Blog
What AI says about local businesses, and why
Plain-English articles for owners and the agencies that serve them. Factual claims link to their sources, usually the AI company's own documentation, and we say so when something isn't publicly known.
How AI answers work
- Why ChatGPT tells you something different from what your customers see
Memory, location, run-to-run variation and the gap between the apps and the APIs: four reasons your own check is a poor guide to what a stranger in your town is told.
· 6 min read
- How AI assistants decide which local businesses to recommend
What OpenAI, Perplexity and Google say about where their answers come from, what that means for a local business, and the parts nobody outside those companies knows.
· 7 min read
Website fixes
- Should you block AI crawlers? Search bots vs training bots
OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot decide whether you can appear in AI answers. GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot and Google-Extended are about training. Here is what each one does, from the vendors' own documentation.
· 6 min read
- LocalBusiness schema in plain English (with a copy-ready example)
What LocalBusiness structured data is, what it can and can't do for AI answers, a correct example, and how to add it on WordPress, Wix, Squarespace and Shopify.
· 6 min read
Google AI
- Google AI Overviews and AI Mode: what local businesses can and can't control
What Google has said publicly about its two AI search features, what it hasn't, and the short list of things a local business owner can actually do about them.
· 6 min read
For agencies
- For agencies: adding AI answer visibility to a local SEO retainer
How to pitch it with an audit, measure it honestly with ranges instead of single scores, report it to clients who aren't technical, and avoid promising what nobody can deliver.
· 6 min read