As an SEO strategist with over 14 years of experience, I’ve lived through every shift in search, but AI and generative engine optimization marks a notable turning point for local SEO.

AI is the middleman in every search. And if it’s calling the shots, we need to understand how it picks its winners. I emphasize this any time I’m up on stage at MozCon or BrightonSEO.

AI Overviews are currently appearing in 68% of local business-type queries, according to Whitespark. This forces us to ask: 

• Which local businesses rise to the top in AI search? 

• What signals actually count to rank in 2025? 

• How can we reverse engineer results to thrive in today’s search landscape?

While LLMs have clear strengths—like personalization and pattern recognition—they also have significant limitations. They can misattribute or fabricate sources, misinterpret local context, and struggle to explain their own reasoning. LLMs correlate; they don’t truly understand anything. 

But rather than seeing these weaknesses as a drawback for local SEO, I see them as opportunities. By understanding where AI excels and where it falters, we can develop smarter strategies and show up in local search. Here’s how.

Start with a concise business website

Let’s start with an example I shared when I sat down with Crystal Carter, Head of AI Search and SEO Communications at Wix, in my recent Wix Studio webinar. 

My query: Who has the best pizza in the top 100 U.S. cities? I ran this question across multiple LLMs at once—Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, Grok, and Perplexity—using OpenRouter (a tool that allows you to cross-check results from various AI searches simultaneously). 

The results showed some clear patterns. The first pattern: LLMs overwhelmingly relied on restaurant websites as their primary sources. When the results would appear citing the best slice spots, the LLMs would often simply link back to a business website. What this tells me is your website is still the place to tell your story: what makes your business unique, why someone should choose you, and all the details a potential customer might need. This is true for any business—restaurants, law firms, you name it.

Image courtesy of the author

My challenge to you: Develop three to five “hooks” about your local business that express what makes it special. This can include awards, media features, distinctive processes (e.g. for my pizza example: house-made sausage, thin crust, Neapolitan, etc.), or themes that show up repeatedly in customer reviews. The more you can hone your message, the easier you can teach the LLM when to recommend your services.

Wix website template for a restaurant

Consider focusing on Grok at first

Another interesting takeaway from my pizza query: the more often a business was mentioned across sources, the higher it ranked in AI results. Being number one on ChatGPT often meant being number one on Grok, Claude, and Gemini, too. It’s as if one mention legitimizes the business in AI’s eyes, creating a snowball effect that reinforces its authority. 

For local SEO, this underscores the value of earning consistent mentions across platforms. Once a business appears in one trusted source, it can ripple across others and dramatically improve AI visibility.

Grok may be the easiest LLM to rank for with the right strategy because it’s the most consistent of the models I’ve tested. It relies on the same sources across queries. For example, Eater.com, a local news article, and the restaurant’s own website—and applies that consistently for every restaurant. That lack of variation is actually a benefit, because it means you can focus on optimizing those specific sources to achieve the best results. 

This is one of those “cons” that I mentioned earlier. We can exploit this deficit in Grok to our advantage. If you could only pick one LLM to guide your strategy at this moment, Grok would be my recommendation. And I emphasize “at this moment” because AI changes fast; what works today could look very different next week, or even in a few days!

Third party results really matter for local search

Something else that stood out about the winners in my pizza query test was that they all had really good third-party sources. They were more likely to be recommended due to what people were saying on Reddit, being mentioned in trusted editorial outlets or local news, or having features in directories like Yelp or TripAdvisor. Getting included in “best of” lists is one of the easiest ways to earn authority and visibility.

It’s also essential to identify the right third-party sites for your industry. A helpful way to figure out your key sources is to ask the LLM the same question your customers would (e.g., “What’s the best X in Y city?”), look at the sources it cites, and use those as targets.

One thing that excites me about this finding is that your brand is the most influential factor you can control in 2025. Being great at your offerings wins in the new age of local AI search. What people think of you, what they say about you, and how they review you all serve as signals that LLMs consider when deciding whether to show your business.

Image courtesy of the author

Pay attention to ratings

In my pizza test, no restaurant below a 4.2 Google rating appeared in AI results. The average rating of those featured was around 4.5–4.7. This may vary by industry (some categories naturally have lower ratings). But for restaurants and other high-traffic local businesses, this threshold seems important. High ratings and a large number of reviews are most powerful when they work together. 

If you’re a smaller local business that’s just getting started, offer a promotion in return for someone leaving a review to build incentive and rack up those 5 stars. Reviews are also a goldmine for identifying what customers actually value, not what the business thinks is important. If you see a lot of reviews mentioning a single buzzword, consider that a new value prop that you can shout from the rooftops.

You should also consider timing your big review pushes. If you know you have a local PR hit coming (like a Thanksgiving community event you do annually) ask customers for reviews around the same time. When reviews spike as press coverage hits, you look like a popular, relevant brand. LLMs pick up on that and are more likely to recommend you.

Image courtesy of the author

Lean into repetition to hone your offerings

Use LLMs’ reliance on clarity and pattern recognition to your advantage. We know they prefer information that’s consistent across multiple sources—details that appear repeatedly and line up with what they’ve seen elsewhere. That means your messaging needs to be consistent. When several sources use the same phrasing, it provides clarity for the models. They don’t need to guess what your restaurant does or what makes it unique, because the information is already clearly and consistently available. (This is why it’s so important to build your topical authority.)

For example, there was one pizza place that kept surfacing in results simply because they named their oven “Amelia,” and that detail appeared everywhere online. People found it interesting, it got repeated, and the consistency made it incredibly easy for LLMs to identify and remember the business.

A common SEO pitfall is focusing so heavily on being informational that you forget part of the job is selling. If your messaging isn’t strong and you sound like just another option instead of the option, that won’t help you with LLMs. You need bold, clear language that makes it unmistakable what you’re the best at.

Image courtesy of the author

Don’t be afraid to highlight your local niche

As I mentioned above, LLMs use your first-party content, like your website, to justify recommending you. So, if the AI includes a detail like “they use a 72-hour dough fermentation process,” that likely came from your site or social media. When you clearly describe what makes your business unique, it’s easier for AI to use that information and more likely they’ll surface you over a similar competitor that hasn’t shared anything distinctive.

This also impacts conversions. You don’t just want visibility, you want customers. If nothing on the internet signals why you’re special, people are less likely to choose you over other options in the result.

The future of SEO for local search

The bottom line: Local SEO is about clarity, consistency, and authority. It’s not just about ranking; it’s about giving AI the proof points it needs to confidently recommend you. A clear website, strong third-party mentions, high ratings, and repeated, distinctive details all signal to LLMs that you’re the best answer. 

By leaning into these patterns, small businesses can compete with bigger brands and ensure they’re not just seen—but chosen. The more deliberate you are in shaping your online presence, the more likely AI will elevate you, making every search an opportunity rather than a mystery.