Google's Discover Update and the Rise of AI Overviews — What It Means for Your Business

February 2026 brought two developments worth paying close attention to if you run a business in Cairns or regional Queensland. The first was a Google core update unlike any before it — one targeting Google Discover rather than traditional search results. The second was new data confirming just how rapidly AI Overviews are expanding across Google Search.

Neither of these is cause for alarm. But both signal a search landscape that is changing faster than most regional business owners realise — and understanding what is happening is the first step to staying ahead of it.

Google's First-Ever Discover Core Update

On 5 February 2026, Google rolled out what it officially described as a broad update to the systems that surface content in Google Discover. This was notable for one specific reason: it was the first time Google had issued a core update targeting Discover independently of traditional search results.

Google confirmed the update would improve the Discover experience in several key ways: showing users more locally relevant content from websites based in their country, reducing sensational content and clickbait, and showing more in-depth, original, and timely content from websites with demonstrated expertise. Search Engine Journal

For most small business owners in regional Queensland, Google Discover is not something you think about often. It is the content feed that appears on the Google app and Chrome's new tab page — a personalised stream of articles and content Google thinks you will find relevant, based on your search history and interests.

But Discover is actually a significant traffic source for content publishers, and the February update's focus on locally relevant content is directly relevant to anyone publishing blog content from a regional base. Google's systems are designed to identify expertise on a topic-by-topic basis, meaning a site with deep focus on a single topic or a local area has equal opportunity to appear in Discover as a large national publisher. Search Engine Journal

For AG SEO and for any regional business publishing genuine, expert content about their local market — this is a meaningful signal. Local expertise, consistently demonstrated, is now explicitly rewarded in Discover as well as in traditional search.

AI Overviews Are Expanding Faster Than Most People Realise

The second development from February 2026 is harder to ignore. BrightEdge research found that AI Overviews coverage grew 58% in the twelve months through February 2026, with queries triggering AI results in B2B technology jumping from 36% to 83% and education queries from 18% to 83%. Digidop

Those are not incremental shifts. They represent a fundamental change in how a significant proportion of Google searches are being answered.

For businesses in Cairns and Far North Queensland, the practical implication depends on what kinds of searches your customers are making. Transactional and local intent searches — "plumber cairns", "book a charter fishing trip port douglas", "seo consultant cairns" — are less affected by AI Overviews than informational queries. But the informational queries that sit earlier in your customers' decision-making process — "how do I know if my website needs SEO", "what should I look for in a local tradesperson", "is it worth getting a professional website audit" — are increasingly likely to be answered directly by an AI Overview before a customer ever reaches your website.

This changes the role of your content. Pages that exist purely to attract search traffic on informational topics face headwinds. Content that demonstrates genuine expertise, answers real questions thoroughly, and establishes your credibility as a local authority serves a dual purpose — it helps you appear in AI Overview citations and builds the kind of trust that converts visitors into customers.

Personal Intelligence Comes to Google Search

Also in late January and into February 2026, Google began rolling out Personal Intelligence in AI Mode — a feature that allows users to connect their Gmail and Google Photos to their search experience, enabling Google to provide contextually relevant answers based on their personal data.

This is a longer-term development worth watching. As Google's search experience becomes more personalised — drawing on a user's own emails, photos, calendar, and search history — the way businesses need to present themselves online shifts subtly. Generic content becomes even less useful. Specific, contextual, locally relevant content that matches the real-world circumstances of your customers becomes more valuable.

For a business in Cairns, this means the content and information you publish online needs to reflect the actual context of your customers' lives — their location, their specific needs, the seasonal patterns of the region — rather than a generic description of your services that could apply anywhere in Australia.

What the CTR Data Actually Shows

One data point from February 2026 that deserves more attention than it gets: organic click-through rates in AI Overviews had recovered from a low of 1.3% in December 2025 to 2.4% in February 2026. Lumar

This is significant context for anyone who has been told that AI Overviews are simply killing website traffic. The reality is more nuanced. Click-through rates from AI Overview citations are low compared to traditional organic results, but they are not zero — and they are recovering. Businesses whose content is cited in AI Overviews are still receiving traffic, still generating brand awareness, and still benefiting from being associated with authoritative answers to their customers' questions.

Research from NN Group published in February 2026 found that people use AI to explore and synthesise information, but still rely on traditional search to double-check factual accuracy. That is a useful reminder that traditional search has not been replaced. The two experiences are complementary, and a strong presence in both remains the goal. Lumar

What This Means for Your Content Strategy

The pattern across all of February 2026's developments points in a consistent direction: content that demonstrates genuine local expertise, published consistently, from a credible and clearly identified source, is what performs well across all of Google's evolving surfaces — traditional search, AI Overviews, and Discover.

For businesses in regional Queensland, this is actually an advantage. Your local knowledge — the specific dynamics of operating in Far North Queensland, the seasonal patterns of the Cairns market, the real-world experience of serving customers in this region — is precisely the kind of content that national competitors cannot easily replicate.

The businesses that will struggle are those producing content that could have come from anywhere. The businesses that will thrive are those publishing content that could only have come from someone who genuinely knows this market.

A few practical priorities based on what February 2026 has shown us:

Make sure your most important blog posts and service pages have a clearly identified author. Google's systems are placing increasing weight on authorship and expertise signals — a named, credible author with a visible profile is now a meaningful ranking factor.

Publish consistently rather than in bursts. Google Discover rewards sites that demonstrate ongoing expertise through regular publishing. A steady cadence of quality posts performs better than occasional high-volume output.

Review your content for genuine local relevance. Does it reference the specific context of Cairns and Far North Queensland in a way that is substantive, not just a keyword swap? Content that genuinely reflects local expertise is now explicitly favoured by Google's systems.

Think beyond your website. Discover, AI Overviews, and AI Mode all draw from a broader pool of signals than your website alone. Your Google Business Profile, your presence in local directories, and mentions of your business across credible local sources all contribute to how Google's AI systems understand and represent you.

The Bigger Picture

February 2026 has made one thing very clear: Google is not slowing down. The pace of change in search — from Discover updates to AI Overview expansion to Personal Intelligence — is accelerating, and the gap between businesses that are actively managing their online presence and those that are not is widening.

The good news is that the direction of all these changes is consistent. Genuine expertise, local relevance, consistent publishing, and a credible online presence are what Google is rewarding across every surface it operates. That is a strategy any regional business can execute — and the earlier you start, the greater the advantage.

If you want to understand how your business is currently positioned across these channels, I am happy to take a look.