses, that's actually good news.
• 9:19
  You do not need 500 blog posts.
• 9:22
  You need pages that answer real questions better than the generic sludge does.
• 9:28
  Which is oddly encouraging.
• 9:30
  Because "be more useful than sludge" is a winnable strategy.
• 9:33
  It really is.
• 9:34
  So don't panic over AI Overviews, don't chase every ranking tremor from any single
• 9:40
  core update, and definitely stop publishing content that sounds like a blender full
• 9:44
  of other people's headings.
• 9:46
  Build pages people would still want even if Google summarized the first paragraph.
• 9:51
  If you want help doing that, go to modularity.us.
• 9:54
  We'll help you turn your site into something worth clicking.