Guide · AI visibility
Local GEO for local businesses
Local GEO means making your business understandable and discoverable when someone asks an AI assistant for a service in a particular city. Start with accurate business facts, measure the questions local customers ask, and fill genuine information gaps. A good Google rating does not by itself tell you whether an AI assistant recommends you.
Published by PressGEO · Explore the Local AI Index · For local marketing agencies
Measure the service and the city together
A roofer in Phoenix should not be measured against a national software question. Use questions such as ‘Which roofing companies serve Phoenix?’ and ‘Who offers roof inspections in Scottsdale?’ only where those services and locations are verified. Include comparison and practical service questions, not just your own brand name.
Keep the same questions and engines when comparing periods. Record the date, answer, named businesses and source links. If you change the question set, start a separate baseline rather than calling the difference an improvement. A single answer is a snapshot, not proof of sustained performance.
Get the business facts right first
Keep your website and Google Business Profile consistent about your business name, contact details, actual service area, services and opening hours. Do not create addresses in cities where you have no real location. Google describes local ranking in terms of relevance, distance and prominence; that guidance is not a guarantee of recommendations in other AI engines.
- · Use confirmed service areas and actual services.
- · Link ratings and review counts to their source and refresh date.
- · Publish licenses, qualifications and prices only when verified.
- · Make public pages accessible to visitors and check crawler restrictions.
Turn missing answers into useful local pages
Answer a real customer question directly: what a service includes, where it is available, how to prepare, or what affects the cost. Use business-specific facts rather than duplicating a generic paragraph across dozens of cities. Add relevant source links and clear business identity; do not invent reviews or endorsements.
PressGEO records service-and-city checks and automatically publishes answer pages for missing questions. Customer press releases are prepared as drafts for approval: an actual announcement requires verified facts and the customer's sign-off. Neither publication nor an indexing submission guarantees that an engine will crawl, index or recommend the business.
Reviews, crawler visits and citations are different signals
A verified rating measures what reviewers reported on that platform. A crawler visit means a bot requested a page. An indexing submission is a request to a search engine. A recorded AI recommendation is a separate observation. Do not treat any of the first three as evidence of the fourth.
An llms.txt file is an optional map of public content, not a standardized ranking requirement. Google says its AI features do not require special AI files or new schema beyond existing Search practices. Keep useful, readable pages as the priority.
Read a local leaderboard honestly
The PressGEO Local AI Index groups firms by metro and service and ranks measured firms using recorded checks. Inclusion and ranking cannot be bought. A zero rate means the firm was absent from the sampled answers, not that it is a poor provider. Unmeasured firms are not zero-performing firms.
Quarterly metro releases identify PressGEO as the research source. They describe observations in the recorded window, not an independent endorsement or a prediction of leads. Compare sample size and question coverage before drawing conclusions.
A practical starting point
Run a free visibility check, inspect your city and service in the Local AI Index, and review the exact questions where another firm appears. Correct missing or inconsistent business facts first, then publish the answers customers actually need. Track the same questions over time and use enquiry or booking data separately to assess commercial impact.
See where your brand stands
Free, no account: the questions you lose and the competitor named instead.
Common questions
- Does local GEO replace local SEO?
- No. Accurate business information, accessible pages and useful content remain important. AI recommendations are an additional measurement, not a substitute for your website or Business Profile.
- Can many five-star reviews guarantee a ChatGPT recommendation?
- No. Review ratings and AI recommendations are different observations. Check actual answers for your service and location rather than inferring visibility from ratings.
- Does PressGEO guarantee citations or new customers?
- No. AI engines select their answers and sources. PressGEO monitors recorded answers and publishes useful content; outcomes and timing are not guaranteed.
- Will my press release publish without approval?
- Customer releases stay drafts for approval. Answer pages may publish automatically. PressGEO's own quarterly metro research releases publish from recorded data.
Comparing products? See the ranked list of AI visibility tools, including our own measurement of which tools AI engines name.