Local SEO and AI Visibility: Getting Found on Google, on Maps and in ChatGPT

Someone stands in the kitchen with a dripping tap and types “plumber near me” into their phone. Someone else asks ChatGPT for a joinery in their district. Both times, a machine decides which businesses to show. Local SEO makes sure your business is clearly described when that happens. The name and address are right, and it is obvious what you offer.

Nobody can guarantee a place in the local map box or a recommendation in ChatGPT. According to Google, a better local ranking can be neither requested nor bought, and OpenAI doesn't promise any placement in ChatGPT search either. What you can influence is the basis on which these systems decide.

According to Statistik Austria, 39 % of 16- to 74-year-olds in Austria had used generative AI in the three months before the survey in 2025, up from 28 % in 2024. The survey doesn't say how many of them used it to look for a business.

What is local SEO?

Local SEO is the part of search engine optimisation aimed at local searches, such as “electrician Mödling” or “bakery open now”. On Google, the results appear in the map box, known in the trade as the Local Pack, and on Google Maps.

For local search results, Google names three main factors:

• Relevance: How well does the business profile match the search? Complete, detailed information helps with the match.
• Distance: How far is the location from the person searching?
• Prominence: This includes, among other things, how many websites link to the business and how many reviews it has.

Google doesn't publish the details.

The foundation: consistent NAP data

NAP stands for name, address and phone number. This NAP data appears in many places: on your own website, in your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), on Bing Places, in business directories and on social media profiles. Entries in a directory are called citations in the trade.

Google doesn't name consistent data as a direct ranking factor. We still recommend it. According to Google, businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local search results, and according to Google the name in the business profile must match the name you use offline too, for example on signs and letterheads. Slogans and keywords have no place there.

Anyone who finds the old number in a directory is calling into the void. For the profile, Google also requires a correct address or a correct service area and advises choosing as few, specific categories as possible.

Local SEO on your own website

Local reference and local keywords

Write the way your customers search. Name the service and add the place: “Gutter repair in Vienna and the Mödling district”. Local keywords like these, meaning search terms with a location, belong in the page title, the headline and the text, without stuffing them in.

One page per service, no doorway pages

If you offer several services or have several locations, each one gets its own page with real content: what you do there, how to get there, when you are open. Under Google's spam policies, creating several pages or domains for individual towns that all lead to the same page counts as abuse, using what are called doorway pages. Twenty pages where only the town name has been swapped optimise nothing. With a single location, it is enough to name your service area on each service page.

Structured data for your business

Structured data is a short piece of code in the page source that visitors don't see. It tells search engines: this is a business, this is its name, this is where it is. For the LocalBusiness type, Google requires two properties, name and address. Recommended ones include the phone number with country and area code, the website address and opening hours. Even so, a special appearance in search results is not guaranteed.

Customer reviews and links

According to Google, more reviews and positive ratings can improve your local ranking. Google also recommends replying to reviews. It shows how you deal with criticism.

Under Google's policies, you may ask for reviews but not offer incentives such as discounts. These rules come from Google, and this is not legal advice.

Links from other websites, known as backlinks, often come naturally to a local business: the municipality's website, or a report in the local council newsletter and in local media. We have no time for bought link lists.

AI visibility: showing up in ChatGPT and Google's AI answers

What Google says

In its documentation (as of September 2026), Google names two AI features in search: AI Overviews and AI Mode. According to Google, there are no additional requirements for them; the familiar SEO principles apply. Only a page that is indexed and allowed to appear in search with a text snippet can be used as a linked source. Google doesn't need an AI text file such as llms.txt or text chopped into bite-sized chunks for this. For local businesses, Google names the business profile as one route that can help you become visible in AI answers and search results.

What OpenAI says

According to OpenAI (as of September 2026), ChatGPT search fetches content with its own crawler, meaning a program that visits websites: OAI-SearchBot. If your website blocks it in the robots.txt file (which controls which crawlers may visit a website), your pages no longer appear in search answers, at most as a plain navigation link. A second crawler, GPTBot, collects content for training AI models. The two can be set separately, for example allowing search and blocking training.

OpenAI doesn't publish ranking factors. For local results, according to OpenAI, ChatGPT can use your approximate location from your IP address and partly works with external search and data providers, not all of which OpenAI names. So the claim that a particular directory listing will definitely get you into ChatGPT is unproven.

According to OpenAI, ChatGPT adds the tag “utm_source=chatgpt.com” to links from ChatGPT search. That lets you identify some of the visits from ChatGPT in your web analytics.

GEO: a term from research

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization, optimising for AI answers. The term comes from a research paper involving Princeton University among others, accepted at the KDD 2024 conference. In the study's test environment, GEO methods increased visibility in generative answers by up to 40 %, with differences depending on the subject area. Whether this lab figure carries over to Google or ChatGPT is an open question.

In its guide to generative AI search (as of July 2026), Google puts it soberly: from the point of view of Google Search, this is “still SEO”. Google treats separate page variants for every sub-question an AI search might ask as abuse through mass-generated content.

Visible on screen and on the street

Anyone who finds you on Google Maps and drops by will look for your sign on site. According to Google's guidelines, businesses that show their address in the profile should have a permanently fixed sign with the business name there.

For us, marketing that doesn't stop at the screen means the same details appear on signage, in the shop window, in the vehicle graphics and on business cards and letterheads. The phone number on the back door is often cut from vinyl. If it changes, one click in the profile won't do. The old vinyl has to come off and the new one gets plotted. Read more about the advantage of everything from one source in our article on full service.

Common local SEO mistakes

• Old data in directories: After the move the profile is right, but some business directories still show the old address.
• Keywords in the business name: A profile name like “XY Joinery Cheap Kitchens Vienna” goes against Google's guidelines.
• Crawlers locked out: An overly strict robots.txt also shuts out the crawler used by ChatGPT search.
• No page per service: Everything sits on the homepage, and there is no matching page for searches for “window replacement”.

The joinery after the move

A constructed but typical case: a joinery moves into a new workshop a few kilometres away. The new address goes into the business profile and onto the website quickly. The landline number is dropped.

Months later, two business directories still list the old address, and the social media profile shows the old landline number. The company van drives the old number around town. And the sign on the new workshop shows a short form of the name that appears nowhere else.

The business gathers every mention, settles on one binding spelling for name, address and phone number, and brings them into line everywhere, including in the structured data. The sign and the vehicle graphics follow. Whether Google or ChatGPT then show the business more often is up to the providers. But anyone who takes the address from a directory no longer ends up outside the old workshop.

Order beats tricks

Our founder has more than 30 years of sign-making and graphic design behind him, and in 2017 that became a company of its own. That is why we think of the sign, the vehicle and the profile in one go. For us, visibility starts with order.

If your name on site differs from your name online, you make things unnecessarily hard for your customers. And for the machines as well. We consider offers that promise a guaranteed recommendation in ChatGPT to be dubious.

Even clean data won't necessarily put you at the top. Distance counts too, and there is nothing you can do about your location.

Conclusion: one foundation for search and AI

Local SEO and AI visibility rest on the same foundation. Your business details have to be right, and your website has to be readable for search engines and answer your customers' questions clearly. First check whether your name, address and phone number are the same everywhere, from the profile to the back door of the van. Then whether your website lets in the crawlers of Google and ChatGPT search. And finally whether every important service has its own page that names your service area.

The 60-second test on our marketing page gives you a first impression. For more detail, there is the free, no-obligation Visibility Check: we look at your website, how findable you are on Google and in AI search, social media and how you come across on the street. You get three to five prioritised recommendations that you can put into practice with us or without us.

Frequently asked questions

What is local SEO?

Local SEO is the part of search engine optimisation aimed at local searches, such as “plumber near me”. It is about the map box on Google and about Google Maps. The foundation is consistent business details. According to Google, local results are chosen mainly by relevance, distance and prominence.

Can I make sure ChatGPT recommends my business?

Nobody can guarantee that. OpenAI doesn't publish ranking factors. On the technical side, OpenAI names one requirement: your website allows the OAI-SearchBot crawler. We also advise describing your services clearly and giving your name, address and phone number the same way everywhere.

Can I do local SEO myself?

The basics, yes. Bring your business details into line everywhere and fill in your Google Business Profile completely. Every important service gets its own page that names your service area. Where best to start is shown by the free, no-obligation Visibility Check with three to five prioritised recommendations.