Last updated: October 17, 2026
Getting cited by Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot still comes down to ordinary SEO. Google said so directly in May 2026. For a local office, the work that pays off is a complete Google Business Profile, detailed reviews, pages that answer real client questions, and keeping important pages current.
Where things stand
Google published its guide to optimizing for generative AI search in May 2026 (page last updated July 2026). The message is blunt: optimizing for AI search “is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO.” You do not need an llms.txt file, which Google Search ignores. You do not need special schema.org markup. You do not need to chop pages into small chunks. Google does say to keep your Business Profile and product data accurate, and to track results in the Search Console generative AI performance report.
Microsoft is giving site owners more data than Google. Bing Webmaster Tools’ AI Performance report entered public preview in February 2026, added topics, intents and citation share in June, and on October 13, 2026 added a Topics Portfolio beta. It groups the queries Copilot and Bing’s AI answers use to cite you, and lists “opportunity queries” where other sites are cited and yours is not. Microsoft calls the numbers “directional signals,” and small sites may see little or no data yet.
For local businesses, Google Maps matters as much as the main results page. Ask Maps, a Gemini-powered conversational search inside Google Maps, launched in the U.S. and India in March 2026. Search Engine Land field tests in April and May 2026 found it typically names only 3 to 8 businesses per query, and describes them by qualities like responsiveness or specialization. The source material is your Business Profile, the wording in your reviews, and, for complex or expensive jobs, your website.
Freshness helps outside Google’s own AI features. An Ahrefs study of about 17 million citations (July 2025) found AI assistants cited content about 25.7% fresher than Google’s organic results, with ChatGPT the strongest. Google AI Overviews was the exception: its top citations were slightly older than the organic results. The average cited page was still almost three years old, so updating your best pages beats publishing filler.
Measurement is getting harder. Search Engine Land reported on October 15, 2026 that ChatGPT appears to have stopped adding its UTM tag and referral data, so ChatGPT visits may now show up as “direct” in your analytics. Google also added more inline links and source sections to AI Mode and AI Overviews the same week, but Search Console still does not report clicks for those features separately.
| Tactic | Best for | Cost or effort | Our take |
|---|---|---|---|
| Complete Google Business Profile (categories, services, hours, attributes, photos) | Every local office | Free; low effort, then a monthly check | The single highest-return task for Ask Maps and AI Mode local answers. |
| Ask for detailed reviews | Dentists, contractors, law firms | Free; one follow-up email or text template | Reviews that describe the problem, service and outcome shape how AI describes you. |
| Situation pages (“what to do when…”) | Higher-cost or high-trust services | Medium to high effort per page | Matters more as questions get complex. Write one strong page, not twenty thin ones. |
| Refresh top pages quarterly | Sites with existing traffic | Low to medium effort per page | Helps with ChatGPT and Perplexity. Only change the date when you change the content. |
| Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance | Anyone who wants citation data | Free; low effort to verify the site | The only first-party report that shows where competitors get cited and you don’t. |
| llms.txt or “AI schema” | Nobody, for Google | Free, but a distraction | Google says it ignores llms.txt and needs no special markup. Skip it. |
What a small office should do now
Start with the Business Profile. Fill every field: primary and secondary categories, each service with a short description, regular and holiday hours, payment methods, parking, accessibility, and current photos of the office and team. Make the description specific (“emergency dental appointments the same day, sedation available”) rather than generic.
Next, change how you ask for reviews. A short note asking clients to mention what they came in for and how it went produces the kind of text Ask Maps quotes. Never write or incentivize reviews; the FTC rule on fake reviews applies to AI-written ones too.
Then pick the three to five questions prospective clients ask most on the phone and make sure your site answers each one clearly on a relevant page. Test those questions in Google Maps, AI Mode and ChatGPT, and note who gets named.
Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools and check the AI Performance report monthly, if Bing shows data for you.
When not to bother: do not buy tools that promise “AI rankings” or claim access to Google’s internal metrics; Google’s own guide warns against them. Do not create llms.txt files for Google, mass-produce AI-written location pages, or rewrite your site in question-and-answer chunks. If your Business Profile has wrong hours, fix that before anything else on this page.
What we’re watching
- Whether Google adds click data for AI Mode and AI Overviews to Search Console.
- Ask Maps rolling out beyond the U.S. and India, and to desktop.
- Whether OpenAI restores referral data for ChatGPT links, or confirms the change.
- Bing’s Topics Portfolio leaving beta and showing data for smaller sites.
- Google’s test of ads inside AI Mode (reported October 16, 2026) and what it does to organic local visibility.
Sources
- Google Search Central: AI optimization guide (checked October 2026; page updated July 2026)
- CMSWire: Google’s AI search playbook is here (May 2026)
- Search Engine Journal: Bing Webmaster Tools Topics Portfolio (October 2026)
- Bing Blog: New AI visibility insights (June 2026)
- Search Engine Land: Google Ask Maps, how to make your business easier to recommend (October 2026)
- Search Engine Land: Ask Maps is moving from listings to recommendations (April 2026)
- Search Engine Land: Ask Maps, how to optimize for visibility (May 2026)
- Search Engine Journal: Google Maps launches Ask Maps (March 2026)
- Ahrefs: Do AI assistants prefer to cite fresh content? (study July 2025; checked October 2026)
- Search Engine Land: ChatGPT appears to drop UTM tracking (October 2026)
- Search Engine Land: Google updates AI Mode and AI Overviews with more links (October 2026)
- Manatt: FTC final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials (August 2024; checked October 2026)
- Search Engine Land: Google tests ads in AI Mode (October 2026)
Changelog
- 2026-10-17 — Page created.