Every other query type we track has an answer layer sitting above the results. Near-me insurance search does not.
| Query type | AI Overview rate |
|---|---|
| Home insurance, informational | 98.2% |
| Commercial insurance, quote | 100.0% |
| Car insurance, comparison | 97.8% |
| Near-me insurance | 2.3% |
1,380 near-me searches across 109 US and Canadian metros, September 2026. A Google map pack appeared on 97.3% of them.
What that means practically
For local insurance search, the three map slots are still the whole contest. No answer is being composed above them, no sources are being cited, and no summary is intercepting the click.
This is the only part of insurance search where that is still true.
Who holds the slots
Not the national carriers. Across all 109 metros, the businesses holding the most map slots are overwhelmingly local agencies and high-volume regional operators.
| Metro | Top holder | Share of slots | Businesses sharing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corpus Christi | Acceptance Insurance | 42.4% | 9 |
| Fresno | Freeway Insurance | 38.9% | 6 |
| Orlando | Acceptance Insurance | 36.1% | 14 |
| Las Vegas | Freeway Insurance | 36.1% | 9 |
Median across all metros: the top business holds 30.6% of its market’s slots.
The least concentrated markets are the largest ones. New York spreads 26 businesses across its slots, Washington 23, Detroit 13. The top holder in New York has 15.3%.
The window
The 2.3% figure is not a permanent property of local search. It is where the rollout has reached.
Every other query type in our data started lower and moved. Commercial insurance head terms were at 54.2% AI Overview presence in September; a year ago that category barely had one.
If near-me queries follow, the map pack stops being the whole contest and starts being one input into a composed answer. What that answer is built from will not be map listings. It will be pages.
What a local agency should take from this
Two things, in order.
The map pack is working and you should still be optimising for it. 97.3% presence, three slots, contested by businesses your size. That is the best return available in local insurance marketing right now.
And nothing you do for the map pack helps you in the answer layer. Google Business Profile optimisation, citations, review acquisition: none of it makes your pages more quotable. When the answer layer arrives on these queries, the agencies that also published extractable content about their market will be in it and the ones that only optimised a profile will not.
Method
1,380 near-me and local insurance searches across 109 US and Canadian metros, captured September 2026. Map pack occupancy is measured as share of the available three-slot appearances across the query set.
Full method: https://insuranceseosem.com/about/#methodology
Local boards, by metro: https://insuranceseosem.com/index/local/