Search has changed. Customers now ask Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude the questions they used to type into Google, and the answers come back without a list of links to choose from. For multi-location brands, that raises an understandable worry: does everything we have built for local search still count?
The short answer is yes. The work does count, and the brands managing their location data well are the ones with the advantage.
“In 2026, the question isn't whether AI is part of the search journey for customers. It's whether you're part of AI's answer.”
Ashleigh Wainstein, Co-Founder and Client Service Director at Social Places
New acronyms have arrived with the shift. You may have seen AEO (answer engine optimisation) and GEO (generative engine optimisation) in your inbox, often attached to a pitch for a brand new tool. It is worth pausing before you treat AI search as a separate discipline that needs a separate strategy.
Google has been clear: there is no separate playbook for AI
In its recent guidance on AI features in search, Google held firm on a simple position. Optimising for generative AI search is optimising for the search experience, and that is still SEO. The signals that have always helped a brand get found still apply: crawlable content, content quality, authority, relevance, structured information and a strong experience for the person searching.
Google sums up the foundations as experience, expertise, authority and trust, known as E-E-A-T. For multi-location brands we would add two more that matter even more at scale: relevance and consistency. A national brand does not get found once. Each location has to be found, and the data behind each one has to agree with itself everywhere it appears.
Why managed brands have the advantage, not the exposure
There is a version of the AI story that says the machines have taken over your narrative. It is more useful to look at what AI actually does when it answers a question about a business.
AI reads what is published about each location and assembles an answer. If your hours, services, attributes and descriptions are accurate and consistent across your profiles and your local pages, the engines have clean, trusted information to draw on, and your locations surface correctly. If that information is missing or contradictory, the engines fill the gaps themselves, often with generic or outdated detail, or with content from a third-party site you do not control.
So the brands that have already invested in managing their location data are not exposed by AI. They are the ones it can quote with confidence. The risk sits with brands that have left the gaps open.
Each engine pulls from a different place
One more reason a single-platform approach no longer holds: the engines do not share a brain. Around a quarter of Google searches now return an AI answer, and that answer leans on Google's own knowledge of your business. The newer assistants index differently. In South Africa the market is heavily weighted toward ChatGPT, which leans on a different underlying index to Google, so a brand can rank well in one place and be absent in another.
“Being visible on Google alone is no longer enough.”
Ashleigh Wainstein, Co-Founder and Client Service Director at Social Places
The practical takeaway is not that you need five strategies. It is that the same accurate, consistent, well-structured location data has to be present in more places than before.
For a closer look at why Google alone no longer covers it — and how Google, Apple Maps, Bing and Facebook each feed the AI assistants from their own records — read our deep dive on the four-map problem facing multi-location brands.
What to focus on now
The inputs that drive AI visibility map almost exactly onto good local search practice. There are six worth prioritising:
- Accurate location data. Name, address, phone, hours, menus and attributes that match across every platform. Tagged attributes such as delivery, halaal, wheelchair access or free Wi-Fi are what let a location surface for a specific, intent-led question.
- Reviews, by score and recency. Star rating and volume still matter, and how recently reviews were posted is now part of the picture. The sentiment in those reviews is also what shapes how a business is described back to a customer.
- Local website pages. A crawlable, schema-marked page for each location, with unique content rather than a duplicated template.
- Brand mentions. Presence in directories, local press and best-of lists across the web, so there is corroborating information for an engine to trust.
- Fresh local content. Posts, photos and updates at the location level. This content is increasingly indexed and is more likely to be cited than generic brand copy.
- Broader index presence. Because the assistants do not all rely on Google, being present and consistent beyond it matters more than it used to.
None of these are new AI ranking factors invented for a new era. They are the same signals that have driven discovery for years, and they matter more now, not less.
How Social Places helps
The work multi-location brands already do with us across Listings, Reputation, Social and Local Pages is the same work that builds AI visibility. Accurate data across every location, a strong and current review profile, schema-marked local pages and fresh local content give the engines clean, trusted information to draw on. As the ranking factors shift, we adjust the strategy and the technology behind it, so each location stays both found and chosen. If you want to talk through where your brand stands, Contact Us.
FAQ's
Do I need a separate strategy for AI search?
No. Google's guidance is that optimising for AI search is still SEO. The fundamentals of crawlable, accurate, consistent and authoritative information are what drive AI visibility, so the priority is doing those things well across every location rather than adopting a separate discipline.
What are AEO and GEO?
AEO stands for answer engine optimisation and GEO for generative engine optimisation. They are newer terms for being visible in AI-generated answers. The practices behind them overlap heavily with established local SEO, so they describe a shift in where you appear rather than a wholly new method.
If my brand already manages its listings and reviews, are we exposed by AI?
The opposite. Brands with accurate, consistent location data give AI engines clean information to quote, so their locations surface correctly. The exposure sits with brands that leave gaps, because the engines fill those gaps themselves, sometimes with generic or third-party content.
Is being number one on Google enough for AI visibility?
Not on its own. The assistants use different underlying indexes, and in South Africa the market leans heavily toward ChatGPT. A brand can rank well on Google and still be absent elsewhere, so accurate and consistent information needs to be present across more platforms than before.