What changed
More homeowners now ask an assistant instead of typing keywords: 'Who's a good emergency plumber near me that's open now?' Tools like ChatGPT search, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews pull together an answer from websites, business profiles and reviews. Optimizing for that is called GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) or AEO (Answer Engine Optimization).
The good news: it rewards the same things good local SEO always did, done more carefully.
Five steps that help
- Consistency: the same business name, address, phone number and hours on your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Yelp, Facebook and directories.
- Answer-first content: put short, direct answers to real customer questions on your site, such as 'How much does it cost to replace a water heater in Phoenix?' with honest ranges and what changes the price.
- Structured data: Plumber or LocalBusiness schema with your services, service area and contact details, and FAQPage markup on question-and-answer content.
- Reviews: a steady flow of genuine reviews that mention the job and the town. Never buy or write them.
- Crawlability: a fast site, a sitemap, and no important text hidden inside images.
What does not work
Stuffing pages with 'plumber near me' over and over, publishing hundreds of near-identical AI-written pages, or fake reviews. These can hurt you with search engines, and fake reviews can bring fines from the FTC.
