How Does Local SEO Translate to AI Search Visibility?

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If you've spent years building your local SEO, you're closer to AI search visibility than you think. But the signals work differently than you might expect.

In this episode, Cassie sits down with Tommy Landry, founder of Return On Now in Austin, Texas. Tommy has been in search marketing since 2009 and made a significant pivot toward AI optimization in 2022. He and Cassie dig into how local SEO fundamentals translate directly to AEO and GEO, and where the blind spots are that most businesses don't see coming.

The conversation covers NAP consistency, entity signals, the growing weight of review sentiment inside AI engines, why digital PR matters more than ever for LLM visibility, and a Better Business Bureau story that should make every brand audit their online reputation immediately.

In This Episode:

• Why local SEO signals like NAP consistency and location schema already feed AI-generated answers
• How AI engines use third-party mentions—even without a link—to validate your brand
• Why review sentiment is now being ingested by AI platforms and how negative reviews can tank AI visibility
• The Better Business Bureau example that proves AI engines are surfacing reputation data
• Entity consistency: why saying the same thing about your brand, the same way, everywhere is a foundational AI search strategy
• How digital PR is making a serious comeback as a driver of LLM visibility
• Why the brands already doing local SEO well have a leg up in AI search

Resources:

What is the FSA Framework?

Let’s connect:

LinkedIn → Cassie Clark | Fractional Content Strategist
Website → https://cassieclarkmarketing.com

Download Freshness, Structure, Authority: The Framework for AI Search Visibility:

Amazon

P.S. Is your brand losing its "Answer Authority"?

Most series A/B and enterprise brands are being "nudged" out of AI search results because of entity gaps and "stale" content. I am opening a limited number of specialized audit slots to help you reclaim your Share of Voice using the FSA Framework (Freshness, Structure, Authority).

Request your 7-Day AI Search Visibility Audit: https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Hey marketers, welcome back to Found in AI. I am Cassie Clark, a fractional content strategist and an AI search optimization expert. I'm going to quit saying nerd because everything is training data, and while I am a nerd, I don't know that I want to show up as who is a nerd, and it's Cassie Clark. Anyway, this is the show where we break down AI search optimization, GEO and AEO strategies, and what all this means so that you don't get left behind in this new wave of user search behavior. So here's something that I want to think about. You have probably spent years building your local SEO. You have your Google Prisms profile up, it's out there. You've got your citations, you've got your reviews. And if I told you that most of that work already counts toward AI search visibility, well you'd probably feel pretty good, right? Here's a tiny catch. It counts differently. And if you don't understand how AI engines use that information compared to how Google traditionally used it, you're gonna have some blind spots in your strategy. Today I'm sitting down with Tommy Landry. Tommy runs an agency called Return on Now out of Austin, Texas. He has been in search marketing since 2009, doing SEO, PPC, content marketing, all of the things. But he made a hard pivot toward AI optimization back in 2022, which puts him way ahead of most people in this space. He and I connected on LinkedIn over something he said that I thought about for days. And if you if you know me, if you've been listening to the show for a hot minute, you know that once I think about something, it stays in my brain for longer than it should. But Tommy said that local SEO translates directly to AEO and GEO. In this conversation, we dig into what actually transfers, what doesn't, why review sentiment is now being ingested in AI platforms, and why the Better Business Bureau might actually be wrecking some brand's AI visibility. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

My name is Tommy Landry. I run an agency in Austin, Texas called Return on Now. Um, we have been around since 2009, um primarily focused on search marketing of all natures, so SEO, PPC, um as well as content marketing and some social media consultation back in the day. I don't really do that anymore. Um back in uh 2022, I realized AI is a big deal and I started making a pretty significant shift over toward AI optimization. And that's why I believe we're sitting here now.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

Yeah, yeah. So you were one of the really early ones. So you and I connected on LinkedIn because you had a post that said something like local SEO translates to AEO slash GEO. I'm gonna throw them both in there. I know we had this discussion off the recording. Um, and that's how you and I got connected. So my first question for you if local SEO is built on that physical proximity, what's the equivalent of proximity in AI search?

SPEAKER_00 3:26

So it's it's not true proximity as Google does it, where they sense your actual location of IP address or device or what have you. Um, you actually have to put it in on like a chat GPT. Um, I guess more on the uh GEO side for the LLMs, you have to put it in. Some of the answer engine side, like AI overviews, actually does bleed over your location. So I guess there's a little bit there. But on the LLM, the beauty of it is if you put in a location, you can see that what the local results are, even if you're not physically there. So it's different, but same similar, really. So I can say, um, let's see, I'm going to Denver on vacation, let's say next week, making this up. Um, I want to know what African type rest food cuisine restaurants are in the downtown Denver area and how they're rated. And Chat GPT can feed me that. Um, or Gemini, or you know, pick your platform of choice. Um if you put it in the AI overview, you know, in Google, the AI overview is still gonna, it may still default to your physical location, and you can force it, but so um slightly different, and this is this is part of again an example of why I split AEO and GEO out because they do operate differently.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

So I noticed on OpenAI's commercial like a couple of weeks ago, whenever whenever they had to plan your trip, they were very specific about where they were going. So that makes a lot of sense. So if um when it comes to like local SEO, transferring over to AEO slash GEO, what is the kind of content that you're seeing that works best for that? Is it just being hyper specific about locations?

SPEAKER_00 5:07

It's actually multiple things. Um, and you don't actually necessarily control all of them. Um, some of them are on your site and some are off. Um how you represent your address on your website matters. Um, whether you mark that up properly with location schema, right? That's a big deal. Um, that was something that was a local SEO must have, and it's the same for the if you want to show up on the AI platforms. Um, then of course there's like the idea of the directory consistency, your NAP info. Um, there are services you can hire to do that, right? That's one of the things we do for customers. Um, that all of those different references to your entity talking about you at the same exact name at the same address with the same phone number. That's the kind of stuff AI loves. They want to see those third-party mentions verifying what you say on your website because you can say anything you want, right? Um there are already people I'm hearing of who are trying to game AI the AI platforms by creating content, you know, the holistical thing that just happened. Um, so that third-party validation is in is massively important. And it was also for local SEO. And then, of course, your reviews are important. Um, and I I think we're gonna talk about that again in a second. So I'll just say it, I'll just say that. The other thing is being extremely clear about what your category is and your service, and um both on say like your Google business profile and your website using similar language and having that be consistent across the two is is very important. Um, as well as on your website. Like if you call a service, answer engine optimization consulting, that's what you call it everywhere, right? And it's super important to not flip-flop between the two acronyms unless you literally have different, you know, have different services to offer.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

So yeah. So I noticed back in July when I did a rebrand from just content writer to fractional content strategist. Once I started mentioning everywhere on Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, my website, the podcast, the more I said Cassie Clark is a fractional content strategist, it seemed like the quicker those AI engines really picked up on it. But it was the same phrasing everywhere, absolutely everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

So you're and we're gonna, I'm sure, talk about this in a minute, but define you've defined yourself, your service with by as an entity with that descriptor. And um, they like to see that consistent language, it needs to be on LinkedIn. If you do any ads, um, all that contributes to how the the various AI systems are gonna categorize you. Yeah, yeah, that's a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Which is not what we're talking about, but it kind of brings me to the point of like that consistency everywhere you show up is super, super important. I cannot stress that enough to everyone listening.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Um well, so it goes beyond local, but I mean, local is a super reinforceable thing, right? Your physical location, especially um, say if you're like a home services business, like HVAC or electrical, even if it's in those cases a service area, or then like your retail stores and restaurants and for those kind of businesses, they probably are doing a lot of what they need for AI to talk about them.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Um, and so they have a leg up in a way.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

Because I know those Facebook profiles where they their business profiles have everything on there as well. I'm yeah, I'm not, and maybe maybe you've seen it and I just haven't paid attention. Is Facebook showing up within those answers now? Facebook post?

SPEAKER_00 8:35

I have not been seeing that.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

If it is, and I would love for someone to share an example with me.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

I feel like I saw one somewhere, but maybe I just streamed that up.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

But okay, so Reddit has Reddit and Quora used to be really very, especially on Chat GPT over the summer. They were super represented, and then ChatGPT just dropped Reddit in September, like all splatlined it, and then they brought it back, but differently. So that's the thing, as they keep launching new models, it's changing what they're training on, right? How they're processing it and put it back out. So everything we're talking about could be different in six months, but I feel like the local stuff is surviving in its current state, and we're okay there.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Yeah. Okay, so well, that's good. So we did mention reviews, and I do want to get back to that because local SEO does depend on that third-party validation. So the directories that we just talked about. Um, NAS search essentially is like, is that a scaled up version of what those trust let me try it again? Is that a scaled up version of that trust model, those reviews, the directories, citations elsewhere?

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Yes. Um, and this is the this is what's a major difference compared to like old L uh S SEO. They may not link to you, but it counts. Just them mentioning you is a big deal. And the the uh platforms will actually ingest the uh uh like the tone of that, like you know, is it positive or negative, right? Sentiment. And uh that actually matters. So if you have a lot of negative reviews, it it actually matters in a bad way, as well as the good reviews matter in a good way, just like it does with Google deciding who to put on the local map, for example. Yeah, it's they're big and they're third-party, either again, validation or invalidation of what you're promising with your brand.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

So so because I know that you work with businesses with us specifically, uh do you have any stories? I don't want to say clients, any stories of negative reviews that have affected AI citations any?

SPEAKER_00 10:37

I don't have an exact one, but I have seen folks who don't rank as well on some of the AI platforms. Um the one thing that I have seen that I've used an example, and just yesterday I used it, someone pitched me on appearing on some television show, right? They wanted me to come and tell my AEO GEO story. And I went and looked them up, and um Google AI mode had locked in on their Better Business Bureau screen.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Oh no, oh no.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Yes. Um, and I tried Gemini just to see what happened there, because you know they're slightly different. Gemini too, uh, and I was didn't have the time to go and check other platforms. But if both of those are already locked in, and the Better Business Bureau had some scathing reviews, like they charged me a hundred dollars for the service, and then I got a twelve hundred dollars magical mystery charge six weeks later, yeah. Right, so they actually highlighted those bad things, so it's important.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Yeah, yeah, that is pretty bad. I I didn't think about Better Business Bureau like in the scheme of all of this, but yeah, that would make sense too, depending on what's being said there, which I'm working on mapping out how this is like a whole organization initiative answer engine optimization and customer service experience is part of that. So, like if you have poor customer service, you're gonna have those bad reviews.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

The the other things that I've observed being uh actually affecting what they say about um folks, like how they rank them, for example. Like if you search for the top 10, whatever type of SaaS platform, they're actually gonna pull from Trust Poly G2 those review sites. They act so I call that pay-to-play because really it costs money to be in those, right? But um, if especially if you're a SaaS company, it's it's kind of table stakes if you want AI to even care about you. Like you need to be represented on those because they're they're devaluing listicles right now, which we're doing really great a few weeks ago.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

And now those matter. And so those aren't local per se, but they're review sites, so they have some overlap to what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

Yeah. Like, who knows? It changes.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

They keep yanking the chain with Reddit back and forth.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

If they do, it just keeps changing. Like every day the world turns, it's something new. So um back to local SEO. So local SEO rewards businesses that do behave like real-world entities. So when it comes to AI search, what behavior signals that the brand is legitimate? Is it the entity being trustworthy or is it content?

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Um, it's it's more in the entity, and a lot of this comes from who else is talking about you. So um PR matters again. For example, folks that have like defunded PR because it's just a cash thing, because it is, it's expensive, right? And you have to have a lot of outreach and relationships and all that, but it actually matters. So um, if you have unsolicited third-party mentions that don't even link to you, that actually impacts uh the LLMs and the answer engines a lot more than it it did traditional search. And so, yeah, um, it's it's you saying what your story is and talking about you know what the steps are in your funnel or whatever, the value of your product and service or service. But then it's other people saying, yes, it actually is worth that. It's true. So um, and that's where I said you control some but not the rest. Um, and in GEO, that's that's actually that third party stuff is actually even more weighted than in the answer engine side. So PR is even more important to LLM visibility. And this is why in the very early days, you probably noticed like the huge brands were all they got mentioned, right? Because they've got that machine in place already. So you know, when people talk about digital PR campaigns to try to get the LLMs to care, um, consider it. It might actually be what you need to do. So do you have any local and national?

SPEAKER_02 14:41

Do you have any tips for how to get that digital PR campaign going? I asked this a lot of people that bring it up because some of the tips are the similar, and then some of them are just really good tips. No one's thought of yet.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

You know, I see everything from like old school infographic blinkable asset things, which is kind of like the standard that a lot of people go with, all the way, um, all the way up to actual like outreach, you know, making appearances on like this, actually are I'm sure pretty handy that especially if it's on video. The LLMs love video, and especially if it's on YouTube. So um, I think it needs to be a mix of media, but also a mix of approaches, is the thing. It's almost like a blitz in a way. And and you can't advertise your way there. So I mean you can do display advertising and PPC ads and whatever Facebook ads to get your name out there so that more people look for it, but that doesn't necessarily get you on any contextual anything that's gonna really matter to these platforms.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

Okay, so what does matter to these platforms? Like so Google says that local rankings are driven by relevance, distance, and prominence. So if we translate that to AI search, what replaces then?

SPEAKER_00 15:55

I mean, it really comes down to are you the same entity representing yourself the same everywhere you talk about yourself? And do other people say that's true? That's the simple bottom line of it. Um and really the if your markup and your map information are consistent across the directories at a minimum, at least knowing that you're that's you, you're that brand, you're that location, you're the same entity everywhere, that already is that you can control, and that's a good first start. But then getting that validation, that's the hard part, right? Anyone who operates a review base or local business knows that already. Um, so if you've been, if they've been, if the folks doing it have been doing a great job of getting these reviews, um keep keep doing it and maybe even put a little more pump behind it because it's only gonna matter more in the future if we keep going down the path we're on right now.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Do you have any tips for getting those reviews?

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Oh, that's the hardest thing. A lot of people do um just have a follow-up process that says, hey, if you liked the service, here's where you can find our reviews, and like, but you're really technically not supposed to ask for it. Um, I have um had businesses I've worked with that have done a pretty good job of nudging me toward it. And usually it was based on a just first off knocking the ball at the park. Like then I'm I'm motivated if they ask me to, right? And then second, you know, literally telling me I'm a local business and reviews really matter to my success. I would love for you to share your experience. But they don't tell me to give us, they don't say, I would love five stars, even though that's uh what I know they want. Um because I know I mean I know how it works, but the just the like a little soft reminder actually can boost it and it won't always work. But you know, if for every 10 customers you can get one person to review, that's a pretty good win rate. So setting proper expectations is also part of the game.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Okay, so I would like to give you something practical at the end of every conversation that you can go into today. Here's what we've got. First, go audit your NAP consistency. That's your name, address, and phone number. Go look at it across every directory, every profile, every listing, everywhere that you've slapped it on the internet. If your Google Business profile says one thing and Yelp says another, you're creating confusion for those AI engines and they're gonna have a reason to doubt you. So pick one version and make it the same absolutely everywhere. That consistency goes a long way. Second, go look at your reviews. Not just the star count, although that's nice to look at if you've got a bunch of them, but we're looking at the actual language. So the AI engines are reading sentiment now. If you had someone in the reviews writing a whole paragraph about how they had to fight your billing department for three months, that's not just a bad review anymore. That's training data. Now remember how I said I'm gonna quit calling myself a nerd? Everything is training data. Everything is training data. Tommy's better business bureau example. Better business bureau is kind of a tongue twister. Anyway, that example should be a wake-up call for anyone who thinks reviews are just a Google Maps game now. It's um data. Everything is data. Okay, third, going back to that consistency. Say what you are the same way. Emphasis on same way, absolutely everywhere. If you are an HVAC company in Denver, say that on your website. Go put it on your Google Business profile, make sure it's clear on LinkedIn, on your directory listings, make sure it's clear as a bell. Same phrasing every single time. Those AI engines love consistency because it helps them categorize you as an entity. And if they can't categorize you, they can't cite you or they can't pull you into answers. That's the work. It might not be super, super glamorous, but it is the foundation everything else gets built on. So we need to make sure that that is correct and consistent before we start doing anything else with those AI search optimization strategies. If you want help figuring out where your brand stands in AI Search right now, head over to CassieClarkmarketing.com and check out the AI Search Visibility Audit. And if this episode was useful, do me a favor. I would love you forever. Subscribe wherever you're listening and leave a rating. It really does help more people find the show, which is kind of the whole point. We're out here learning together. If you need uh resources like the FSA framework, I will link a couple blog posts in the show notes. And you can also get the FSA framework on Amazon if you have Kindle Unlimited. That's the way to go. It's the whole thing, it's like 80 pages ish explaining all of that. Okay, that's it for this episode. Thank you for listening. I will catch you in the next one. Until then, stay visible.