Answer Engine Apocalypse — From News Desks to Service Vans

Google’s new AI Overviews aren’t just squeezing the life out of big-name publishers—they’re poised to drain leads from local HVAC, plumbing, and electrical companies too. In this episode we connect the dots between The Wall Street Journal’s report that outlets like HuffPost and Business Insider have lost up to 60 % of their Google traffic wsj.com and industry analysis warning contractors that the same AI answers can steal the clicks that book service calls bluecorona.com.

Tune in for:

• The “Answer Economy” crash course. Why Google is morphing from a search engine into an answer engine—and what that means for every website.

• Newsroom reality check. Layoffs, licensing fights, and the scramble for owned audiences as referral traffic collapses. wsj.com

• Main-street wake-up call. How home-service pros risk becoming invisible if they ignore Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and rely on yesterday’s SEO tactics. bluecorona.com

• AEO playbook. Practical steps—structured FAQs, schema, hyper-local pages—that help both publishers and contractors earn citations inside AI answers instead of being bypassed by them.

• Legal and ethical storm clouds. From copyright suits to data-licensing deals, hear what’s next in the fight to get paid for the content AI consumes. wsj.com

Whether you sell headlines or heat-pump installs, the takeaway is the same: adapt to AI-driven search—or watch your traffic, leads, and revenue vanish.

Learn more:

https://hilartech.com/adapt-or-disappear-electricians-plumbers-and-hvac-businesses/