I've watched three waves of panic about "the death of SEO" in my career. First in 2008 when social media was going to replace search. Then in 2015 when mobile changed everything. Now in 2025, everyone's scrambling to figure out AEO—Answer Engine Optimization—trying to show up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews.
Most are missing the obvious play sitting right in front of them.
If you're a local business, your local SEO signals are exactly what AI uses to generate answers about businesses like yours. Not your keyword strategy. Not your backlink profile. Your Google Business Profile, your review velocity, your citations—that's the infrastructure AI actually trusts.
Local businesses have a massive advantage in the AI era that most haven't figured out yet.
Quick Definitions
Local SEO is the subset of SEO focused on appearing in location-based searches. The map results. The "near me" queries. The three businesses Google shows above organic results—that's the Local Pack. It's how a coffee shop in Denver shows up when someone searches "coffee shop near me" instead of Starbucks' corporate site ranking for "coffee shop."
AEO is Answer Engine Optimization. It's optimizing to be the source AI uses when generating answers, not just ranking in traditional search results. Traditional SEO targeted keywords and tried to rank pages. AEO targets being the authoritative source that AI synthesizes into its responses.
The shift matters because people aren't clicking through search results anymore. They're getting answers directly from AI.
The Shift That's Already Happened
AI Overviews appeared in 40.2% of local business queries as of April 2025, according to research from Local Falcon analyzing 60,000 queries across major business categories. That's nearly half of all searches for local businesses now answered by AI before anyone sees a traditional search result.
Google's AI pulls from your Google Business Profile. From your reviews. From your citations across directories. All local signals. ChatGPT synthesizes information from Yelp, TripAdvisor, and industry review platforms. Perplexity leans heavily on Reddit and consumer review sites like G2.
Traditional SEO was about gaming keywords and building backlinks. That worked when search engines ranked pages. But AI doesn't rank pages. It synthesizes trusted sources.
And local signals—verified business information, structured data, consistently updated profiles—are exactly what AI needs to generate confident answers.
Why Local Signals Work for AI
Your Google Business Profile isn't just for map results anymore. It's your AI resume.
When someone asks ChatGPT or Google's AI "what's the best pizza place in downtown Denver," the AI doesn't crawl your website's meta descriptions. It pulls from structured, verified sources. Your GBP. Your reviews. Your consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) across directories. Your schema markup.
AI trusts local signals because they're verifiable. Google verified your business exists. Real customers left reviews with timestamps. Multiple directories confirm your address matches. That's exactly the kind of structured, authoritative data AI platforms need.
Traditional SEO signals—keyword density, H1 tags, even backlinks—matter less because AI isn't looking for pages to rank. It's looking for facts to synthesize. And local businesses have those facts already packaged in formats AI can easily consume.
The Review Velocity Factor
Reviews aren't just ranking factors anymore. They're the content AI synthesizes when answering questions about your business.
Review signals account for over 15% of how you rank in the local pack, according to industry data from LocalDominator analyzing 2026 ranking factors. But here's what most businesses miss: it's not about your total review count. It's about review velocity and recency.
Review recency is now a top 5 local ranking factor according to Whitespark's 2025 Local Search Ranking Factors survey. Businesses that stop getting new reviews see rankings drop immediately. I've seen businesses with 50 five-star reviews from 2022 get outranked by competitors with 30 reviews but consistent monthly velocity.
Google interprets review velocity as an "active business" signal. Consistent new reviews every month prove you're serving customers right now, not coasting on past success. No new reviews for three months? Google assumes you might be declining or closed.
AI makes this even more critical. When Google's AI or ChatGPT generates an answer about local businesses, it synthesizes recent review content for sentiment analysis. Your 2022 reviews aren't in that synthesis. The AI is reading reviews from the last 30-90 days to understand what customers currently think.
Google's AI reads review content, not just star ratings. Detailed reviews with specific mentions give AI more to work with. "Great service" tells AI nothing. "The team responded within an hour and fixed our HVAC system before dinner" gives AI specific service attributes, response times, and problem-solving capability to synthesize.
What's Failing
Most businesses treat reviews like a checkbox. Get to 50 reviews, declare victory, move on. That strategy is dying in real-time.
The burst strategy kills you. Businesses send 500 review requests every six months, get 15 reviews, go silent for six months. Google sees the pattern. It looks inorganic. AI platforms discount it.
The "we have enough reviews" mentality is worse. Hit 50 reviews, stop asking. Watch competitors with 30 reviews but consistent velocity quietly outrank you.
Ignoring review response signals you're not engaged. Google tracks engagement as much as review count. AI platforms do too.
Only focusing on Google leaves credibility on the table. Reviews on Yelp, industry-specific platforms, and niche directories create broader trust signals that feed back into local rankings and AI citations.
Here's what works instead.
Match competitor velocity plus one. If your top competitor gets two reviews per month, you need three. Simple math. Check their review timestamps, set your target slightly higher.
Make it daily, not quarterly. Review requests should be part of your daily workflow, not a campaign you run twice a year. The businesses dominating local rankings in 2026 ask for reviews every single week.
Respond to every review. Engagement signals matter. AI reads your responses as much as the original review. A thoughtful response to a negative review can strengthen your profile.
Focus on detail. Encourage customers to mention specific services, outcomes, or experiences. AI sentiment analysis needs content. Generic five-star reviews with "great service" tell AI almost nothing. Detailed reviews with specific mentions create the kind of structured information AI can synthesize.
Optimize your GBP like it's your homepage. Because to AI, it basically is. Complete every field. Add photos weekly. Post updates. Keep hours current. Google's AI prioritizes complete, actively maintained profiles.
You Can't Finish This Work
You can't finish local SEO anymore. It's not a project with an end state.
Traditional SEO felt like building something. Get your keywords right, build your backlinks, optimize your site, then maintain it. You could finish the work.
Local SEO in the AI era is an always-on channel. Reviews need consistent velocity. GBP needs weekly updates. Citations need monitoring. It's more like social media or email marketing—stop for two months and your rankings crater.
The businesses that treat local SEO as a monthly metric instead of a quarterly project will dominate AI recommendations in 2026. The ones still coasting on reviews from 2022 will wonder why they're invisible when potential customers ask AI for recommendations.
Your static website and keyword strategy won't get you into AI answers. Your Google Business Profile and review velocity will.
