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In the last decade, we have witnessed a massive shift in local discovery. The days of thumbing through pages of the Yellow Pages or countless generic search results on your phone browser are long gone. If a local customer needs a service or product, she’s not thinking of the best restaurants or salons in the city but rather “salon near Anna Nagar” or “best dosa in Mylapore”. These highly conversational and localized “near me” queries make up the majority of local search traffic and have made Google Maps (and soon AI Search engines) the real battlegrounds for local businesses.

But as the search war wages, the rules of the game are changing. Generative AI LLMs (Large Language Models) like ChatGPT, Google Maps generative AI, and others are transforming local SEO, what it means, what’s important, and how to win. In this article, let’s dive into how Google Maps SEO is evolving, where old school SEO hurts, and how to combine AI with the best of human expertise to kill local search.

Old School Google Maps SEO Playbook

Let’s start with the basics. For the past few years, local SEO has focused on the following best practices to rank and show up on Google Maps:

• Your Google Business Profile (GBP) should be claimed and verified.
• Name, address, and phone number (NAP) should be consistent on your profile, website, and online directories.
• A large number of positive, but genuine reviews.
• Fresh and relevant posts should be made periodically.
• Professional photos should be uploaded.
• You should regularly monitor and respond to customer reviews.

The idea is that your GBP will show up in the “Local Pack” (the top 3 map results) and sometimes on the map when people search locally. For this you should:

• Claim and verify your GBP
• Add local keyword to the business description
• Upload high-quality photos
• Respond to reviews
• Have NAP consistency in other business directories

But there are also a number of pain points and gaps in this SEO approach, especially with changing search trends.

Old SEO’s Pain Points

In practice, a lot of businesses continue to have the following problems despite following SEO best practices:

• NAP Inconsistency: Your business name, address or phone number may be different on various platforms and directories, confusing both Google and the customer.
• Wrong addresses/hours: Contact details, address or even working hours are sometimes wrong or not updated leading to loss of business and customer frustration.
• Weak “near me” optimization: Old SEO provides limited tools to optimize for the increasing number of *“near me”* queries and more complex, voice and conversational searches
• Manual review management: Tracking and responding to reviews, and posting fresh content are manual and time-consuming.

Generative LLMs: Enter the New Age of Local Search

Generative AI LLMs (Large Language Models) like ChatGPT and Google’s own generative AI in Maps have the power to transform all of this. Generative models are software trained on vast datasets that can understand human language, summarize documents, and even generate new text. Applied to Maps and local search they could mean a whole new era of local discovery.

LLMs have a few powers that make them interesting for local SEO:

• Intent Understanding: LLMs can understand complex queries such as “best dosa in Mylapore open after 10pm” and surface businesses that have those keywords, or even no those keywords on their profile if they can infer the intent and patterns from other user signals.
• Review Summarization: AI can scan and read thousands of reviews to surface a synthesized, natural language summary of things people love/hate about your business. This is better than just an average star rating or a long scroll of reviews.
• AI-powered Suggestions: Generative AI in Maps or search engines could smartly surface businesses based on complex patterns in user behavior, preferences, location, and real-time context.
• Automated Content: AI Tools can automate routine actions like posting fresh reviews and responses, updating photos and maps, and posting events or offers to keep your GBP fresh.

Comparing Old SEO vs LLM-powered Analysis

The Limits of AI (The LLM will not Solve Everything)

Generative AI and LLMs offer an exciting vision for the future of local SEO, but it’s important to note that they are not a panacea and will not solve everything. This is because:

• Local Nuance: AI and large language models still can’t fully replicate the local, personal voice and stories that make your business unique and important to your community. User-generated content like reviews, local links, and authentic engagement will always be the gold standard.
• On-Page Optimization: Setting up a GBP, selecting business categories, and writing descriptions still require a human touch.
• Keyword Relevance: While AI can help with keyword research, only you know what matters to your customers and industry.
• Reputation Management: Certain reviews, especially negative ones, need a personal and human response.

How to Use AI SEO tools and also Human Strategy

The key for local businesses to succeed with SEO is to use both worlds together. Combine the benefits of LLM AI such as speed, scalability, and pattern matching with the unique benefits of human expertise such as local understanding and creativity. This can look like:

• Use AI-powered tools and data sources to monitor for NAP consistency, flag errors, and automate minor updates. Allow AI to scan, summarize, and flag, but make sure updates are made and authorized by your team.
• Let the AI summarize reviews and make suggestions, but post important content pieces, reviews, and media yourself.
• Use AI to augment existing workflows, but have humans lead. For instance use AI for data collection, insights, keyword research etc. but have humans do the main work of managing reviews, local engagement etc.
• Use AI-powered dashboards for tracking your rankings and engagements. But use local and expert knowledge to interpret data and change tactics.

The Future: Google Maps Generative AI & Beyond

• Summarized reviews by real customers
• Actual current hours and address verification
• Patterns in user queries and preferences
• Map photos from businesses and surroundings
• Inferred user preferences and location

To prepare for this future, you should focus on:

• Keeping your online business information consistent and up-to-date across all platforms and directories. AI may summarize reviews but can’t fix bad data. NAP consistency is also critical as duplicate business listings often hurt your rankings in Google Maps.
• Posting frequent, fresh, and localized content in your local listings. Take advantage of any AI writing features that generate customer reviews, or content in local languages/fluencies. Content in your native language or from real customers will always win.
• Continuing to use local keyword targeting, organically in your GBP and other online listings, but also naturally across your website and local content. Keywords are not going away and still drive intent-driven local search.
• Experimenting with AI tools to speed up and scale workflows. For SEO this means NAP and business listing checks and suggestions, data collection and analysis, SEO automations, reporting, and keyword research.

Wrapping Up

The rise of LLMs and generative AI search and SEO is not a signal to put all your human workers out of jobs. Instead it’s a signal to empower those same workers by augmenting their expertise with smarter AI. Local search is about community, geography, and a personal touch, and these are things that AI will never replace. Instead use the best of both to make your local SEO strategy the champion it can be. Happy optimizing and I’ll see you in Google Maps.