Guides

AI search guides for local businesses

How AI assistants choose which local businesses to name, and the work that raises your chances: reviews, listings, your website, and measuring the result.

How to get your business recommended by ChatGPTWhat ChatGPT reads before it names a local business, and the fixes that raise your chances: crawler access, listings, reviews, your website and consistent details.
How to show up in Google AI OverviewsHow Google's AI Overviews pick the local businesses and pages they show, and what to do about it: Search basics, your Business Profile, reviews and clear answers.
How to show up in Google AI ModeHow Google's AI Mode answers local questions with query fan-out and Maps data, and what a local business can do to be named: Search basics, profile, reviews, content.
How to get your business recommended by GeminiHow Google's Gemini app answers local recommendation questions with Google Search and Maps data, and the profile, review and website work that raises your chances.
How to get your business cited by PerplexityPerplexity searches the web and cites its sources for every answer. Here is how it picks local businesses, and what to do to be one of the businesses it names.
Local SEO for AI search: what changes, what doesn'tHow local SEO carries over to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI answers, what's different about AI search, and where to put your time first.
Generative engine optimization (GEO) for local businessesWhat generative engine optimization means for a local business, which GEO advice applies to local recommendations, which doesn't, and a plan you can follow.
Google Business Profile for AI search: a checklistA field-by-field Google Business Profile checklist for AI Overviews, AI Mode and Gemini: name, categories, hours, services, attributes, photos and reviews.
NAP consistency for AI searchWhy your business name, address and phone number must match everywhere for AI search, how to audit your listings, and how to fix mismatches without making them worse.
Bing Webmaster Tools and Bing Places for AI searchWhy Bing matters for AI search beyond Bing itself, and how to set up Bing Webmaster Tools, IndexNow and Bing Places for your local business in under an hour.
How Google reviews affect AI recommendationsHow review count, rating, recency and review text influence whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI recommend a local business, and what to do about it.
How to get more Google reviews (the honest way)A step-by-step system for getting more Google reviews from real customers: when to ask, what to say, scripts for text and email, and what Google and the FTC forbid.
How to respond to reviews (and why AI reads your replies)How to reply to good and bad reviews in a way that helps future customers and AI summaries: response time, structure, examples, and rules for health and legal practices.
How to write a homepage AI can understandWhat a local business homepage needs so ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI can tell what you do, where, and for whom: a checklist with before-and-after examples.
How to write an FAQ page AI can quoteHow to choose FAQ questions from what customers really ask AI, write answers AI can quote, and mark them up, with examples for clinics, law firms and home services.
Service and location pages that AI can useHow to build service pages and location pages that help AI assistants match your business to specific questions, without thin, duplicate city pages that backfire.
Schema markup for local businessesHow to add LocalBusiness structured data to your site so search engines and AI read your name, address, hours and services reliably, with a JSON-LD example to copy.
Robots.txt for AI crawlers: what to allowWhich AI crawlers to allow in robots.txt so ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI can read your site, which ones only collect training data, and a template to use.
Which directories AI cites, and how to get listedHow to find the directories and review sites ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI cite for your trade and city, which matter by industry, and how to get listed.
How to get into the 'best of' lists AI quotesAI answers often repeat the picks from local 'best of' lists and roundups. How to find the lists that matter for your trade and city, and earn a place on them honestly.
Reddit, Nextdoor and local forums in AI answersWhy Reddit threads and local forums show up in AI recommendations, what that means for your business, and how to take part honestly without breaking community rules.
What content AI cites for local questionsThe kinds of pages ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI cite when answering local questions, which ones a business can publish itself, and how to make yours worth citing.
AI search for multi-location businessesHow AI assistants handle businesses with several locations, and how to get each location named for nearby questions: profiles, location pages, reviews and measurement.
AI search for service-area businessesHow plumbers, roofers, cleaners, movers and other businesses that go to the customer can get named by AI in the towns they serve, without a storefront in each one.
Getting recommended by AI as a new businessHow a new local business can start appearing in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI answers: what to set up in the first 90 days, and what to expect.
How to track AI visibility for a local businessHow to measure whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI recommend your business: which questions to ask, how often, what to record and what it means.
How to check if ChatGPT recommends your businessA step-by-step manual test to see whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI name your business: the questions, the settings and a results table.
AI visibility audit checklist for local businessesA 30-point checklist to audit a local business's AI visibility: crawler access, Google profile, listings, reviews, website content, consistency and measurement.
How agencies can sell AI visibility to local clientsHow a marketing agency can package and sell AI visibility work to local businesses: the prospect audit, what to deliver monthly, and what never to promise.
How to present an AI visibility report to a clientHow to walk a local business client through an AI visibility report: the headline number, competitors, sources, fixes and next steps, with a 20-minute meeting outline.