Google AI Overview for Your Business Name: What BC Contractors Need to Fix

When someone in BC searches your company name, there is now a good chance the first thing they read is a Google AI Overview about your business, not your website. A large Ahrefs study published in October 2026 found AI Overviews on about 83% of brand-name searches in the US, usually in the top spot. For a roofer in Chilliwack or an electrician in Abbotsford who lives on referrals, that means the warmest leads you get are now meeting a summary Google wrote, built from whatever it could find about you online.

TL;DR

• AI Overviews now show on most brand-name searches in large studies, usually above the company's own website.

• Referral customers almost always search your name before they call, so this hits your best leads first.

• The AI pulls from your website, your Google Business Profile, directories, social pages and review sites.

• Thin or outdated information gives the AI thin or outdated material to describe you with.

• The fix: search your own name like a stranger, then clean up the sources Google is reading.

What changed with brand-name searches on Google

Ahrefs looked at more than 92 million brand-name search results in the US between July and September 2026. By late September, about 83% of them showed an AI Overview, up from a monthly average of roughly 61% in July. In about three out of four cases, that AI answer sat in the first position on the page, where the company's own website used to be.

The study was weighted toward large national brands, and it measured US desktop searches. A small painting company in Surrey will not see exactly the same numbers. The direction is still the point: Google is putting its own written summary in front of more searches that used to send people straight to a business.

The AI answers in the study leaned on third-party sources like Wikipedia, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook. Most trades businesses do not have a Wikipedia page, so for a local contractor the AI reaches for whatever else exists: your Google Business Profile, your website, old directory listings, your Facebook page and review sites like HomeStars.

Why this matters more for contractors than for most businesses

Trades businesses get a big share of their best work through word of mouth. A neighbour in Langley recommends your fencing crew, or a friend in Mission passes along your plumbing company's name. That person almost never calls straight from the recommendation. They search your name first to check you are real.

Now there is a paragraph in between, and you did not write it.

Here is where it goes wrong:

• Old information. A directory listing with a phone number from 2019, or a service you stopped offering, can show up as fact.

• Thin information. If your website is a single page that says "quality work, call today," the AI has nothing specific to say about what you do or where.

None of this means you lose the job. It means the first impression on your warmest lead is now out of your hands unless you give Google better material.

How to check what Google says about your business in BC

1. Search your exact company name on your phone, signed out or in a private browser window. Read whatever appears first, word for word.

2. Search your name plus your town, like "your company name Chilliwack" or "your company name Abbotsford." Homeowners do this to make sure they have the right business.

3. Search your name plus "reviews." This is the most common check before a homeowner calls a contractor.

4. Write down every fact the AI states about you. Services, towns, years in business, phone number, hours.

5. Mark anything wrong or missing. Then look at the links the AI cites so you know which sources it is pulling from.

If the AI says something wrong, correct the source it is reading.

How to give Google better material about your business

Make your website say the facts plainly

Your website is one of the few sources you fully control. Every roofing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, excavation, painting, concrete or landscaping company should have these in plain text, not buried in images:

• What you do, service by service

• The towns you actually work in, written into real sentences ("we do re-roofs from Chilliwack out to Hope")

• How long you have been in business and who runs it

• Real project photos with a line about each job and where it was

• Your phone number, matching your Google listing exactly

Clean up your Google Business Profile

Check your categories, services, service area, hours and description. Make sure they match your website. When the two sources agree, the AI has less reason to guess.

Fix the old listings

Search for your business on directories like Yelp, YellowPages, HomeStars, the BBB and any local chamber listing. Update or claim the ones with the wrong phone number, old address or dead services. These are exactly the places the AI goes when your own site is thin.

Frequently asked questions

Why does Google show an AI Overview when someone searches my business name?

Large studies show Google now adds an AI Overview to most brand-name searches, including searches for local company names. The AI summarizes what it finds about your business from your website, your Google Business Profile and other sites, and places that summary near the top of the results.

Can I turn off the AI Overview for my business in BC?

No. There is no setting that removes AI Overviews from searches for your business name. What you can control is the information the AI reads, which means your website, your Google Business Profile and your listings on other sites.

What if the AI Overview says something wrong about my company?

Find the source it cites and fix it there. If an old directory lists the wrong phone number, update that listing. You can also use the feedback option on the AI Overview, but correcting the source is what actually changes the answer over time.

Does this affect contractors in the Fraser Valley the same way?

The large studies tracked mostly big US brands, so local results will vary. Fraser Valley contractors who rely on referrals should still check their own name search now, because referral customers almost always look a business up before calling.

The bottom line

Referrals are earned on the job site, but they are now confirmed on Google, and an AI often does the talking first. You can make sure every source it reads tells the same clear, accurate story about what you do and where you work, and your website is the source you control most.

If your site does not say what you do, where you work and who you have done it for in plain words, that is the gap to close. Built Tough builds contractor websites that give Google, and the homeowner, the facts up front. Marketing that works as hard as you do.