The local search game changed in 2025.
The local search game changed in 2025 and most multi-location operators have not adjusted. Three shifts moved the rankings.
The first is the AI overview. Google’s AI summary block now sits above the local pack on most local-intent queries. The summary pulls from a different set of signals than the local pack uses. Operators that rank well in the local pack are not automatically present in the AI summary. The summary tends to favor sources with structured content, recent reviews, and clear category signals on the website itself. Operators with strong Google Business Profiles but thin websites are losing visibility on the most-searched queries even when they hold their map-pack position.
The second is review velocity. The threshold has moved. Two years ago a steady drip of new reviews was sufficient. The threshold now favors operators with consistent review velocity in the last ninety days, weighted toward responses to those reviews. A profile with 400 reviews and zero in the last three months is losing ground to a profile with 80 reviews and 12 in the last month. The ranking signal is freshness, not volume.
The third is category-specific signal weighting. Google has gotten better at distinguishing between categories that are essentially identical to it and categories that have meaningful differences. A senior living community is no longer ranked using the same signals as a hotel. A pre-construction development is not ranked the same way as an established neighborhood. Operators that built their local SEO playbook on hospitality patterns are paying for that assumption in lower-relevance categories.
The adjustment for most multi-location operators is not glamorous. Audit each location’s review velocity in the last ninety days. Rebuild the on-site content for AI-summary friendliness. Clear answers to the questions buyers actually ask, structured the way an extractive model expects. Verify the category and primary service signals on each profile against the most-searched query intent.
This is not glamorous work. It moves the number more than the glamorous work does.
The local search game in 2025 rewards operators who know what changed.
It punishes operators who are still running the 2023 playbook.