Local Search is now Local Discovery

What does it take to show up in Local Searches in 2026?

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Traditional methods of ranking in local search are losing ground, AI has dramatically altered user behavior, creating an entirely different playing field for local businesses. Local SEO is no longer just about stuffing your website full of keywords, it’s about prioritizing authenticity, proximity, and leveraging structured data. AI summaries appear at the top of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for a majority of local business queries, when someone searches for “best Greek restaurant Winnipeg” or “HVAC near Nanaimo” more often than not, they’re seeing an AI recommendation rather than a traditional list of links. 

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Like almost everything these days, AI has changed the game. More and more consumers are increasingly relying on answers from AI agents like Perplexity or Gemini, the “old” way of doing Local SEO alone isn’t enough. Many users now rely on SERP features for navigational searches, leading to more zero-click results, “Overviews” are reducing click-through rates for local queries 30-50%. Instead of visiting a website, users often find the address, phone number, or other key information directly in the search results. 

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Not surprisingly, Google has found a way to monetize local searches alongside its helpful AI-generated results by increasing the paid real estate in the local map pack and other positions, forcing organic results out in favor of paid listings. In fact, AI automation everywhere has forced Search Strategists to level up their game; optimizing to ROAS, and increasing spends to remain competitive, with average CPC’s increasing 12% across all industries YoY, and as much as 40% in B2B and SaaS categories.

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Fortunately, it doesn’t all have to be pay-to-play. AI engines rely heavily on sentiments, and real, “unique” content, simply by virtue of what they are. As long as you’re consistently generating authentic content with real people, and your business operates where you say it does, you can still own the top of the SERP’s. Plus, click traffic from AI Overviews tend to have much higher intent, you may have less website visitors, but higher conversion rates. 

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Off Site

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Strong, consistent Google reviews help build trust with AI engines, and can help when consumers are looking for recommendations. It can feel awkward to ask customers for reviews, but the key is to make it frictionless. Send a direct text message with a review link immediately after finishing a job, or have a QR code at your checkout counter. If you want to take it a step further, provide a prompt for your customer asking them to mention specifics about the service they received and where. “Great Service” is a nice review, but “Best plumber in South Edmonton, they fixed my water heater fast” is way better. 

Respond to all your reviews legally, and calmly. Thank the positive reviewers, and handle the negative feedback professionally without getting personal, or defensive. No pressure, but potential customers will read your response and gauge how you handle conflict, your tone is important. AI Models evaluate how businesses engage with customer feedback, you’re not only responding to reviews, you’re building your brand and credibility.

Whatever you do, don’t neglect your Google Business Profile, it’s more important now than ever. Treat your Google Business Profile like a Social Media channel. Take advantage of all relevant features like posts & photos. Be as specific as you can with your categories; instead of “Contractor” use secondary categories like “Kitchen Remodeler”. Post weekly (or seasonal) updates, share product launches, events, or promotions. Pre-populate your FAQ’s, if you know what questions your first-time customers usually have, answer them yourself in your GBP, this gives clean data directly to AI search models.

Make sure your NAP (name, address, and phone numbers) are 100% accurate everywhere. Even though Local Directories, aka “citiations” make up less of the Local SEO pie in 2026, your NAP is still important to how search engines cross-reference your business info across the internet. Even a seemingly insignificant discrepancy like “123 Main Street” and “123 Main St.” can dilute your authority score.

On Site

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On your website, consider adding an FAQ section, or Blog, and answer “direct” questions. Think about what kind of searches your customers might be asking Google or AI. “Who, what, where, and how” questions about your services make it easy for AI to parse out and surface your business as an answer. Make sure your website copy reads like a human wrote it, answer questions in a natural, conversational tone, consumers are growing weary of copy that looks like it was written by or for AI.

When it comes to your business and location, be as specific as you can, your website needs to prove to search engines that you operate in, and understand your specific community - if you serve multiple cities, build unique landing pages for each one, don’t reuse copy from existing landing pages, search engine will penalize this as a “doorway page”. If you work on projects in multiple cities or communities, mention local landmarks, or create local FAQ’s for each area. Case studies are a great way to showcase your work, while providing verifiable information for AIs to crawl.

Search engines scan the metadata of thousands of sites to provide the most relevant results to user search queries. Schema is basically the blueprint of your site that tells Google what you do and where you do it. Make sure you’re leveraging Local Business Schema Markup: this is a snippet of structured code in the back end of your website that tells search engines “This is a local business, with this exact address, these hours, and these specific services and phone number.” Most website builders will generate this automatically if you fill out your profile settings correctly, but you can test it using Google’s free Rich Results Test Tool to double check: https://search.google.com/test/rich-results 

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Traditional Local SEO still forms the backbone of what AI-driven search models use to understand and rank businesses. Core elements like citations, backlinks, and strong on-page optimization remain essential to any effective SEO and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) strategy. Modern Local SEO builds on that foundation, like SEO 2.0, combining optimized Google Business Profiles, strong review signals, and intentional website enhancements to help businesses dominate the top of today’s search results pages. 

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