Sponsored article by Foxglove
For years, the question driving a local player was as simple as can be: « Do I appear in Google Maps and in the organic results for my geographic area? » Well-maintained Google Business Profile, consistent NAP data, well-managed reviews, a few local content pages: the game was mapped out, the rules known!
This game still exists. But it has been joined by a second arena, less visible, less codified, but decisive: that of answer engines relying on artificial intelligence. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini… These tools now answer your potential customers' questions directly, without going through a list of links. And when a user types « what is the best SEO agency in Lyon» or «plumber available tonight in Bordeaux », the generated answer may cite companies, or it may not. Your position on Google does not necessarily have as much impact as you might imagine. Let's look at how to address this new issue!
Local SEO and GEO: the same goal with two different approaches
Local SEO has relied for years on a well-known three-part framework:
- Relevance (does your business match the query?),
- Proximity (are you geographically close to the user?)
- Reputation (are you perceived as an authority in your field?)
These three pillars are worked on via the GBP listing, the consistency of NAP information (Name, Address, Phone) across the web, the volume and quality of customer reviews, and a network of local citations.
This foundation remains valid, even essential. But it is no longer enough to be visible to generative AIs, and here's why: a search engine ranks pages, a generative engine synthesizes an answer. This is not the same cognitive operation.
When Google Search ranks your GBP listing at the top of local results, it's because you filled in the right fields, received the right reviews, and your address is consistent across the web. The algorithm responds to structured signals. When ChatGPT or Perplexity choose to cite you in an answer, it's because your business is sufficiently well documented on the web so that a language model can talk about it with confidence. AI does not "read" your GBP listing the same way a Google crawler does.
Concretely, here’s what GEO requires in addition to traditional local SEO:
- Some rich textual content readable by AI on your site (not just product pages or contact pages);
- A narrative presence on the web : mentions in local press articles, industry blogs, quality directories;
- A demonstrated topical authority through the consistency of your positioning across all your digital touchpoints;
- Some structured data (Schema.org) which allow automated systems to precisely understand who you are and what you do.
The dividing line is clear: local SEO works so that Google finds. GEO works so that AIs understand and cite you.
How does an AI choose a local provider?
A study conducted by BrightLocal at the end of 2024 study on the sources used by ChatGPT Search for local queries provides enlightening data: business websites account for 58% of the cited sourcesahead of mentions on other sites (27%) and directories (15%). In other words, if your website is poor in content, incomplete, or difficult for an automated system to use, you start with a major disadvantage, even if your GBP listing is perfect.
Among directory sources, platforms like Three Best Rated dominate, while major local SEO players like Yelp or Google Maps do not appear directly in ChatGPT's results. This gap between the signals relevant to Google and those relevant to ChatGPT is exactly the heart of the GEO problem.
The logic of citation by AI
For an AI to cite you in response to a local question, several conditions must be met simultaneously:
1. Your existence is confirmed by several independent sources. Generative AIs usually work by cross-referencing: if your business is only mentioned on your own site, the model lacks the confidence to cite you. Conversely, if you appear on your website, in a local press article, in a recognized industry directory, and on a few specialized platforms, the body of evidence is sufficient.
2. Your positioning is clear and coherent. AI cannot infer what you do if your descriptions vary from one platform to another, if your industry is not explicitly mentioned in your content, or if your geographic service area is vague. What seems obvious to a human visiting your site must explicitly stated be understood by a language model.
3. Your online reputation is documented and positive. Customer reviews remain a strong signal — not only for humans, but also because they constitute a form of social proof that AI incorporates into its evaluation. The latest edition of BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey (2026) confirms that consumer expectations around reviews continue to rise: higher average ratings are expected, and the freshness of reviews is increasingly decisive in decision-making.
Foxglove – an agency that adapts its strategy
Let's take a concrete example within the SEO sector itself with the SEO agency Foxglove in LyonComposed of senior experts, it has incorporated GEO into its service offering in the form of AI/GEO/GSO SEO support. This approach perfectly illustrates the shift local players must now make: not treating GEO as a theoretical topic reserved for big brands, but as a natural extension of their local visibility strategy.
Concrete levers to exist in both worlds
Good news: the actions to take for local GEO do not contradict what you already do in local SEO. They enrich and complement it. Here are five priority initiatives.
Lever 1 – Enrich your site's content to make it "citable"
This is the most impactful and most often neglected lever. A local site whose homepage is reduced to a contact form and three brief sentences introducing the business has no chance of being cited by an AI, regardless of its SEO performance.
What AIs are looking for is actionable substance who you are, precisely what you do, for whom, in which geographic area, how long you've been operating, and what concrete results you achieve. Concretely:
- Write detailed service pages that answer the questions your customers ask (prices, timelines, methods, guarantees)
- Publish local editorial content : blog posts about your industry in your city, practical guides for your local customers, answers to frequently asked questions
- Include credibility elements : detailed customer testimonials (not just ratings), case studies, certifications, years of experience
The foundational research on GEO (Princeton, 2023) demonstrated empirically: content that cites sources and statistics are significantly more often used by generative engines than purely assertive content.
Lever 2 – Deploy Schema.org structured data
The structured Schema.org data represent the bridge between your content and the machine's understanding. For a local business, certain data are particularly important:
- LocalBusiness (with addressLocality, geo, openingHours, priceRange, telephone)
- Service for each offered service
- Review and AggregateRating if you display reviews on your site
- FAQPage for question-and-answer pages
These markups allow AIs to quickly understand who you are without having to interpret your text, which mechanically increases your likelihood of being cited in a local answer.
Lever 3 – Develop your presence in reference sources
Since AIs rely on multiple independent sources to validate a citation, the strategy of building mentions takes on new importance. It's no longer just about accumulating backlinks for PageRank: it's about creating a body of evidence that your business exists, is credible, and operates in a given area.
Here are some concrete actions:
- Keep your listings up to date on reference directories in your industry (not just generic directories)
- Aim to be mentioned in the local and regional press, even for small events (opening, partnership, attending a trade show)
- Offer interviews or contributions to industry or local blogs
- Verify the absolute consistency of your NAP information across all these touchpoints
BrightLocal's study on ChatGPT's sources reveals that Wikipedia accounts for 39% of the "business mentions" in results, based on a corpus of queries. For large organizations, an up-to-date Wikipedia page is a powerful lever. For smaller players, the challenge is to multiply mentions on trusted third-party sources.
Lever 4 – Treat reviews as a strategic asset
Customer reviews do not play the same role for Google and for generative AIs, but they remain indispensable in both cases. For AIs, what matters particularly is:
- Overall volume : a low number of reviews makes the business less visible in training data and real-time data;
- Review freshness : reviews from several years ago carry less weight. BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 confirms that consumers themselves place increasing importance on review freshness;
- The textual content of reviews : a review that mentions your location, specific services and your business name is infinitely more useful for an AI than a simple 5-star rating without a comment
Encouraging your customers to quickly leave detailed reviews is one of the most cost-effective actions you can take right now.
Lever 5 – Think "direct answer" rather than "web page"
This is perhaps the deepest mindset shift imposed by GEO. As Search Engine Land points outTraditionally, SEO consists of creating a page targeting a keyword, whereas AI-oriented SEO consists of creating content that directly answers a user's specific question.
Applied locally, this means: instead of writing a page optimized for " plumber Paris 15 ", it's better to write a page that answers " how to find a plumber available quickly in the 15th arrondissement and what is the usual price for a leak? ". The FAQ format, conversational content, pages that anticipate real customer questions: this is what AIs primarily aim to synthesize!
GEO doesn't replace local SEO; it exposes its weaknesses
If we had to summarize what GEO changes for local players, it would be this: it exposes all the approximations that traditional local SEO tolerated.
A well-filled GBP listing but a website with no content? Local SEO could maybe tolerate that, GEO cannot. Many reviews but too old and lacking text? Same. Consistent NAP information but no mention in the press or trusted directories? Same.
GEO doesn't require starting everything over. It asks totake local SEO logic to its conclusion : create an online presence sufficiently rich, coherent and documented so that an artificial intelligence, like a potential customer, can understand within seconds who you are, what you do, and why you deserve to be recommended.
The good news is that businesses that have been seriously working on their local SEO for years already have a head start. They don't have to start from scratch; they need to fill in blind spots. And for those who haven't yet invested in local visibility: the stakes have never been higher, nor the rules clearer!
The article “What GEO changes (concretely) for local SEO” was published on the site Abundance.
