TL;DR — Open Insights > Local Businesses to see how often AI recommends your business for location-specific queries and whether your NAP data is consistent. Go to Visibility > Responses to read verbatim local recommendations and see what attributes AI mentions about your business versus competitors. Check the NAP Consistency Score first — inconsistent name, address, or phone data is the most common reason AI skips your business for local queries. Pro tip: add location-qualified prompts in Workspace > Monitoring if your specific city is not yet covered.
The Question
“Does AI recommend my business for local or ‘near me’ searches?”Local AI queries — “best dentist near me”, “top Italian restaurant in Lyon”, “recommended plumber in Berlin” — are among the fastest-growing query types in AI search. Unlike traditional local SEO where Google Maps determines rankings, AI models synthesize local recommendations from review platforms, local directories, editorial content, and structured business data. If your business information is inconsistent across these sources, or if AI-trusted local platforms do not list you, AI will recommend competitors even when you are physically closer or higher-rated. You might also be wondering:
- “Is my business’s address, phone number, and hours consistent across the sources AI cites?”
- “Which review platforms does AI use most when making local recommendations in my category?”
- “How do I appear in AI responses for ‘best [my service] in [my city]’ queries?”
Where to Go in Qwairy
Start here: Insights > Local Businesses
Navigate to Insights > Local Businesses — your primary view for AI local visibility.
The dashboard shows how often your business is mentioned in responses to location-specific and near-me queries, which geographic areas show the strongest AI presence, and whether your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) data is consistent across the sources AI models reference.
Focus on the Local Mention Frequency metric and the NAP Consistency Score — inconsistent NAP data is the most common reason AI models cite a competitor instead of you for local queries.
Go deeper: Visibility > Prompts (local queries) + Responses
Navigate to Visibility > Prompts and filter to locally-tagged prompts or prompts containing geographic qualifiers.
Read the actual AI responses for local queries in your city or region. Note which businesses are recommended and what attributes AI mentions: rating, price range, proximity language (“located in the city center”), and the source platforms cited.
Use Visibility > Responses to read verbatim local recommendation text — this reveals whether AI is aware of your location, hours, and service offerings at all.
Complete the picture: Overview > GEO Matrix + Looker Studio + Exports
Open Overview > GEO Matrix and apply geographic or local topic filters to see your local AI visibility broken down by provider.
Connect the Looker Studio local-insights data source for a live local visibility dashboard you can share with franchise managers or regional marketing teams.
Export local mention data via Workspace > Exports to cross-reference AI visibility with local foot traffic or booking data.
What to Look For
Local Businesses — NAP Consistency and Mention Frequency
NAP consistency is the technical foundation of local AI visibility. When AI models compare your business across multiple sources (Google Business Profile, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Bing Places, your own website), inconsistencies in your name spelling, address format, or phone number create uncertainty that causes AI to deprioritize your business in local recommendations.| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Local Mention Frequency | How often your business name appears in AI responses to local queries |
| NAP Consistency Score | How consistently your name, address, and phone number match across tracked sources |
| Map Presence | Whether AI models describe your business location in geographic terms |
| Review Platform Coverage | Which review platforms have your business listed and are being cited by AI |
| Rating mentioned in AI responses | Whether AI quotes your star rating and what source it attributes the rating to |
Responses — Verbatim Local Recommendation Text
The verbatim response text for local queries is highly informative. AI models that include local businesses often say more than just the name: they mention the neighborhood, describe the specialty, quote ratings, note parking availability, or describe price ranges. Understanding what AI says about your business — and what it says about local competitors — reveals the information gaps on your local data sources.Pro Tip: Run a test query for your exact business category in your city on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini directly. Compare what they say to what you see in Qwairy’s Responses view. If Qwairy’s monitored prompts do not cover your specific city, add location-qualified prompts in Workspace > Monitoring.
Filters That Help
| Filter | How to use it for this question |
|---|---|
| Provider | Identify which AI model is most active for local queries in your category — Google AI Overview/Gemini often leads for local intent given its access to Google Maps data |
| Period | Use 30-day windows after updating listings or accumulating new reviews to measure impact |
| Topic / Tag | Filter to your specific service category (e.g., “Italian restaurant”, “dentist”, “HVAC”) to isolate relevant local queries |
How to Interpret the Results
Good result
Your business appears in more than 50% of monitored local AI responses for your service category in your primary market area. NAP Consistency Score is above 85%. AI mentions your business with accurate details — correct neighborhood, current hours, and a star rating that reflects your actual review average. You appear in the same responses as your top local competitors rather than being consistently excluded.Needs attention
Zero or near-zero local mentions despite a physical presence and positive reviews. NAP Consistency Score below 70% indicating your business information varies significantly across the platforms AI trusts for local data. Or your business appearing in AI responses but with an outdated address from a previous location, wrong hours, or a wrong phone number — situations where AI’s recommendation actively misleads potential customers.Example
Scenario: You operate a chain of physiotherapy clinics across three cities. Your online booking is AI-driven and you notice that one location gets 40% fewer AI-referred bookings than the others despite similar ratings.
- Open Insights > Local Businesses and filter to the underperforming city. Local Mention Frequency for that location is 8% compared to 34% and 41% for the other two cities. NAP Consistency Score for the underperforming location is 52% — the lowest of the three.
- Navigate to Visibility > Responses and read local AI recommendations for “best physiotherapy clinic in [city]”. Your clinic is not mentioned in any of the 5 sampled responses. Three competitors are consistently named, all of which have 100+ Google reviews and are listed on a local health directory that appears as a cited source in multiple responses.
- Audit your clinic’s listings on the directory AI is citing — your location is listed but with a phone number from before a rebrand, an address using the old building number, and only 7 Google reviews. Fix the NAP data across Google Business Profile, the local directory, and your website footer. Launch a patient review campaign to reach 30+ Google reviews. Re-check Local Businesses in 60 days.
Go Further
Local visibility dashboard
Build a local AI visibility dashboard in Looker Studio using the local-insights data source
Local Businesses guide
Read the Local Businesses documentation to understand how Qwairy tracks ‘near me’ and local AI results
Query local results via API
Use the local endpoint to programmatically query your brand’s visibility in local AI search results
Related Questions
Are my products showing up in AI shopping recommendations?
The product commerce equivalent — how AI handles product queries vs local service queries
How visible is my brand at the top of the funnel in AI search?
Understand how awareness-stage AI visibility feeds into local discovery queries
Which sources does AI cite most in my category?
Identify the platforms AI trusts for local recommendations in your industry