Search changed shape. Similarweb measured zero-click searches climbing from 56% to 69% of all Google searches between May 2024 and May 2025, and inside Google's AI Mode the zero-click rate sits near 93%.[1] Ahrefs found that when an AI Overview appears, the number one organic result loses about a third of its clicks.[2] The answer box took the traffic. Your job in 2026 is to be inside the answer.
The upside for a regional business: almost nobody in Albury Wodonga has done this work yet. Ask ChatGPT for a recommendation in most local categories and it names two or three businesses, picked from thin evidence. Give it better evidence about yours and you take the slot.
SECTION 01How AI decides which businesses to name
Assistants build answers two ways. Some retrieve live web results and summarise them, the way Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT search do. Others answer from training data, which reflects what the web said about you months ago. Both paths reward the same underlying thing: multiple independent sources agreeing on who you are, what you do, and where you do it.
A model asked "best web designer in Albury" cross-references your website, your Google Business Profile, directory listings, reviews and any articles that mention you. Agreement across those sources reads as trust. Contradictions read as noise, and noisy businesses get skipped for a competitor with a cleaner footprint.
SECTION 02The sources AI actually reads
You can influence every source an assistant checks for a local query:
SECTION 03Fix your entity: one name, everywhere
AI systems model your business as an entity: a node connecting your name, address, phone, website, category and services. Every inconsistency splits that node. "Smith's Plumbing" on your site, "Smiths Plumbing & Gas" on Google and "Smith Plumbing Albury" on Yellow Pages looks like three weak businesses instead of one strong one.
Pick one canonical version of your name, address format, phone format and website URL. Then correct every listing to match, starting with Google, your own site footer, and the big directories. Boring work, large payoff, and you only do it once.
SECTION 04Write pages AI can quote
Assistants lift sentences, so give them sentences worth lifting. A page that says "quality solutions for all your plumbing needs" gets skipped. A page that says "we service Albury, Wodonga, Lavington and Thurgoona, with same-day emergency callouts and a fixed $180 first-hour rate" gets quoted, because it answers the question a real person asked.
Three formats earn citations again and again: direct answers to specific questions (put the answer in the first sentence under the heading), honest pricing pages with real numbers, and comparison content that names alternatives fairly. Add an FAQ section to every service page and answer each question in two or three plain sentences.
SECTION 05Reviews carry more weight than ever
When an assistant compares two Albury businesses, review signal often decides it. A profile with 60 detailed reviews mentioning specific jobs beats a profile with 8 generic five-star ratings. Ask every completed customer for a review by SMS with a direct link, and ask them to mention the actual work done. Reply to every review, because responses feed the same signal.
SECTION 06Technical signals: schema and llms.txt
Two additions help machines parse you. First, LocalBusiness schema markup on your site: structured JSON stating your name, address, hours, service area and reviews in the format Google and AI crawlers ingest directly. Second, an llms.txt file at your site root, a plain-text summary of who you are and what your key pages cover, written for AI crawlers. Automatrix runs one at automatrix.au/llms.txt if you want a live example.
SECTION 07How to check if AI recommends you
Test it monthly. Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Google (with AI Overviews on) the questions your customers ask: "best [your category] in Albury Wodonga", "who should I call for [service] near Wodonga", "[competitor] vs [you]". Record which businesses get named and what evidence the answer cites. The gaps tell you exactly what to fix next.
Do this for three months and you will watch your name start appearing. Most owners stop before the compounding kicks in, which is the whole opportunity.
SECTION 08FAQ
Is this different from normal SEO? It overlaps about 70%. Good local SEO builds most of the foundation. GEO adds entity consistency, quotable content structure, and monitoring what assistants say.
Can I pay to appear in AI answers? No. Ads exist in some AI products, but the recommendation itself gets earned through the signals above.
Does a new business have a chance? Yes. AI answers refresh faster than traditional rankings ever did, and regional categories have little competition for these signals.
REFERENCESSources
[1] Similarweb zero-click data, May 2024 to May 2025; AI Mode zero-click analysis, 2026. [2] Ahrefs, study of 300,000 keywords measuring AI Overview impact on position one CTR.
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