Two years ago, if a customer wanted a physio in Kingscliff or an electrician in Burleigh, they Googled it, scanned the results, and clicked a website. That path still exists — but it’s no longer the only one, and for a growing share of your customers it’s no longer the main one. They ask ChatGPT. They read Google’s AI answer at the top of the page and never scroll further. They ask Gemini to “compare providers near me” while making dinner.
If your business isn’t in those answers, you don’t get a lower ranking. You get nothing — no impression, no click, no phone call. And unlike the old days of page two, you’d never know it happened.
How much has search actually changed? The honest numbers
We only quote figures we can source, so here’s the current picture — including the messy parts:
- Fewer than one in three Google searches now results in a click to a website. Zero-click searches reached roughly 68% in early 2026, up from about 60% in 2024 (SparkToro / Similarweb).
- When an AI summary appears, clicks roughly halve. Pew Research analysed almost 69,000 searches and found users clicked a result 8% of the time when an AI summary was present, versus 15% without one.
- AI Overviews now appear on somewhere between 20% and 48% of Google searches, depending on whose tracker you trust — SparkToro measures 20%+, Similarweb 43%, Semrush’s sensor about 48%. The exact number is debated; the direction isn’t.
- For question-style searches — “who”, “what”, “which”, “best” — Pew found AI summaries appear on about 60%. Those are exactly the searches local customers make before hiring someone.
One caveat we’ll flag ourselves before anyone else does: most of this research is US-based, because Australian studies at this sample size don’t exist yet. But AI Overviews and Google’s AI Mode are already live in Australian search results — you can verify that with one search right now — and ChatGPT doesn’t check passports.
How AI decides which businesses to recommend
Here’s the part most business owners miss: AI assistants don’t rank you the way Google does. There’s no ad budget to outbid, and no single ranking to win. When someone asks ChatGPT or Google’s AI for “the best plumber in Tweed Heads”, the model builds its answer from signals it can read and verify:
- Your Google Business Profile — categories, services, hours, photos, and how complete and current it all is.
- Your reviews — volume, recency, and what they actually say. AI reads review text, not just star counts.
- Structured data (schema) — machine-readable markup on your website that tells AI exactly what you do and where you do it. Most local websites have none.
- What other websites say about you — directories, local news, industry sites. AI engines cite their sources, and businesses that appear in trusted sources get recommended.
Which means AI visibility isn’t luck — it’s influenceable. The businesses getting recommended today aren’t necessarily better; they’re better documented.
What this means on the Gold Coast and Northern Rivers
For local service businesses — trades, health, hospitality, professional services — the shift cuts two ways. The threat: if a competitor’s profile, reviews and website are more machine-readable than yours, they’re quietly collecting the customers who ask AI first. The opportunity: almost nobody here has started. In our own testing across the southern Gold Coast and Tweed, most local businesses score under 40 out of 100 for AI visibility. The bar is low. It won’t stay low.
GEO: the new discipline (and when it doesn’t matter yet)
The industry has already named this work: Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) — sometimes called AI search optimisation or answer engine optimisation. It’s the practice of making your business visible and recommendable inside AI-generated answers.
Honest answer to the obvious question: does every business need this today? No. If your customers are older, phone-first, and come mostly from referrals, classic local SEO still matters more right now. But here’s why that’s not a reason to wait: the work overlaps almost entirely. A complete Google Business Profile, a steady review engine, proper schema markup, consistent listings — these improve your map-pack ranking today and your AI visibility tomorrow. You’re not choosing between SEO and GEO. You’re doing the same foundations once, for both.
How to adapt: seven practical steps
- Claim and complete your Google Business Profile — every service listed with a description, correct categories, 20+ photos, current hours.
- Build a review engine — a simple, consistent ask that produces two or three Google reviews a month, every month, each one responded to.
- Add schema markup to your website — LocalBusiness and Service types at minimum, with your real service areas (areaServed) spelled out.
- State your facts in plain text — who you are, what you do, where you serve, on pages AI can read. Models extract facts, not vibes.
- Get listed where AI looks — the directories and local sources AI engines actually cite. Ask an AI who it recommends in your category, then look at which sources it names.
- Keep your name, address and phone identical everywhere — inconsistency reads as unreliability to a machine.
- Measure it — ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI the questions your customers ask, monthly, and track whether you’re in the answers. What gets measured gets fixed.
Find out where you stand — free
That last step is exactly what the free AI Visibility Check from DMKT Performance does. We ask the four major AI platforms ten real buyer questions for your industry and suburb, log who gets named — you or your competitors — audit your foundations and machine-readability, and send you a one-page report with a score out of 100 and the three fixes that would move it most. No pitch in the report; it’s yours either way. And if you’d rather start with the classic side of search, our SEO services cover both jobs — ranking on Google, and being the business AI recommends.
Frequently asked questions
Is traditional SEO dead?
No — and anyone telling you it is, is selling something. Google still handles billions of searches, and the map pack still drives local calls, and Google Ads still captures ready-to-buy demand. What’s changed is that classic rankings are now one channel of discovery instead of the whole game. The smart play is doing the foundations that serve both.
Do people really hire businesses ChatGPT recommends?
Increasingly, yes — especially for research-heavy decisions. And the influence is often invisible: a customer asks AI for a shortlist, then Googles the two names it gave them. You’ll see the branded search in your analytics, but the AI answer is what put you on the list — or left you off it.
How long does it take to show up in AI answers?
Faster than classic SEO in many cases. AI answers refresh from live sources — profile improvements, new reviews and schema changes can influence recommendations within weeks, not months. The trust-building signals (citations, mentions) take longer, which is exactly why starting before your competitors matters.
Can I do this myself?
Much of it, yes — the seven steps above are all doable in-house with consistency. The parts businesses usually need help with are schema markup, citation strategy, and measurement. Start with the free check either way: you can’t fix what you haven’t measured.
Sources
- SparkToro — In 2026, Less than One Third of Google Searches Still Send a Click
- Pew Research Center — Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears
- Search Engine Land — Google zero-click searches reach 68% in early 2026
