Just about every business owner wants to be more visible in the AI local results, but it’s easy to get analysis paralysis. Where and how do you even check your visibility? How should you size up competitors? What are realistic next steps, particularly next steps you don’t already plan to do?
Most advice on AI local SEO is like other SEO advice, but even squishier. When it’s not the same candy in a new wrapper, it’s extremely broad, or it’s a fancy version of “I don’t know.” Nobody has the AI local results figured out, but that doesn’t mean you should be a spectator, and it sure doesn’t mean your competitors will just sit around and watch. AI is still a relatively small part of local search, but it may not be that way for long. You can and should plant the flag now.
A starting point to consider is this simple self-audit I’ve put together. I’ve used it for my clients (most of whom do very well in the AI local results), both to see how we stack up and to figure out what we should do. It may help your business, too.
Here’s a filled-out example of the audit (one I did for an attorney client of mine): docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTMeLJ56LHesOa_ksUnNwBDjZcMRpm4OO3Wc6IfUESrooWsDgqbKhAQm-1b9ffQU3IzMGqeKwAA_JGd/pubhtml
Another example (this time for a plumber client of mine): docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vT3usn6djTLIgYrOMcAwxOiRHCAoCw1exNNh0DjrbkADs2d_jS5_BvexXwdsvcxgaQI76BRZU2vfnr8/pubhtml
And here’s the blank version of the audit template (which is easy to download and customize): docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSYjO2dBfv7z3P9TPato62f85WiKH4GOw4h6yDxjlWEtIMdoggXxRC2WHX6-51C1lvL4JVWnlBY5y-S/pubhtml
As you’ve probably gathered, it’s free to use, and you can share and adapt it freely.
I hope the self-audit is self-explanatory, but either way, here are the main concepts of it:
1. Cover all the important AI chatbots, plus a few. Your local visibility in the AI results is much more than how you’re doing in ChatGPT (for one thing, the local results there tend not to be helpful). If you don’t look at multiple AI engines’ results, you won’t see any patterns.
2. Check one high-priority search term, not a long list of terms. You’ll over-complicate things and overwhelm yourself. If you want to check multiple terms, I’d suggest filling out a separate spreadsheet for each. That will be less of a jumble and easier to manage. If you’re not sure what search term to look up (or look up first) and compare, try “best ____ in [city].” The results tend to be more illuminating than what you’ll see for “____ in [city” terms. Also, though this is speculation on my part, you won’t lose any money by assuming that most people search for more-specific, longer-tail terms in an AI chatbot than they would in regular old Google, simply because they assume that the AI engine will understand the request better.
3. Zero in on overlooked review sites, directories, and best-of lists. They will jump out at you. Do what’s necessary to get on them or to get more good reviews on them.
4. Assume that the more obvious a strength is, the more important it is. By that I mean: if the body of reviews doesn’t seem to be the main strength of any given business, it’s probably the content of the site (i.e. a granular page structure, and lots of detail on exactly how your business is better). If the site isn’t that good, the big strength is probably the backlinks profile.
Don’t just see where you rank and call it a day. Take a few minutes to read what each AI tool says about your business – and about each competitor, while you’re at it. Also take a few minutes to flip through each high-visibility competitor’s site, to scavenge any good ideas you can adapt to your business.
Beyond that, though, don’t think too hard about what to do next. Probably most of the next steps you arrive at will be things you considered doing anyway or are doing already, because they were and are good for your local visibility regardless of the AI factor. If you just identify one more site to get reviews on, one “best-of” list or similar curated list, and one topic for a new page to create on your site, then it’s been a good day of fishing.
The AI results may be different, but they’re pulling from the same pool of local businesses, each with the same strengths and weaknesses as before. The chatbots’ “thought” processes won’t be completely clear to you (or me or anyone else), but they will be clear enough for you to scratch down a couple of simple action items that you can work on now. You can always obsess later.
