AI Overviews and local SEO for a network of branches: how to design a Google Business Profile, point pages and schema
March 5, 2025 Google announced the expansion of AI Overviews and the launch of AI Mode. For a network of branches, this means a simple thing: the search needs to quickly understand which point is official, where it is located and which page to lead the person to.
Then it’s no longer a conversation about “AI in general”, but regular work with local data. In the guide Establish your business details Google asks you to confirm the official website, link it to Search Console and carefully create a Business Profile. At one point this is done quickly. On a network of branches, confusion often appears: the card leads to the main page, the opening hours on the site do not coincide with the profile, and the branch page is almost no different from the neighboring one.
Then it hits local demand. The user is looking for a specific office, clinic, salon or showroom, but Google clearly sees only the entire brand. In normal search results this already interferes. In AI Overviews, the problem is more visible because the system needs to collect a short answer and choose one set of data that it believes more.
What exactly has changed for multi-location SEO
It is important not to invent too much. Google didn't say that AI Overviews would "replace local SEO." But the connection here is direct. If the search is building a short answer, it needs clean reference data:
- official website;
- specific point page;
- correct address and telephone number;
- clear business category;
- confirmation that this location is real and alive.
In the help Tips to improve your local ranking on Google Google still relies on three basic factors: relevance, distance and prominence. AI Overviews do not cancel this. They just make old mistakes more expensive. If one point is neatly designed, and the other lives on a duplicate page with a replaced city, it’s easier for Google to show the location that’s easier to understand.
Where is the branch network most likely to lose traffic?
Most often the base breaks. The branch profile shows one address, the website has another, the footer contains a general phone number, and the card contains a local phone number. The user will not always notice this right away. The search engine notices such discrepancies faster.
The second problem is weak point pages. When a location page is assembled according to the template “change the city in the first paragraph and publish”, it has neither local meaning nor a chance to respond well to queries like стоматология на проспекте мира, автосервис в химках, шоурум мебели на васильевском острове.
The third problem is the gap between the Business Profile and the website. The branch card leads to the main page, not to its own page. For the user this is an extra step. For SEO, this is a loss of signal. If a network has dozens of points, many such small gaps accumulate, and local demand begins to flow into the more collected profiles of competitors.
What to check at each point
Below is a basic checklist, without which multi-location SEO almost always stalls.
1. Each branch must have its own landing page
The point page is not needed “for show”. It is needed so that the search has something to rely on. It should have:
- exact address;
- local phone;
- opening hours;
- directions;
- real services of this point;
- photographs of this particular branch;
- clear CTA: call, record, route, application.
If the Business Profile card leads to the brand's home page, this is worth fixing first. For Google this is a weak signal, but for the user it is simply an inconvenient route.
2. Branch pages cannot be made almost identical
If all location pages are similar to each other and differ only in the name of the city, it is difficult for search to understand why they exist separately. Therefore, each point needs its own actual layer:
- area or landmarks nearby;
- composition of services, if different;
- local promotions, if any;
- team;
- Frequently asked questions specifically about the branch;
- reviews or cases on this point.
This is useful not only for SEO queries like страницы филиалов для SEO or location pages seo. This way the page begins to respond to real local intent, and not just duplicate branded text.
3. NAP data must match everywhere
For local SEO, this is an old base, but it is the one that most often falls apart among networks. NAP - this name, address, phone. In practice it is worth checking:
- address on the point page;
- address in Business Profile;
- address in the footer, if there is one;
- phone number on the website;
- phone number in profile;
- opening hours;
- business category.
If this data is floating, AI Overviews will not make things better. They will simply rely on the signal that Google deems the most reliable, which is not always the version you wanted to show.
4. LocalBusiness markup should support the page, not argue with it
In the documentation Local business structured data Google doesn't promise magical growth in rankings. The logic there is simpler: schema helps the system understand the entities on the page. For an affiliate, this means that the markup should repeat the same facts as the page itself:
- point name;
- address;
- telephone;
- watch;
- type of business;
- if necessary, coordinates and nested entities.
If there is one address on the page, and LocalBusiness another, you are not enhancing SEO, but adding another source of noise.
5. Internal linking should follow local logic
У сети филиалов путь пользователя обычно такой: город -> точка -> услуга -> обращение. Если сайт ведет человека по другой логике, локальный спрос начинает распыляться.
Minimum to check:
- whether there is a page for a city or a cluster of cities;
- is there a list of points within the region;
- are there links from service pages to relevant branches;
- are there backlinks from branch pages to local services and FAQs?
This structure helps both the user and the search. This is also important for AI Overviews: it is easier for the system to collect an answer if the site does not force you to guess the connections between the city, service and specific location.
6. Reviews and fresh signals need to be looked at for each point
According to Google help about local ranking reviews and visibility of the business remain part of the assessment. For a network brand, this means a simple thing: a strong main card will not attract all branches at once.
If one location has recent reviews, business responses, photos, and normal activity, while another has an abandoned profile, local visibility will be different. And that's okay. The problem begins when marketing only looks at the brand as a whole and does not see exactly how demand is distributed across branches.
7. Analytics should be collected not by domain, but by points
Overall domain organics do not show which specific location is losing demand. It is more useful for the network to look:
- impressions and CTR for local non-brand queries;
- transitions to branch pages;
- calls, routes and actions in Business Profile;
- applications for each point;
- the share of affiliates that receive search traffic and do not live solely off the brand.
If a business has dozens of branches and needs to collect it all into one picture, this is no longer a manual table, but a task BI and SEO analytics.
What is most often done wrong
The errors here are quite similar:
- all cards lead to the main page;
- branch pages use almost identical templates;
- Business Profile has been created, but the website does not correspond to it;
- The LocalBusiness schema has been installed, but the data in it is not updated;
- local traffic is assessed by overall brand growth and failures are not seen by point.
Usually the problem is not one big bug. Demand sags due to a set of small discrepancies that no one has brought together into one picture for a long time.
What to do in the next 30 days
If you need a short and working plan, it’s like this:
- Unload all active branches and check their addresses, phone numbers, hours and categories.
- Check that each Business Profile card leads to its own point page.
- Find weak or duplicate location pages and rewrite them humanly.
- Check
LocalBusinessat 5-10 priority branches. - Place internal links according to the scheme
город -> точка -> услуга. - Take basic metrics by point: impressions, CTR, calls, applications.
After such an audit, it is already clear where the problem is in the content, where in the data, and where in the structure of the site.
Useful on the topic
- Website visibility in ChatGPT and AI search: what a study of 68.9 million AI crawler visits showed
- SEO for a real estate agency: how to promote a website through locations, content and trust
- Case on the topic
- Profile service
FAQ
Are AI Overviews already taking over all local traffic?
No. But they change the entry point to the search. If the network has weak affiliate pages and dirty data, it starts to hit faster than before.
Is it possible to promote a network with one strong home page?
For the brand - partly yes. For local demand across branches - usually no. The user and Google need a separate, clear page for each point.
What is more important: Business Profile or affiliate pages?
Only the link works. A card without a strong page loses its meaning, and a good page without a neat profile serves local intent worse.