Phil RisherPhlash Consulting · No. 1 Digital Marketing Consulting Company For $1m-10m Home Service Businesses 🚀

Most home service owners are waiting for Google to change its mind.

21 Oct 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:13

In this advisory video, Phil Risher warns home‑service business owners that Google’s AI‑generated search overviews now capture more than half of all search clicks and that 68 % of searches end with zero clicks. When users type queries like “plumber near me” or “best HVAC repair,” Google instantly displays an AI summary that often includes a phone number but keeps the user on Google’s platform, depriving local businesses of traffic. Risher argues that waiting for Google to adjust its algorithm hands competitors the market share. He outlines a concrete response: (1) search your top five service keywords, (2) screenshot the AI overview to see which brands appear, (3) if your business is missing, update your Google Business Profile and solicit fresh reviews, and (4) produce “non‑commodity” content—real stories and authentic experiences—as emphasized in Google’s generative‑AI guidelines, avoiding generic AI‑generated filler. The video’s purpose is to prompt immediate action so businesses can appear in AI overviews and reclaim lost clicks.

Chapters

Every month you wait for Google to fix this, you are handing your competitors the traffic that you used to own. Google's AI overviews now take up over 50% of the clicks from searches. So when someone types in plumber near me or best HVAC repair, Google answers them right there. They never click. They just scroll down, see the information. Maybe they get your phone number, but Google does this on purpose. It's keeping people on its own platform and your home service business pays the price. And you've probably seen it. If you go and Google something, you see these AI overviews. And the answer is right there. No clicking, no scrolling. And right now, 68% of searches holistically end with zero clicks. Now, the most important thing is that your business is here and not your competitors. So here's what you need to do. Go to Google, search your top 5 service keywords, and screenshot which brands show up in the AI overview. And if you're not there, you need to be. So update your Google Business Profile, get some new reviews. This is why you need to be creating what we call non-commodity content. Google said that this is the most important thing in their generative AI help docs is to create real content from real stories. AI slop does not help with this. So stop waiting for things just to happen and hopefully you show up in AI and start making it happen for your brand by creating non-commodity content.