Local search and AI: why your Google profile and listings matter more than ever

People are asking AI who to call

Search used to mean typing "plumber near me" into Google. Now plenty of people also ask an AI assistant. In BrightLocal's 2026 survey, 45% of consumers said they use ChatGPT and other generative AI tools for local business recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier. (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US consumers)

That's a big change in a short time. The good news is that what helps you there is mostly what already helps you on Google.

Where AI answers come from

An AI assistant doesn't know your business personally. When it recommends local businesses, it works from information that's already online: business profiles and map listings, directories, reviews and websites. Each tool works differently, and none publishes exactly how it chooses.

What matters is that the sources agree. If your profile, your website and the directories all show the same name, address, phone number and services, you're easy to describe with confidence. If one has an old phone number and another an address you left in 2019, you create doubt, for software and for people.

Start with your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile is still the single most important listing for a local trade. Check that it has:

• The right primary category, plus secondary categories for the other work you do.
• Your services, listed with short, plain descriptions.
• A service area that matches the towns you actually serve.
• Accurate hours, including holiday hours for Thanksgiving, Christmas and long weekends.
• Real photos of your work, your crew and your vehicles.
• A website and phone number that match everywhere else.
• A plain-language description of what you do and where. Skip the keyword stuffing.

If you don't have a verified profile yet, start there. It's the base for everything else, and our Google Business Profile setup service can do it for you.

Make your listings match

Beyond Google, your business appears on dozens of sites: Bing Places, Apple Business Connect (for Apple Maps), Yelp, YellowPages.ca, Facebook and industry directories. Many were created automatically, and some will be out of date.

Search for your business name and your old phone numbers, and fix what you find: old numbers, previous addresses, duplicate listings and spelling variations. You can do it by hand, one site at a time, or use a listings service that keeps your details the same across all of them.

Reviews are part of the picture

Reviews tell people, and the tools they use, what you actually do, in your customers' words. A steady flow of recent reviews shows you're active and still doing good work. Our guide to getting more Google reviews covers how to ask without breaking Google's rules.

Your website still matters

Your website is where the details live. Make sure it has:

• A page for each main service, in plain language.
• The towns you serve, named in the text, not only in an image.
• Contact details that match your listings exactly.
• Fast loading on a phone, since that's where most visitors are.

For trades that want help here, Velocity includes a managed website, and the Local SEO Content Engine add-on publishes local articles for you every month.

A 30-minute checkup

1. Search Google for your main service and your town, the way a customer would.
2. Ask an AI assistant which businesses it recommends for that service in your town, and read what it says about you.
3. Check your Google Business Profile against the list above.
4. Look yourself up on Bing, Apple Maps, Yelp and YellowPages.ca.
5. Write down every mismatch and fix the biggest ones first.

This article is general information for business owners, not legal advice. Survey figures are US consumer research where noted; we are not aware of equivalent published Canadian surveys and do not present them as Canadian data.