With online search now the go-to starting point for finding businesses or advice, attracting house hunters to estate agency websites has never been more competitive.
Jukebox Marketing, a specialist agency supporting estate agents with PR and marketing, is warning that AI-powered search could have a significant impact on website performance.
Google’s evolving approach to how it displays information has led to major shifts in organic traffic in 2025. One of the most notable changes is the growing use of AI Overviews (AIOs), which now appear in over 20% of Google search results as of October 2024.
These AI-generated summaries pull information from multiple sources to directly answer search queries, while offering a handful of links to supporting websites. Traditionally, the top three organic search results capture more than two-thirds of all clicks — a figure now at risk as AIOs increasingly occupy the top of the results page.
Jukebox has released a report on AI overview and what potential house hunters think of it. Here are the findings of the report:
- 39% trust the answer on Google’s AI overview to a question
- 46% dislike AI Overview from Google, and would prefer to read the information on a website
- 39% know the best local estate agent, so I don’t have to use Google to find them
- 45% trust Google to give me the best local estate agents if I search for them
- 44% find it difficult to distinguish between paid adverts and organic search results for estate agents on Google
- 49% tend to use Google maps first when searching for the best local businesses
It’s not just AIOs impacting search trends – Google has also expanded PPC slots and showcased businesses on Google Maps on search terms like “Estate Agent Near Me”. Because of this, Stephen Jury, MD of marketing agency Jukebox, said that local property businesses should continue to invest in their own brand marketing.
“With many searching for the perfect deal for a new house online, it’s important that your business stands out from the rest to get as many clicks as possible. But, with the increasing use of AI overview and adverts from Google, being “top” of the organic search results might no longer be enough.
“With Google continuing to change its search algorithm, it’s important to continue to have a marketing budget for local PR, Social and Branding. 39 per cent of people told us they will head straight to their local dealer instead of Google, so make sure you keep your local area at the front of your mind.
“AI Overview is taking clicks to your website away for terms like “what house can I buy for £250,000” which is automatically pulled from source websites. Encouragingly, nearly half of the people surveyed told us they would prefer to visit a website instead of using the AI information.”
