Local search still fills the diary. AI is who it names next.
Google’s map pack is still how most UK service businesses win work. The change is that the same customer now also asks ChatGPT or Siri. The firms that show up in both places are the ones whose listing, site and facts agree with each other. That is the job — not a rebrand of SEO into jargon.
Cardiff studio, working with small and local businesses across the UK. From £2,950 for a Starter build, delivered in 7–10 days.
Pick the page that sounds like you.
Three shapes of local business. Same underlying work; the schema, directories and package change.
Two layers. One build.
Agencies that skip the map pack and sell only 'AI SEO' are selling the garnish. The order below is the one that actually moves calls.
The map pack still takes most of the calls
When someone nearby searches “plumber near me” or “accountant in Cardiff”, Google puts three businesses on a map. That listing is a completed Google Business Profile, matching name/address/phone, reviews, and a site that agrees with the listing. Miss this and the AI layer has nothing to corroborate.
The site has to close the visit on a phone
Most of those searches happen on a phone. Click-to-call above the fold, a quote form that actually arrives, hours and the patch you cover written in plain English. A pretty brochure that buries the number hands the job to the next result.
Then the assistants start naming you
Siri, ChatGPT and Perplexity do not keep a private list of good local firms. They retrieve: directories, your pages, reviews, and whether the facts agree. LocalBusiness schema, llms.txt, and FAQs written as the questions people actually ask are how you get into that answer — on top of the map-pack work, not instead of it.
See what AI can already parse.
Run the free 15-second audit on the site you have now. The score is the gap; the conversation is whether a rebuild or a lighter pass closes it.