This post was sponsored by GatherUp. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.
Local Search Has Changed: From “Found” to “Chosen”
Not long ago, showing up in a Google search was enough. A complete Google Business Profile (GBP) and a steady stream of reviews could put your client in front of the right customers.
But today’s local search looks very different. It’s no longer just about being found; it’s about being chosen.
That shift has only accelerated with the rise of AI-powered search. Instead of delivering a list of links, engines like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Perplexity now generate instant summaries. Changing the way consumers interact with search results, these summaries are the key to whether or not your client’s business gets seen at all.
Reality Check: if listings aren’t accurate, consistent, and AI-ready, businesses risk invisibility.
AI Search Is Reshaping Behavior & Brand Visibility
AI search is already reshaping behavior.
Only 8% of users click a traditional link when an AI summary appears. That means the majority of your clients’ potential customers are making decisions without ever leaving the AI-generated response.
So, how does AI decide which businesses to include in its answers? Two categories of signals matter most:
- Authority signals: accuracy, completeness, and consistency of listings across.
- Engagement signals: reviews, owner responses, Q&A activity, and fresh.
Put simply, if a client’s listings are messy, incomplete, or outdated, AI is far less likely to surface them in a summary. And that’s a problem, considering more than 4 out of 5 people use search engines to find local businesses.
The Hidden Dangers of Neglected Listings
Agencies know the pain of messy listings firsthand. But your clients may not realize just how damaging it can be:
- Trust erosion: 80% of consumers lose trust in businesses with incorrect or inconsistent.
- Lost visibility: Roughly a third of local organic results now come from business directories. If listings are incomplete, that’s a third of opportunities gone.
- Negative perception: A GBP with outdated hours or broken URLs communicates neglect, not professionalism.
Consider “Mary,” a marketing director overseeing 150+ locations. Without automation, her team spends hours chasing duplicate profiles, correcting seasonal hours, and fighting suggested edits. Updates lag behind reality. Customers’ trust slips. And every inconsistency is another signal to search engines, and now AI, that the business isn’t reliable.
For many agencies, the result is more than frustrated clients. It’s a high churn risk.
Why This Matters More Than Ever to Consumers
Consumers expect accuracy at every touchpoint, and they’re quick to lose confidence when details don’t add up.
- 80% of consumers lose trust in a business with incorrect or inconsistent information, like outdated hours, wrong addresses, or broken links.
- A Google Business Profile with missing fields or duplicate entries signals neglect.
- When AI engines surface summaries, they pull from this. Inconsistencies make it less likely your client’s business will appear at all.
Reviews still play a critical role, but they work best when paired with clean, consistent listings. 99% of consumers read reviews before choosing a business, and 68% prioritize recent reviews over overall star ratings. If the reviews say “great service” but the business shows the wrong phone number or closed hours, that trust is instantly broken.
In practice, this means agencies must help clients maintain both accurate listings and authentic reviews. Together, they signal credibility to consumers and to AI search engines deciding which businesses make the cut.
Real-World Data: The ROI of Getting Listings Right
Agencies that take listings seriously are already seeing outsized returns:
- A healthcare agency managing 850+ locations saved 132 hours per month and reduced costs by $21K annually through listings automation, delivering a six-figure annual ROI.
- A travel brand optimizing global listings recorded a 200% increase in Google visibility and a 30x rise in social engagement.
- A retail chain improving profile completeness saw a 31% increase in revenue attributed to local SEO improvements.
The proof is clear: accurate, consistent, and scalable listings management is no longer optional. It’s a revenue driver.
Actionable Steps Agencies Can Take Right Now
AI search is moving fast, but agencies don’t have to be caught flat-footed. Here are five practical steps to protect your clients’ visibility and trust.
1. Audit Listings for Accuracy and Consistency
Start with a full audit of your clients’ GBPs and directory listings. Look for mismatches in hours, addresses, URLs, and categories. Even small discrepancies send negative signals to both consumers and AI search engines.
I know you updated your listings last year, and not much has changed, but unless your business is a time capsule, your customers expect real-time accuracy.
2. Eliminate Duplicates
Duplicate listings aren’t just confusing to customers; they actively hurt SEO. Suppress duplicates across directories and consolidate data at the source to prevent aggregator overwrites. Google penalized 6.1% of business listings flagged for duplicate or spam entries in Q1 alone, underscoring how seriously platforms are taking accuracy enforcement.
3. Optimize for Engagement
Encourage clients to respond authentically to reviews. Research shows 73% of consumers will give a business a second chance if they receive a thoughtful response to a negative review. Engagement isn’t just customer service; it’s a ranking signal.
4. Create AI-Readable Content
AI thrives on structured, educational content. Encourage clients to build out their web presence with FAQs, descriptive product or service pages, and customer-centric content that mirrors natural language. This makes it easier for AI to pull them into summaries.
5. Automate at Scale
Manual updates don’t cut it for multi-location brands. Implement automation for bulk publishing, data synchronization, and ongoing updates. This ensures accuracy and saves agencies countless hours of low-value labor.
The AI Opportunity: Agencies as Strategic Partners
For agencies, the rise of AI search is both a threat and an opportunity. Yes, clients who ignore their listings risk becoming invisible. But agencies that lean in can position themselves as strategic partners, helping businesses adapt to a disruptive new era.
That means reframing listings management not as “background work,” but as the foundation of trust and visibility in AI-powered search.
As GatherUp’s research concludes, “In the AI-driven search era, listings are no longer background work; they are the foundation of visibility and trust.”
The Time to Act Is Now
AI search is here, and it’s rewriting the rules of local visibility. Agencies that fail to help their clients adapt risk irrelevance.
But those that act now can deliver measurable growth, stronger client relationships, and defensible ROI.
The path forward is clear: audit listings, eliminate duplicates, optimize for engagement, publish AI-readable content, and automate at scale.
And if you want to see where your clients stand today, GatherUp offers a free listings audit to help identify gaps and opportunities.
👉 Run a free listings audit and see how your business measures up.
Image Credits
Featured Image: Image by GatherUp. Used with permission.
In-Post Images: Image by GatherUp. Used with permission.
