AI search: whatlocal businessesneed to know.

Two things happened in the last two years that changed how people find local businesses. Google started putting AI-written summaries above its results, and a meaningful number of people started asking ChatGPT and similar tools questions they used to type into a search box. Neither replaces search. Both change what it takes to be the business that gets recommended.

What actually changed

When somebody asks an AI tool for a pool company in Stuart or a rheumatologist in Palm Beach Gardens, the tool does not rank ten websites. It reads what it can find, decides which businesses look real, established and relevant, and names two or three. The sources it leans on are mostly the ones you already know: your Google Business Profile, your reviews, your website, and mentions of you on other sites.

The practical effect is that being on page one is no longer the whole game. A business that is easy for a machine to understand and verify gets named. A business with a thin profile, inconsistent details and a website that never says plainly what it does or where, tends not to.

What has not changed

The fundamentals are the same ones that have driven local search for a decade. Accurate business information everywhere it appears. A steady flow of genuine reviews. Pages that answer the questions buyers actually ask. Other credible sites mentioning you. AI tools reward those things more heavily, not differently.

Say what you do, in plain words, on the page

Machines are literal. A homepage that says you are "redefining outdoor living" gives an AI nothing to work with. A page that says you install and repair swimming pools in Martin and St. Lucie counties, lists the services, and gives a phone number, gives it everything. Every service and every area you serve deserves a page that states the obvious.

Keep your business details identical everywhere

Name, address, phone number and hours should match exactly on your website, your Google Business Profile, Facebook, Yelp, the chamber of commerce site and anywhere else you are listed. Small differences, an old suite number or a tracking phone line, make a machine less confident that all those listings are the same business.

Reviews are now read, not just counted

AI tools summarise what reviewers say. A hundred reviews that mention fast response, fair pricing and a specific service will get that business described in exactly those terms. Ask happy customers to mention what they had done, not just that they were pleased.

Use structured data

Schema markup is code on your site that labels your business type, address, hours, services and reviews in a format machines read directly. It is invisible to visitors and takes a developer an afternoon. Most local business websites still do not have it.

Be mentioned by other sites

Local news, supplier directories, association member lists, sponsorship pages and local blogs all count as evidence that you exist and are who you say you are. A handful of genuine local mentions does more than a hundred low quality links.

What to do this quarter

Audit your listings for consistency. Rewrite your homepage and service pages so a stranger could state in one sentence what you do and where. Add schema. Start asking every satisfied customer for a review that names the service. Then search for your own category in an AI tool once a month and see whether you appear. If you do not, the reasons are usually visible in the answer it gives instead.