Local SEO for AI search: how to show up in Google Maps, your Business Profile and AI answers

To show up in Google Maps and in AI answers, a local business needs three things that say the same: a complete, verified Google Business Profile, a website with exactly the same name, address, phone number and opening hours, and those details marked up with LocalBusiness schema. When they contradict each other, search engines and assistants cannot tell which to trust.

To check it on your own site: Local business

Local SEO is the work of getting a business with a physical location or service area to appear when someone nearby searches for what it offers: on Google Maps, in the local pack in Google Search and, more and more, in what an AI assistant says when asked "where can I get my car fixed in Bristol?". This guide brings together what Google, schema.org and OpenAI officially document, with no tricks nobody has shown to work.

Does it cost money to be on Google Maps?

No. Creating a Business Profile and listing your business on Google is free, according to Google's own product page1. And the most important point for anyone who gets sales calls promising "the top spot on Maps": Google states in writing that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking2.

What you can pay for is ads. On Maps they appear as square pins or next to a "Sponsored" label, and businesses run them through Google Ads campaigns (Search, Performance Max, Smart or Local)3. An ad puts you on the map for as long as you pay; it does nothing for your organic position.

If someone offers to "get you to number one on Maps" for a monthly fee, ask what exactly they will do. If the answer is not work on your profile, your website and your reviews, they are selling something Google says does not exist.

How does Google decide which business ranks first?

Google says local results are based mainly on three factors: relevance, distance and prominence2. Each one works differently, so it pays to take them one at a time.

• Relevance: how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for. You improve it with complete, detailed information: category, services, description, attributes.
• Distance: how far each business is from the person searching. If they do not share their location, Google uses what it knows about it. You cannot optimise this factor: you cannot move your premises.
• Prominence: how well known the business is. Google says it draws on information such as the number of websites linking to the business and the number of reviews; more reviews and positive ratings can improve local ranking.

The practical consequence is uncomfortable but honest: a perfect profile two miles away can rank below a mediocre one two hundred yards from the searcher. That is why nobody serious guarantees Maps positions. What you can do is win on relevance and prominence, the two levers that depend on you.

Google adds a detail that is easy to miss: it keeps the details of the algorithm confidential to make the system as fair as possible for everyone2. Any list of "the 47 Maps ranking factors" is a third-party estimate, not documentation.

Google Business Profile: the fields that matter

A Google Business Profile (still widely searched for by its old name, Google My Business, and often shortened to GBP) is the listing for your business that Google shows in Maps and Search. It is free, and once verified you control it.

Verify it first

Until you verify it you cannot edit your business information or interact with customers. Google also says a verified business is more likely to appear in results2. The methods on offer (phone or text, email, video call, post) are chosen automatically by Google based on business type, publicly available information and region, and the review can take up to 5 business days4.

The fields, one by one

One line in the guidelines sums up most of the table: represent your business as it is consistently known in the offline world, on your signage, invoices and stationery5. Adding the town or a tagline to your name is not optimisation, and Google reserves the right to suspend access for anyone who breaks its guidelines.

Another rule that saves a lot of trouble: one profile per location. Google asks you not to create more than one profile for each location, whether in one account or several5.

Your website as the source of truth

Of all the sources Google uses to build your listing, your website is the one you control most. Google lists where Business Profile information comes from: publicly available crawled content, such as a business's official website; licensed third-party data; contributions from users, including business owners who claim their profile; and information from Google's own interactions with the business7. It also says it may infer your category from the content of your website and mentions of your business around the web5.

Put simply: if your website says you open at 9 and your profile says 10, you are giving Google two versions of the same fact. And a customer who finds the wrong one turns up to a locked door.

Pages per service and per area (no fake neighbourhood pages)

One page per real service is a good idea: "clutch replacement", "MOT preparation", "car air conditioning regas". Each one answers a different search and gives an assistant something specific to quote.

Area pages are a different matter. Google treats as doorway abuse having multiple pages or domains targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page8. It also lists blocks of text naming the cities and regions a page is trying to rank for as keyword stuffing8.

The rule that follows:

• One page per physical location, with its own address, phone number and hours. Two branches, two pages.
• One page per area only if there is something different to say: a different team, different hours, different services or real jobs done in that area.
• No "Plumber in Clifton", "Plumber in Redland" and "Plumber in Bedminster" with the same copy and the place name swapped. That is exactly what the spam policy describes.

One more detail that also helps with AI: say in the body text, in words, where you are and who you serve ("we are on Gloucester Road, five minutes from Montpelier station"). An address in the footer helps; a sentence that explains it helps more.

LocalBusiness schema: a complete example

LocalBusiness schema is a block of structured data that states, in a format machines read without ambiguity, what business you are, where you are and when you are open. schema.org defines it as a particular physical business or branch of an organisation, with examples such as a restaurant, a bank branch or a medical practice9. If you have never written JSON-LD, the structured data guide explains the format from scratch.

What Google asks for in its documentation10:

• Required: name and address (a PostalAddress with as many properties as you can provide).
• The most specific subtype possible: Restaurant, Dentist, AutoRepair… rather than plain LocalBusiness.
• Coordinates: geo with latitude and longitude to at least 5 decimal places.
• Phone: the main contact number, including the country code.
• URL: the page for that specific location, and it has to work.
• Hours: openingHoursSpecification. Open 24 hours: 00:00 to 23:59. Closed all day: opens and closes both 00:00. Seasonal or holiday closures: validFrom and validThrough.

Here is a complete example for a fictional business (the name, street, phone number and profiles are made up; example.com is reserved for examples, and the number is in the range Ofcom keeps for drama). It reflects a typical UK independent garage: weekday hours, a late night on Thursday, Saturday mornings, and closed over Christmas and the bank holidays.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "AutoRepair",
  "@id": "https://www.example.com/#business",
  "name": "Example Motors",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/",
  "telephone": "+44 117 496 0123",
  "image": "https://www.example.com/img/garage-front.jpg",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "12 Example Road",
    "postalCode": "BS1 9ZZ",
    "addressLocality": "Bristol",
    "addressCountry": "GB"
  },
  "geo": {
    "@type": "GeoCoordinates",
    "latitude": 51.45523,
    "longitude": -2.59665
  },
  "openingHoursSpecification": [
    {
      "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
      "dayOfWeek": ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Friday"],
      "opens": "08:00",
      "closes": "17:30"
    },
    {
      "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
      "dayOfWeek": "Thursday",
      "opens": "08:00",
      "closes": "19:30"
    },
    {
      "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
      "dayOfWeek": "Saturday",
      "opens": "08:30",
      "closes": "12:30"
    },
    {
      "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
      "opens": "00:00",
      "closes": "00:00",
      "validFrom": "2026-12-25",
      "validThrough": "2026-12-28"
    }
  ],
  "sameAs": [
    "https://maps.google.com/?cid=YOUR_PROFILE_ID",
    "https://www.facebook.com/your.page/",
    "https://www.yelp.com/biz/your-business"
  ]
}

Four details in this example worth copying as they are:

1. Each distinct set of hours is its own block. In schema.org each OpeningHoursSpecification carries one opening time and one closing time for the days it lists11, so the late Thursday needs a block of its own. The same goes for a business that closes for lunch: a morning block and an afternoon block for the same days.
2. The Christmas closure uses opens and closes at 00:00 with validFrom and validThrough, which is how Google documents a seasonal closure10. In 2026 Boxing Day falls on a Saturday, so the substitute bank holiday is Monday 28 December.
3. addressRegion is the state in the US ("addressRegion": "CA") and can be left out or set to the county in the UK. addressCountry is the two-letter country code. Write the street exactly as it appears on your profile: if it says "12 Example Road", do not write "12 Example Rd" here.
4. sameAs links the profiles that are yours: your Google listing, social profiles, your Yelp page. schema.org defines it as the URL of a reference page that unambiguously indicates the item's identity9.

The block goes inside a script tag of type application/ld+json on the page about that business (the home page if you have one location, each location's page if you have several). Before publishing, run it through Google's Rich Results Test and fix any critical errors, which is the step the documentation itself gives10. And bear in mind Google's caveat: correct markup does not guarantee that any special result will show10.

NAP consistency across your website, profile and directories

NAP consistency means your business name, address and phone number are identical on your website, your Google Business Profile and every directory where you are listed. Google builds your profile from your website, third-party data and user contributions7, and a detail that differs between sources is a detail someone has to decide which version to believe.

In practice the discrepancies are rarely lies; they are formats. "St" versus "Street", "Suite 200" versus "#200", the number with and without +44 or +1, the registered company name ("Smith & Sons Motor Engineers Ltd") versus the name on the sign ("Smith's Garage"), summer hours nobody changed back, or a move that was only updated on the website.

Use this table as a checklist. Fill it in once with your canonical details and compare every source against it.

Three tips to make the table worth the effort:

• Start with your profile and your website, the two sources you fully control. Directories come next: Apple Business Connect (which feeds Apple Maps), Bing Places for Business, Yelp and Facebook on both sides of the Atlantic; Yell and Thomson Local in the UK; the Better Business Bureau and Nextdoor in the US; and the directories of your trade (Checkatrade, Angi, Tripadvisor, OpenTable).
• If you have moved, change the address on your profile, your website and your schema on the same day, then go through the directories you signed up to. An old address repeated across many sites keeps circulating long after you have changed it.
• Do not invent variants to "cover more searches". A name with the town added in one directory and without it in another is exactly the inconsistency you are trying to remove.

Reviews: how to ask for them and how to reply

Reviews count towards prominence: Google writes that more reviews and positive ratings can improve a business's local ranking2. It gives no minimum number. Any figure along the lines of "you need 50 reviews to appear on the map" is an opinion, not something Google has published.

How to ask. Google suggests reminding customers that they can leave a review, using a link or QR code that the profile itself generates12. It works well on receipts, at the counter or in the job confirmation email.

What is not allowed. Offering incentives (free or discounted products or services) in exchange for posting reviews, changing them or removing negative ones is considered fake and misleading content and is strictly prohibited12. "10% off if you leave us five stars" can get your profile restricted.

How to reply. Google asks for replies that are polite, clear and short, and conversational rather than promotional: your reviewers are already customers, so a reply is no place for deals12. With a negative review:

1. Never share the reviewer's private information or attack them.
2. Own any mistake, but do not take responsibility for things outside your control; explain what you can and cannot do.
3. Apologise when it is appropriate.
4. If the situation is complicated, ask them to contact you by phone or email to sort it out privately.
5. Address them by name, sign off with your name or initials, and reply promptly.

A reassuring note: Google points out that a mix of positive and negative reviews tends to look more trustworthy12. A profile where every review is five stars is not the goal.

How do AI assistants find a local business?

AI assistants with web search do not publish a "local ranking" guide of their own, but what they do document is enough to know what to do. If you want the general framework before getting into local, it is in the AI search optimisation guide.

Google: AI Overviews and AI Mode

Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimisations necessary, and that the usual SEO best practices still apply13. Two items on its list of fundamentals are pure local SEO: making sure your structured data matches the visible text on the page and keeping your Business Profile information up to date13.

The same page makes clear that you do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup to appear in these features13. If someone has sold you a magic file for "getting into Google's AI", read what the data says about llms.txt first.

Gemini

Google does not publish a page explaining how Gemini chooses which businesses to recommend. What it does document points to the same source: with Gemini in Google Maps you can find places near you or your destination and ask things like "When does this place close?"14. And the tool Google offers developers so that Gemini can answer with Maps data draws on more than 250 million places, with their addresses, opening hours and user ratings15.

The practical reading: in Google's world, your Business Profile is what the AI reads about you. Bank holiday hours left out of date on your profile become wrong hours in an answer.

ChatGPT

OpenAI's help centre explains several things that directly affect a local business16:

• ChatGPT estimates your approximate location from your IP address and, if the user allows it, can use the device's location, which is off by default.
• It rewrites the question with that location. OpenAI's own example: "What are some good restaurants near me?" becomes a search such as "top restaurants San Francisco" if the IP address places the user there.
• It may share that location with trusted third-party providers of local information, such as nearby business listings. OpenAI does not say on that page which listings providers it uses. For restaurant bookings it does name three: OpenTable (worldwide), Resy (US only) and Yelp (US and Canada). If you run a restaurant in those markets, those profiles are now part of how ChatGPT sees you.
• It does not guarantee placement. OpenAI ranks results on multiple factors and says placement is not guaranteed; to be eligible, your site must allow OAI-SearchBot to crawl it. How to let it in without opening the door to training crawlers is covered in the guide to AI crawlers and robots.txt.

What follows from all this is simple. Because the query ChatGPT sends out carries the name of the city, your website has to say in plain text what you do and which town and neighbourhood you do it in. Because part of the information comes from third-party listings OpenAI does not name, your details have to be the same everywhere: NAP consistency stops being a technicality. And because an AI answer quotes specific sentences, your service pages need sentences that make sense on their own; how to write them is in the guide on how to get cited by AI, and the rest of what influences ChatGPT is in the ChatGPT SEO guide.

One last warning: the same help page says search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated or incorrect16. If ChatGPT gives the wrong opening hours for your business, the first thing to check is where it could have got them from, starting with your own website.

To find out whether ChatGPT and Gemini mention you, the direct way is to ask them what a customer would ask, with the same town, and to repeat it from time to time: answers change. SmoothSeen's paid plans track the questions you define in ChatGPT and Gemini and tell you whether they name your business (see plans).

Local SEO checklist in 12 points

1. Business Profile created, claimed and verified.
2. Profile name identical to the name on your sign, with no town or tagline.
3. The most specific primary category possible, and only the additional categories that genuinely describe the business.
4. Real, precise address, or a service area with the address hidden if you work at customers' premises.
5. A local phone number that reaches that location.
6. Regular hours and special hours (bank holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas) up to date on the profile and the website.
7. A useful description under 750 characters, with no prices, promotions or links.
8. Photos of the exterior, the interior and your work.
9. One page on your website per location and per real service, with no cloned neighbourhood pages.
10. LocalBusiness schema with the right subtype, address, phone with country code, coordinates to 5 decimal places, hours and sameAs, validated before publishing.
11. Name, address, phone and hours identical across website, schema, profile and directories (the table above).
12. A way of asking for reviews by link or QR code, with no incentives, and a reply to every review that says something.

Declaration of interest: this blog belongs to SmoothSeen, a web audit tool that measures visibility in search engines and AI assistants. For SmoothSeen, a page counts as a local business if it declares LocalBusiness markup (or one of its subtypes) or has a confirmed Google Business Profile on the same domain. It then also checks the markup and its subtype, the structured address and coordinates, opening hours, whether the text names the neighbourhood, town or area you serve, whether the profile exists and, when it can read it, whether its details match the page. Of the directories, it only looks at the profiles your own markup declares in sameAs, when they can be read. It does not manage your profile, does not publish to directories and does not track your position on Google Maps; the detail is in the description of the local business checks. If you look after several local clients, the AI visibility audit guide sets out the method section by section.

What to do next

Fill in the NAP consistency table with your canonical details and fix your profile and your website first, as they are the two sources you fully control. Then add LocalBusiness schema with your real opening hours, validate it and set up your review link. If you want to see what your page is missing for Google and AI assistants to know where you are and when you are open, analyse it with SmoothSeen.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get on Google Maps for free?

Create a Business Profile on Google, claim it and verify it: it costs nothing. Then complete every field with real information (the name on your sign, a specific category, your address or service area, a local phone number, opening hours and photos). Verification review can take up to five business days, and from then on your business can appear on Maps and in local search results.

Do I have to pay to rank first on Google Maps?

You cannot. Google states that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. What you can pay for is Google Ads, which appear on Maps as sponsored square pins and disappear when the campaign ends. Organic order depends on relevance, distance from the searcher and the business's prominence, and nobody controls distance.

What is a Google Business Profile?

It is the free listing for your business that Google shows in Maps and Search, formerly called Google My Business. It brings together your name, address, phone number, hours, category, photos and reviews. Google also builds it from your website, third-party data and user contributions, so it is worth claiming it to control what it says.

How does a local business show up in ChatGPT?

ChatGPT estimates the user's approximate location from their IP address and rewrites the question with that city before searching the web; it can also draw on third-party providers for business listings and, for restaurants, on OpenTable, Resy and Yelp. To stand a chance, your website must let OAI-SearchBot crawl it, say in text what you do and where, and show the same details as your profile and directories.

How long does it take to rank on Google Maps?

There is no published timescale. The only time Google sets is for verification review, which can take up to five business days. After that, relevance improves as soon as your profile and website are complete, but prominence (reviews and websites linking to the business) takes months of work to build. Be wary of anyone who promises a position by a given date.