When someone in Tampa Bay asks Google about a local service, do they see an AI answer or a list of businesses? We wanted a measured answer for our own market, not a national average, so on 23 October 2026 we ran 60 Google searches from Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater and recorded what came back.
The answer depended on the question. All 12 Tampa price questions, like “how much does a brake job cost in tampa”, showed a Google AI Overview, and none of them showed a map pack. Searches for a business to hire went the other way: “near me” searches showed the map pack 12 times out of 12 and an AI Overview only twice. Below the AI layer, platforms filled much of the page. Yelp was in the top 10 organic results on 51 of 60 searches, Facebook on 33 and Reddit on 26.
Here is what we found, how we found it, and what the published research says about ChatGPT and the other AI tools that our Google sample could not see. The full data is downloadable as a CSV.
In this study you will learn:
- how often Google’s AI Overview appears on the three kinds of local search people make;
- which sites fill the first page around it, and how much of it independent businesses hold;
- where ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot get their local business information;
- why AI recommendations change from one search to the next;
- what a Tampa Bay business can do about all of it, based on the evidence.
How we ran the study
We picked 12 business types that depend on local search: plumber, AC repair, roofer, electrician, pest control, landscaping, dentist, med spa, personal injury lawyer, auto repair, hair salon and property management. Each was searched three ways:
- “Best [business] in [city]”, run from Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater, each with its own Google location setting. 36 searches.
- “[Business] near me”, run from Tampa. 12 searches.
- “How much does [service] cost in tampa”, run from Tampa. 12 searches.
The results came from Google through DataForSEO, in English, with the desktop default. For each search we recorded whether an AI Overview appeared and where, whether the map pack (the map with three businesses) appeared and where, and the first 10 organic results. We then sorted every organic result by type of site: independent business website, national chain or franchise, directory or review site, social media or forum, and guide or media site.
Three limits are worth stating up front. This is one snapshot from one day, and AI Overviews are known to appear and disappear between searches. Our data shows whether an AI Overview appeared, not what it said or which sites it cited. And we searched Google only; what we say about ChatGPT, Perplexity and the others comes from published research and the companies’ own documentation, which we cite as we go.
Price questions got the AI answer, every time
Across all 60 searches, Google showed an AI Overview on 27 (45%). That average hides a sharp split by the kind of question.
Every price question showed an AI Overview, and in 11 of the 12 it was the very first thing on the page. None of them showed a map pack. Someone asking what Botox, a dental cleaning or a roof replacement costs in Tampa got an AI-written answer before they saw a single business.
Searches for a business to hire looked like the Google of a few years ago. The map pack appeared on all 12 “near me” searches and all 36 “best” searches. An AI Overview appeared on only 2 of the 12 “near me” searches and on 13 of the 36 “best” searches (36%). When a page had both, the AI Overview usually came first: it sat above the map pack on 12 of the 15 searches that showed the two together.
This matches the largest published test of AI Overviews on local searches. Across 540 searches in Houston, Phoenix and Denver, Whitespark found AI Overviews on 15% of plain local searches, 92% of informational ones and 97% of searches that mixed a service with a cost question (May 2025). Tampa Bay followed the same pattern more than a year later.
The city gap needs care. Tampa’s “best” searches showed an AI Overview on 8 of 12, against 3 of 12 in Clearwater and 2 of 12 in St. Petersburg. With 12 searches per city and one look at each, that is not enough to say Tampa gets more AI answers. It may simply be the day we looked.
Yelp, Facebook and Reddit filled the page around it
Our data does not show which sites the AI Overviews cited. It does show which sites Google ranked on the same pages, and Google says its AI features draw on its search index, running “multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources” to build an answer.
Across the 599 top-10 organic positions in our sample, independent business websites held 271 (45%). Directories, marketplaces and review sites held 177 (30%), social media and forums 81 (14%), guides and media 40 (7%) and national chains 30 (5%). We sorted those by hand, and “independent business website” was the default group, so treat the shares as approximate.
Yelp was the single biggest presence. It was in the top 10 on 51 of 60 searches (85%), and on 34 of the 36 “best” searches. A directory of some kind was in the top 10 on 59 of 60. After Yelp, the sites that turned up most were Facebook (33 of 60 searches), Reddit (26), Angi (15), HomeGuide (10), Thumbtack (8) and the Better Business Bureau (5).
Each kind of search drew a different mix. “Near me” searches leaned hardest on directories, which held 40% of their top-10 positions, while social sites barely appeared. “Best” searches leaned on public recommendations: Facebook was in the top 10 on 25 of 36, often with group threads asking for a recommendation, and Reddit on 19 of 36. In St. Petersburg, Facebook reached 11 of 12 “best” searches. Price questions gave the most room to guides and cost-comparison sites, which held 10% of the positions.
Local businesses were far from shut out. An independent business website was the first organic result on 33 of the 60 searches (55%). On Tampa’s “best” searches, independent sites held 54% of the top 10.
Where the AI tools get their local information
Each AI tool draws on different sources, which is why a business can show up in one and not another.
Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode use Google’s own search index and its Maps and Business Profile data. Google says a page needs to be “indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet” to be used, and that there are no extra requirements or special optimisations for AI Overviews or AI Mode. In BrightLocal’s analysis of nearly two million AI citations for local searches (August 2026), Google Business Profile was the most cited single source, and in its companion study business websites made up 42% of citations overall.
ChatGPT leans on Yelp. In its August 2026 letter to shareholders, Yelp said its “ratings and reviews recently began powering ChatGPT’s local experience in relevant categories”. OpenAI has not published a list of its local data sources. Its crawler documentation says sites that block its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers.
Perplexity announced a Yelp integration for local searches in 2024. Microsoft Copilot is built on Bing, but Microsoft has not said how Copilot chooses local businesses. Apple has not said what business data its new Siri uses for local answers.
That puts our Yelp finding in context. Yelp shows up on Google’s first page for most local searches in Tampa Bay, and it now feeds ChatGPT’s local answers directly. A neglected Yelp listing is a problem on both.
AI tools name fewer businesses, and rarely the same ones twice
The published research agrees on two things. AI tools mention fewer businesses than Google Maps, and their picks change from one search to the next.
In BrightLocal’s 2026 tracking, Google Maps mentioned a tracked business in 66% of searches, against 38% for AI Overviews, 33% for ChatGPT and 32% for AI Mode. Repeat runs of the same search shared only 21% to 33% of the businesses named, depending on the platform. In other words, the same question asked twice gives a mostly different list.
Fewer clicks come with it. Pew Research Center tracked the Google searches of 900 US adults and found that people clicked a regular result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, against 15% when one did not. Our data suggests where that loss lands in Tampa Bay: on price and how-to pages, which always got an AI Overview, more than on the map pack, which mostly did not. No published study has tested that directly yet.
What this means for a Tampa Bay business
- Keep your Google Business Profile complete. The map pack appeared on every “best” and “near me” search we ran, and Business Profile is the most cited source in Google’s AI answers. Google’s AI can also now phone businesses to ask about prices and availability, and owners control that in their Business Profile settings. Check that setting.
- Publish your prices plainly. Price questions got an AI answer every time, and independent business websites still held 47% of the top 10 on those searches. A page that states what a job costs, and what changes the price, gives that answer something accurate to draw on. Expect fewer clicks per appearance than you used to get.
- Look after Yelp and the main directories. Yelp was on the first page for 51 of our 60 searches and feeds ChatGPT’s local answers. Check that your hours, categories and photos match your Google profile.
- Watch the public threads. Facebook groups and Reddit threads were in the top 10 on most “best” searches. You cannot write those recommendations yourself, but you can make sure happy customers know where people ask.
- Let the AI crawlers in, and measure over time. Check that your website does not block OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot. Then ask the same few questions in ChatGPT, Google and Perplexity every few weeks and count how often you appear, because one result tells you very little.
We cover the ChatGPT side in more depth in how AI search decides which Tampa Bay business to name, and the map pack side in our study of 120 St. Petersburg map pack spots. If you would rather have someone run these checks for your business, that is the starting point of our AI SEO in Tampa work and our local SEO services.
Five findings to remember
Key takeaways
- The question decides the page. Price questions got an AI Overview 12 times out of 12 and no map pack. “Near me” searches got the map pack 12 times out of 12 and an AI Overview twice.
- Platforms fill the first page. Yelp was in the top 10 on 85% of searches, Facebook on 55% and Reddit on 43%.
- Local businesses still hold the biggest share. Independent business websites held 45% of top-10 positions and the first organic spot on 55% of searches.
- Each AI tool reads different sources. Google’s AI leans on Business Profile and websites. ChatGPT’s local answers now use Yelp.
- AI answers are unstable. Measure how often you appear across repeated searches, not once.
The full data
Whether each search showed an AI Overview, by business type and kind of search. The complete data set, with the position of the AI Overview and map pack and the type of site in each top-10 position, is available as a CSV file. Individual businesses are not named.
| Business type | Best, Tampa | Best, St. Pete | Best, Clearwater | Near me, Tampa | Cost, Tampa | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal injury lawyer | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | 4 of 5 |
| AC repair | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 3 of 5 |
| Pest control | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | 3 of 5 |
| Property management | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | 3 of 5 |
| Roofer | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | 3 of 5 |
| Dentist | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | 2 of 5 |
| Hair salon | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | 2 of 5 |
| Landscaping | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | 2 of 5 |
| Plumber | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | 2 of 5 |
| Auto repair | No | No | No | No | Yes | 1 of 5 |
| Electrician | No | No | No | No | Yes | 1 of 5 |
| Med spa | No | No | No | No | Yes | 1 of 5 |
| Kind of search | Searches | AI Overview | Map pack | Yelp in top 10 | Facebook in top 10 | Reddit in top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best, Tampa | 12 | 8 | 12 | 11 | 5 | 6 |
| Best, St. Petersburg | 12 | 2 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 8 |
| Best, Clearwater | 12 | 3 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 5 |
| Near me, Tampa | 12 | 2 | 12 | 10 | 1 | 1 |
| Cost, Tampa | 12 | 12 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| All searches | 60 | 27 | 48 | 51 | 33 | 26 |
Quiz: test what you learned
Five questions on the findings. Tap a question to see the answer.
1. How many of the 12 Tampa price questions showed a Google AI Overview?
All 12. In 11 of them it was the first thing on the page, and none of them showed a map pack.
2. How often did "near me" searches in Tampa show an AI Overview?
On 2 of 12. The map pack appeared on all 12.
3. Which site was in the top 10 organic results most often?
Yelp, on 51 of the 60 searches (85%). Facebook was next, on 33.
4. What share of top-10 organic positions went to independent business websites?
45%, or 271 of 599. An independent business site was the first organic result on 33 of the 60 searches.
5. Why should you check your AI visibility more than once?
Because AI tools rarely give the same list twice. In BrightLocal's 2026 tracking, repeat runs of the same search shared only 21% to 33% of the businesses named.
About this study
The study was carried out by Techy Toes, a local SEO and web design agency in St. Petersburg, Florida. Results were collected on 23 October 2026 from Google through DataForSEO, in English with the desktop default, using Google’s location settings for Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater. Some searches failed at the data provider and were run again the same day; only completed searches were counted. Organic results were de-duplicated by URL and sorted by type of site by hand. You are welcome to use the figures with credit and a link to this page.
