I have over 15 years of experience in SEO. I’ve been a content creator, a social media marketer, and I’ve worked for affiliate companies driven entirely by national Google search. But I’ll be honest: I didn’t truly understand the power of local SEO until I opened a window covering company in 2023.
In national SEO, the focus is on keywords and backlinks. For a local business — whether you’re in home services, hospitality, wellness, or professional consulting — the game is entirely different. And in the age of AI search, the rules have shifted again in ways most business owners haven’t caught up to yet.
When we launched our window covering business, I treated our Google Business Profile as a one-time setup task. We verified the address, added a few photos, and waited for reviews to come in. About nine months in, I realized I had completely misunderstood what it was. Our Google Business Profile wasn’t a directory listing. It was the primary engine driving our business. Today, for local businesses navigating AI-driven search, it has become more important than your actual website. Here’s why.
Playing on Google’s Home Turf
I’m a strong believer in playing on every field that Google owns. Google controls an enormous share of how people find information — and AI tools, particularly Gemini, are deeply integrated into that ecosystem. You have to work with that reality, not around it.
This is why our window covering company maintains an active YouTube channel. We aren’t trying to become interior design influencers. We’re publishing on a Google-owned platform because that’s where authority gets built and recognized. The same logic applies to your Google Business Profile — at an even more direct level.
Your GBP is what powers the Map Pack: those top three local results that appear when someone searches on mobile. But it’s no longer just about traditional search rankings. It’s about how AI tools synthesize your information to decide whether you’re worth recommending at all.
How AI Uses Your Profile to Make Recommendations
When a potential customer asks an AI tool like Gemini or ChatGPT for a local recommendation, the AI isn’t guessing. It’s crawling for structured, verified data — and for local queries, your Google Business Profile is one of the most trusted sources it has.
Gemini in particular, as a Google product, has direct access to Google Maps and Business Profile data. It reviews the practical details of your profile to assess your legitimacy and relevance:
- NAP data — your name, address, and phone number, and whether it’s consistent across platforms
- Operating hours — including whether you’re open now, on weekends, or on holidays
- Business categories — whether you’ve correctly identified your primary and secondary categories
- Products and services — whether you’ve populated the Products and Services tabs with specific, descriptive language
If any of this information is missing, outdated, or inconsistent with what appears on your website or other platforms, the AI treats your business as a low-confidence result and moves on to a competitor with a more complete profile.
The New Role of Reviews in AI Search
Reviews have always mattered for social proof. In AI search, they’ve become something more: a primary data source for understanding what your business actually does and how well it does it.
AI tools don’t just look at your star rating. They read the text of your reviews to understand your specific expertise, your service area, the products or services mentioned, and how you’ve handled problems. A review that says “They installed motorized solar shades in our Denver home and the whole process was seamless” is significantly more valuable to an AI than one that says “Great service!” The first one gives the AI something to work with. The second one doesn’t.
This has a practical implication for how you ask for reviews. Encourage your clients to mention the specific service they received, the location, and any details about the experience. That kind of textured, specific feedback is what helps AI associate your business with the right queries.
Treat Your GBP Like Your Most Important Social Channel
Most business owners don’t realize that Google Business Profiles support regular posts — updates, photos, videos, offers, and announcements — the same way a social media platform does. Most business owners also never use this feature after their initial setup.
This is a significant missed opportunity. A post on Instagram might generate some engagement within your existing audience. A post on your Google Business Profile provides freshness signals and contextual data that AI tools use to determine whether your business is active and relevant right now. In the AI era, activity equals authority. An inactive profile signals — to both Google and to AI tools — that your business may no longer be operating.
Aim to post updates, new photos, or relevant content to your GBP at least once a week. If you’re only going to maintain one “social” presence consistently, this is the one that will do the most work for your local and AI search visibility.
Why Local Businesses Are Losing Visibility
The most common pattern I see: a beautifully designed website paired with a completely neglected Google Business Profile. For local search, that’s the wrong investment ratio.
When I’m searching for somewhere to eat, a salon, a hotel, or a local service, I don’t go to the business website first. I look at the images and updates posted directly to the Google Business Profile. That’s where I see the reality of the experience — the actual food, the actual space, the actual work. If the profile hasn’t been updated since 2022, I move on. So does the AI.
The Bottom Line
In 15 years of working in SEO and digital marketing, I haven’t seen a tool with more untapped potential for local business owners than a fully optimized, actively maintained Google Business Profile.
As a former corporate tax attorney, I’ve always paid attention to the rules of the game. Right now, the rules say that if you want AI to recommend your local business, you need to play in Google’s ecosystem — consistently, specifically, and with current information.
Don’t set it and forget it. Feed the machine. Update the profile. Make it impossible for AI to have a reason to pass you over.
Key Takeaways
- For local search and AI recommendations, your Google Business Profile often carries more weight with LLMs than your website does. It’s the first place to invest attention.
- An inactive profile is a liability. If your GBP hasn’t been updated recently, AI tools may deprioritize you or question whether you’re still in business.
- Populate every section deliberately. Categories, services, products, hours, and photos all contribute to how AI interprets and recommends your business.
- Reviews are data, not just social proof. Specific, text-rich reviews help AI understand exactly what you do and who you serve.
- Post to your GBP consistently. Weekly updates signal freshness and relevance — two of the factors AI tools weight most heavily in local recommendations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, directly. Because Gemini is a Google product, it has integrated access to Google Maps and Business Profile data. For local queries, your GBP is one of the most heavily weighted sources it draws from — often more so than your website.
No. Star ratings matter, but AI tools go deeper — they read the content of reviews to understand your specific services, your service area, and patterns in how you handle customer experiences. A five-star rating with thin, generic review text is less useful to an AI than a four-star profile with detailed, specific reviews that mention real services and locations.
At least once a week. Consistent updates signal to both Google and AI tools that your business is active, reliable, and current. Think of it less like a directory and more like a channel — one that directly feeds the systems deciding whether to recommend you.
Start with accuracy and completeness: make sure your NAP data is correct and consistent across all platforms, your hours are current, and your services and categories are fully populated with descriptive language. Then shift to activity: begin posting updates and photos regularly. Accuracy first, then freshness.
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