Local Marketing Fixes to Make as Google Search Becomes More AI-Driven

Local marketing fixes to make as Google Search becomes more AI-driven start with the basics AI reads: your profile, your pages and your contact details. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode now answer many questions before anyone clicks through to a website. I'm Marven Salgado, founder of Social Influence in Mascouche, and I help small businesses across Greater Montréal and Québec check those basics before they touch an ad budget.

Local marketing fixes to make as Google Search becomes more AI-driven: what is changing for a local business

Google now answers many questions directly on the results page, so fewer people need to click through to your website. AI Overviews pull from several sources, summarize them, and show that summary above the list of websites. For a local business, your Google Business Profile, your reviews and your website content become the material Google uses to build those summaries. If that information is thin or out of date, the summary may describe another business instead of yours.

So your website is no longer the only storefront. Google reads your profile, reviews, listings and pages together as one picture of your business before a shopper ever sees your name. That is the idea behind our found on Google, cited by AI approach.

Google Business Profile as the source AI summaries lean on

Google Business Profile is one of the main sources Google uses when it summarizes a local business, so any gap or mistake there can be repeated in the AI answer. Four things are worth checking this week: your primary category, your service list, your hours (holidays included) and your photos.

Categories, services, hours and photos to review first

Start with the primary category. Pick the one that matches what you do most, not the broadest option, and add extra categories only when they are accurate.

Then list your services with short, plain descriptions. Vague service names make it harder for Google to say what you actually offer.

Wrong hours get repeated in AI answers and send customers to a locked door, so check them, including holiday hours. A Laval dental clinic that closes at 5 p.m. but still shows 8 p.m. on its profile will hear about it from annoyed patients.

Last, replace blurry or old photos with recent shots of your storefront, your work or your team. If you would rather have someone handle this, our Google Business Profile service covers the full review and cleanup.

Service and location pages that answer customer questions plainly

Service and location pages get picked up by AI search when they give clear, direct answers. A plumber who wants to be recommended over the one three blocks away needs pages that answer the questions people actually ask, written like a helpful neighbour would explain them.

On every page, I check for:

1. One page per service and one per location, with no mixing
2. A plain answer to "do you offer this?" near the top
3. Real neighbourhood names, not just "Greater Montréal"
4. Price ranges, or at least an explanation of how pricing works

If you don't publish prices, say how a quote works and point people to your contact or quote form. For a bilingual business, the French and English pages should answer the same questions with the same facts, which keeps you in line with Loi 96 and gives Google one consistent story in both languages.

Consistent name, address and phone across the web

Consistent name, address and phone details (often called NAP) let Google match your business to one real location it can trust. They need to match exactly everywhere: your website, your Google Business Profile, your Facebook page, directories, and old listings you may have forgotten. If your street is "St." in one place and "Street" in another, or the French and English versions spell your name differently, Google has to guess whether these are the same business.

Go through your main listings and fix mismatches. Update old citations that still show a previous address or phone number.

Reviews and replies that show real customer experience

Reviews that describe a real visit carry more weight than a vague five-star line. Detail is what helps AI systems understand what you do and where you do it.

When you ask customers for a review, invite them to mention:

1. The service or product they used
2. The neighbourhood or location they visited
3. Something specific about the experience

Let them use their own words. Never hand them a script, and never post reviews that aren't genuine.

Replies matter just as much. Keep them short, mention the service again and thank the customer by name when you can. Detailed reviews with clear replies give Google consistent signals about what you do, and they help real customers decide before they call.

Tracking calls and forms under Loi 25 so you can see what works

Call and form tracking under Loi 25 shows you which leads come from your Google listing, your website or your ads, as long as consent and privacy notices are in place. Separate tracking numbers for each source tell you whether a call came from your profile, your homepage or a Meta ad. In GA4, form submissions can be tracked as their own events.

Under Loi 25, you need clear consent language and a privacy notice before you record calls or store customer data, so build that into the setup from day one.

Source	What to track	What you learn
Google listing	Calls from the profile	Which searches bring calls
Website	Form submissions	Which pages bring enquiries
Ads	Call tracking numbers	Which campaigns bring leads

With that in place, you can put your money where the calls are actually coming from.

Local search fix-it checklist for a Québec small business

The local SEO for AI search checklist below pulls everything into four points you can review on your own:

1. Your Google Business Profile is complete, with correct hours, categories, photos and a clear description.
2. Your website shows the same name, address and phone number on every page, in French and English.
3. You have recent, genuine reviews with real replies, not copy-paste answers.
4. Call and form tracking is live, with consent handled under Loi 25.

Go through the list every few months. If one item slips, fix it before spending more on ads. To see how your business currently shows up in AI answers, try our AI visibility check.