Local search · 2026
How search works now, and why your Google Business Profile matters most.
Search is not one list any more. It is a map, a set of results and, increasingly, an answer from an AI. Here is how each one decides who to show, why the profile is the biggest lever a local business has, and the six things to do about it, in order.
Three places you get found
The map, the results, and the answer.
01
The map
The three businesses with stars under them. They come from your Google Business Profile, not your website. Google fills that space with whoever bothered to finish theirs, and most of your competitors have not.
What decides itCategory, reviews, a complete profile, real photos, identical details everywhere.
02
The results
The ten blue links under the map. These are your pages: one for each service you do, one for each town you work. A single page that mentions everything ranks for nothing.
What decides itA page per service, a page per town, written for the search people actually type.
03
The answer
A growing slice of customers now ask ChatGPT, Gemini or the assistant on their phone who to call. Those systems lean on the same signals, and they cite the page that answers the question plainly.
What decides itThe same profile and pages, plus a FAQ page written the way AI rewards: the real questions, answered straight.
Google's own AI guide says it
You've been sold things you didn't need.
There is no special AI optimisation. There is a complete profile, consistent details, real reviews, and pages that plainly say what you do and where. AI reads the same signals as Google, and it rewards the same things: the basics done properly and kept up every month.
Anyone selling GEO, AEO or "AI SEO" as a separate service is selling you the same work twice. Fifteen years in search taught me the red flags, and they are in the post. The strategy below is the plain version, and it is the one that holds up.
What Google actually saidInk is where it started · move your cursor
The strategy, in order
Six things, done in this order, put you ahead of most of your high street.
Do them yourself, or have them done. Either way the order matters: the profile first, because it pays back fastest.
- Step 01
Claim and finish your Google Business Profile
The map results come from here, not your website. Pick the one right category, list every service, real photos of real jobs, opening hours, the lot. This is the highest-return hour a local business can spend on marketing.
HereSet up right at launch, then kept right every month on every plan: categories, services, photos, posts now and then.
The long version - Step 02
Get your reviews moving
Reviews are the big one on the map. Not a burst, a steady trickle: a handful a month, replied to, with the job named. Google reads the words as well as the stars.
HereA review link and a routine that asks after every job, and replies written for you on Grow.
The long version - Step 03
Give every service its own page
Google ranks pages, not websites. Each thing you do gets a page that says what it is, who it is for and what it costs, so a search for that job lands on that page.
HereBuilt into every site: a page per service, marked up so Google and the AI tools can read exactly what you do.
The long version - Step 04
Say where you are, everywhere
A page for each town you work, your address and phone number identical on every listing, and the town named in the places Google reads. Consistency beats cleverness.
HereTown pages written for the businesses there, and your details kept identical across the web.
The long version - Step 05
Be the answer when people ask AI
AI search is not a separate job with a separate agency. It reads the same signals, and it rewards a plain FAQ page: every question a buyer might ask, answered well, with your process and how to work with you.
HereA FAQ page on every build, written the way AI rewards, and the hidden version of your site that AI reads checked before launch.
The long version - Step 06
Reply first
Most local jobs go to whoever answers first, not whoever quotes lowest. Being found is half of it. The other half is the reply at nine at night.
HereViolet, INKON's AI assistant, answers in seconds, any hour, takes the details and emails you the lead.
The long version
Why the profile first
It is not clever. It is consistent.
The map results, the three with stars, come from your Google Business Profile, not your website. Google fills that space with whoever bothered. Most of your competitors have not.
The category, the reviews, every field filled in, real photos, the same details everywhere, a post now and then: steps 01 to 04 above. It is the highest-return hour a local business can spend on marketing, and on every INKON plan it is kept right for you every month. The monthly work and what it costs: local SEO and AI search.
The long versions
Where this page comes from.
Each step above is a post on the blog, written for owners, not marketers. Read the ones you need.
- How to get your business to show up on Google in your townThe five things Google actually checks, and the order to fix them in.
- What actually moves the needle on your Google Business ProfileCategory, reviews, and the boring bits most businesses skip.
- Google just published its AI guide, and it says you've been sold things you didn't needWhat actually works, and what to stop paying for.
- How to spot a GEO agency that is about to rip you offThe red flags that tell you an AI-search agency is selling smoke.
- The one page that turns AI into your best salespersonWhy a plain FAQ page is now one of the best things you can build.
- The hidden version of your website that AI actually readsThe accessibility tree, and how to check yours in thirty seconds.
- The first reply winsWhy speed beats price for local enquiries.
Search questions, answered straight
Do I still need a website if I have a Google Business Profile?
Yes. The profile wins the map. The website wins the results underneath it, and it is what the AI tools read and cite. The two feed each other: the profile links to the site, the site names the same services and towns, and the details match everywhere.
Is AI search different from SEO?
No. ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's own AI answers lean on the same signals as the ordinary results: a complete profile, consistent details, real reviews, pages that plainly say what you do and where. Do the basics properly and you are not just ranking, you are becoming the recommendation. Anyone selling AI search as a separate service is selling the same work twice.
Why is the Google Business Profile the biggest lever?
Because the map results come from it, not from your website, and because most local businesses have never finished theirs. The right category, steady reviews, real photos and identical details are worth more than anything clever, and they cost an hour and a habit.
How long before any of this works?
The profile can move within weeks. New pages take a month or two to be found. Reviews compound over a year. Nobody honest can promise a position, which is why INKON promises the work instead: content written for every search you want to be found for, and a report each month on what moved.
What does INKON actually do about it each month?
On every plan: your Google Business Profile kept right and posts made, reviews earned and replied to, your details kept identical, a report on what moved. On Grow, the content as well: two blog posts a month, Google posts and twenty social posts, so the site keeps earning after launch.
What should I stop paying for?
A separate GEO or AEO retainer, a maintenance fee for software, and any tool that promises to make ChatGPT recommend you. Google's own AI guide says the same: there is no special AI optimisation, there is good content, plainly written, on a site that works.
Start here
Free audit of your website.
Find out where you stand, for free.
The audit covers all three: your Google Business Profile, your pages, and what the AI tools see. Where you rank, where the enquiries leak, and what I would do first. In your inbox, no meeting.