The short answer
Searches that trigger a map pack almost never trigger an AI Overview, and vice versa. Local service pages and industry expertise content are therefore two different games with two different rules.
What we found
We pulled live search results for fifty-three queries at Minneapolis geo, covering local service searches, industry expertise searches, cost questions, comparisons and seasonal terms, and logged which features appeared on each.
An AI Overview appeared on twenty-nine of the fifty-three. That much was expected. The distribution was not.
| Result pattern | Number of queries |
|---|---|
| Local pack present, no AI Overview | 24 |
| No local pack, AI Overview present | 28 |
| Both present together | 1 |
Out of fifty-three queries, exactly one produced both a map pack and an AI Overview. The two features behave almost as alternatives rather than companions.
Why this makes sense
The pattern is intuitive once stated. When someone searches for a nearby service, they want a business, a phone number and directions. A generated paragraph does not help, and Google shows a map.
When someone asks how something works, what it costs, or which of two approaches is better, a synthesized answer is genuinely useful, and Google shows one.
The consequence for a local business is that its content splits cleanly into two categories that need to be written differently.
Local intent pages
These compete for proximity, profile completeness, reviews and relevance. The AI Overview is largely irrelevant to them. What matters is the Google Business Profile, review volume and quality, consistent business information, and a page that clearly serves the specific area.
Expertise and question pages
These compete to be the source an AI Overview cites. Proximity is irrelevant. What matters is answering a specific question clearly enough that a system extracting an answer finds yours the most quotable.
Who AI Overviews actually cite
We also logged which domains were cited inside those twenty-nine AI Overviews. The result is worth sitting with.
| Domain | Citations |
|---|---|
| youtube.com | 92 |
| reddit.com | 52 |
| google.com | 18 |
| clicksgeek.com | 10 |
| smith.ai | 8 |
| builtrightdigital.com | 7 |
| projul.com | 7 |
YouTube and Reddit are cited an order of magnitude more often than any business website. That is the single most important thing in this study, and it points in an uncomfortable direction for anyone whose strategy is entirely written content on their own domain.
The second observation is more encouraging. The business domains that did get cited are not large. They are small, specific operators writing narrowly about one thing. None of them are household names.
What to do with this
Stop optimizing local pages for AI Overviews
If a query reliably shows a map pack, the AI Overview work is wasted effort. Spend it on profile accuracy, reviews, and genuine local relevance instead.
Write expertise pages to be quotable
Content aimed at AI Overview citation has a recognizable shape. It answers the question directly in the opening sentences rather than building up to it. It uses specific numbers rather than ranges of adjectives. It structures answers under headings that match how people ask. It does not bury the answer under three paragraphs of context.
Take the fan-out questions seriously
We harvested three hundred and eighteen unique People Also Ask branches across these queries. Those are effectively the sub-questions the system decomposes a topic into, and each one is a candidate heading. Answering them explicitly on the page is the most direct way to become the most quotable source.
Do not ignore video and forums
Given that YouTube and Reddit dominate citations, a written page on your own domain is competing with formats that are structurally favoured. A short companion video for a topic you have written about is not a side project, it is participation in the format that gets cited most. Genuine participation in relevant forums, meaning actually helpful answers rather than promotion, is the other half.
For the underlying service, see AI search optimization.
What this study does not prove
Some honesty about limits is warranted.
- Fifty-three queries is a useful sample, not a definitive one. The pattern is strong enough to act on, but it is a snapshot.
- AI Overview behaviour changes. This reflects what we observed at Minneapolis geo in August 2026 and should be re-checked periodically.
- Citation counts show which domains were cited, not why. The inference that specificity drives citation is reasonable but not proven.
- We measured presence of features, not the traffic effect of them. How much an AI Overview reduces clicks is a separate question this study does not answer.
Questions people ask about this
01Do AI Overviews appear on local searches?+
Rarely. In our sample of fifty-three queries at Minneapolis geo, twenty-four searches showed a local map pack with no AI Overview, and only one query produced both together. Local intent searches are overwhelmingly answered with a map rather than a generated summary.
02How do I get cited in an AI Overview?+
Answer a specific question directly and early, use concrete numbers rather than vague claims, and structure the page around the sub-questions people actually ask. In our sample the cited business domains were small and narrowly focused rather than large and authoritative.
03Why do YouTube and Reddit get cited so much?+
We can observe that they are cited far more than any business site, at roughly ninety and fifty citations respectively across twenty-nine AI Overviews. The likely reasons are format and perceived first-hand experience, though our data shows the pattern rather than explaining it.
04Should a small local business bother with this?+
For expertise and question content, yes, because the cited domains in our sample were small operators rather than major brands. For local service searches, no, because AI Overviews barely appear there and the effort is better spent on profile and reviews.
05Is traditional SEO dead because of AI Overviews?+
Nothing in this data supports that. Local map packs are unaffected, and the pages cited in AI Overviews still have to exist, be crawlable, and be good. What changes is that being quotable matters alongside being rankable.