Covers December 2023. Part of our search timeline: a month-by-month look at the changes that shaped SEO, AI search, paid ads and social media, written in November 2026 for local businesses with the benefit of hindsight.
Quick answer: Google unveiled Gemini in December 2023, describing it as its most capable family of AI models, built to handle text, images, audio and code. Gemini later came to power Google’s AI products, AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search among them, which puts it at the heart of how lots of people now find answers.
This part of our search timeline, written in November 2026, revisits December 2023. For a local plumber, electrician or landscaper, it was the point where it became clear Google’s AI would increasingly be the thing describing your business to customers.
What Google announced
Gemini arrived in three sizes: Ultra, Pro and Nano. Google started using it in Bard and other products straight away. It was designed to be multimodal from day one, meaning it could work across different types of content rather than text alone.
Why Gemini mattered to small businesses
Gemini was a sign that Google search would become more and more driven by AI. Getting Google’s AI to understand your business, through clear content and well-organised information, became just as important as ranking.
If a boiler engineer in Dundee lists different service areas on their website and their Google Business Profile, for example, an AI model has mixed signals to work from.
What to do about it now
Make your content simple for AI to read, with clear headings, direct answers and structured data.
Keep your business details the same across your website and Google Business Profile.
Ask Gemini questions about your services and your competitors, and see how it answers.
Frequently asked questions
Are Gemini and Google Search the same thing?
No. Gemini is the name of Google’s AI model and its app, and the same technology runs the AI features inside Google Search.
How can my business show up in Gemini’s answers?
In the same way as with other AI tools: useful content, a site that’s technically easy to access and a good reputation on trusted websites.
Covers February 2023. Part of our search timeline: a month-by-month look at the changes that shaped SEO, AI search, paid ads and social media, written in November 2026 for local businesses with the benefit of hindsight.
Quick answer: February 2023 was the month Microsoft released a new Bing with a built-in AI chat assistant, Google unveiled a chatbot called Bard, and Google said publicly that it rewards good quality content whether or not AI helped produce it. That combination kicked off the race for AI search.
Looking back from November 2026, February 2023 is where the AI search story really starts. Within a few weeks, both of the big search engines had shown they planned to answer questions with AI, and Google had set out its position on AI-written content.
The announcements of February 2023
Google revealed Bard, its conversational AI, first. A few days later Microsoft launched AI-powered versions of Bing and its Edge browser, built using OpenAI technology. Google’s Search Central blog then explained that using AI in a sensible way to produce helpful content does not break its guidelines.
Why local firms needed to pay attention
It was the first time the major search engines put answers written by AI directly in front of searchers. A plumber or an electrician now had to think about whether they would be mentioned in a chat reply, not only where they ranked in the usual list of results.
Practical steps for today
Ask Bing’s Copilot and other AI assistants about your trade and town, and see how they describe your business.
Put the key facts about your firm, such as services, areas covered and accreditations, in plain text on your website.
If you use AI to help write pages, add your own expertise and check everything before it goes live.
Frequently asked questions
Whatever became of Bard?
Google changed its name to Gemini in February 2024.
Is Bing worth bothering with for a UK trades business?
Yes, more than it used to be. Bing feeds Microsoft Copilot and some AI features on other services, so visibility there now carries extra weight.
Want help with this? We can check how AI assistants talk about your business and help you get named more often. See our AI search and GEO service, or Get in touch.
Covers May 2024. Part of our search timeline: a month-by-month look at the changes that shaped SEO, AI search, paid ads and social media, written in November 2026 for local businesses with the benefit of hindsight.
Quick answer: On 14 May 2024, at its I/O event, Google switched on AI Overviews for every user in the US. These AI-written summaries, complete with links to their sources, started appearing above many search results. A few early blunders made the news, but the feature stuck, and it arrived in the UK in August 2024.
This entry in our search timeline looks back at May 2024 from November 2026. For local trades and service firms in the UK, the US launch was an early look at how Google would start answering questions before anyone clicked through to a website.
What Google rolled out that May
AI Overviews grew out of Google’s earlier experiment, the Search Generative Experience. Google said the summaries would show for more complicated searches where pulling the answer together saves people time.
Over the next few weeks a handful of strange answers got plenty of attention, and Google responded by adding extra safeguards. Towards the end of May there were also reports about leaked internal Google Search documents, which kept the SEO world talking.
What it meant for local firms in the UK
UK businesses got a sneak preview of what was heading their way. Simple questions, like how to reset a boiler or how often a chimney should be swept, were likely to send fewer clicks to websites. At the same time, there was a new chance to be one of the sources Google linked to.
It sped up interest in pages that answer questions up front, and in tracking how often a business shows up in AI answers.
Steps worth taking now
Find the searches that matter to your business which trigger an AI Overview, and note which sites get cited.
Check your key service pages give a direct, accurate answer near the top, for example what a boiler service includes and roughly how long it takes.
Keep pages indexable and eligible to show a snippet, which is the basic entry ticket for Google’s AI features.
Frequently asked questions
Is there special code I need for AI Overviews?
No. Your pages need to be indexed and allowed to show a snippet. Clear, useful content and structured data help.
When did UK searchers start seeing AI Overviews?
They reached UK users in August 2024, when Google expanded the feature here.
Covers August 2024. Part of our search timeline: a month-by-month look at the changes that shaped SEO, AI search, paid ads and social media, written in November 2026 for local businesses with the benefit of hindsight.
Quick answer: In August 2024 Google rolled AI Overviews out to the UK and a handful of other countries, and also released its August 2024 core update. From then on, UK searchers saw AI written summaries above many results, and local businesses began tracking whether they were named as a source and shaping pages so they could be quoted.
This entry is part of our timeline of the search and social changes that have shaped how local businesses win work online, looked at with the benefit of hindsight.
What changed in August 2024?
UK users searching in English started to get AI Overviews, and this version gave source links more prominence than the earlier US rollout. In the same month, Google’s August 2024 core update was released, taking several weeks to complete.
Why it mattered for local businesses
AI answers were no longer something happening only in America. Simple “how do I” questions started sending fewer clicks to websites, so a guide on bleeding radiators might get read less often. At the same time, businesses quoted as a source in the summary gained a new kind of exposure at the very top of the page.
What to do about it now
Keep a set list of local buying questions, such as “boiler repair Dundee”, and check regularly whether your business is cited.
Open your main service pages and guides with a direct answer in the first few lines.
Earn more reviews, and get mentioned on reputable UK websites and trade directories.
Frequently asked questions
Does Search Console show AI Overview clicks on their own?
No. They are counted within the standard Performance report rather than split out.
Does every search show an AI Overview?
No. Google shows one when it judges a summary helpful, which happens more often for complex or information seeking questions.
Covers October 2024. Part of our search timeline: a month-by-month look at the changes that shaped SEO, AI search, paid ads and social media, written in November 2026 for local businesses with the benefit of hindsight.
Quick answer: OpenAI launched ChatGPT search on 31 October 2024, so ChatGPT could reply using current information from the web and link to where it found it. That turned ChatGPT into a real rival to traditional search engines and made OAI-SearchBot, OpenAI’s search crawler, something every website owner needs to know about.
This post is one entry in our timeline series, where we go back through search, AI, advertising and social changes one month at a time to explain what they mean for local firms. We wrote it in November 2026, so we already know how things turned out. Here is what the ChatGPT search launch meant for plumbers, electricians, roofers and other local firms.
What changed in October 2024?
From launch, ChatGPT could choose for itself when a question needed a web search. Its replies showed citations inside the text and a panel listing the sources. Paid subscribers got it first, and it was later opened up to all users.
Why local service businesses should care
If your website blocks OpenAI’s crawlers, ChatGPT may never cite you, and you lose any visits it might have sent. Think of a homeowner asking ChatGPT, “Who fixes leaking flat roofs near Swindon?” The businesses it can see are the ones it can recommend.
ChatGPT also began showing up as a source of visits in website analytics, giving firms a new channel to watch.
What to do now
Make sure robots.txt allows OAI-SearchBot, and check that your hosting firewall or security plugin is not quietly blocking it.
Set up GA4 so visits from chatgpt.com are reported as their own channel.
Write clear pages that answer the questions customers are likely to put to ChatGPT, such as costs, timescales and the areas you cover.
Frequently asked questions
If I block GPTBot, will I disappear from ChatGPT search?
No. ChatGPT search relies on OAI-SearchBot. GPTBot is the crawler OpenAI uses for training its models, which is a separate job.
Can I see how many visitors come from ChatGPT?
Yes. Visits from chatgpt.com show as referrals in GA4 and often carry the tag utm_source=chatgpt.com in the address.
Quick answer: Google AI Mode is a chat-style way of searching. Instead of showing ten results, it writes an answer to a complicated question and backs it up with links to the pages it used. Behind the scenes it turns one question into lots of smaller searches and builds its reply from what those searches turn up. To get your business into those answers, your pages need to give clear answers to specific questions, Google must be able to crawl and index them, and your firm needs to be one Google already sees as trustworthy.
AI Mode is no longer a trial feature. It has its own tab in Google Search, people in the UK can use it, and Google is still adjusting how links appear inside it. In October 2026 Google said it was adding more links within the text of AI Mode and AI Overviews answers, along with a highlighted area near the top of certain replies that points people to one or two pages when they are trying to get a task done.
If you run a plumbing firm, a roofing business or a cleaning company, that leaves you with three sensible questions. How does AI Mode decide which businesses to mention? Will it still send you enquiries? And what should you actually change? Below is how we see it at Lead Local Marketing, drawing on the work we do with local service businesses.
Key takeaways
Google describes AI Mode as using “query fan-out”: one question becomes many related searches, so a page that nails a narrow sub-question has more chances to be cited.
Ordinary SEO still decides eligibility. A page has to be indexed and able to show a snippet in normal Google results before AI Mode can use it.
Search Console does not split out AI Mode. Its clicks and impressions sit inside the usual Performance report.
The pages that do best are clear, specific and tidy, from businesses with a good reputation away from their own website.
AI Mode vs AI Overviews: what is the difference?
Both features run on Google’s Gemini models, but they do different jobs for the searcher:
Feature
AI Overviews
AI Mode
Where you see it
Above the usual results, on some searches only
Its own tab or mode inside Google Search
What it suits
Short summaries
Bigger questions with several parts, plus follow-ups
Follow-up questions
Only to a small degree
Yes, you can keep the conversation going
How links appear
Source links next to or inside the summary
In-text links, source lists and, on certain task searches, one or two featured pages
How does AI Mode decide which pages to cite?
Google says AI Mode works through “query fan-out”. Picture a homeowner typing: “What’s the cheapest way to keep a three-bed Victorian terrace warm?” Rather than running that single search, AI Mode quietly fires off a batch of related ones, such as what a heat pump costs, how to insulate solid walls, which boiler grants exist and what each option costs to run. It then pulls everything into one reply and cites pages found across all of those searches.
This matters a lot for a local firm. You do not have to sit at number one for the big headline phrase to be named. If a heating engineer in Dundee has a plain, helpful page explaining boiler grant eligibility, that page could be cited even though it never ranks for the original question.
Google’s guidance says AI features have no extra requirements on top of normal good SEO. The one condition is that a page is indexed and can appear with a snippet in standard Google Search.
Will AI Mode still bring you enquiries?
Yes, though less predictably than a strong organic position. Some searchers get everything they need from the answer and leave. Others tap a cited page to check the details, compare quotes or get in touch. From what we have seen, people who arrive from an AI answer tend to be closer to making a decision, because the AI has already walked them through part of their research.
Tracking is the harder part. Google rolls AI Mode clicks and impressions into the standard Performance report in Search Console, so there is no way to view them on their own. That is why we also keep a set list of customer questions and check regularly whether a client’s business is mentioned in the answers.
Five changes to make on your website
1. Cover the smaller questions customers ask
Write down every question a customer raises before booking you: costs, timescales, whether they need a survey, what happens on the day. Then make sure each one has a clear answer on your site, whether on a service page, an FAQ or a guide. Put the question in a heading and give the answer in the first sentence or two beneath it.
2. Put key details where Google can read them
Prices or price ranges, lead times, the towns you cover, product specs and your guarantees should all be written as normal text. Do not bury them in images, PDFs or tabs that only open on a click. For comparisons, such as two boiler models or two roofing materials, a simple table works well.
3. Sort out the technical foundations
A page Google cannot crawl or index is a page AI Mode cannot cite. Check your indexing in Search Console, make sure the important words are in the page HTML rather than loaded later, and add accurate structured data for your business and services.
4. Strengthen what others say about you
AI answers lean heavily on trusted third parties: reviews, local press, trade body listings, directories and “best in town” round-ups. Keep your name, address and phone number consistent everywhere and keep earning genuine reviews. Both give Google the confidence to put your business forward.
5. Keep information current
Old prices or out-of-date opening hours make AI tools less willing to cite you and can lead to wrong answers about your business. Go through your most important pages at least once a quarter and show the date each was last updated.
Is AI Mode a threat to local businesses?
We would say it is something to prepare for, not something to fear. AI Mode rewards what good SEO has always rewarded: helpful content, a site that works properly and a business people trust. What has changed is that thin pages written purely to rank for a phrase now struggle to be used at all. A tradesperson who knows their job and explains it clearly is in a good position.
Frequently asked questions
Can people in the UK use Google AI Mode?
Yes. UK searchers can use AI Mode in English, and Google is still rolling out new features for it.
Does Search Console show AI Mode traffic separately?
No. AI Mode clicks, impressions and positions are counted in the normal web search Performance report, mixed in with everything else.
Is there special code I need to add for AI Mode?
No. Google says no special markup or file is required. Your pages need to be indexed and able to show a snippet in regular Search. Structured data is still worth adding because it helps Google understand your business.
Can I keep my site out of AI Mode?
There is now a Search Console option for removing your site from AI Overviews and AI Mode without dropping out of the ordinary results. Think carefully before using it, as you may lose visibility in the answers your customers read.
Want help with this? We check how often AI Mode mentions your business and fix the pages that should be getting cited, through our AI search and GEO service. Get in touch.
Quick answer: Search Console now has a setting that removes a website from Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode without taking it out of the ordinary search results. It arrived after the UK’s competition regulator, the CMA, stepped in. For a plumber, electrician, roofer or any other local service business, opting out is almost always the wrong move: AI answers are now one of the main places customers find tradespeople. The setting is really built for publishers who earn money when people read pages on their own site.
Until 2026, a site owner who wanted to keep their pages out of Google’s AI answers had only one blunt option: stop Google showing the content at all, which meant vanishing from search. The UK Competition and Markets Authority then required Google to offer publishers a more even-handed choice. Google responded with a specific opt-out inside Search Console, launched first in the UK with a wider rollout to follow.
Several trades businesses have asked us whether they should tick that box. Below we explain what the setting changes, what it leaves alone, and how we would make the call for a local firm.
Key takeaways
Opting out takes your site out of AI Overviews, AI Mode and the AI features in Discover, while your normal listings stay put.
According to Google, choosing to opt out is not treated as a ranking signal.
The Gemini app and the training of AI models sit outside this setting and have their own controls.
If your website exists to win calls, quotes and bookings, staying in is nearly always the better decision.
What changes when you switch it on?
Where your site can appear
Does the opt-out apply?
Standard Google search listings
No, you keep appearing
AI Overviews
Yes, your pages will not be drawn on or cited
AI Mode
Yes
AI features within Google Discover
Yes
The standalone Gemini app
No, it falls outside this setting
Using your pages to train AI
No, that is handled separately through Google-Extended in robots.txt
From what has been reported so far, the switch applies to Google’s AI search features as a group. You do not appear to be able to leave AI Mode while staying in AI Overviews, or the other way round. Google is still working on the feature, so read the current wording in Search Console before changing anything.
Which sites is the opt-out really for?
Mainly publishers. A news site, recipe blog or reference site that earns from adverts or subscriptions can lose readers when an AI summary answers the question before anyone clicks. Some of those sites may decide the trade is not worth it.
Even for them the choice is finely balanced. Step out, and a competitor’s article is quoted instead of yours. You also give up a channel that could have sent new readers your way.
Why local trades should usually stay in
Think about how people now look for a heating engineer in Dundee or a roofer who covers three neighbouring towns. More and more of them type a question into Google and read the AI answer first, or ask an assistant to suggest a few local firms. If your business is named or cited in that answer, you are in front of the customer at the exact point they are choosing who to ring. Opting out simply passes that moment to the firm down the road.
Here is the question we ask every client: does your website earn money because people read it, or because people hire you? For almost every trade and local service business it is the second. In that case, stay in and put your effort into becoming the business AI tools pick to mention.
Five questions to ask before you decide
What share of your income comes from people viewing pages, compared with enquiries, calls and jobs booked?
Have clicks genuinely fallen on pages that now show an AI Overview? Use Search Console to compare matching date ranges.
Is your business already being cited in AI answers, and are those citations bringing visitors or calls?
If you left, would a competitor simply take your place in the answer?
Would you gain more by improving how you show up, rather than leaving altogether?
If you still choose to opt out, run it as an experiment. Write down the date, watch clicks and enquiries for at least two months, and be prepared to switch it back.
Is blocking AI bots the same thing?
No, it is a separate choice. Rules in robots.txt for crawlers such as GPTBot or Google-Extended decide whether your content can be used to train AI models or feed other AI tools. They will not take you out of Google’s AI Overviews. If you want to keep your pages out of Overviews specifically, the Search Console setting is the tool for that job.
Frequently asked questions
Will my Google rankings drop if I opt out?
Google has said the setting is not used as a ranking signal, so your normal listings should not suffer. What you will lose is any visibility and traffic that AI Overviews and AI Mode were giving you.
Can I leave AI Mode but keep appearing in AI Overviews?
Reports so far suggest it treats all of Google’s AI search features as one. The latest options will be shown in Search Console itself.
Does opting out stop Google using my site to train AI?
No. Training, and some grounding uses, are managed separately with the Google-Extended token in robots.txt.
Can I still use nosnippet instead?
You can. The nosnippet and max-snippet rules still restrict what Google shows from a page, AI features included, but they also cut back your ordinary search snippets. The new setting is more precise.
Want help with this? We can go through your Search Console data and show you whether AI answers are bringing you work or costing you clicks. See our AI search and GEO service, or Get in touch.
Quick answer: Pick a fixed set of 30 to 100 questions that real customers ask before hiring someone like you, and run them each month in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. Note whether your business is named, whether a page from your website gets referenced, and which other firms appear. Then check Google Analytics 4 for referral visits coming from AI tools so you can link that visibility to actual traffic.
Most monthly SEO reports still end at Google rankings and organic visits. Yet more and more homeowners now ask an AI assistant something like “who is a good electrician near me?” before they ever open a website. If your firm is missing from those answers, your rankings report will not show the work you are losing.
This is the approach we use with trades and local service clients to put a number on AI visibility, and it does not need costly software.
Key takeaways
Think of AI visibility in three parts: getting named, getting cited as a source, and getting suggested ahead of rivals.
Use the same list of genuine customer questions every month so the results can be compared.
AI answers shift from one run to the next, so judge the trend across lots of questions, not one reply.
Google Analytics 4 can report referral visits from AI tools, which connects visibility to real visitors.
The three numbers worth tracking
We split AI visibility into three measures, because a weak score on each one calls for a different fix:
Measure
What it shows
Usual fix when it is weak
Mention rate
How often your business name appears in answers
Get featured on sites AI tools rely on, such as review platforms and local press
Citation rate
How often an answer links to a page on your site
Publish clear pages that answer the tracked questions near the top
Share of voice
Your mentions set against those of competitors
Close the content and reputation gaps with the named rivals
Step 1: Write down the questions customers really ask
Begin with what a genuine customer types or says when they are choosing a firm like yours. Useful places to look include the questions you hear on the phone, enquiry emails, Search Console queries worded as questions, and Google’s “People also ask” suggestions.
Collect between 30 and 100 questions, spread across three kinds:
Category questions: “Who are the best-rated boiler installers in Dundee?”
Problem questions: “Why is my combi boiler losing pressure?”
Comparison questions: “Is an air source heat pump or a new gas boiler better for a three-bed semi?”
Leave the list unchanged for at least three months. Swapping questions every month makes it impossible to see a real trend.
Step 2: Decide which AI tools to check
For most UK businesses we monitor four: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews (plus AI Mode where it is available), Gemini and Perplexity. If you work mainly for commercial clients, such as a contractor serving offices or facilities managers, add Microsoft Copilot, because many workplaces have it built in.
Where you can, run the questions logged out or in a clean session, with the location set to the UK. Your own search history and location can alter what you see.
Step 3: Log everything in a scorecard
For every question in every tool, record:
Did your business get named? Mark yes or no.
Did the answer link to or reference your website? Mark yes or no, and note the page.
Which competitors were named?
Did the answer say anything wrong about you?
A basic spreadsheet is enough at the start. Specialist AI visibility tools can automate the process once you scale up, but we recommend doing the first month by hand so you get a feel for what the answers really say.
Why the same question gives different answers
AI tools write a new answer every time you ask, so one question can produce a different list of firms on each run. A single screenshot therefore proves very little. We put each question to the tool a few times, then work out what proportion of those runs named the business. Once you are tracking 50 or more questions, the overall direction becomes dependable even when individual answers jump around.
Step 4: Link visibility to visits in GA4
Lots of AI tools send visitors through as referrals when a person taps on a source they quoted. In Google Analytics 4, build a custom channel group, or an exploration report, that collects sessions from referrers such as chatgpt.com, gemini.google.com, perplexity.ai and copilot.microsoft.com. ChatGPT frequently tags its links with utm_source=chatgpt.com, so those visits are simple to find.
Clicks from Google’s AI Overviews are rolled into normal Google organic traffic in both Search Console and GA4, so there is no clean way to separate them. Use your question scorecard to follow those instead.
Step 5: Act on what you find
Measuring is only useful if it tells you what to fix. These are the patterns we come across most:
Rivals get named and you do not: they tend to feature in more “best of” round-ups, review sites and comparison pages. Local PR and a steady flow of reviews help close the gap.
You get named but your site is never cited: there is no clear page on your website answering that question. Write one.
The answer gets your details wrong: make sure your Google Business Profile, About page and directory entries all match and are current.
Frequently asked questions
Does Search Console show traffic from AI Overviews?
Not on its own. AI Overview clicks and impressions are counted inside the standard Performance report, blended with the rest of your Google results.
How often should a local business check its AI visibility?
Once a month suits most firms. AI answers change often, but genuine movement in how visible you are usually takes a few weeks to appear.
What counts as a good AI share of voice?
That depends on your area and trade. One helpful comparison is your share of AI mentions against your share of page-one Google rankings or of the local market. If AI tools name you much less often, there is a gap worth closing.
Do I have to buy software for this?
No. A fixed set of questions and a spreadsheet are enough to start. Paid tools start to earn their keep when you are tracking hundreds of questions or several service areas.
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