Artificial Intelligence Archives

AI FINDS YOU. GOOGLE CONFIRMS YOU.

September 23, 2026 by John Mangelsdorf

AI search is changing how customers discover local businesses. But new research suggests something important for small business owners:

Being recommended by AI doesn’t mean the search is over.

In fact, consumers frequently take an AI recommendation and then check Google, Google Maps, social media, and the business’s own website before making a decision.

That means your Google Business Profile and website may be more important in the age of AI, not less.

AI IS BECOMING PART OF LOCAL SEARCH

Consumers are increasingly asking ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI tools questions such as:

“Find a good medspa near Los Gatos.”
“Who can help my parents downsize in San Jose?”
“What’s a well-reviewed estate attorney near me?”
“Where can I find a salon that specializes in curly hair?”

BrightLocal found that 31% of consumers now use AI at least monthly for local business recommendations, and 23% used an AI tool somewhere during their most recent local business search.

AI clearly matters.

But here’s the part small businesses shouldn’t overlook…

CUSTOMERS ARE DOUBLE-CHECKING AI

An eMarketer analysis of BrightLocal’s 2026 consumer research found that 75% of consumers who used AI to find a local business checked Google or Google Maps before contacting the business.

The chart gets even more interesting when looking specifically at people who started their search with an AI tool:

35% used it as a starting point but also checked Google business listings
18% contacted the business directly
7% weren’t satisfied so went back to regular search

Source: eMarketer analysis of BrightLocal consumer research, 2026.

In other words, AI is often creating the shortlist. Consumers are still doing their homework before making the call.

That’s particularly important for local businesses, where customers want to confirm things AI may not present completely or accurately:

Is the business really nearby?
What are its current hours?
Does it have good reviews?
What does the business actually specialize in?
Does the website look professional and current?
Can I see photos, staff credentials, pricing, services, or examples of their work?
How do I contact or book them?

YOUR GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE IS STILL YOUR LOCAL STOREFRONT

Google describes its Business Profile as a business’s local storefront on Google Search and Maps. It can contain your location, hours, phone number, website, photos, services, reviews, booking links, and other information customers use to make a decision.

So imagine ChatGPT recommends your business.

The customer then Googles your name.

What happens next?

An incomplete profile, outdated hours, poor photos, unanswered reviews, or inconsistent contact information can quickly undermine the confidence AI just helped create.

A strong Google Business Profile should include:

Complete and accurate contact information
Current business hours
Correct service categories
Your website and appointment links
Good-quality current photos
Clearly described services
A healthy stream of recent reviews
Responses to customer reviews

Google also states that complete and accurate Business Profile information improves a business’s ability to appear in relevant local searches.

AND DON’T NEGLECT YOUR WEBSITE

There’s another reason your website remains critical.

A September 2026 BrightLocal study analyzed more than 200,000 local AI searches and found that 93% of the unique domains AI systems used as sources were business websites. Business websites accounted for 42% of all citations.

That’s a fairly compelling answer to anyone wondering whether websites still matter in an AI-search world.

Your website isn’t simply where someone lands after finding you on Google.

It can also be part of the information AI uses to understand and recommend your business in the first place.

A robust local-business website should clearly explain:

What you do
Where you provide your services
Who you serve
Your specific specialties
Your experience and credentials
Frequently asked questions
Why someone should choose you
How to contact, schedule, or visit you

Specific, useful content gives both search engines and AI considerably more to work with than a few generic paragraphs of marketing copy.

And because BrightLocal found that 73% of local business searches begin on a mobile phone, your website also needs to be fast, readable, and easy to contact from a small screen.

AI, GOOGLE, AND YOUR WEBSITE WORK TOGETHER

The old customer journey might have looked like this:

Google → Website → Call

The emerging journey may look more like:

ChatGPT → Google → Reviews → Website → Call

Or:

Google AI → Maps → Website → Appointment

Or any number of other combinations.

BrightLocal found that 75% of consumers used more than one channel during their most recent search for a local business.

That’s the bigger lesson.

AI isn’t necessarily replacing Google or your website. It’s becoming another doorway into a more complicated customer journey.

WHAT IT ALL MEANS

Yes, your business should be paying attention to ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI, and other emerging search tools.

But don’t make the mistake of focusing on AI visibility while neglecting the places customers go to verify what AI tells them.

Keep your Google Business Profile complete and current.

Keep building reviews.

And maintain a robust website that clearly explains what you do, where you do it, and why someone should trust you to do it.

AI may introduce your business, but Google and your website still determine whether the customer chooses you.

IS IT TIME TO START ADVERTISING ON CHATGPT?

September 14, 2026 by John Mangelsdorf

For most small local businesses, it probably isn’t time to move advertising dollars from Google to ChatGPT. But it is time to start paying very close attention.

ChatGPT Ads is now a real advertising platform, with local geographic targeting and ads matched to the context and intent of a user’s conversation.

That could become very valuable.

But for local businesses, Google still has one particularly big advantage.

GOOGLE IS ALREADY BUILT AROUND LOCAL BUYING INTENT

When someone needs a plumber, Realtor, medspa, attorney, restaurant, or other local service, Google is already deeply embedded in the process.

A single search can provide:

Google Maps and distance
Reviews and ratings
Hours and phone numbers
Directions
Website links
Google Business Profiles
Paid ads
AI-generated summaries

Most importantly, people already have years of experience using Google when they’re ready to find and contact a local business.

ChatGPT frequently enters the buying process differently.

Instead of searching “medspa Los Gatos,” someone might ask:

“What treatments work best for sun damage without making me look overdone, and how do I find a good provider near me?”

That’s a valuable potential customer, but it represents a different kind of search.

For now, we would be cautious about moving money away from a Google Ads campaign that is already generating good local leads.

BUT ADVERTISING ISN’T THE ONLY CHATGPT OPPORTUNITY

This may actually be more important.

Someone can ask ChatGPT:

“Who are some good senior relocation specialists near Los Gatos?”
“What medspas near Campbell specialize in natural-looking skin rejuvenation?”
“Find an estate attorney in San Jose who works with probate.”

ChatGPT can search the web and recommend businesses in its answers. Those recommendations are separate from advertising.

So before worrying about whether you should advertise on ChatGPT, there’s another question you should probably ask:

When someone asks ChatGPT about businesses like yours, does it know that your business exists?

SEO ISN’T DEAD. ADD GEO TO IT.

Search Engine Optimization remains important. It is now expanding to include Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO: helping AI systems understand who you are, what you do, where you do it, and why your business is relevant.

The same fundamentals still matter:

Clearly written service pages
Strong local and location-specific content
Accurate business information
Useful original blog content
Frequently asked questions answered clearly
Good website structure and crawlability
Reviews, citations, and credible mentions elsewhere online

In other words, GEO doesn’t replace SEO. It broadens what your website needs to accomplish as people increasingly use AI alongside conventional search.

THE BOTTOM LINE

ChatGPT advertising is worth watching and may already be worth testing for some businesses. But Google still has a substantial advantage when a local customer is actively searching and ready to call, visit, or book.

The more immediate issue affects every business, whether you ever purchase a ChatGPT ad or not.

Your customers are beginning to ask AI where to go, what to buy, and whom to trust.

When they ask about a business like yours, will AI find you?

A website that clearly explains what you do, where you do it, and which customer problems you solve gives both traditional search engines and AI systems better information to understand your business and incorporate your website into relevant search results and AI-generated responses.

That’s why strong SEO and GEO aren’t just about Google rankings anymore. They’re about making sure your business is visible wherever your next customer chooses to search.

WHY MANY GOOGLE ADS PROS ARE SKEPTICS OF PERFORMANCE MAX (PMax) ADS

March 8, 2026 by John Mangelsdorf

Over the past few years, Google has strongly encouraged advertisers to adopt its automated campaign type known as Performance Max, or PMax. The concept sounds attractive: upload creative assets, choose a conversion goal, and Google’s AI distributes ads across Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Maps while continuously optimizing performance.

For many small businesses, this sounds like an easy way to run sophisticated advertising campaigns. But as someone who manages Google Ads campaigns for small, local service businesses, I approach Performance Max cautiously. While automation can be helpful, PMax often removes the very controls that make digital advertising effective—especially for service-based companies that depend on high-intent leads.

One of the most significant concerns is the lack of control over keywords and search intent. In traditional Google Ads search campaigns, I can choose exactly which keywords trigger ads. I can separate exact match and phrase match searches, review detailed search term reports, and build extensive negative keyword lists to prevent wasted clicks.

Performance Max does not provide that same level of precision. Instead, the system relies on broad signals and automation to decide when ads appear. Advertisers receive far less visibility into the search queries actually triggering ads. For service businesses, this matters greatly. A law firm, contractor, or medical practice typically wants to reach people who are actively searching for a specific service—not people casually browsing general information.

Another issue is control over ad messaging. In well-structured search campaigns, ads are carefully written to match the intent behind specific searches. Someone searching for “emergency plumber near me” should see different messaging than someone searching for “cost to replace water heater.”

Performance Max operates differently. Advertisers provide groups of assets—headlines, descriptions, images, and videos—and Google automatically mixes and matches them across placements. While this automation can produce variations quickly, it also means advertisers cannot control exactly which message appears for a given search query. The result can be messaging that feels generic or misaligned with the user’s intent.

The same limitation applies to ad extensions, which are a major part of successful Google Ads campaigns. Sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, call buttons, and other extensions often provide critical information that encourages people to click or call. In traditional campaigns, these elements are strategically chosen and carefully organized to support the ad’s message.

With Performance Max, Google frequently decides how and when extensions appear, and in some cases generates them automatically. That reduces the advertiser’s ability to shape how ads are presented to potential customers.

Another challenge is the limited transparency in reporting. Traditional search campaigns provide detailed information about search terms, placements, and performance metrics. This level of visibility allows campaigns to be refined over time through careful analysis and optimization.

Performance Max, however, often functions as a kind of “black box.” Advertisers see summary performance data, but many of the details behind how the campaign is spending money remain hidden. That makes it difficult to determine which parts of the campaign are producing results and which parts may simply be consuming budget.

Budget allocation is another concern. Because PMax spreads ads across multiple Google networks, spending can shift toward display impressions or YouTube placements rather than high-intent search traffic. For many service businesses, the most valuable leads come from people who are actively searching for a service at that moment. Awareness impressions on display or video networks rarely produce the same quality of leads.

For these reasons, traditional Google search campaigns remain the superior approach for many service businesses. They allow full control over every important element of the campaign: keywords, match types, negative keywords, ad copy, extensions, targeting, and bidding strategies. Advertisers can see exactly which search terms are triggering ads and refine campaigns accordingly.

That level of control makes it possible to align messaging with user intent, eliminate wasted clicks, and continuously improve performance over time.

Automation will certainly continue to play a role in digital advertising. But for many small service businesses, success in Google Ads still depends on something much simpler: precise targeting, clear messaging, and complete visibility into how advertising dollars are being spent. Traditional search campaigns provide those advantages in ways that fully automated systems like Performance Max often cannot.

THE EFFECT OF AI SEARCH OVERVIEWS ON GOOGLE ADS

December 15, 2025 by John Mangelsdorf

The Shifting Landscape: Google AI Overviews and the Future of Small Business Advertising

Google’s introduction of AI Overviews in search results has fundamentally reshaped the digital marketing landscape, prompting a re-evaluation of established strategies for small businesses. While the change presents new challenges to traditional ad visibility and organic traffic, Google Ads will continue to be an essential, though evolving, part of a small business’s toolkit.

The primary impact of AI Overviews stems from their prominent placement at the top of the search results page (SERP), which pushes both organic listings and traditional ads further down the screen, often below the fold.

Decreased Click-Through Rates (CTR): Because AI Overviews provide immediate, synthesized answers, users can get the information they need without clicking on any links (known as “zero-click” searches). Studies have shown significant drops in CTR for both organic and paid results when an AI Overview is present.
Increased Competition and CPCs: With fewer prime ad placements above the fold, advertisers are bidding more aggressively to maintain visibility, leading to higher costs-per-click (CPCs).
Shift in User Behavior: Users who do click through from AI-influenced searches may have a higher commercial intent, resulting in potentially higher quality, albeit lower volume, traffic and conversion rates.

WILL GOOGLE ADS REMAIN ESSENTIAL FOR SMALL BUSINESSES?

Google derives a vast majority of its revenue from advertising and has no intention of cannibalizing this “golden goose” so Google Ads will remain an essential part of a small business’s business development toolkit.

For small businesses, ads offer a level of precision targeting that organic methods cannot match as they allow businesses to specifically target users with local services queries.

HOW GOOGLE PLACES ADS IN THE NEW SEARCH FORMAT

Google is blending ads into the AI-enhanced search experience in several ways.

Above, Below, and Within the Overview: Ads, marked with a clear “Sponsored” label, can appear in several positions relative to the AI Overview box.
Contextual Relevance: The ad system now considers not only the user’s query but also the context of the AI-generated answer to determine ad relevance. This opens up new opportunities for ads to appear in “previously inaccessible moments of high relevance” when a user is researching a problem that a product or service could solve.

In the age of AI Overviews, success in Google Ads requires a strategic shift. Small businesses should focus on crafting highly relevant ad copy and landing pages that mirrors an informational tone to appear in these new contextual placements.

By adapting their strategies to align with the AI-first search environment, small businesses can continue to leverage Google Ads as a vital tool for growth.

BLOG POSTS ARE VITAL FOR YOUR SEO/GEO EFFORTS

November 15, 2025 by John Mangelsdorf

Blog posts remain popular and continue to evolve as a key component of websites

Twenty years ago we started to recommend posting regularly to blogs as part of SEO best practices. Clients who did so (or had us handle content creation and blog management) improved their organic search results ranking.

Through the years we have continued to recommend posting regularly to their blogs. It’s one of the tools we use to build “authoritative” websites and attract thousands of potential customers for our clients.

Today, yes, the more things change, the more they stay the same! With AI and GEO, you need strong content written in a specific way. And right now the best way to achieve this and rebuild your organic search results as people move away from search engine and to Chatgbt, Gemini, etc is with regular blogging.

Blog posts remain popular and continue to evolve as a key component of websites for small businesses. While social media and video content have gained traction, blogs are still widely read for their in-depth information, niche expertise, and ability to provide value for SEO. To be successful today, blogs need quality, skimmable content with clear headings and succinct paragraphs.

WHY BLOG POSTS ARE STILL A CRUCIAL PART OF YOUR SEO/GEO TOOLKIT

Information Source: People still turn to blogs to find in-depth answers, product reviews, and educational content that may not be available on other platforms.
SEO Value: Blog posts are a fundamental tool for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO), appearing frequently in search engine results and AI summaries and helping websites rank higher for various queries.
Niche Content: Blogs provide a platform for detailed, personal stories and specialized information on niche topics that are often hard to find elsewhere.
Business Strategy: For businesses, blogs serve as an integral strategy for establishing authority, increasing expertise, and providing value to customers.

HOW TO MAKE A BLOG SUCCESSFUL TODAY:

Quality and Quantity: Focus on creating high-value content that meets specific user interests as well as publishing regularly.
Skimmable Content: Structure your blog posts with descriptive headings, bullet points, and short paragraphs to accommodate modern readers’ shorter attention spans.
Niche Focus: Specializing in a niche subject helps you stand out and positions you as an authority to your target demographic.

STAYING VISIBLE IN THE AGE OF AI

October 15, 2025 by John Mangelsdorf

How Business Owners Can Adapt for Generative Search Results

As web browsers and search engines—like Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) or Microsoft’s AI-enhanced Bing—increasingly integrate generative AI technologies, website managers and business owners are noticing shifts in how organic traffic reaches their sites. Unlike traditional search, where users click through ranked results, generative AI often summarizes answers at the top of the page, reducing clicks but still heavily relying on credible sources. The challenge: how do you ensure your website becomes one of those trusted sources?

THE SHIFT FROM SEARCH RESULTS WEB PAGE LINKS TO AI-GENERATED ANSWERS

Generative search pulls information from multiple high-authority sources to synthesize a quick, user-friendly response—sometimes without any click required. This has profound implications for SEO. Pages may now be cited in AI-generated responses without receiving clicks from the normal search result listings.

PROACTIVE STRATEGIES FOR AI SEARCH VISIBILITY

To thrive in this evolving environment, website owners must re-evaluate their content and site architecture with AI in mind:

Focus on High-Quality, Authoritative Content: AI prioritizes content from trusted sources. Double down on establishing E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) as you update your website. Cite credible sources when appropriate, create valuable content, and offer unique perspectives on your products and services that AI models can leverage.
Structure for Clarity and Scannability: AI systems excel at parsing well-organized content. Utilize clear headings (H1, H2, H3), bullet points, numbered lists, and concise paragraphs. Implement FAQ sections and “how-to” guides, as these formats are prime candidates for direct inclusion in AI-generated answers.
Prioritize User Intent and Conversational Language: AI search often involves more natural, conversational queries. Optimize your content to directly answer questions users might ask, and consider incorporating question-and-answer formats naturally within your text.
Improve Site Architecture: Ensure clean navigation, fast loading times, mobile responsiveness, and structured URLs. A logically organized site improves crawlability and contextual understanding by AI systems.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The landscape of search is rapidly transforming. Generative AI isn’t killing SEO—it’s evolving it. By proactively updating your content and site structure with AI’s preferences in mind, website managers and business owners can not only mitigate potential traffic loss but also position their sites to be recognized as authoritative sources to ensure they’re not just found by machines, but also chosen by them to show as cited web pages in AI answer summaries.

Header photo Dress Code by Susan Graf, Healdsburg