What we have learned about being found

One question per page, answered in the first paragraph, with figures you can check and sources you can open. Written for the people who run the businesses our directories list.

AI search 15

How AI assistants pick which local business to nameWhy AI answers cite directories and skip company websitesThe answer paragraph: the shape machines quotellms.txt: what belongs in it and what it actually doesWhich AI crawlers to allow in robots.txtAnswer engine optimization: what changes against classic SEOHow to measure whether AI actually names youWhy AI traffic converts better than search trafficAI Overviews and the local business: what shows, what does notBing and Copilot: the channel nobody optimises forHow Perplexity picks the sources it showsAI disclosure for marketing texts since 2 August 2026How a business becomes unambiguous to machinesWhy AI answers keep naming the same handful of sourcesYour business is missing from AI answers: the repair order

Local visibility 15

Directory entry or own website: which comes firstWhat inconsistent address data really costsHow many directories a local business actually needsCitations: which listings count and which are ballastCurated directory or listing site: the working differenceWhy a curated shortlist outperforms a long listThe head of the list takes almost everythingFollowed or nofollow: what a directory link is worthThe Google Business Profile fields that move the needleThe primary category decides more than the descriptionLocal landing page or directory page: what each one doesWhen a directory creates trust and when it burns itWhat a directory listing realistically deliversTrade plus town: the search pattern local business lives onVisible but unreachable: the leak nobody measures

Reviews and trust 12

How many reviews are enough to be believedRaising a 3.9 rating back over four starsHow often a new review has to arriveAnswering a negative review: the four sentence ruleBought reviews: what it costs when it comes outAI review summaries decide before anyone readsCollecting reviews without begging for themSix platforms: reviews are no longer a Google questionPhotographs change the numbers, and which onesTrust signals that are not starsWhat people actually do after reading the reviewsReputation after a real mistake: the honest route

Structured data 12

LocalBusiness schema: the two required fields and the restJSON-LD or microdata: which one to write in 2026Opening hours a machine can readFAQPage schema: still worth it, and for whomSchema guarantees nothing, and why you write it anywayPage speed and local visibility: where the line really ishreflang for a business that sells in three languagesCanonical tags and the duplicate content that is not oneA sitemap for a nine page website: pointless or notIndexNow: telling Bing before it asksFilename, alt text, format: the three image decisionsMobile first, in practice, for a shop with one page

Duties and limits 12

The German imprint duty under DDG section 5The Spanish aviso legal under LSSI article 10Labelling paid placement so it holds upMaps, fonts and analytics: the three privacy leaksWhen a cookie banner is needed and when it is theatreWhich prices must be on the pageImage rights: the four questions before you publish a photoLabelling AI written text: what the law asks forAdvertising with reviews: where the line runsHealth related trades: the advertising rules that catch people outThe accessibility duty that started in June 2025A cease and desist letter arrives: the first 48 hours

The trades 14

Roofing work: where the enquiry actually startsStorm damage at nine at night: who gets calledJewellers: why the shop window no longer opens the doorJewellers: trust is checked before the price isCar dealers: the eleven searches before one visitCar dealers: the cost of living inside one portalGold buying: an industry that has to prove itself firstGold buying: publishing the rate is the whole marketingRestaurants: the decision happens in eleven minutesA menu that machines can read, and why it fills tablesCleaning firms: commercial clients search differentlyCleaning: the price question that kills the enquiryNail studios: the booking gap between seen and bookedNail studios: own photographs beat stock every time

Money and effect 10

What one local enquiry is actually worth250 euro a month: the arithmetic before the decisionSearch ads or a directory placement: what each buysTen thousand flyers or one year of visibilityHow long until a new listing does anythingMeasuring visibility without buying a toolCounting enquiries: the setup that takes one afternoonClicks are the wrong number to watchWhy a placement needs six months to be judgedWhen a directory placement is the wrong purchase

Spain and the islands 10

Getting a Mallorca business found by three audiencesThree languages, one business: which page comes firstSeasonal trade: when to be visible and when to saveRegistering as autónomo: the numbers that decideNIE, VAT and an invoice a Spanish client acceptsReaching German clients who already live on the islandAndalusia: which towns actually buy onlineWhich language to publish first when budget is oneGoogle Maps in Spain: the address problems that break listingsHolidaymakers search differently, and they decide faster