SEO · 5 min read
Local SEO in the Age of AI Search
People are asking assistants for recommendations. The businesses being named are not always the ones ranking first.
Local search used to be a fairly stable game: optimize the Google Business Profile, collect reviews, build citations, publish location pages, and climb the map pack. All of that still matters. But a growing share of searches now end in a generated answer that names two or three businesses, and being named there follows slightly different rules.
Assistants summarize. To be included in a summary, your information needs to be unambiguous, consistent, and easy to extract. That starts with the boring fundamentals: identical name, address, and phone number everywhere they appear, complete structured data on your site, service areas stated in plain text rather than implied by a map image, and hours that are actually current.
Structured data is doing more work than it used to. LocalBusiness and ProfessionalService schema, FAQ markup on pages that genuinely answer questions, and clear service definitions give machines a confident reading of what you do and where. When a model is choosing which of five plumbers to mention, confidence in the data is a real tiebreaker.
Content strategy shifts too. Pages built to rank for a keyword often bury the answer under four hundred words of throat-clearing. Pages built to be cited answer the question in the first two sentences, then support it with detail. We call these quotable paragraphs: short, specific, self-contained. Write your pricing explanation so it makes sense as a standalone quote and you dramatically improve the odds of being used.
Reviews remain enormous, and not just the star count. Assistants and search engines both read review text. Reviews that mention specific services and specific neighborhoods reinforce the association you want. You cannot script customers, but you can ask a better question — instead of please leave a review, try would you mention which service we did and how it went. Responding to reviews, including the unflattering ones, adds signal too.
Do not abandon the classics. The map pack still drives a huge volume of calls, and it responds to proximity, prominence, and relevance. Keep your profile active with photos and posts, keep categories accurate, and keep building genuine local citations.
The practical summary: make your facts machine-readable, make your answers quotable, keep your reviews fresh and descriptive, and stay consistent everywhere. Do that and you show up in both worlds — the ten blue links and the paragraph that replaced them.