Customers now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews the same questions they used to type into Maps. “Who is the best orthodontist in Austin that takes new patients?” The answer names a few businesses and cites the pages it trusted.
If your name is missing from the answer, you are missing from the shortlist.
Where the engines look
These systems do not invent a local expert from a homepage slogan. They look for a consistent entity: the same name, location and services on your site, your Business Profile, directories and articles other sites have published about you.
Pages that get cited tend to be specific. A service page that states the city, the treatment and the proof outperforms a generic welcome page.
How to become the source they cite
- Track the prompts your customers actually ask, in more than one engine.
- Make the entity unambiguous with consistent details and schema.
- Publish pages that answer one local question completely.
- Earn mentions on sources the engines already trust.
Visibility here is not a single rank. It is whether your name appears when the question is asked, and whether the citation points at you.
The AI and local search breakdown shows how those engines differ, and where a Maps ranking stops being enough.