Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews are changing how people find local businesses. These systems don’t just crawl your website the way search engines do. They interpret language, infer meaning, and piece together your brand’s identity across the entire web. If your local visibility feels unstable, this shift is one of the biggest reasons. Traditional local SEO like Google Business Profile optimization, NAP consistency, and review generation still matter. But now you’re also optimizing for models that need better context and more structured information. If those elements aren’t in place, you fade from LLM-generated answers even if your rankings look fine. When you’re focusing on a smaller local audience, it’s essential that you know what you have to do. Key Takeaways LLMs reshape how local results appear by pulling from entities, schema, and high-trust signals, not just rankings. Consistent information across the web gives AI models confidence when choosing which businesses to include in their answers. Reviews, citations, structured data, and natural-language content help LLMs understand what you do and who you serve. Traditional local SEO still drives visibility, but AI requires deeper clarity and stronger contextual signals. Improving your entity strength helps you appear more often in both organic search and AI-generated summaries. How LLMs Impact Local Search Traditional local search results present options: maps, listings, and organic rankings. LLMs don’t simply list choices. They generate an answer based on the clearest, strongest signals available. If your business isn’t sending those signals consistently, you…