How AI search finds local businesses
Data flows from your online presence into AI models, then to customers
Your online presence
Website
Content + schema markup
Google Business
Profile, photos, hours
Directories
Yelp, BBB, Angi, etc.
Reviews
Volume, rating, text
AI models crawl and index this data
AI search tools
ChatGPT
OpenAI web search
Google AI Overview
Top of search results
Gemini
Google's AI assistant
Customer asks a question and gets a recommendation
The customer
"Who's the best plumber in Memphis?"
AI recommends businesses with the strongest, most consistent data