Local SEO vs AI Search
A growing share of local searches now happen inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews rather than a traditional search box. Someone asks "what's a good plumber near Camden" conversationally, and the AI tool gives a confident, specific answer — sometimes naming two or three businesses by name. If your business isn't one of them, you've lost that customer before they ever saw a search results page.
Where AI tools actually get their answers
These tools aren't independently evaluating local businesses — they're pulling from the same underlying data local SEO has always relied on: your Google Business Profile, citation consistency across directories, review volume and sentiment, and structured data (schema markup) on your website. An AI tool is more likely to confidently recommend a business whose data is clean, consistent and well-structured, because that's what it can parse and trust without ambiguity.
Why inconsistent data hurts you more here, not less
Traditional Google ranking can sometimes tolerate a messy citation profile if everything else is strong. AI tools are less forgiving — if your business name, address or services are described differently across different sources, the AI is more likely to either give an incomplete answer about you or skip you in favour of a competitor whose data agrees with itself everywhere it appears.
What's actually different about GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)
GEO isn't a replacement discipline that competes with local SEO — it's an extension of the same fundamentals, with a few additional priorities: clean schema markup (so machines can parse what you do and where), clearly written content that directly answers common questions in plain language, and citation/review consistency that holds up under cross-referencing rather than just a single platform check.
What to actually do about it
Start with the things that already matter for traditional local SEO — they're the same foundation, which is exactly why we treat SEO services London as one interlinked system rather than separate add-ons. Make sure your Google Business Profile is fully and accurately completed, your NAP is consistent everywhere, and your website has LocalBusiness and Service schema markup. None of this requires abandoning what's worked for local search; it requires making sure it's done thoroughly enough that a machine reading it has no ambiguity left to resolve.