GUIDES / AI SEO, EXPLAINED STRAIGHT
AI SEO guides for local businesses.
What changed in search, how each engine decides whom to recommend, and what to do about it — written to be followed, by the person who does the work. No invented statistics, no jargon without a definition, and the definitions are in the glossary.
The guides / 10
Start with the definition, then the engine you care about.
Guide / The definition
What is AI SEO?
AI SEO explained for a local business: what changed in search, the four disciplines (SEO, AIO, AEO, GEO), what the engines read, and what to do first.
Read the guideGuide / GEO
Generative engine optimization (GEO): how a business gets cited in AI answers
What generative engine optimization is, how ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Mode build and cite an answer, what gets a business named, how to measure it.
Read the guideGuide / AEO
Answer engine optimization (AEO): how to write pages that get selected as the answer
What answer engine optimization is, how to write answer-first pages, which questions to answer, how FAQ blocks and FAQPage schema work, and a checklist.
Read the guideGuide / ChatGPT
How to get your local business recommended by ChatGPT
Six steps to being named when a customer asks ChatGPT for a business like yours: crawl access, one entity, the sources it cites, quotable pages, reviews.
Read the guideGuide / Google AI
How a local business shows up in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode
What Google AI Overviews and AI Mode are, when they appear for local searches, what Google says helps, the local signals they read, how to check for your name.
Read the guideGuide / llms.txt
llms.txt: what it is, what it is not, and whether your business needs one
A plain guide to llms.txt, the proposed text file that tells language models what a site is: the format, what it does not do, why we ship one, how to write one.
Read the guideGuide / Structured data
Schema markup for a local business: what to add, what to leave out
The structured data a local business site should carry — LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage, Person, BreadcrumbList — the mistakes that get it ignored.
Read the guideGuide / Business Profile
Google Business Profile optimization: the checklist for a contractor
The Google Business Profile checklist for a home service business: name, categories, services, description, hours, area, photos, reviews, posts, AI answers.
Read the guideGuide / Local SEO
Local SEO for contractors: the checklist that produces calls
Local SEO for a home service business in six parts: the Business Profile, real service and city pages, listings, reviews, links that matter, tracking calls.
Read the guideGuide / Speed to lead
Speed to lead: why the first minute decides who gets the job
What speed to lead is, where home service leads leak — voicemail, forms read next morning, after-hours — what an instant response looks like, the guardrails.
Read the guideThe short version / Four disciplines
Every guide comes back to the same four things.
- SEO — Search engine optimization
- Search engine optimization (SEO) is the work of earning a position in Google’s organic results and local map pack for the searches a business wants — through technical health, content built around real search demand, a complete Google Business Profile, consistent citations and reviews.
- AIO — AI optimization
- AI optimization (AIO) is the work of making a business legible to AI systems — one consistent entity with the same name, services, area and facts on every page and profile, expressed in structured data and plain-text files a model can parse without guessing.
- AEO — Answer engine optimization
- Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the work of getting a page selected as the answer to a question — in Google AI Overviews, featured snippets, voice assistants and chat interfaces — by opening with a direct, self-contained answer, using question-shaped headings and marking FAQs up with FAQPage schema.
- GEO — Generative engine optimization
- Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the work of getting a business cited and recommended inside the answers generative engines write — ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Mode — by publishing citation-worthy specifics, being corroborated by independent sources, and keeping the entity consistent and current.
The full glossary The Punch List: the short, practical answers
FAQ / Answers
About the guides
Who writes these guides?
Michael Blair, the founder of Nashville’s Web Design, who builds and runs every layer of the work described in them — the sites, the local and AI SEO, the ads and the automation — for clients and for the company’s own Middle Tennessee trade sites, where the methods are tested first. Every guide carries the date it was last updated.
Are the guides specific to Middle Tennessee?
The methods apply to any local service business in the United States. The examples use Nashville, Franklin, Brentwood and the other Middle Tennessee markets because those are the markets we work in and check every month.
Can I use these guides to do the work myself?
Yes. They are written to be followed. The Business Profile checklist, the local SEO checklist and the llms.txt guide in particular can be done by an owner in an afternoon each. The free scan and the free AI answer check on this site show you where to start.
How often are the guides updated?
When the engines change what they do — a new Google AI feature, a new crawler, a change in what an engine cites — the guide that covers it is revised and its updated date changes. The date is printed on every guide and stated in its structured data.
Three free checks / One a month each
Read enough? See what the engines say about you — in a minute.
The same checks we run before quoting a job. Each is free, asks for no email, and the result is yours whether you hire us or not.
Free / Scan your website
85 checks on your site.
Technical SEO, speed on a phone, structured data, AI search readiness and whether the page turns a visitor into a call — every finding with its fix, a PDF and its own link.
Scan a siteFree / Ask Google’s AI
Does the AI name you?
Google’s AI Mode asked for the best business of your kind in your city, live, and read for your name — then the map at your own address and your profile against the pack.
Run the checkFree / Check your links
How many of your links fail the rules?
Every site linking to yours read by the backlink audit’s written rules — how many fail outright, how many are borderline, the reasons, five examples, and a PDF.
Check the linksNEXT STEP
Find out what the AI engines say about you — and whether your market is still open.
Tell us your trade and your city. Before we call, we check what the engines answer and who takes the calls today — so the first call is a straight answer on whether your market still has room.
