Gary Donson

I'm not trying to insult anybody here but... Local businesses are still the absolute slowest to adapt to things that'll actually help them grow quickly. In one specific case it is costing them 10s of thousands of dollars every month. If you are ignoring the free traffic + sales you could be getting from ChatGPT and Google right now, you will be playing painful catch up in 2026 and 2027. Here is how to fix that without hiring expensive outside help. And if you want the private ChatGPT and Perplexity cheat codes we have been testing, just Follow + RT + Comment “2025 Local Guide.” You must do all 3 for the DM. Alright, let’s start at the top. Google and AI engines both rank based on authority and entity trust. They use different methods but the core signals overlap. For local businesses that means: PR and backlinks from locally trusted sites Brand mentions that reinforce your entity NAP and schema consistency across the entire web Structured, crawlable, and up-to-date business information Skip authority and you won't exist even for ZIP level searches. A few proven local authority plays: Partner with complementary local businesses for link swaps (there's room for creativity here; DM me/reply with your local biz if you need some tips) Pitch seasonal tips or cost data to neighborhood blogs and news outlets Submit to high trust local directories Sponsor school or charity events to earn recap backlinks Get featured in “Best of [City]” and local guides These placements are especially important now because a fairly large analysis from Yext in 2025 showed that a lot of AI citations come from brand controlled or brand adjacent sources. This means local publications, directories, and branded pages matter more than ever. Want a shortcut? SEO Stuff’s Gold Plan places links only on sites already surfacing in AI search results and that have proven authority. Check out the case studies I posted this week if you're interested. That said, authority alone is not enough. Your Google Business Profile is now one of the strongest signals for AI and Google combined. As of late 2025, ChatGPT and Gemini both pull GBP fields into their AI Overviews. This is backed by research from BrightLocal which shows GBP URLs and business sites appear heavily in ChatGPT local answers. GBP optimization checklist: Complete every field Upload at least 100 geo tagged photos Post weekly updates Add Q and A entries Reply to every review with service and location terms Maintain NAP consistency across directories GBP is now a required foundation for visibility in Maps, AI Overviews, and local ChatGPT recommendations. Next, build high quality service and location pages. AI Overviews often surface location pages above the map pack. To earn those placements you need structured, local, query aligned content. Every ZIP and neighborhood page should include: Embedded Google Map Local job photos and staff images Videos FAQ block with exact match city questions Internal links to main service and contact pages FAQ schema on all pages Fast mobile first layout Think of each page as an AI friendly Answer Hub. Now on to reviews. Gemini and Perplexity now pull review text into local summaries. Yext research also confirmed reviews are one of the most common brand controlled citation sources in AI answers. Your move: Request reviews through SMS and email as soon as service is completed Show top reviews on your site and GBP Reply using keywords and location Target 150 or more reviews per location More reviews create more machine readable mentions, which increases AI citation likelihood. Next, we need to talk technical SEO. Google and AI systems both rely on clean, structured, fast, and crawlable sites. Slow or broken sites lose both human users and AI engines. Local technical checklist: Core Web Vitals within thresholds Lazy load images and convert to WebP or AVIF Submit XML sitemap to Google and Bing Remove broken links and fix redirect chains Implement LocalBusiness, Service, Review, FAQ and Event schema Allow AI crawlers A technically sound site improves crawl efficiency for Google and improves confidence scoring for AI systems. Now let’s talk content. Google and ChatGPT both prioritize city specific, structured content with clear takeaways. Create: Hub pages like “Complete Guide to [Service] in [City]” Subpages for each ZIP Seasonal posts Cost breakdown posts Local problem posts “How it works in your city” posts Always include a TLDR or Key Takeaways section. Perplexity often surfaces these word for word. Next, drive branded search. Branded search is now one of the strongest signals for both Google and AI systems. Increasing branded search boosts entity trust. Ways to lift branded search: Post CTAs like “Search [Business Name] reviews on Google” Share localized customer stories Run retargeting with 5 star reviews Offer city specific promotions Even a small increase in branded search volume can significantly improve AI visibility. Finally, track the right metrics. Traffic means nothing if it does not turn into calls. What to measure: Branded search growth GBP views, calls and directions AI Overview and ChatGPT citation coverage Review growth and keyword usage Conversion rates on service pages Off site brand mentions These are the signals that correlate with AI citations and local bookings. Mind you, most local businesses still: Ignore GBP Have under 50 reviews Have trash technical SEO Publish no city specific content Which is why they are a non-factor in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Follow this roadmap and you will own visibility where customers are actually searching. Want the done for you version? Try the Gold Plan at SEO Stuff dot com and see why more than 80 percent of customers return for multiple purchases. If you want the private ChatGPT and Perplexity cheat codes we have been testing, Follow + RT + Comment “2025 Local Guide.” You must do all 3 for the DM.

This SEO Stuff (seo-stuff.com) customer, an agency competing in an extremely difficult niche, has seen its search traffic grow by 335% and AI visibility grow by 1,600%. ChatGPT visibility grew by 200% Perplexity visibility grew by 500% Gemini visibility grew by 700% Steal their formula so you can replicate it for your own business. Seriously, it will never be easier than today to make traditional + AI search your #1 sales channel. Don't drag your feet and then be forced to work 10x as hard in 2026 and 2027 to catch up to your competitors. Before I break down exactly what worked so well in this particular case... If you want 3 cheat codes for getting your business mentioned inside ChatGPT + AI Overviews within the next 30 days, just RT this + follow me + reply “AI SEO Guide.” You must do all 3 for the DM. Alright, let's start with the results first. Notable growth in organic visitors Notable growth in ranking keywords Notable growth in AI Overview citations Notable growth in ChatGPT citations Notable growth from the specific geographic locations they wanted it from This is an agency competing against massive competitors and global SaaS companies with entire marketing teams and multi-million-dollar budgets. So how'd they do it? Let’s start at the top. Most agencies are still creating content based on fairly outdated principles, not optimizing for search as we know it in 2025. That’s why their blogs are full of generic trend pieces and cookie-cutter PR that might look nice enough when you click through to the blog section, but does nothing for ranking or AI visibility. This agency agreed to change up the formula. The first step is repositioning the blog as a whole. Instead of writing “thought leadership” pieces nobody searches for, you build pages that mirror commercial intent searches: “Top [their service] agencies” “Best [their specific services]” “[Their service] for SaaS brands” “[Their service] examples that convert” “[Their top competitors] reviews” Each post is structured with extractable logic, meaning every paragraph could stand on its own as a complete answer. That’s how AI systems like Gemini and Google AI Overviews find and cite your content. Here’s what that structure looked like: A TL;DR at the top (2–3 sentences answering the core question) Each H2 written as a question (“What makes a good [their service] agency?”) 2–3 short sentences under each H2 providing the direct answer Lists and factual statements instead of opinion-based text This alone will land you 100+ AI Overview citations because it aligns perfectly with how LLMs extract content blocks. But content alone isn't enough. You also need to boost authority. This is where SEO Stuff’s Gold Plan (seo-stuff.com/gold-plan-pack…) shines. The key isn't just the number of PR backlinks, it's where they came from. Here’s the focus: DR50+ related business domains only Sites already getting meaningful organic traffic and already in AI search Contextual anchors using real business terms like “[their service] agency” and “[their service]” Entity alignment where every referring domain mentions the agency’s niche and country By stacking links with consistent semantic context, you create an entity graph and the kind of signal AI Overviews pull directly from when ranking and citing sources. Branded + multiregional optimization Once authority is in place, you shift to branded + regional optimization. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini all prioritize brands that show up consistently in their category. So you make the agency’s brand more discoverable: Embed agency name + country in schema and metadata Create “Reviews” and “Team” pages with structured data Optimize meta descriptions with branded language Increase internal references to the brand in blog copy This builds a feedback loop between Google, ChatGPT, and Gemini where each engine recognizes the agency as a known entity. Internal links matter a lot more in AI search Traditional internal linking boosts pages. AI search uses internal links to pass meaning. That looks like: Every service page linking to 3–4 supporting blogs Every blog linking back to the relevant service page Every anchor using intent-driven phrasing (“enterprise [their service] services”) This creates a hierarchy that’s easy for AI systems to parse. Scale what works with the Premium Content Bundle Once the foundation is set with the Gold Plan, you transition to SEO Stuff’s Premium Content Bundle (seo-stuff.com/premium-conten…). It delivers: 60 AI-optimized “best of,” “top,” and “comparison” pages Clean, schema-friendly HTML Built-in FAQ sections + TL;DRs These pages fuel steady growth across Google + AI systems with zero ad spend. To follow the same playbook: Rebuild your blog around commercial intent Use question-based H2s + short, extractable answers Add a TL;DR to every page Build backlinks only from DR50+ domains in your niche Add brand + location schema and refresh content monthly Interlink pages semantically, not randomly Do that for 60–90 days and you’ll start showing up across Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Or skip the work and let SEO Stuff do it for you. Gold Plan: seo-stuff.com/gold-plan-pack… Premium Content Bundle: seo-stuff.com/premium-conten… There’s a reason 80%+ of SEO Stuff customers reorder. The results compound long after the work is done. And if you want 3 cheat codes for getting your business cited in ChatGPT + AI Overviews within 30 days, just RT this + follow + reply “AI SEO Guide.” You must do all 3 for the DM.