People still Google you. Now they also ask an AI assistant: "Who's a good plumber near me?" or "Best family café in Livonia with a play area?"
Those answers don't come from nowhere. They pull from what search engines and AI tools can read about you — mainly your Google Business Profile and your website.
If those are incomplete, slow, or contradictory, you may never hear about the customer who chose someone else.
We've written before about why an SEO and AI search audit matters. This post is the next step: why that work is more important than ever, and what to prioritize.
Customers aren't only scrolling a list of blue links
A few years ago, most local searches ended in a map pack or a page of results. Today, more answers are summarized by AI — Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and similar tools.
They tend to name a short list of businesses. If you're not on that list, the customer may never click through to you at all.
Google's own guidance is blunt: the usual SEO basics still apply to its AI features, including keeping your Business Profile up to date (Google Search Central). There isn't a separate "AI trick." Clean, consistent information helps both classic search and AI answers.
Your Google profile is often the first source Google trusts
For local queries, your Google Business Profile carries a lot of weight — for Maps, the local pack, and Google's AI layer.
Check that these are complete and match your website:
- Business name, address, and phone (exactly the same everywhere)
- Primary category and services
- Hours, including holiday hours
- Real photos of the business, not only stock
- Recent reviews — and owner replies
Google says businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search (Google Business Profile Help). AI tools that lean on Google's data inherit the same strengths — and the same gaps.
Your website is what other AI tools can actually read
ChatGPT, Perplexity, and similar assistants don't "see" your Google profile the way Google does. They mostly read web pages: your site, and what other sites say about you.
That means your website needs to be crawlable and clear:
- Services and locations written as text, not only in images or PDFs
- An about page with who you are and where you work
- FAQs that answer the questions customers already ask on the phone
- Page titles that say what you do and where
- A site that loads well on a phone
If your only "site" is a Cash App link, a Facebook page, or a half-finished builder template, AI tools have little accurate content to cite. Competitors with a real site and a complete Google profile get mentioned instead.
Consistency is the quiet ranking factor
When your website says one address, your Google listing says another, and a directory still shows last year's phone number, customers get confused. So do search engines and AI assistants.
Pick one correct version of your name, address, phone, and hours. Update the website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, and major directories to match. That same consistency helps an up-to-date website do its job as your 24/7 storefront.
What to do this week (not someday)
- Open your Google Business Profile. Fix hours, categories, services, and photos. Reply to recent reviews.
- Open your website on a phone. Can someone find your phone number, services, and address without zooming or guessing?
- Make your details match across the site and Google — word for word where it matters.
- Add or tighten one service page (or homepage section) that plainly answers: what you do, who it's for, and where.
- Get a checkup. A short audit shows what customers and search engines actually see, so you fix the right things first.
Get started with LPM Strategy
LPM Strategy helps small and medium-size businesses get found online — Google, Maps, and the AI tools customers are already using. We're based in Prospect, Kentucky, meet clients across the Louisville area, and work remotely across North America.
Start with a free online checkup. You'll get a plain-English look at how you show up, usually within 24 to 48 hours.
Want the full picture? Our written SEO and AI-search audit is $199. If you book SEO fixes within 30 days, that $199 is credited toward the work.
Either way, you'll know what to fix — and why it matters more than ever.