How Local Businesses Win with Voice Search and AI Assistant Optimisation

It’s Tuesday morning and Sarah’s rushing to get the kids to school when she realises she’s completely forgotten to book a birthday party entertainer for her daughter’s weekend party. Without breaking stride, she grabs her phone and says, “Hey Google, find me a children’s entertainer available this Saturday near me.”

Within seconds, she gets specific recommendations – not just any entertainers, but ones with great reviews, availability this weekend, and who specialise in her daughter’s age group. She books one before she’s even reached the car.

This scenario happens thousands of times daily across the UK, and if you’re a local business owner – especially a woman running your own service business – you want to be that recommended entertainer, cake maker, personal trainer, or consultant that AI assistants suggest when your ideal clients are in desperate need of your services.

Welcome to the world of local business GEO, where voice search and AI assistants are completely reshaping how customers discover and choose local businesses. And here’s what you need to know – AI overviews are leaning heavily into Maps data when making local recommendations, which changes everything about how you need to approach local visibility.

The Reality of Voice Search for Local Businesses

Voice search isn’t some future trend we’re waiting for – it’s how your customers are finding businesses right now. When someone asks their smart speaker or phone for local recommendations, they’re using completely natural, conversational language that’s worlds apart from the keyword-stuffed nonsense people used to optimise for.

Instead of typing “accountant Manchester,” they’re saying things like “Where can I find a female accountant who understands small businesses near me?” or “I need someone who can do my self-assessment before the deadline and won’t make me feel stupid about my bookkeeping.”

This shift means your local business GEO strategy needs to embrace these conversational queries and actually answer the real questions your customers are asking. Not the questions you think they should be asking, but the ones they’re actually saying out loud to their devices.

From my own experience transitioning from traditional SEO to GEO, I’ve noticed that the businesses getting the most AI recommendations are those that create content addressing these spoken, nuanced queries. It’s not enough to rank for “business coach” anymore – you need to be the answer when someone asks “How do I find a business coach who gets what it’s like to run a business as a mum?”

How AI Assistants Actually Choose Local Recommendations

Understanding how AI assistants make their recommendations is absolutely crucial for local business GEO success, and it’s more complex than most people realise. These systems don’t just look at your website and decide you’re brilliant (even though they probably should!) – they’re pulling information from multiple sources to determine which businesses deserve a recommendation.

Here’s what I’ve learned from tracking AI recommendations over the past few months: AI assistants prioritise businesses with consistent, accurate information across all platforms. They’re essentially fact-checking everything – your Google Business Profile, website, directory listings, social media profiles (if you use them), and even review responses. When all these sources tell exactly the same story about your business, AI assistants gain confidence in recommending you.

The recommendation process also heavily weighs customer reviews and ratings, but here’s the important bit – it’s not just about having loads of five-star reviews. AI systems are sophisticated enough to understand context. They’re particularly drawn to recent reviews that mention specific services or experiences, because these provide rich context about what your business actually offers.

And here’s something crucial you need to know: Google may be testing replacing local pack at the top of the Google Search results for “near me” related queries with an AI Overview. This means instead of seeing a traditional map with three local listings, users might start seeing AI-generated recommendations with local information. This is massive for local businesses because it changes how visibility works entirely.

Location accuracy plays a huge role too. AI assistants want to recommend businesses that are genuinely convenient for the user, which brings me to something really important about Google Business Profiles…

The Home-Based Business Reality Check

Right, let’s have a proper conversation about something that affects loads of women entrepreneurs but nobody talks about clearly: Google Business Profile eligibility for home-based businesses.

Here’s the truth: If your business either has a physical location that customers can visit, or travels to customers where they are, you can create a Business Profile on Google. But – and this is a big but – there are strict rules about home-based service businesses.

If your business rents a physical mailing address but doesn’t operate out of that location, also known as a virtual office, that location isn’t eligible for a Business Profile. And here’s why this matters: Google implemented these restrictions to protect consumers from unethical practices by fake service businesses that were using virtual addresses to appear local when they weren’t.

The reality for home-based women entrepreneurs: If you run your business from home and clients don’t visit your home office, you can still have a Google Business Profile, but you need to set it up as a service area business. This means hiding your address and listing your service areas instead. You verify using your home address, but customers don’t see it.

However, if you do have a proper home office where clients visit you during business hours – like if you’re a therapist, accountant, or consultant who sees clients at home – then you can show your address. The key is genuine in-person client interaction at your location.

For more details on these requirements, check Google’s Business Profile eligibility guidelines.

It means there’s a bit of jiggery-pokery involved, but it is doable. Don’t expect a super-fast response in terms of getting approval – my friend runs a boat tour company and she’s had a hell of a ride getting everything verified and up and going.

Google Business Profile Requirements:

• Home-based service businesses must hide address and show service areas
• Virtual offices and P.O. boxes are not eligible
• Must have genuine in-person customer interaction
• Service area businesses can cover 200-mile radius

NAP Consistency in the Age of AI

NAP consistency – ensuring your Name, Address, and Phone number are identical across all online platforms – has become even more critical in the GEO era. AI assistants use this information as a trust signal to verify your business legitimacy and determine your local relevance.

Think of NAP consistency as your business’s digital fingerprint. When AI systems scan the internet for information about your business, they’re looking for matching patterns. If your address is listed as “123 High Street” on your website but “123 High St.” on your Google Business Profile, AI assistants might view these as inconsistencies that hurt your credibility.

I learned this lesson the hard way when one of my clients saw their AI recommendations drop significantly. Turns out, they had their business name listed slightly differently across various platforms – sometimes with “Ltd” and sometimes without. Once we standardised everything, their AI mentions increased within weeks.

Here’s what you need to do: Create a master document with your exact business information formatted consistently. This includes your business name exactly as it appears on official documents, your complete address with proper abbreviations, and your primary phone number. Use this exact formatting everywhere – your website, Google Business Profile, industry directories, anywhere you’re listed online.

Pay special attention to suite numbers, building numbers, or floor designations. These details might seem minor, but inconsistencies can confuse AI systems. If your office is in “Suite 5,” use that exact format everywhere, not “Ste 5” or “Unit 5.”

Review Optimisation That AI Systems Love

Reviews aren’t just social proof anymore – they’re data sources that AI assistants use to understand and categorise your business. The way customers describe your services in reviews directly influences how AI systems recommend you.

Here’s a strategy that’s worked brilliantly for my clients: Instead of just asking for reviews, guide customers toward specific, detailed feedback. When a client finishes working with you, don’t just say “I’d love a review.” Try something like: “If you have a moment, I’d love for you to share specifically what you found most helpful about our session today.”

This approach results in reviews rich with service-specific keywords that AI assistants can easily understand and categorise. Instead of generic “Great service!” reviews, you get detailed feedback like “Sarah’s business coaching helped me streamline my client onboarding process and increase my revenue by 40% in three months.”

Respond to reviews strategically, incorporating keywords that reflect your services. When you thank a customer for their review, mention the specific service they used: “Thank you for choosing our marketing strategy sessions. I’m so glad our approach to social media-free marketing resonated with your business goals.”

Recent reviews carry more weight with AI assistants, so maintain a steady flow of fresh feedback. Implement a simple review request system – perhaps a follow-up email a few days after service completion. The key is making it natural and easy for satisfied customers to share their experiences.

Content That Establishes Local Authority

Creating content that resonates with both local customers and AI assistants requires balancing local relevance with genuine value. Your content should demonstrate deep knowledge of your community while addressing the specific needs of your local customer base.

Develop location-specific content that showcases your community involvement. Write about local events you’ve participated in, partnerships with other local women-owned businesses, or how your services address unique challenges in your area. For example, if you’re a financial planner in an area with lots of small business owners, create content about local business support grants or area-specific tax considerations.

Create seasonal content that reflects your local area’s unique characteristics. A wellness coach might write about managing stress during the local festival season, while a business consultant could create content about preparing for your area’s busiest tourism months.

Answer the questions your local customers are actually asking. Use tools like Google’s “People Also Ask” feature or simply pay attention to the questions customers ask during consultations. Create detailed, helpful content that positions you as the local expert in your field.

Real Success: How One Women-Owned Business Transformed Their Local Visibility

Let me tell you about Emma, who owns a holistic wellness practice for women. When she started focusing on voice search optimisation, her business was barely appearing in AI assistant recommendations despite having brilliant in-person client results and lovely reviews.

Emma began by auditing her NAP consistency across all platforms. She discovered her business name appeared as “Emma’s Wellness,” “Emma’s Wellness Practice,” and “Emma’s Holistic Wellness” across different directories. After standardising to “Emma’s Holistic Wellness Practice” everywhere, she noticed immediate improvements in local search visibility.

Next, she focused on review optimisation. Instead of simply asking for reviews, Emma started requesting specific feedback about services. She’d say things like, “If you have a moment, I’d love for you to share what you found most helpful about today’s reflexology session.” This resulted in reviews rich with service-specific keywords that AI assistants could easily categorise.

Emma also created a content calendar focused on local wellness topics. She wrote about managing anxiety during Manchester’s grey winter months, staying active during the city’s rainy season, and even partnered with other local women-owned businesses for wellness workshops. This locally-focused content strategy helped establish her as a community wellness expert.

The results were remarkable. Within a few months, Emma’s Holistic Wellness Practice became a top AI assistant recommendation for wellness services in her area. Voice search queries like “best reflexologist near me” and “women-only wellness services” consistently led to her business. Most importantly, this increased visibility translated to a 45% increase in new client bookings, with many mentioning they found her through voice search recommendations.

Your Action Plan for Local Business GEO Success

Local business GEO success starts with understanding that AI assistants and voice search have fundamentally changed how customers discover local businesses. Your potential customers are having conversations with their devices about their needs, and you want to be part of those conversations.

Start with the foundation: Audit your NAP consistency across all platforms and fix any discrepancies immediately. This might feel tedious but really it’s just a copy & paste job from the master document you created, but it’s absolutely essential for AI discovery. Then develop a review strategy with a template that encourages detailed, service-specific feedback from your customers.

Create content that demonstrates your local expertise and community connection. AI assistants favour businesses that show genuine involvement in their local communities. Think about the unique challenges and opportunities in your area, and create content that addresses these specifically.

Most importantly, think like your customers. What questions are they asking their devices about services like yours? What problems are they trying to solve? Create content that directly answers those questions using the natural, conversational language they use when speaking to AI assistants.

The businesses that master local business GEO now will dominate local search results as voice search and AI recommendations become even more prevalent. Your women-owned business has the personal touch and community connection that customers crave – now it’s time to make sure AI assistants know it too.

Want to see exactly where your local business stands in the new world of AI search? Download my 50-point GEO audit checklist to get a comprehensive assessment of your current AI readiness. It covers everything from NAP consistency to voice search optimisation, helping you identify quick wins and priority areas for improvement.

Remember, this isn’t about abandoning everything you know about marketing – it’s about evolving your approach to meet your customers where they are. And increasingly, that’s in conversation with AI assistants who are becoming their trusted advisors for local business recommendations.