The way people search is evolving faster than most brands realize. “Best hotel Lisbon” used to be a perfectly good query, and it still works. But increasingly, that same person types a full sentence describing exactly what they want: the vibe, the location, the amenities, all at once. Search is expanding beyond simple keywords into intent, context, and conversation.
That shift has a name for the people trying to stay visible through it: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). It’s the practice of making sure your business shows up not just in traditional search results, but in the AI-generated answers that tools like Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT now put in front of customers.
Here’s what’s changing, and what your multi-location brand can do to prepare.
Search is becoming a two-way conversation
Google’s own data makes the shift hard to ignore. The average AI Mode query now runs about three times longer than a traditional search, and image-based searches have grown more than 40% month-over-month since launch. Follow-up questions are climbing too, up more than 40% a month in the U.S. AI Mode itself crossed 1 billion monthly users roughly a year after launch, and Gemini’s user base has grown at one of the fastest rates in software history.
Put those together and you get a different kind of search. Discovery is starting earlier in the journey, and it’s more nuanced, more local, and more multi-step. People aren’t hunting for a single link anymore. They’re describing a situation and expecting search to figure out the rest.
How to prepare: Build out a dedicated landing page for every location, each one written around the specific, real-world use cases customers describe, not just short keywords. That means unique offers, photos, reviews, and local details on every page, with the schema and structure both traditional and AI search engines can read
Search is becoming an assistant
Search is moving from answers, to conversations, to actions. The old search model gave you information and summarized results. AI conversational assistants ask follow-up questions, then goes a step further and does something with the answer: books a table, monitors a price, sends a notification. Google has described this as a journey toward assistant-led, agentic search. The end experience isn’t a list of blue links or even a tidy summary. It’s a workflow that helps someone make a decision and finish a task.
You can already see it in Gemini and AI Mode, which are becoming visual decision surfaces. Less wall-of-text, more imagery and interactive place cards. One conversation can move from where to stay, to where to eat, to what to do that night, all pulling in context from a customer’s preferences and history. This matters most for local and travel brands, because that’s exactly where people branch across categories in a single session.
How to prepare: Keep photos and videos fresh across every listing and profile, and manage them in bulk so a single update pushes to Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, Yelp, Facebook, Bing, and beyond, rather than updating each one by hand.
Agents need to be able to trust your business data
Google is candid about where this is heading. The goal is to remove the time-consuming tasks from complex journeys. AI that researches options and compares tradeoffs. AI that watches prices, availability, and open tables, then flags changes. AI that books, reserves, and fills out the forms.
There’s a strategic implication buried in that vision, and it’s the one brands should pay attention to. An AI agent is only as useful as the data it can trust, interpret, and act on. If your pricing is stale or your availability is wrong, an agent simply can’t transact against you. It moves on to a business whose data it can rely on.
That’s why local data is becoming the competitive battleground. A few things matter more than ever:
- Your Google Business Profile stays authoritative. Profiles, attributes, posts, photos, and core listing data remain the foundation AI grounds itself in.
- Freshness matters. Events, menus, deals, pricing, and inventory need to be current, not set-and-forget.
- Reviews still drive trust. AI may narrow the options, but reviews are what give a customer the confidence to choose.
- Real-time feeds win agentic flows. Accurate pricing and availability decide who can actually be booked.
The pattern is layered: AI builds its confidence starting with first-party profile data, then website content, then third-party and review signals. Get the foundation right and the rest compounds.
How to prepare: Keep your listings accurate at scale. Publish updates once and let them sync automatically across directories, then monitor a real-time accuracy report so you can catch errors before they cost you customers. Stale or conflicting data is what pushes an agent toward a competitor.
What’s not changing: good SEO is still good GEO
AI search is still grounded in Google’s search index and the durable systems behind it. AI Overviews and AI Mode both pull from that index.
What changes is the kind of content that gets rewarded. GEO favors content that’s specific, authentic, and genuinely useful, built around how real people ask questions. Commodity content, the generic and interchangeable kind that could’ve been written by anyone, is losing ground. A restaurant page that reads “recognized as one of the best in town” does far less work than one that answers “perfect for a quiet anniversary dinner near Lisbon wine country with gluten-free options.”
The old SEO fundamentals still apply: question-led headings, media, clean HTML, structured Q&A. The bar is just higher now, because AI sets the standard for completeness.
How Alchemer helps you win in the AI-search era
Here’s the encouraging part. The definition of local visibility is expanding, and much of what Google says will matter is what Alchemer already helps brands manage: listing accuracy, profile optimization, reviews, and local content.
Here’s how the platform maps to everything above:
- With Listings Management keep every location accurate across Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, Yelp, Facebook, Bing, and 200+ directories. Publish an update once and it syncs everywhere, and a real-time accuracy report shows you where errors are holding a location back before they affect your traffic. UPMC used it to reach 98% listing accuracy across 9,000+ listings, with 25% of appointments now booked through those profiles.
- With Local Pages build content-rich, localized landing pages at scale, with the schema and structure both traditional and AI-powered search engines need. Launch hundreds or thousands of location-specific pages, push updates instantly, and keep each one built to convert high-intent searches into calls, directions, and visits.
- With Reputation Management bring reviews, ratings, and feedback into one platform so you can respond to every customer with on-brand, AI-generated replies, automatically or after a quick human review. H&R Block Canada used it to hit a 100% response rate across 900+ locations during peak tax season.
- Alchemer Pulse turns reviews and feedback into clear insight, using sentiment analysis and theme categorization to surface the recurring signals that shape AI confidence and discoverability.
The bottom line is simple to state and harder to execute: the winners will have data that’s machine-readable, real-time, trustworthy, and ready for AI-driven decisions. That’s not a one-time project. It’s an ongoing discipline, and it’s one worth starting now.
Want to see how Alchemer can help you prepare for AI search? Reach out to our team.
Frequently asked questions
What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?
GEO is the practice of making sure your business shows up in AI-generated answers, not just traditional search results. When tools like Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT put an answer in front of a customer, GEO is what helps your locations appear in that answer.
How is GEO different from SEO?
They’re closely related. AI search still pulls from Google’s search index, so the old SEO fundamentals (question-led headings, media, clean HTML, structured Q&A) still apply. What changes is the bar. AI rewards content that’s specific, authentic, and genuinely useful, and it sets a higher standard for completeness. Good SEO is still good GEO. There’s just more of it to get right.
How is search actually changing?
Search is becoming a conversation, then an action. People used to type “best hotel Lisbon” and pick from a list of links. Now they describe a full situation, the vibe, the location, the amenities, and expect search to figure out the rest. From there, AI assistants ask follow-up questions and start doing things: booking a table, monitoring a price, sending a notification. The end experience is a workflow that helps someone finish a task, not a page of blue links.
Why does my business data matter so much to AI agents?
An AI agent is only as useful as the data it can trust, interpret, and act on. If your pricing is stale or your availability is wrong, an agent can’t transact against you. It moves on to a business whose data it can rely on. That’s why accurate, current local data has become the competitive battleground.
What data matters most for staying visible?
Four things carry the most weight. Your Google Business Profile needs to stay authoritative, since profiles, attributes, posts, and photos are the foundation AI grounds itself in. Freshness matters, so events, menus, deals, pricing, and inventory should be current. Reviews still drive trust, giving customers the confidence to choose once AI has narrowed the options. And real-time feeds win agentic flows, because accurate pricing and availability decide who can actually be booked.
How does AI decide which businesses to trust?
The pattern is layered. AI builds confidence starting with first-party profile data, then website content, then third-party and review signals. Get the foundation right and the rest compounds.
What should a multi-location brand do to prepare?
Start with the basics at scale. Build a dedicated landing page for every location, each one written around the real-world use cases customers describe. Keep photos and videos fresh across every listing and profile, and manage them in bulk so a single update pushes everywhere at once. Keep listings accurate across directories, publish updates once and let them sync, and monitor a real-time accuracy report so you can catch errors before they cost you customers.