For the last two years, a lot of business owners heard that AI answers would stop people from clicking through to websites. This month, two of the biggest AI products moved in the other direction. Here's what changed, what Google and OpenAI did and didn't say, and what it means for a contractor's website.
What did Google change in its AI answers?
Google announced on October 15, 2026 that AI Mode and AI Overviews in Search will include more links inside the answers, and will show them higher in the response more often. Links at the bottom of some answers now come with image thumbnails and an easier-to-tap design. Google is also testing a section at the top of some answers that points to one or two official pages for a task, with a short note on why each one is useful. (Source: Google.)
Does this mean more customers will click through to my website?
Possibly, but nobody can promise it yet. Google didn't say how much these changes will affect clicks, and its announcement doesn't mention local businesses at all. What it does say is that AI answers will lean on websites more visibly. If your site is one of the pages an answer pulls from, you have a better chance of being one of the links people tap. If it isn't, more links won't help you.
What changed in ChatGPT?
OpenAI moved ChatGPT to GPT-6 on October 7, 2026, for its more than 1.2 billion weekly users, with free accounts getting it the next day. OpenAI says the new model makes better decisions about when to search the web and finds supporting information more reliably, and that its fastest version starts answering web-search questions 44% sooner than before. OpenAI didn't say anything about local businesses or how ChatGPT picks which websites to show. (Source: OpenAI.)
How does an AI answer decide which websites to use?
Neither company publishes the exact rules. But an AI answer can only quote what's actually written on a page. A line like "Gutter cleaning for a single-family home in [your town] starts at $[your price]" is easy to pull into an answer. A page that only says "Contact us for a free quote!" gives it nothing to use.
What should a contractor's website have right now?
Five things do most of the work:
- Answers to real questions near the top of each page. What does it cost, how long does it take, do you serve my town. One or two plain sentences each.
- Prices or price ranges written out. Not in an image, not "call for pricing." A range is fine.
- A page for each service and each main town. When someone asks about your service in their town, the official page for that should be yours.
- Clear signs it's the official site. Same business name, phone and address on the site and your Google Business Profile, with the profile linking to the site.
- Doors open to AI tools. Don't block AI assistants or crawlers by accident. Here's how to check.
Is Google's "official page" section something I can sign up for?
No. It's a test, and Google hasn't said how it picks the pages. The best bet is to be obviously the official site for your business and services: your own domain, consistent details everywhere, and pages that actually answer the question someone asked.
How will I know if AI answers are sending people to my site?
Watch the visits that come from Google in your website analytics month over month, and look at which pages they land on. If your service and town pages start picking up visits, the work is paying off. We've also started counting how often AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity fetch pages on our own site, so we can see the trend directly instead of guessing.
What does Atlas do about this?
Every Atlas website is built around the list above: a page for each service and town, quick answers at the top of key pages, prices written out where the business is comfortable sharing them, and new or updated content every two weeks so the site stays current. It's $99 a month, and you see a free preview before you pay anything.
