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If you’ve spent any amount of time with us at Advice Local, you know very well that we consider listings management services a pillar of local SEO. But as we move deeper into the AI Age, and the prevalence of search using chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini and CoPilot rises, you may wonder if these services are still relevant. We’ll address this today by looking at listings management and directories, and their place in a quickly expanding world of artificial intelligence (AI).
Listings Management Establishes Trust in Generative Engines
We know that local marketers and agency partners want to stay up-to-date on what’s happening, and what is relevant to you and your clients’ success. With the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, the ways consumers searched began to change. And while we now have Artificial Intelligence Optimization (AIO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help us capture the attention of consumers and AI robots, one thing that hasn’t changed is the importance of listings management in this process.
Trust signals remain a key part of the equation in the AI Age. This is true for both the people searching and the large language models (LLMs) behind their favorite AI agents. That means knowing how to amplify NAP data for your agency clients in directories is still a relevant step in the marketing process.
While search output may look different, to return answers to searchers’ queries, behind the scenes the Googlebot and AI robots are still searching for clean and consistent local business citations, authoritative content, and structured data to scrape. These foundational steps remain the basis of trust for local search ranking and generative engine answers.
Placement in Top Directories Makes a Difference in the AI Age
It’s not enough to have regularly updated NAP data available. These local citations must be in trusted directories, from general to vertical specific in order for them to be found in search (traditional and AI), and to establish the trust and authority we mentioned before. Feeding this information to Yelp, Yellow Pages, Angi, Healthgrades, FindLaw, etc. is one part of building your optimization strategy. And of course, maintaining and updating Google Business Profiles and Bing Places is part of the plan too.
A reputable listings management service will have a vast network of directories that it publishes to. This includes GPS accelerators and data aggregators that ensure your clients’ physical locations are found when consumers ask Siri, the Assistant, Gemini or ChatGPT how to get to the best and closest local restaurant, movie theater, mechanic, etc. ChatGPT has especially shown that it looks for “official and authoritative” data when it returns NAP data about storefront locations.
Your local optimization plans for clients have to be consistent across platforms to gain authority and trust in search and answer engines. Tools like our listings management service get your clients into the best, most relevant directories, and our new AI Presence Amplifier gives you insight into how client business listings look to AI robots so you can make necessary updates. This is the best way to keep client businesses surfacing in consumer searches, whether it’s in Google, Bing, ChatGPT or other search and answer engines.
Get Industry-Leading Listings Management & More Now
When it comes to local SEO and now GEO, Advice Local has the suite of tools to get your agency clients ahead of the competition. From our listings management services to our AI Presence Amplifier, we have you covered for the AI Age and beyond. To learn more, request a demo now or give us a call at (214) 310-1356.