When someone in Plymouth types a question into ChatGPT or asks Google’s AI Overview to recommend a local tradesperson, accountant or restaurant, something interesting happens. The AI doesn’t search the web the way a person does. It draws on what it already knows about businesses in that area, built up from everything it has been trained on: websites, reviews, directories, local press, mentions across the web. If your business isn’t part of that picture, it doesn’t appear in the answer. Not at position five or ten. Not at all.
This is the visibility problem that businesses across Plymouth and Devon are beginning to encounter, often without realising it.
For the past decade, the goal of most SEO work has been to rank in the top few positions on Google’s results page. That still matters. But the results page itself has changed. Search Engine Land’s analysis of SEO in 2026 makes the point clearly: a business can rank number one for its target keywords, have strong domain authority, publish content regularly and still be effectively invisible when a potential customer asks an AI tool which local business to use.
AI Overviews in Google now appear at the top of many search results pages, summarising answers before any traditional links are shown. Tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are increasingly used as a first stop for research, particularly for questions that involve comparing options or asking for a recommendation. When these systems generate an answer, they cite the sources they consider most credible and most associated with the topic. If your business isn’t among those sources, you’re absent from the conversation.
This is where it gets interesting for business owners. Research reported by Search Engine Land describes how AI systems build a mathematical picture of your brand from everything they’ve been trained on. Your website contributes to that picture, but so does every mention of your business across the rest of the web. Reviews, directory listings, editorial coverage, forum mentions, social media presence and references on other websites all feed into the model’s understanding of what your business does and how it is regarded.
The implication of this is significant. The version of your brand that AI systems understand may be quite different from the one you intend to project. A business that has a polished website but almost no presence anywhere else online is harder for AI to characterise with confidence. A business with consistent, credible mentions across multiple sources gives the model more to work with, and is more likely to appear when a relevant question is asked.
For local businesses, the good news is that the signals AI systems use to build this picture are largely the same things that good local marketing has always involved. A well-maintained Google Business Profile with genuine recent reviews. Presence in local and sector-specific directories. Occasional coverage in local media and regional publications. Consistent, clear descriptions of what you do and where you do it, across multiple platforms.
Google has also been developing how links work within its AI features. Recent updates to AI Overviews and AI Mode now include more prominent links through to source content, and Google is making it easier for users to explore different facets of a topic directly from the AI response. This means that being cited in an AI Overview can still drive traffic to your website, even in a world where fewer people click traditional search results.
The businesses that are best placed for this environment are those that have been building genuine local presence over time: businesses with real customer relationships, consistent positive reviews, clear expertise in what they do and some visibility in the wider local community. Size doesn’t automatically win here. A well-regarded independent business with a strong local reputation has real advantages over a larger competitor with thin online presence, if it makes the most of what it has.
If you want to understand how AI systems currently perceive your business, one of the most useful things you can do is simply ask. Open ChatGPT or Perplexity and ask the questions your potential customers would ask: “who are the best web designers in Plymouth?”, “where should I go for X in Devon?”, “which local Y would you recommend?” See whether your business appears, and if it doesn’t, think about why the businesses that do appear might be showing up.
From there, the practical steps are simple: make sure your Google Business Profile is complete and regularly updated, respond to reviews, look for relevant local directories and listings you aren’t yet part of, and think about whether your website content answers the questions your customers are actually asking rather than simply describing your services.
We work with small businesses across Plymouth and Devon to improve their visibility across traditional and AI-driven search. If you’d like to talk through how your website and online presence are currently set up, get in touch with the b:web team and we can take a look together.
