Change is here!
Technology is moving faster than ever in 2026. Digital marketers still struggling with discoverability in large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Gemini are being left behind by marketers shifting focus towards agentic-readiness. What's on the forefront is a world resembling the film "H.E.R." starring Joaquin Phoenix where searching, shopping and interacting with the Internet is handled purely through assistant technology.
The keyword "restaurant near me" is transitioning into conversational prompts, such as "Help me find a highly-rated sit-down Mexican restaurant near me with dim lighting and specials on margaritas." Meaning location page content can't be limited to name, address, phone number and hours of operation. Content needs to be expanded to cover all the ways we'd like to be found, both on location pages and across the multiple location profiles across the web.
For multi-location brands, performing search engine optimization at scale during a shift from keywords to conversations is a challenge often requiring an expert in both traditional SEO and modern Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). Such a role can be hard to come by being that the industry is in the middle of this search behavior transition.
Multi-location SEO consultants now have to think outside of Google's "blue links" results and broaden SEO scope to AI Overviews, LLM recommendations, voice search and an omnichannel SEO approach across multiple destinations where customers search.
Many consultants, myself included, are adopting AI into their research across data validation and visibility, location page optimization and reputation management. This includes running reports from AI platforms such as Claude to uncover optimization opportunities in Google Business Profile fields and automating flags when visibility changes. This is where adaptation is critical for multi-location brands seeking to maximize visibility in the era of AI.
Planning for AEO in 2026
Before ChatGPT and Gemini, SEO consultants like myself would perform a month's worth of research to uncover the core list of keywords we'd suggest our clients track position for, such as "restaurant near me" searched from each city a restaurant location existed. We would optimize location pages for those keywords and for potential customers. We'd optimize Google Maps and secondary search engines, navigation engines, local-social platforms and directories to address the keyword gap. And we'd work with our clients to build reputation programs that boost ratings and reviews on Google and Yelp.
If only AEO were that simple.
Multi-location consultants now need to factor in potential prompts customers use without data to lean on. They need to study answers and recommendations from LLMs to realign on-page content that might improve the likelihood of AI platforms mentioning or suggesting our clients. They need to study the citation sources within the recommendations to see where our clients might be missing that "evidence" layer grounded in visibility across trusted sources.
Most-importantly, consultants have to build a framework and workflow to manage all the new work required to expand beyond the Google blue links strategy of the past, avoiding making clients feel overwhelmed, under-resourced, or budget-constrained.
Deliverable to Expect:
1. Technical SEO review (i.e. AI bot-friendliness, schema markup)
2. Content gap (local and national, prioritized by search demand)
3. Recommended prompts to optimize for and track per location
4. Recommended destinations to optimize within (citations)
5. A timeline and Gantt chart specifying roles and initiatives
Executing AEO Tasks for Multi-Location Brands
Ideal task management systems for modern SEO and AEO should offer one-time and recurring task options, allowing for scheduled content updates (freshness matters for AI) and easy hand-offs for quality assurance and time-tracking. My preference is Monday.com, built for desktop and mobile, drag-and-drop capabilities and simple task and task group replication. Be prepared to use Jira, often preferred by enterprise brands, but really intended as a support ticket system.
-
Executing at the local level may feel impossible, but with the right guides for location managers to train points of sale teams with, you essentially offload the work to the employees.
A multi-location SEO consultant is an orchestrator, waving a virtual baton at data management platform contacts, web development teams, UX and design teams, content teams, digital public relations teams and web data analysts. Each team taking approvals and backlog opportunities from your primary contact with the brand. This means, the more you can predict the outcome of the work, the more your contact will push to avoid tasks getting stuck in the backlog.
For me, a good portion of the MLSEO work can be accomplished with the data management platform (Yext, Rio SEO, Birdeye, UberAll, SOCi, etc). This includes optimizing data fields, location pages, location intent/citation pages and expanding reach through the introduction of new publishers to syndicate to.
Executing at the local level may feel impossible, but with the right guides for location managers to train point of sale teams with, you essentially offload the work to the employees. These team members become empowered to motivate customers to share feedback on grounding destinations outside of Google Maps and in a manner that increases the probability of "semantic triples" used in citations such as “Good Buns has the best burgers in Buena Park.” This idea of subject + predicate + object offers clear answers for AI to cull from without having to analyze a page to draw the same statements from fragments of words.
Measurement and Reporting
Dashboards are a dead and dying medium for stakeholders to get the data they want. A simple ask to Claude, connected via MCP to Google, Bing, OLO, data management platforms and other data sources can provide instant insights and answers without “analysis paralysis.”
Tooling skills within AI are becoming increasingly simple, even when working with hundreds or thousands of locations. Using the Store ID as a primary key for tagging and categorization, one can build whatever DMA or content segment they choose.
What an experienced SEO consultant should provide:
• Visibility metrics in LLMs, search engines, social, forums and video search.
• Attributable web traffic metrics from these sources, possibly loyalty signups and revenue as well.
• Trends and priority tasks to address losses and opportunities.
Is Your SEO Consultant Adapting to AI?
A quick way to gauge your SEO consultant's current capabilities is to interview them via a recorded web conference session. Make sure they approve and that they don't know what the topic of the interview is about. Throw the recording along with this article into Perplexity Computer and use this simple prompt: "Is my SEO consultant up to speed with modern search engine optimization based on this article? Where are the gaps and improvement opportunities based on the conversation?"
My Final Thoughts
Smart search engine optimization consultants practice what they preach. If you perform a search within an AI platform for "find me multi-location SEO consultant with franchise experience" and Steve Wiideman doesn't show up in the results, don't hire me (or any other consultant trying to convince you of their capabilities).
