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Local SEO is the work that helps a business show up when someone searches for a product or service nearby. Today, for businesses, local SEO covers the Google local pack, Maps and AI answers. According to Google, three factors matter most: relevance, distance and prominence.
In short
- Google ranks local results by relevance, distance and prominence. Also, there is no way to pay for a better spot in the local pack.
- The Business Profile is the base of local SEO. It shows up in Maps and Search and, according to Google, helps with AI answers.
- In a US study, 28.5% of local pack businesses did not appear in AI Mode for the same search.
- Chains with 10 or more locations can verify profiles in bulk, but each location needs its own profile and page.
What is local SEO and the local pack?
Local SEO is the set of actions that helps a business with an address or a service area show up in searches with local intent. The local pack is the block with a map and three businesses that Google shows at the top of these searches. So local SEO on Google works on the profile, the website and the reputation.
According to Google Business Profile Help, people who search for a place nearby see local results in Maps and Search. Google’s example is a search for “Italian restaurant” on a phone, which shows places nearby.
Local SEO for businesses has three fronts:
- Business Profile: category, address or service area, hours, photos and reviews.
- Website: one page per location, with the same data as the profile.
- Reputation: reviews, directory citations and links from local websites.
Google also builds profiles with data from several sources, such as the official website, licensed third-party data and user contributions. In other words, an old address on the website can contradict the profile. The technical SEO base that applies to the rest of the site, from crawling to indexing in Bing, is in the SEO and AI guide.
Which factors decide who shows up on Maps?
Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is how well the profile matches the search. Distance, in turn, is how far the business is from the searcher. Finally, prominence is how well-known the business is, based partly on links and reviews. There is no way to pay for a better ranking.
On the same page, Google explains each local SEO factor:
| Factor | What Google looks at | What the business controls |
|---|---|---|
| Relevance | Match between profile and search | Category and complete data |
| Distance | Where the searcher is | Address or service area |
| Prominence | Links, reviews and ratings | Reviews and mentions on the web |
According to Google, verifying the business makes it more likely to show up in results. Similarly, businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search. However, inaccurate info can keep the profile out of relevant searches in the area.
Reviews, therefore, are part of prominence. According to Google, more reviews and positive ratings can help a business’s local ranking. In addition, replying to reviews shows that the business values customer feedback.
Distance, however, is something the business can’t change. That is why local SEO for businesses works on the other two Google factors and doesn’t promise rankings to searchers far away.
What do local SEO experts point to?
Besides Google’s help pages, the industry looks at opinion surveys. One of them is the local search ranking factors report from Whitespark, a company that sells local SEO software and services. In the 2026 edition, 47 experts scored 187 factors. Whitespark itself notes that none of them has access to Google’s algorithm.
For the local pack and Maps, the experts put the primary profile category first. Next came the searcher’s distance and keywords in the business name. This third item, however, clashes with Google’s guidelines. They ask for the real-world business name and ban adding extra info to it, at the risk of a profile suspension.
So treat the report as the opinion of people who do local SEO for businesses, not as a Google rule. The 2026 edition also added a new column that scores each factor for visibility in AI search.
What changed with AI Mode and AI Overviews in local search?
AI created a second showcase for local SEO on Google, with its own rules. Google says the Business Profile helps businesses and services appear in AI answers. But it doesn’t explain how AI Mode picks businesses. The studies cited below come from US vendors.
The Google guide to generative AI features says AI answers can include information about local businesses. According to the guide, Business Profiles help services appear in AI answers and other Search results. The same guide describes query fan-out, where the model runs several related searches to build the answer.
In practice, then, a question about a service in a city can turn into several smaller searches. A page that answers price, timing or a common question about the service can enter the answer. That can happen even when the page doesn’t rank for the original question. The details are in the guide on how AI Mode and AI Overviews pick sources.
Meanwhile, recommendations from ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity are in the guide on how to get AI to recommend a local business.
What do studies show about AI Mode in local search?
In 2025, Whitespark itself ran 540 manual searches in Houston, Phoenix and Denver, across six industries. In local-intent searches such as “personal injury lawyers in Phoenix,” the local pack appeared 93% of the time. The AI Overview appeared 15% of the time. In informational questions, however, the AI Overview appeared 92% of the time.
For AI Mode, Local SEO Data compared 1,120 searches across 7 industries and 13 US cities in May 2026. The company sells a local SEO data API, and the data came from that API. So the searches carry no user history or precise location. In this study, 28.5% of local pack businesses did not appear in AI Mode for the same search.
In addition, AI Mode showed a median of 5 businesses per search, versus 3 in the local pack. Still, when comparing only the top three on each side, the overlap dropped to 48%. The wording of the search also mattered. When a bare search showed no businesses, adding “near me” brought them back in 38 of 38 cases. Finally, the study warns that it is a point-in-time snapshot and shows correlation, not causation.
Local SEO: how to do it, step by step
In general, local SEO for businesses starts with the Google profile, moves to the website and continues with reviews and measurement. The order below works for a business with one location. It also serves as the base for a local SEO audit when the profile already exists.
- Claim and verify the profile. According to Google, verification shows that you represent the business and makes it more likely to show up.
- Complete the profile. Pick the primary category carefully and use as few categories as possible, as the guidelines ask. Then fill in hours, services, attributes and photos.
- Align the website with the profile. Use the same name, address, phone and hours on both, with one page for each real location.
- Ask every real customer for a review and reply to all of them, including negative ones.
- Copy the data to directories and to the Apple and Bing maps.
- Measure every month the profile, the website and the AI answers for the client’s searches.
The website audit, with crawlers, indexing and JavaScript, follows the technical SEO audit checklist. At the same time, don’t create near-identical pages for cities where you have no location. Google can treat them as doorways, a type of spam.
For businesses that serve customers at the customer’s address, such as plumbers and electricians, the profile uses a service area and hides the address. Therefore, the service area must be accurate, as the guidelines ask.
How do you do local SEO for multiple locations?
In chains and franchises, each location needs a verified profile, its own page and its own reviews, with the same name and category standards. Google allows bulk verification starting at 10 locations of the same business. So the work starts with a single database of all locations.
According to Google’s bulk verification help, the spreadsheet must have 10 or more locations of the same business and every location the account manages. However, agencies with more than one business in the same account can’t use bulk verification. Also, duplicate, suspended or disabled profiles don’t count toward the minimum of 10.
Likewise, Google’s guidelines ask for one profile per location, with no duplicates, even across different accounts. That is why local SEO for franchises follows this order:
- Inventory: every location with name, address, phone, hours, category and URL.
- Single source: profiles, website and directories all come from the same spreadsheet or system.
- Name standard: the brand’s real name, with no city or keyword added.
- Page per location: with the profile data and what only that location offers.
- Goals per location: reviews and replies measured store by store, not just for the brand.
What changes for chains in AI recommendations, such as consistency across locations, is in the local business guide linked above.
How long does local SEO take to show results?
Google gives no timeline for a better local ranking. What it documents are the process timelines. Verification reviews take up to 5 business days, and most mailed codes arrive within 14 days. After that, the effect depends on local competition and on the profile’s starting point.
According to Google’s verification help, reviews take longer on rare occasions. On the other hand, Google can verify a profile instantly. For example, this can happen when the website is verified in Search Console or when the business uses bulk verification.
In addition, measurement has its own pace. The profile performance report shows the search terms that led people to the profile. However, this metric updates at the start of each month and can take up to 5 days to show up. So compare month to month, not week to week.
In AI answers, the swings are bigger. In the Local SEO Data study, some searches with no businesses on day 1 were showing businesses by day 3. So agree on a window of a few months with the client. Then send a monthly report with the profile, the website and AI side by side.
Which local SEO tools should you use?
The official tools from Google, Microsoft and Apple cover the base of local SEO for businesses: profile, website and maps. Paid third-party tools come in when the business has many locations or needs a ranking grid by neighborhood. For AI answers, measurement uses fixed, repeated prompts.
| Tool | What it does | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Data, reviews and performance | |
| Search Console | Website searches and clicks | |
| Bing Places | Profile in Bing search and maps | Microsoft |
| Apple Business | Profile in Apple Maps | Apple |
| Local grid trackers | Map ranking by neighborhood | Third parties, paid |
According to Microsoft, Bing Places is free, lists the business in Bing search and Bing Maps, and lets owners import data from Google. Meanwhile, Apple Business, formerly Apple Business Connect, puts the business on Apple Maps with its logo, hours and photos. Among paid tools, BrightLocal, Whitespark and Local Falcon show, among other things, the business’s map ranking neighborhood by neighborhood.
For AI Mode and assistants, the prompt and repetition protocol is in the guide on how to measure brand visibility in AI. For local SEO, then, build the prompts by city and neighborhood, with and without “near me,” in Google AI Mode and in the assistants.
Want to know how your brand shows up in AI answers today?
NotHuman is opening spots for agencies and brands to track how they appear in AI answers. Join the waitlist and we’ll let you know when a spot opens up for you.
Main sources
- Google Business Profile Help, Tips to improve your local ranking on Google (2026).
- Google Business Profile Help, Guidelines for representing your business on Google (2026).
- Google Business Profile Help, Verify Business Profiles in bulk (2026).
- Google Business Profile Help, Verify your business on Google (2026).
- Google Search Central, Google’s Guide to Optimizing for Generative AI Features on Google Search (2026).
- Local SEO Data, AI Mode vs Local Pack: Where Do Local Businesses Actually Appear? (2026).
- Whitespark, The Prevalence of AI Overviews in Local Search (2025).
- Whitespark, Local Search Ranking Factors, an expert opinion survey (2026).
