How Does a Local Business Show Up in Google AI Mode?

Nathan Gotch says a local business shows up in Google AI Mode by winning the local pack. On a commercial local search, AI Mode shows local businesses nine times out of ten, and those businesses almost always match who already ranks in the local pack.

Stephan Spencer describes the local pack as the local section of a Google search, mirroring the first results on maps.google.com, and Nathan Gotch agrees they are closely linked. For Google's AI products, that pack is the lever. The address comes first, a keyword-rich business name still works, and reviews are about 95 percent of the equation. A new HVAC company in Phoenix will not catch a leader who already has about 20,000 reviews, and Four Seasons Heating and Cooling in Chicago has something like 30,000. He tells that business to win a suburb the leader is ignoring, and to build a system for asking for reviews, which many owners resist.

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