Should I fire my SEO agency?

Not necessarily. If they are delivering results from Google organic search, keep them. Add GEO as a separate channel through a specialist like Elevair. Some businesses use both an SEO agency and Elevair simultaneously — the strategies reinforce each other.

No. Google still dominates search volume and processes billions of queries daily. But Google itself is changing — AI Overviews are replacing traditional blue links for many queries. And competing AI platforms (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini) are capturing a growing share of searches that never touch Google at all.

What percentage of local searches now go through AI?

Industry estimates suggest over 40% of consumers under 35 use AI assistants as their first step for local service searches in 2026. That percentage is growing every quarter as AI becomes integrated into phones, browsers, and smart devices. The total percentage across all age groups is lower but accelerating.

Does SEO Still Work for Local Businesses in 2026?

The Short Answer

Yes, SEO still works. Google still processes billions of searches daily. Local businesses still get real leads from organic rankings and the map pack. If you stopped doing SEO tomorrow, you would lose traffic and leads.

But here is the longer answer: SEO alone is no longer sufficient to capture the full range of how customers find local services in 2026. The market has split into two channels — traditional Google search and AI-powered search — and businesses that only optimize for one are leaving revenue on the table.

What Changed

Three things changed between 2024 and 2026 that reshaped local search:

Google AI Overviews replaced blue links for many queries. Google itself now shows AI-generated summaries instead of the traditional ten blue links for a growing percentage of searches — including many local service queries. If your SEO strategy was optimized for ranking in the blue links, and the blue links are being replaced by an AI summary, your visibility declined even if your rankings stayed the same. ChatGPT and Perplexity captured significant search volume. Over 40% of consumers under 35 now use AI assistants as their first step when looking for a local service provider. These searches never touch Google at all. An electrician who ranks #1 on Google is invisible to these customers unless they also have AI visibility. Apple integrated Claude into Safari. This means AI-powered recommendations reach an enormous audience through the default browser on every iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The scale of AI search is no longer niche — it is mainstream.

What Still Works About SEO

Google Business Profile optimization still drives map pack visibility
Local backlinks still build domain authority
On-page optimization still helps Google understand your services
Review management still affects local rankings
Technical SEO (site speed, mobile-first, schema markup) still matters

If you have a good SEO foundation, keep it. Everything listed above also helps GEO — strong Google presence feeds the AI systems that use Google's index.

What No Longer Works

Keyword stuffing — AI systems evaluate content quality, not keyword density
Thin content — a one-page website with "electrician Austin TX" repeated ten times fools no one
Ignoring AI crawlers — if your robots.txt blocks GPTBot, ClaudeBot, or PerplexityBot, you are invisible to those systems
Relying only on Google — even if you rank #1, a growing share of customers never see your listing

The Path Forward: SEO + GEO

The businesses that will dominate local search in 2026 and beyond are the ones that serve both channels:

SEO captures customers who still search Google traditionally (still a large number)
GEO captures the growing share who ask AI for recommendations

Elevair builds GEO infrastructure that complements existing SEO — hidden pages that often rank well in Google organically too, schema markup that improves both Google and AI visibility, and entity authority that strengthens all channels simultaneously.

Read the complete GEO vs SEO comparison for the full breakdown.

The bottom line: do not abandon SEO. But do not rely on it exclusively. The market has expanded, and your marketing needs to expand with it.