How AI answers local queries — differently from Google Maps
When someone searches for an electrician on Google Maps, they see every listing within a radius, sorted by ratings and distance. Google My Business supplies the data. The system is well understood and easy to optimize for.
AI systems work in a fundamentally different way. When someone asks ChatGPT "Which painter in Nuremberg also does facade work and has good reviews?", the AI searches the open web — crawled websites, structured data, review sites. Google My Business data is not directly accessible to ChatGPT and Perplexity.
ChatGPT and Perplexity have no direct API access to Google My Business. Whatever lives there — opening hours, services, photos — is invisible to these AI systems. Only a crawlable website of your own with LocalBusiness schema bridges that gap.
The result: local businesses that rely on Google My Business alone miss out on the growing share of search queries that runs through AI systems. According to the BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2024, 35% of people under 40 already use AI assistants for local recommendations.
LocalBusiness Schema.org — the language of AI
Schema.org defines a LocalBusiness type (along with specialized subtypes like Restaurant, Electrician and HairSalon) with machine-readable fields. These fields are indexed and evaluated directly by AI crawlers.
The most important fields:
| Field | Description | AI relevance |
|---|---|---|
name |
Exact business name | Very high |
address |
Complete address (PostalAddress) | Very high — for local search |
telephone |
Phone number | High — direct contact info |
openingHours |
Opening hours (Mo-Fr 09:00-18:00) | High — frequently asked for |
priceRange |
€, €€ or €€€ | Normal — price-segment filter |
geo |
GPS coordinates (GeoCoordinates) | High — location-based search |
hasMap |
Link to Google Maps / OpenStreetMap | Normal — trust signal |
aggregateRating |
Average rating + count | Very high — recommendation quality |
Which content AI prefers for local queries
Beyond structured data, the actual page content plays a decisive role. AI systems read and understand text — and they favor certain types of content:
Concrete service descriptions
No generalities like "high-quality work" — instead: "electrical installation, meter replacement, photovoltaic connection, 24/7 emergency callouts, master tradesperson". AI can only recommend what it has clearly read.
State your differentiators explicitly
What sets you apart? Emergency callouts, senior discount, wheelchair access, guild membership, master tradesperson, ISO 9001 certified — these features have to appear as text on the page so AI finds them on filtered queries.
Communicate your service area clearly
"We operate in Fürth, Nuremberg and Erlangen" — the AI has to be able to read that sentence. Ideally complemented by areaServed in the schema, with a list of cities or regions.
Embed ratings (aggregateRating)
The overall rating and the number of reviews in Schema.org format signal trustworthiness to AI systems. ChatGPT and Perplexity demonstrably favor well-rated providers in their recommendations.
Google My Business vs. your own crawlable site
Both channels have their place — but for AI visibility they are not equivalent.
| Channel | Google Search | Google Maps | ChatGPT / Perplexity | Gemini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google My Business | Very good | Optimal | No access | Limited |
| Own website (no schema) | Good | No influence | Limited | Limited |
| Own website + LocalBusiness schema | Very good | No influence | Optimal | Very good |
| Both combined | Optimal | Optimal | Optimal | Optimal |
Google My Business and your own website with LocalBusiness schema complement each other perfectly. GMB covers Google Maps and local Google Search. Your own website with schema covers ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and future AI systems. With both in place, you are fully visible.
Quick start: local AI visibility in 3 steps
Add LocalBusiness schema to your website
Insert a JSON-LD block in the <head> of your website. Correct required fields: name, address, telephone, openingHours. Optional but valuable: geo, aggregateRating, priceRange, areaServed. Use the specialized subtype (Electrician, Restaurant, HairSalon, etc.) instead of the generic LocalBusiness.
Allow AI crawlers in robots.txt
Check your robots.txt — if AI crawlers are blocked, explicitly allow GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot and Google-Extended. Without that permission, AI systems cannot index your page.
Fill service pages with concrete content
Create a dedicated page or a clear section for every service you offer. State differentiators, service area and certifications explicitly. AI reads these texts and uses them for recommendations.
A hair salon in Munich keeps its Google My Business profile in perfect shape — 4.9 stars, 340 reviews. Perplexity still does not find it when someone asks "Which hair salon in Schwabing also does coloring and is child-friendly?" — because the salon's own website has no schema and AI crawlers are blocked. After two hours of work (adding schema, opening robots.txt, expanding the services page), the salon shows up in AI answers to exactly those queries.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google My Business enough for AI visibility? +
For Google Search, yes — for other AI systems, no. ChatGPT and Perplexity have no direct access to Google My Business data. Whatever lives there is invisible to these AI systems. Anyone who also wants to be found in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini needs a crawlable website of their own with LocalBusiness schema.
Which information matters most in the LocalBusiness schema? +
The most important fields are: name (exact business name), address (a complete PostalAddress with street, city, postal code and country), telephone, openingHours (in the correct format: Mo-Fr 09:00-18:00), priceRange (€, €€ or €€€) and geo (coordinates for location-based queries). Optional but valuable fields: aggregateRating, areaServed, hasMap.
How does AI search differ from Google Maps for local queries? +
Google Maps ranks results primarily by proximity and ratings — based on Google My Business data. AI systems like ChatGPT and Perplexity analyze web content and structured data and phrase qualitative recommendations. A query like "Which electrician in Fürth is a master tradesperson and also offers emergency callouts?" is answered by ChatGPT from crawled web content — Google Maps only shows every electrician nearby, without that distinction.