Local search has quietly transformed in the last 18 months. AI Overviews now appear on the majority of local commercial queries, according to Semrush's 2024 AIO tracking. ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity capture more and more of the 'who should I call?' moment that used to belong entirely to Google.
A 2024 BrightEdge analysis found AI Overviews appeared on over 75% of healthcare-related queries, more than 70% of e-commerce queries, and an increasing share of local service queries. The traditional blue-link real estate is shrinking, often pushed below a comprehensive AI summary.
The new local search journey
A homeowner asks ChatGPT 'who's a reliable plumber in [city]?'. ChatGPT cites three names. Two of them are businesses that earned the citation. The third is whoever spent the most on ads. The first two get the call; the third gets ignored.
If you're not optimizing for that citation, you're invisible in the channel that's growing fastest. Pew Research's 2024 survey on generative AI use found that 23% of US adults had used ChatGPT in the prior year, and that the number among under-30s exceeded 43%.
What to do this quarter
Audit your top three competitors' GBP and reviews. Match or exceed them in completeness and recency.
Publish at least one detailed service page per city you serve with FAQ schema and real local proof.
Get listed on at least five high-authority local sources beyond Google — chamber, BBB, Yelp, Apple Business Connect, and a trade-specific directory.
Verify your robots.txt allows the major AI crawlers (Google-Extended, ChatGPT-User, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot). Blocking them quietly removes you from generative answers.
Track AI citations like you track rankings
Pick your top 10 commercial queries. Once a month, run each through ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude. Note which businesses are cited and which sources are referenced. Over time, you'll see exactly which content properties are doing the most to surface you.
Tools like Profound and Otterly are emerging to automate this, but the manual audit still produces the clearest signal for most small businesses.