Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Saturday, August 23rd.

Today on Forbes, how small business can survive Google's AI overview.

For years, the formula for online business success was simple.

Climb the search rankings in Google and or shell out for ads on the dominant search site to drive traffic.

But Google's AI overviews rolled out in May 24 are dramatically cutting clicks to websites

by delivering answers instead of links at the top of the search page.

Knowledge-driven businesses, like consultancies, publishers, and e-learning platforms,

have felt it first. Local outfits, think diners, plumbers, or carpenters, have

mostly yet to feel the pain as their customers arrive through location-based searches.

But time is running short for them, too, warns search engine optimization, or SEO, consultants

who work with small businesses.

Internet veteran Andrew Shotland, who founded local SEO guide way back in 2006, says he's

already seeing the hit on small businesses that have relied on educational content to bring

prospective customers to their websites.

He points to a law firm client that has traditionally gotten heavy traffic from queries like,

quote, is Karsak's legal in Alabama? Google that question today, and you're likely to get an

AI overview that discusses public lewdness under Alabama Code Title 13A and Class C misdemeanors,

with attribution, perhaps, to Fine Law and Justia Law.

While that sort of overview doesn't produce much traffic for Fine Law and Justia,

it is reduced the clicks shotland's client is getting, even though it still turns up in the

search results. Those missing clicks matter.

Without them, businesses lose a direct connection with potential customers.

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