Hello Lunch Break. The tropics report is back on the evening news. And, everyone in Wilmy is following Mike to see exactly what he has to say. He’s got the spaghetti models and the probability, and then each of us has to decide what we are willing to be wrong about. 

So, probability is what I’m talking about for this issue. New research tells us how repeatable AI answers are for local businesses. Not the most encouraging data. Ask Gemini the same question about your city twice and it names the same top business about 7 percent of the time. So, it’s kind of like holding one strand of spaghetti and calling it the forecast.

Alright. Clock's ticking. Back to work.

THE GAME CHANGED

Barry Schwartz reported on August 28 that Google has begun fully expanding AI Overviews on some queries by default. No longer showing just a summary or a "Show more" button to click. The full answer loads open, with an "Ask anything" box under it, which is actually really close to what AI Mode looks like. 

Here is why that matters: With expansion, the block takes enough vertical space that the traditional blue links land below the fold on a phone. One detail worth mentioning: if you have already started scrolling past the box, Google cancels the expansion so you do not lose your place. This is a sign Google is being careful about a change it expects people to feel.

What to do about it: open your own phone, search something your best customer searches for, and look at where your listing sits on the screen before you scroll. Most of you will find that the answer fills the screen and therefore your task is going to be getting named inside the answer and not chasing the blue link. 

Sources: Google is dynamically expanding AI Overviews for some queries, Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land, August 28, 2026. In Graphic Detail: How AI search has impacted the web traffic of over 50 advertisers, Sam Bradley, Digiday, August 25, 2026.

THE WINDOW IS NOW

Steady Demand found nearly 60 percent of Gemini's local citations point at the business's own website. Reddit came second at 13.7 percent, which by itself beat the whole local directory category, Angi and Thumbtack and HomeAdvisor together.

Also, in the study, businesses that Gemini recommended averaged 4.75 stars. The baseline across all businesses in the set was 4.84. The recommended ones were rated slightly lower than average. So just know whatever is deciding who gets named, it is not sorting by review score, and if your plan for this year was to grind out a few more five star reviews and wait, I’d reconsider that plan.

Why the window is open right now: your website is the asset, and it is the one thing you own outright. If your customer is using Gemini, now is your time to build.

Source: Business websites dominate Gemini citations in local AI search: Study, Danny Goodwin, Search Engine Land, August 19, 2026. Underlying data: Steady Demand's AI Citation Ledger.

YOUR COMPETITORS ARE ASLEEP

Myriam Jessier made the argument in Search Engine Land on August 27 that images have picked up a second job. An image that used to only be for a person now has to read clearly to a machine, because models pull visual context into answers instead of just linking a gallery. 

Most local businesses have original photos, which is the one thing your competitor cannot copy. If you don’t have this, add them. Then, proceed to the four visibility recommendations below.

In the order they pay off.

1. Put the detail under the picture. Not in the metadata, in the page copy where a visitor reads it. One sentence per important image. "Quartz counters, gas range, and a walk-in pantry off the kitchen." "Tall fescue installed in Apex, photographed four weeks after install." 

2. Write alt text as a claim. Alt text is the description field in your media library, hidden from visitors but read by screen readers and machines. Write a sentence somebody could quote. Bad: waterfront homes kitchen granite wilmington nc. Good: Renovated kitchen with quartz counters and a gas range in a 1998 waterfront home in Wilmington, NC. Same amount of typing.

3. Check that text burned into a graphic is legible. If you have the word BEFORE baked into a comparison image, or a price on a social tile, a machine has to read those pixels. Thin script fonts, white on pale green, or small type aren’t readable to the models. If you have to squint, so does the machine. Jessier's rule of thumb is characters about 30 pixels tall or larger.

4. Clear the frame before you shoot. A machine sees everything in the picture, not just your subject. A competitor's yard sign, a delivery truck, staging clutter, the neighbor's patchy lawn: all of it becomes part of what the image is about. Think about it next time you plan the shoot.

Source: Images have a new job in AI search, Myriam Jessier, Search Engine Land, August 27, 2026.

WHAT’S THE PROMPT

Here’s the test. You’re going to run an identical local query five times to better understand if your business gets named as the probable answer.

Run the prompt

Then read the frequency. 

5 of 5, or 4 of 5. You're in the conversation and you're stable there. Your job is keeping the sources that name you fed and correct, and knowing which ones they are.

2 of 5, or 3 of 5. The engine knows you exist and is not confident enough to lead with you. Look at the sources it cited on the runs where you appeared and the runs where you did not, because the difference between those two lists is usually your answer.

0 of 5, or 1 of 5. A 1 is not a small win, it is the same result as a 0 with better luck. Not enough independent places describe what you do in the words your buyers use. Study the sources.

Want this run across every question your customers ask, not one? That's what our audit does. Start with the audit.

CITED

I typed the same thing into ChatGPT five separate times: best local home builder in wilmington, nc. Exactly one appeared in all five, and it was never the one ChatGPT called its top pick.

Here’s the analysis: Konrady & Son Construction took the top slot four times out of five, with a 5.0 rating and 103 reviews. Good signs. On run two it did not appear at all. Not further down the list, not a mention. Gone, and so was RMB Building and Design, which had been third in every other answer. Run two came back with an almost entirely different set of builders led by a firm that appeared in none of the other four. If you had run this prompt once and happened to land on run two, you would close the tab believing the highest rated builder in your market does not exist.

Hagood Homes was named in all five. Second, fourth, second, fifth, second. Never first, never absent.

Here is what Hagood has that the businesses named once do not. Its own site carries pages for named communities, River Landing, Winding River, Compass Pointe, St. James Plantation, The Bluffs on the Cape Fear, Oyster Harbour and more. Named floor plans with their own pages. A page called Our Process. Four service areas spelled out separately rather than lumped into one line: Wilmington, Leland, Southport and southern Brunswick County, and north Wilmington through Onslow and Pender. Konrady's site is a good site and it has none of that. No community pages, no floor plans, no process page. It names Wrightsville Beach, Landfall, Figure Eight and Wilmington in a sentence and leaves it there, and what carries it is a very strong Houzz profile.

Here’s what you need to notice: ChatGPT cited Houzz on Konrady in four of the five runs. Run two is the only answer where the top picks were cited to the builders' own websites instead, and run two is the only answer Konrady missed. Konrady is not doing anything wrong. A 5.0 from 103 reviews is hard to build and it wins the top slot most of the time. It just does not survive the run where the engine reaches somewhere other than Houzz.

See you next Thursday.

- Anna

Want to know what your own site is telling them? The AI Visibility Audit checks exactly this.

THE POLL