AI local results are dropping photos and reviews

Google's AI version of the local pack is showing up without action buttons, photos and reviews. The local pack is the box of businesses that appears with a map when someone searches for something nearby. Barry Schwartz posted the report, crediting @JoyanneHawkins.

Those missing pieces are the parts of a listing that do the selling. The photo is what catches the eye. The review stars are what tell a stranger you are worth a call. The action buttons are the shortcut to calling you or opening your site. Strip them out and your business is closer to a line of text next to competitors who also look like a line of text.

How sure is this

Not very. This is one report of one layout, passed along by one other person. Google has not said anything about it in the source, so nobody knows yet whether it is a test, a rollout, or a glitch that disappears next week. It follows an earlier sighting of a phone result that also hid reviews, address and hours, so it may be part of the same experiment.

What to do

Nothing you can control here, and that is the honest answer. There is no setting that puts your photos back into a result Google chose to draw without them. What you can do is make sure the rest of your presence still works when the map box gives a searcher less to go on.

Search your own business name and main service on your phone and look at what Google actually shows. If the AI local result is bare, check that your business name in the listing reads clearly on its own, because that may be all a searcher gets. Then make sure your website page for that service answers the question a customer would have asked by tapping your photos and reviews, like what you do, where you do it, and how to book you.

Barry Schwartz

@rustybrick

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Google local pack AI Overviews drop action buttons, photos, reviews and more