AI Search Optimization: Here’s How You Remain Relevant as a Business
We’re all still sussing out how these new AI search engines work – and how they’ll affect our customers’ local SEO strategies. New data reminds us every day that multi-location businesses are increasingly at the mercy of AI-driven search developments. It’s on us, as marketers, to understand how our clients can optimize for this rapidly evolving search landscape.
Our latest consumer report reveals that AI tools are now the fourth most-used method for local search — what exactly does that mean? Consumers are heading to generative engines, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity, when they research brands and businesses. So, should marketers depart from their existing location marketing strategy?
AI readiness is key to remaining discoverable online – but so is doubling down on the same trust signals like reviews, consistency, and clarity that were key for traditional search strategies. I’ll unpack this more in this article.
How Does AI Search Work?
AI search is evolving day by day. While we can’t update this article daily, we can walk you through the foundational shifts in AI search — and how to adjust your SEO strategy accordingly. These fundamentals are unlikely to change anytime soon.
It pulls from multiple sources: AI uses a variety of online sources — not just your website — to serve answers, including from landing pages, blogs, reviews, and metadata.
It relies on knowledge graphs and entities: AI search engines scrape and cross-reference business information from across the internet (search engines, directories, online sources). This helps them understand and semantically organize and connect online business data and mentions.
Structured data matters: Schema markup — also known as structured data — helps AI search engines read and understand the content on your website (what you sell, location, pricing, etc.).
It uses natural language processing (NLP): AI engines don’t just scan the keywords on your website. They interpret phrasing and intent to deliver conversational, relevant results. The easier it is to understand your content, the more likely it is that AI will utilize it.
It considers website authority: AI engines look at your customer reviews, the freshness of your content (new blog posts, seasonal menus, etc.)
It looks at user feedback and interaction data: If a similar search query is typed into Google, search engines typically learn how people interacted with the data provided. That is, did they scroll past the first option, click on another link, or bounce from the page? This demonstrates just how important it is to have engaging and useful website content and a responsive website.
Meet the Engines: AI Overviews, SearchGPT, Perplexity
The engines delivering these more conversational results are well-known by now, but for good measure, I’ll briefly mention the most commonly spoken about AI search engines.
1. Google AI Overviews and AI Mode
Google introduced AI Overviews originally as part of its Search Generative Experience (SGE) in 2023 and then officially launched at the Google I/O 2024 to be available to over a billion searchers by the end of 2024. It uses Gemini to generate quick, snapshot-style answers sourced from across the web and is reshaping how users discover local businesses, without needing to click.
In late Spring 2025, Google announced its AI Mode feature, describing it as capable of:
“breaking down your question into subtopics and issuing a multitude of queries simultaneously on your behalf. This enables Search to dive deeper into the web than a traditional search on Google, helping you discover even more of what the web has to offer and find incredible, hyper-relevant content that matches your question.”
– Elizabeth Reid, VP, Head of Search at Google
2. SearchGPT
Developed by OpenAI, SearchGPT builds on the capabilities of GPT-4 to offer a more conversational and contextually aware search experience. The core idea is to provide users with deeper, more targeted answers that feel more intuitive and personalized. It can also handle follow-up questions and complex queries, unlike traditional search engines.
3. Perplexity
Perplexity is an AI-supported search engine that combines the functions of AI Overviews and ChatGPT — because unlike many other AI models, it also provides sources for the answers. In contrast to conventional search engines, Perplexity provides summarized information so that users do not have to search through links. These functions make it pretty useful for finding information quickly.
I could sit here at my keyboard and write endlessly about the different AI search engines emerging, but I want to get onto how all these models and new search engines affect our clients’ location marketing strategy.
5 Ways Uberall Helps with AI Search Optimization
AI readiness is paramount for our clients’ local SEO strategy — early adopters of the right strategy are more likely to gain a competitive edge.
That’s because multi-location marketing teams that rely heavily on traditional SEO to drive traffic may start to feel the impact as AI search engines reduce the need for users to click through to websites or directly engage with a brand. We’re already reading that click-through-rates for traditional organic results have dropped significantly this year when AI Overviews have been present.
Amid this chaos, it’s our job as product marketers to acknowledge these anxieties and help multi-location marketing teams adapt effectively to this evolving environment. More than that, it’s our job to reframe this disruption as an opportunity — not just another stressor.
It’s no longer just about keyword-driven traffic. Businesses that are AI-ready are instead prioritizing clarity, uniqueness, and relevance in their content. These aren’t new ideas — but they’ve never been more important. Here’s what we’re recommending in the era of AI search:
1. Up-to-Date and Consistent Information
Brands that show up consistently across the web are best positioned — not only for AI-powered search but also for traditional search engines.
That’s because, while the zero-click phenomenon has affected how consumers now engage with brands online, our latest consumer report tells us that local discovery is crucial:
9 in 10 consumers search online before visiting a local business
Over 8 in 10 visit that business within a week
6 in 10 make a purchase after that visit
A confused AI search engine, which is designed to pull data from various sources and prioritize contextual understanding, will more likely skip a brand in its results, if business information is missing or inconsistent.
Advice
We urge our clients to check their business information is fresh and consistent across all digital touchpoints – across listings, maps, directories, Google Business Profile, website, and social media. They should continue to optimize for local search visibility and the Google 3-Pack.
This business information includes brand name, opening hours, locations, menu, and offers.
2. Great Content with Unique Perspectives
The core SEO principles of E-E-A-T (demonstrating expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness) still matter for online visibility.
Content that minimizes confusion and maximizes clarity and trust will improve how well AI models interpret and rank it.
AI search engines, in theory, will favor content that is:
comprehensive and of exceptionally high quality
relevant or specific to user needs or experience
engaging, meaningful and likely to generate shares or interactions
That is why smart marketers are now applying their SEO expertise to GEO (generative engine optimization).
Advice
We recommend our clients continue building webpages that clearly reflect their services and expertise. That doesn’t mean creating content just because there’s search volume or competitors are doing it. It means publishing when the brand has something unique to contribute: new data, original quotes, or insight their audience can’t get elsewhere.
When brands do publish meaningful content, it should be structured, deliver clear, in-depth answers, and maintain relevance to real customer queries. As I mentioned, clarity and trustworthiness strongly influence how AI engines evaluate content.
Once a brand has nailed its message, AI-powered social media tools can help repurpose it, schedule posts, and track engagement. My advice is that brands can (and absolutely should) also reflect this authority across all platforms where their users are – whether on TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, or Reddit.
Optimizing for Google or traditional search is not a waste of time. But brands do need to diversify their traffic sources, prepare for AI-first experiences, and rethink their approach to content creation across all platforms.
3. Keep Your Analytics Tools Close
AI-powered search is still in its infancy, and customers are taking their time to adjust their search behavior. As marketers have seen in previous years with Google, there’ll be new algorithms. Some verticals might be affected more than others.
We don’t yet know exactly how this will all play out — we only have the data that exists today.
AI search changes will keep marketers on their toes, tracking fluctuations, adapting their strategy, and seeking new opportunities. And there’s really only one solution that will help: solid analytics and real-time insights.
Advice
AI search is affecting your KPIs, but don’t let it affect your confidence.
There’s no need to completely overhaul your SEO strategy — best practices are still relevant. Monitor your subsequent long-term search performance. The best analytics tools will help pinpoint both your wins and where you can improve. For example, our new free AI Visibility Grader gives marketers more real-time insight into how their business shows up on AI-powered search.
Remain open-minded. Embrace experiments and A/B testing to determine what content works best for your multi-location business. Bear in mind that each location may need different content for local SEO. Your success will depend on consistent data collection and timely analysis.
If you are still anxious, ensure you are diversifying your traffic sources and optimizing for discoverability across multiple channels, as I mentioned above. So, keep your analytics tools close, and your experimental mindset even closer.
4. Look at Schema Markup More Seriously
AI search engines generate answers based on the clear, structured information they can crawl online. That’s why the contextual data on your website, such as schema markup and meta tags, is going to become more critical.
Schema markup (also known as “structured data”) is the language search engines use to interpret the content on your website – for example:
Products and pricing
Business type
Videos and images
Events
Reviews
Content format
Google and schema.org offer online resources to help you choose and implement the right schemas for your website.
Advice
Our Locator & Local Pages tool helps our customers easily implement schema markup and meta tags. In fact, our tool autogenerates schema when they choose their business type. No manual action needed.
Although checking and optimizing your schema sounds like another task for your to-do list, you should see it as an opportunity to manage the narrative of your brand in AI search. You’re creating the necessary shortcuts to help these engines better understand and recommend your multi-location business and services.
5. Smarter Reputation Management
We recommend you ask for reviews and respond proactively to bad reviews. Our data shows that almost half of consumers were put off visiting a local business because of unclear or high prices (48%) and bad reviews (46%) online.
But it’s also worth nothing that the more positive and detailed reviews your multi-location has, the more AI search engines favor you. That’s because if people aren’t talking about your products or services, AI has less context to understand and recommend your business.
As I mentioned earlier, AI engines pull data from multiple online sources — including customer reviews — to synthesize answers. Online opinions can directly influence how (or whether) your business appears in AI-powered search results.
That’s why review management tools will become more important than before
Advice
Our AI Bulk Replies feature helps our clients generate timely, relevant responses to reviews at scale. They can also request reviews from their customers to ensure that they send even stronger signals of their brand authority and trustworthiness to customers, search engines, and generative engines.
When customers log into our platform, their Reputation Reports and Location Performance Score reassures them that they are on top of their review response rates. They can also use the data to better understand their customers interests, concerns, and which platforms they’re engaging the most with.
With this data, we advise our clients to focus on generating more reviews on the most important platforms for online visibility, such as Google, Apple, or Yelp.
AI Readiness Is Not as Complex As It Sounds
But that doesn’t mean you should underestimate being AI-ready.
That’s because, whether brands are ready or not, AI engines are already now the fourth most-used method for local search.
As AI advances, search is becoming more conversational, contextual driven and personalized. Google is investing heavily and rapidly on its AI search experience, but there are also other players like Apple Intelligence, OpenAI, and Perplexity.
AI readiness is about keeping calm and doubling down on the same trust signals like reviews, consistency, and clarity. It’s about investing in the technology that gives you real-time, round-the-clock control over your business information, with the capabilities to experiment and capture data that checks what’s working and what’s not.
Stay powerful in the era of AI search