Think about the handful of things a customer actually comes to your website to do. Book a slot. Ask for a quote. Find your opening hours. Pay an invoice. Check whether you cover their postcode. For most local businesses that list is short, maybe five or six jobs.
I am Harry Ashton, and Hashton is a Nottinghamshire web studio. When I audit a small business site, I often find each of those jobs spread across three or four places: an old booking page, a Calendly link in the footer, a Facebook booking button, and a contact form that half works. Google has just given a fresh reason to tidy that up.
Customers come to a small business site to get one of a few jobs done. Each job deserves one clear page. Photo: Anna Tarazevich / Pexels.
What Google announced
On 15 October 2026 Google published an update on AI Mode and AI Overviews. Two parts of it matter for local firms.
First, Google says it has substantially increased the number of inline links in AI answers, and it is now showing those links higher up in responses more often. Inline links are the clickable words and phrases inside the AI answer itself.
Second, Google says that sometimes there are only one or two official places on the web to complete a specific task or get the exact information someone needs. It will be testing a new display that surfaces those official links in a dedicated section at the top of an AI response, with a short note on why each link is useful.
That second part is a test, not a guaranteed feature, and Google has not said which kinds of searches it will cover. But the direction is clear. When someone asks how to book with you, get a price from you, or contact you, Google wants to point at the one right page. Your job is to make it obvious which page that is.
Why a messy site makes that hard
If your website has two booking pages, a third booking link on Facebook, and an old quote form nobody removed, Google has to guess which one is official. So does every customer. A guess can land them on a page that no longer works, or on a third-party tool with none of your branding, prices or reassurance.
The same problem shows up in plain search results too. Duplicate pages split the signals that would otherwise point at one strong page, and outdated pages tend to linger because nobody remembers they exist. Tidying this is not a trick for AI search. It is basic housekeeping that AI search now rewards more visibly.
Map your customer tasks first
Before touching the site, write down the jobs customers come to do. For a typical East Midlands trade or service firm, it looks something like this:
- find out what you do and where you cover,
- get a rough idea of price,
- ask for a quote or book a visit,
- contact you with a question,
- check opening hours or availability,
- pay, reschedule or cancel.
Next to each job, write the one URL that should handle it. If you cannot pick one, or you find yourself writing three, that is the job to fix first.
What one official page per task looks like
For each task, the official page should be the place a stranger would trust most. In practice that means:
- A clear, literal page title. “Book a survey” or “Get a quote” beats a clever headline. Say what the page lets someone do.
- The task near the top. The booking widget, form or answer should be visible without scrolling past three paragraphs about your history.
- Context that helps someone decide. What happens after they submit, how quickly you reply, and what they need to have ready. Google says it will add context about why each official link is useful, so give it something worth quoting.
- One address for it. If an old page did the same job, redirect it to the new one with a permanent redirect rather than leaving both live.
- Links that agree. Your main menu, footer, Google Business Profile and social profiles should all point to the same official page for the same job.
Where third-party tools fit
Booking tools, payment links and form builders are fine. Plenty of good local businesses use them. The issue is when the third-party page becomes the only place a task lives, with no page on your own site that explains it.
A simple fix is to give each task a page on your own domain, with your wording and reassurance, and embed or link the tool from there. That way the page Google and customers find is yours, and you can swap tools later without breaking every link you have ever shared.
A quick audit you can do this week
- Search Google for your business name plus “book”, “quote” and “contact”. Note every page that comes up, including old ones.
- Click every booking, quote and contact link in your menu, footer and Google Business Profile. Do they all end up in the same place?
- Look for pages that do the same job twice, such as “Contact” and “Get in touch”, or “Quote” and “Enquire”.
- Check each official page answers what happens next and how quickly you respond.
- Redirect or remove the duplicates, then update any links on social profiles and directories.
This connects to two things I have written about before: making sure what Google shows when someone searches your business name is accurate, and keeping one strong service page instead of five thin town pages. The thread through all three is the same. Fewer, clearer pages are easier for people and search to trust.
Questions owners ask me
Will this get my site into the new official links section?
Nobody can promise that. Google has said it is testing the display and has not published rules for it. What you can control is making your official pages unambiguous, accurate and useful, which helps in ordinary results whether or not the test rolls out.
Do I need a separate page for every small task?
No. Group tasks that belong together. Booking and rescheduling can share a page, and opening hours can sit on your contact page. The aim is one obvious place per job, not as many pages as possible.
My booking system is on another website. Is that a problem?
Not on its own. Give it a home on your own site with a clear page that explains how booking works, then embed or link the tool from there. Point your menu and Google Business Profile at that page.
What should I do with old pages I find?
If an old page did the same job as a current one, redirect it to the current page with a permanent redirect. If it no longer has any purpose, remove it and make sure nothing on your site still links to it.
Most small business sites do not need more pages. They need each customer job to have one honest, obvious home.
If you run a business in Nottingham, Derby or Leicester and you want a second pair of eyes on which pages should be your official ones, I will go through it with you. Start at Hashton or email contact@hashton.agency.