For years, business owners have obsessed over one thing: ranking on Page 1 of Google. Get to the top, and customers magically appear. Don’t rank, and you might as well not exist.
But everything changed with AI.
Google AI Overviews, SearchGPT, Bing Deep Answers, Perplexity, and voice assistants now answer people’s questions before they ever click anything. Your business could be buried deep in the search results and still get customers-if AI mentions you. And the opposite is also true: you could be ranked #1 and still get zero traffic if AI ignores you.
This is the new reality:
People aren’t clicking websites.
They’re listening to AI answers.
If AI can’t find you, your customers won’t either.
AI Decides Who Gets Seen - Not the Search Results Page
Imagine someone in your city searching:
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“Best physiotherapist near me”
●
“Affordable plumber in North York”
●
“is this restaurant open right
now?”
Five years ago, they would scroll down, scan a few websites, compare prices, and click around.
Today, they don’t even get the chance. AI gives them the answer in a box at the top:
●
opening hours
●
pricing ranges
●
service details
●
locations
●
reviews
●
photos
In many cases, the customer never clicks anything. They just read the snippet and take action.
This is the zero-click world, and businesses who understand this shift are the ones who will win in 2025 and beyond.
Your Google Business Profile Is Now More Important Than Your
Website
If Page 1 is dead, Google Business Profile (GBP) is the heartbeat that keeps you alive.
Your GBP is no longer a simple listing with hours and phone numbers. It has become a real-time data source that Google and AI models use to answer thousands of local questions every single day.
When Google pulls answers for AI Overviews, 3 things matter:
- Is your business active and updated?
- Is your
information clear and trustworthy?
- Do your photos, descriptions, services, and reviews tell a
consistent story?
Google now relies on GBP more than your own website because GBP is “live,” constantly updated, and directly connected to Maps.
For most local businesses, GBP influences over 30% of local ranking signals-the single strongest factor.
If you haven’t updated your GBP in weeks or months, AI assumes you’re not active. And inactive businesses don’t get mentioned.
Reviews Are No Longer “Social Proof.” They Are AI Training
Data.
Here’s something most business owners still don’t know:
Google uses your customer reviews as
facts.
That means the words customers write- not the stars, not the number of reviews- the actual text becomes training data that AI uses to describe your business.
So, if someone writes:
●
“They fixed my AC in Scarborough
the same day,”
AI learns:
You offer AC repair. You serve
Scarborough. You do same-day service.
If reviews say:
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“Great massage therapy in downtown
Toronto,”
AI learns:
Your service + location + experience.
Reviews that mention your service and city are gold.
And when several customers repeat similar details, Google begins quoting you in:
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AI Overview boxes
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“People Also Ask” sections
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Maps summaries
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Voice-assistant answers
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Local ranking calculations
This is why businesses with fewer but more descriptive reviews now outrank competitors with hundreds of generic ones.
Local Search Has Become Hyper-Local
One of the biggest changes in 2025 is how AI handle’s location.
Searches have become extremely specific:
●
“Tire shop near Bloor and
Dufferin”
●
“Best dentist in Markham Village”
●
“Food delivery near Leslieville
open now”
Google wants to give the most accurate, closest, most relevant answer possible—not the best generic result.
This is where many businesses lose.
If your website only says “serving Toronto,” but your customers actually come from:
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Etobicoke
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North York
●
Beaches
●
Danforth
●
Midtown
●
Don Mills
…AI won’t know that unless you tell it.
Not knowing = not recommending you.
Businesses that win in micro-local search
do something simple: They talk like real people talk.
Instead of “Toronto,” they mention real neighborhoods, real street names, real landmarks.
And they repeat them consistently in:
●
website content
●
service area pages
●
GBP posts
●
GBP services
●
reviews
●
captions on photos
●
Q&A sections
AI reads all of it and builds a map of where you actually operate.
The more detailed the map, the more customers find you.
AI Favors Content That Sounds Like Real Conversations
Another major shift is how AI chooses which content to quote.
In the old SEO world, keyword-stuffed
blog posts used to work.
In 2025, that type of writing is dead.
AI pulls answers that sound like:
●
something a real person would say
●
something spoken in a conversation
●
something you would hear on the
phone
●
something a customer would ask
That means your content must be written in:
●
simple language
●
direct explanations
●
short answers
●
natural voice
●
question-style headings
For example:
“How much does furnace repair cost in
Toronto?”
AI prefers a
short, clear answer:
“Most furnace repairs in Toronto cost between $180 and $450, depending on the problem and parts.”
Then your explanation can follow.
This “answer-first” writing style tells
Google:
This sentence answers the question.
Use it. Quote it. Keep it.
This is why businesses with conversational content show up in AI Overviews more often than businesses with perfect but robotic copy.
Why Schema Matters More Than Ever (Even if You Hate Technical
Stuff)
Schema sounds complicated, but here’s the simple version:
Schema tells AI what your business is
actually about.
Think of it like labeling your business with sticky notes:
●
This is our location
●
These are our services
●
These are our prices
●
These are our hours
●
These are our service areas
●
These are our products
●
These are our reviews
You’re giving AI confidence that your business is real, active, and accurate.
Without schema, AI has to guess.
And AI does not recommend businesses it
has to guess about.
Businesses with proper schema get:
●
more visibility
●
more citations
●
more appearances in AI Overview
boxes
●
more trust from Google
It’s not tech for developers.
It’s communication for AI.
A Simple File Called LLMs.txt Can Prevent AI From Making
Stuff Up
LLMs.txt is a new file that tells AI which parts of your site to trust and which to ignore. It’s your chance to:
●
stop AI from inventing fake
services
●
tell AI which pages are most
important
●
prevent outdated information from
being quoted
●
help SearchGPT summarize your
brand correctly
It doesn’t replace SEO, it strengthens it.
This was created to stop AI hallucinations (like Google saying you offer services you don’t). Every local business should have it in 2025.
Additional
resources
· Google Business Profile Is Your #1 Salesperson-Pay Them Like It
· Voice Search + Local Intent: Preparing for AI to Bypass Traditional SEO Click Paths
· Your Marketing Strategy is Officially Outdated. Thanks, Google AI.
· Conquer Your Toronto Market: The Ultimate Hyper-Local SEO Strategy for Local Businesses
The Future of Local Search Isn’t a Search Page at All
The real shift happening right now is subtle but massive:
Customers aren’t “searching” anymore. They’re “asking.”
The search box is becoming a conversation box.
And conversations are answered by:
●
AI
●
Maps
●
Voice assistants
●
Smart speakers
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Car dashboards
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Wearable devices
Your business will win when AI knows who you are, what you offer, where you operate, and why people trust you.
That doesn’t happen by ranking on Page 1.
It happens by becoming the most quotable, most structured, and most trustworthy source of information in your category.
The businesses preparing for this now will dominate their market in 2025–2026.
And the ones still chasing “Page 1 rankings” will slowly fade into the background.
“Bio: Maede is a
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