The AI secret Google doesn't want contractors to know (changes everything)

GEO AI Local Search: What Contractors Need to Know About the Future of SEO

Join Aaron and Chris Lonergan from Footbridge Media as they dive deep into the hottest topic buzzing in local service business circles: Generative Experience Optimization (GEO) and its impact on traditional SEO.

In this episode, we break down:
• What GEO actually is and how it relates to AI-powered search
• Why local service businesses shouldn't panic about ChatGPT and other AI platforms
• The key differences between informational searches (perfect for AI) vs. commercial intent searches (still Google's domain)
• Why Google's ecosystem of business profiles, reviews, and proximity data gives them an unbeatable advantage
• Practical advice for contractors, plumbers, HVAC techs, and other local service providers

Key Takeaway: While AI is rapidly evolving, traditional local search isn't going anywhere. People looking for a plumber or pressure washer aren't asking ChatGPT complex questions – they're typing "plumber near me" into Google. The fundamentals of local SEO, Google Business Profiles, and customer reviews remain your best investment.

Perfect for business owners in trades like pressure washing, landscaping, HVAC, plumbing, and any service where "a truck leaves the shop to serve customers."

Featured: Footbridge Media - specialists in hand-coded websites for local service businesses since 2004.

Transcript

GEO AI Local Search 

[00:00:00] What's up guys? Welcome back to the channel. Uh, today we're talking about a hot new topic that is, uh, coming into the local service business sector. Guys are, you know, talking about it on the inner webs and the Facebooks and all of these things called, uh, generative experience optimization. It's basically like an AI form of SEO, right?

Everybody's kind of wondering how their site's gonna rank. Are they still gonna get the same amount of traffic? You know, how does this change the ranking of my local service business into the future? Am I still gonna be able to make money with Google? Uh, I got my boy Chris Lonergan here on the line.

Before we jump into kind of explaining what this is, if you're looking to get a contractor website, the best in the game is Footbridge Media. They've been doing this since 2004. Long time ago, and I'll put the link, uh, in the description and the number will be scrolling across the [00:01:00] bottom of the screen.

Give 'em a call, check it out, see what they have to offer. They are specialists at hand-coded websites specifically for local service business. Those are the only things, uh, the only businesses that they serve is local service businesses like you. Pressure washing, landscaping, hvac, plumbing. Go down the list.

If a truck leaves the house or the, or the shop and goes somewhere to service somebody, that is what they specialize in. So again, the link in the description. Link in the comments and mention Lean and Mean to save $600 a year on your Footbridge website. What is up? Chris Lonnergan, how you doing brother?

Doing good. How are you doing, Aaron? I'm good man. So. This whole new geo thing, you know, I have my own opinion about, uh, what it's gonna do or what it's not gonna do, at least, you know, for the next year. AI's moving so quickly right now, but tell me a little bit about what, what is this geo, how is [00:02:00] it related to contractors ranking and SEO and the things, the terms that we've used for eons?

Is this different? Is it new? Is it real? What is this? So geo is a huge, it's a hot button topic right now, like you said, with everything, ai, everything online marketing, uh, geo, obviously A GEO to compare to SEO search engine optimization. It's talking about how people, how websites and how marketing practices are optimized to work well in the world of ai.

So that's if you are using Google and you get those generative AI overviews, or if you're using an LLM, if you're using chat GPT to try to do searches to get more information. The idea is that there are different steps or separate processes that are best for helping you to show up in those AI based services compared to traditional search.

It's a really hot, uh, you go on, jump on X and you'll see a lot of, a lot of geos and marketing people yell at each other. Uh, it's really hot button because a lot of people say it's very specifically [00:03:00] different. Um, I personally am of the idea that while there are a couple very niche specific AI things. A lot of what makes you rank well perform well in AI based search ultimately boils down to the same traditional SEO tactics that already make you perform well in Google.

Uh, so the idea here is we need to identify what things are different and what things maybe you have to double down on, what things you need to tweak and adjust to make sure that you are showing up everywhere that you might show up. Um, with the idea of we're kind of planning for the future when it comes to how local service businesses.

Are going to be more commonly discovered coming down the pipeline when it comes to ai. A lot of how a, how local businesses work right now still for the most part, is based on traditional Google search. Uh, just by the very nature of how people search for service-based companies when they need somebody.

You know, if you need a a plumber, you're gonna type in plumber or plumber near me in Google, or [00:04:00] whatever search engine you use. You're not gonna be writing longer tail key phrases or having conversations like you do with most traditional, uh, AI based services like Chat, GPT or perplexity or what have you.

But the idea here is that there are some specific key things that you, maybe you should think about in your content, how you're preparing your company to be presented to the world online. Uh, there are some, a couple key differences, things you wanna keep in mind while maintaining some really strong traditional SEO practices.

Very good. So. Overall, I'm just gonna give my take, and this is a, you know, a, a take from a guy who does marketing for a living, but I'm placing my early bet. This is not a late bet. This is not a five year bet. This is a a two year bet that geo is not really going to affect local search for local businesses enough to matter.[00:05:00]

I, I would, I would join you in that bet because I think that a lot of people, when people are going to chat gt or triggering AI mode in, in Google search, it's because they've got a really long, complicated question. That's when I go to something like that set of Google. When you need a professional, that's not the kind of search you're doing, right?

If you know that you need your driveway cleaned. You're gonna look up driveway washing or pressure washing near me. You're not gonna ask a two sentence question about the art of driveway cleaning, right? It's, it's a very different process for how our brain thinks about how to do a search. Uh, and, and there's not enough of that kind of traffic, I think, to justify like, I need to, you know, invest in thousands of dollars into specifically geo for my local service business.

Right, right. I also think that, and we talked about this earlier before the call, but I think that since Google owns the game, [00:06:00] folks, you gotta think about this. Google has gotten you, if you have a business, a local service business, Google gave you your email, okay? They also got you to click a button and sign up.

For a business listing. All right? And that listing has your business name and the address and the phone number, and you can upload photos to your Google Business profile. Uh, you can do all of these things within their environment, and then they put you, you can also get reviews to that listing, right?

This is all things that you guys know and you participate in every day. Google owns a bank of businesses. They also have an ad platform. A lot of you guys run ads through that refer business back to your website and to call you, right? So they own this giant book of business and I'm of the firm belief if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Right? Proximity, what's your [00:07:00] address? Right? People love to work with people close to them. If you're in Alabama, you don't want a pressure washer in Virginia. So proximity matters. Um, uh, social proof matters. Has this company been in business for a while? Do they have good reviews? That stuff matters. Google owns all of this platform, Chris, and all of these key reference points in order to rank someone.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not believe that chat, GPT or other LLMs. I have a way to sign up with a business listing that has five stars or four star reviews and has photos that can be uploaded of the food that you cook or the grass that you mow. Um, this is why I think the way I think is because anything that chat GPT or an LLM is gonna pull from to get reference to give you an answer is going to be Google itself.

[00:08:00] They're going to, they've gotta pull that data from somewhere because they don't own it. That's their, their model, like you said, is to not build their own core data is to rely on other outside data that essentially feeds into their, their brain, into their model. So yeah, they have to understand, especially with something like business reviews, that's something that changes in real time.

So even if it did do a huge crawl of all, all businesses, it can't do a crawl of every pressure washing company, every plumbing business, every hvac constantly polling that information. Right? So it's either gonna have outdated information or it's gotta pull fresh anyways. And it's gotta use available sources like Yelp, like Google places where they have public reviews that are available.

So yeah, even if someone does go to like a chat, GPT and types in pressure washer near me. It's gonna basically give you not the same exact format. It's not gonna show you star ratings and all that, but it will show you, here are local businesses near you, right? And it's essentially gonna feed you back the same information.

It's gonna feed you back stuff [00:09:00] that you already understand. 'cause it's like you said, it's, it's information coming from other people's pipelines at that point. Right? Right. That's what AI was built on, is pulling, you know, their big, one of their big issues, I think when they came out with chat, GPT and some of these others is, was the, the contest of, uh, people were up in arms about pulling info from Reddit.

And then do you remember that thing where they were like, yeah, we're gonna pull from Reddit and Well, if you know Reddit, Reddit's not always, not the authority. Yeah, the authority of Reddit. Right. It's like a bunch of people's opinions and like, okay, well if we're gonna wait them, a bunch of people clicked the up button and upvoted this thing.

Apparently it's true if a bunch of people, uh, upvote something, you know what I mean? So. AI is getting better. I believe it's getting much better. And I don't know what the five-year deal is. I don't know. You know, this is a good question, is that I don't know that an AI platform in the future. [00:10:00] Won't come out with something that rivals Google and its local searchability as far as that goes.

'cause I don't think it'd be that hard for, because of the technology. Now it's not technology. 20 years ago it was hard 20 years ago, but like now, it's like if you have enough users using chat, GPT and chat, GPT says, Hey, we want to get into the local business game. We enough, have enough users. Well it's like, okay, you can sign up for a.

A chat GPT business profile. Right. And they just pull the information from Google and then like put it on, put it in the chat GPT. Right. So I don't know, man, like am I right? Am I thinking here? I don't really feel that these guys need to do anything different than what they're doing right now. They're not, I think, yeah, a national business.

They're local business. They're not like you. We talked about earlier putting recipes out there where somebody's asking about how to [00:11:00] like, change a certain ingredient or substitute an ingredient like, oh, I'm, I'm dairy intolerant. Right? So using this recipe, what would you switch out these dairy things for?

To get the same flavor? That's a chat GPT question. Not, I need my roof cleaned. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think that's the key difference there is people are looking for, uh, the, the fancy term is, you know, what intent is there? There's a commercial intent versus informational intent, right? So, yeah. When you're are, when you're looking for.

An opinion on something, or you're looking for a combination and an amalgamation of factual documentation, you're gonna use something like chat, GPT. If I need a service provider, that's a different type of search. That's a different intent of search. So Google isn't necessarily going to show me AI because like you said, they already have mechanisms that work really well for showing me that information.

At the end of the day, it's, it's answering all these services, whether it's chat, GPT, or Google or Bing or whoever. [00:12:00] At the end of the day, they need to give you something that answers your question, your search, and. Giving you a book of knowledge is not an answer to, I need a plumber. Right. The the answer is, here's a list of cool.

You need a plumber, here's their phone numbers, click to call. Right. That's answering the question. People like them. People like them. Yeah. Look, these a hundred people haven't been swindled by this company. Right, right. Click here to call. Right. Um, so that's the difference there. Like you said, it's the idea that.

People doing a search for local service. It's a different vibe altogether than what people are looking for for most chat g PT things. Now there are some very specific niche things that that may impact you. If you had blog posts that ranked really, really well for addressing things like, how can I fix my own drain cleaning problem without calling a plumber, right?

That's the kind of thing that maybe will show up with some sort of generative [00:13:00] response, but really. The plumbing businesses before were trying to capture that client and pull them in. We were kind of trying to trick them, um, because they weren't looking for professional at that point. They were looking for information.

We were just a professional providing information at that point. That's where people are, are, are getting a little hurt. But that's why, and that's what something you and I have talked about for forever is why Google Business profiles, Google reviews, all that stuff is so important. Making sure that you're an authority.

You know, that's, that's the common thread there. You need to be an authority, whether it's on AI or on traditional Google search, traditional SEO, you need to be an authority. How we do that needs to be a little more focused. Sure. It's not necessarily about making a billion blog posts anymore, right? It's about making sure your voice is authoritative in the things that you talk about.

And like we talked about a little bit before, it doesn't have to be, you don't have to write a book anymore. You need to write a really strong, solid answer. And not necessarily the most authoritative. Here's, here's 10,000 words [00:14:00] on how to fix drain cleaning yourself. Right? So capturing like national or worldwide traffic is losing its value for local businesses as far as gaining a authority.

Uh, as far as like writing a blog, you know, those back years ago I could write a blog that was 3000 words and I would get. Worldwide traffic for this article, and it would push my authority and my ranking up simply because of the traffic that I was getting as opposed to my competitors, right? They'd have like 20 people going to their site.

I'd have 2000 going to my site, you know? So Google would infer with a bunch of other algorithm parameters, you know, that Aaron's site was the most authoritative during that time. So you're saying that. Now they're just gonna pull from my blog and answer it in the AI at the top. Right. And if you're lucky, they'll give you a little link that says, we got this information from Aaron.

[00:15:00] Little paper clear. But you don't have to because you got the answer. Right, right, right. Well, guys, I hope this answers a lot of your questions about, um, you know, AI as far as the geo situation, what's it called again? Generative Generative experience. Yeah, there's a lot of, a lot of people have different acronyms for it, but yeah, I It's generative experience.

The, the idea of generative search, answering your questions, so you don't have anything to worry about right now. Um, I think everyone will know if one day we have something to worry about this, but Google does still own the game and they're not going to let go of that game because Google makes billions and billions and billions.

Uh, I could keep going per year off of ads. From local service businesses, so they have a lot vested here to not allow their protocols and their formula and framework to fall by the wayside. They have a lot of interest in this and they're not gonna let it go to a chat GPT or a perplexity or something [00:16:00] like that.

And guys, when you're talking about the users for chat, GPT and versus Google, it's not even close. It's not even close. Like the people who use chat, GPT versus uses Google, um, the people who use perplexity and all these other little ais that are coming out. Here's the other thing, Chris, before we go is like, everybody uses Google, but like you could use perplexity.

I don't use it. I use chat, GPT, and then there's, oh, you could use Claude. You could use this other one. You could use, there's gonna be like a thousand of these. LLM type things, which just deludes the market even more in Google's favor because if you can't capture everyone in a room and get their information, like Google has.

Then you got a hundred over here, you got 200 over there, you got 5,000 over here. Google has 40 million. You know? Yeah. So it's, it's, I think it's gonna work out in Google's favorite guys, if [00:17:00] you want to get a, uh, website for your local business. Um, I've had footbridge do my website for years. They do my brother's website.

They are the experts at local service business websites. Um, all of their stuff is hand coded. This is all very, um. Very, how do I say this? This is not done by ai. Okay? Everything that they do over at Footbridge Media is well done. They understand that, uh, what's called skima is very important in the eyes of Google and how the data is organized in order to send a good picture of relevance.

Authority to Google so you guys rank well. Okay? So if you want something like that, go ahead. Call the number at the bottom of the screen, reach out, mention lean and Mean to get the discount. And I see you guys in the next video.