Local SEO
Local SEO is optimizing to be found in searches with a local angle — such as “electrician Bolzano” or “open now near me”. What counts are unambiguous business details like name, address, phone and opening hours, identical everywhere and machine-readable.
Local SEO covers everything a business does to be found in searches with a local angle. That applies to classic search as much as to AI assistants that directly answer questions like “Which carpenter in Merano is open on Saturdays?”.
Three things carry local visibility:
- Your own website, with unambiguous business details: name, address, phone, opening hours and service area, marked up as structured data following Schema.org.
- Listings outside the website, such as the Google Business Profile and industry directories. They have to match the website — contradictory details are a common cause of wrong recommendations.
- Reviews and mentions in the region, which show that the business actually operates there.
In btlabs Core, business details, opening hours and location are maintained once, centrally, and delivered as structured data in every language that is maintained. The Google Business Profile and outside directories, on the other hand, are maintained outside the website.
What a website can contribute itself: Local visibility.
Related terms
Frequently asked questions.
Is AI visibility worth it for a local business in South Tyrol?
Right now more than ever: only 8% of Italian SMEs use AI (Eurostat/Politecnico di Milano) — so many local competitors don't have the topic on their radar yet, while 60–65% of the DACH population already actively searches via AI. This window closes a little with every season.
What role do Google reviews play in AI recommendations?
A big one. AI assistants base their recommendations on publicly available sources — and review profiles are among the strongest signals of how a business is perceived. The number, recency and content of reviews all feed in, as does whether and how you respond to them.
What matters is the interplay: reviews carry the most weight when your name, address and phone number are consistent everywhere and your website confirms the same facts in machine-readable form. So look after your Google Business Profile actively, ask satisfied customers for a review and respond professionally — especially to critical voices. That is how the coherent overall picture emerges from which AI systems build their recommendations.
What do I do about outdated listings on portals and directories I don't have access to?
Getting it corrected is almost always possible — even if you never created the listing yourself: most portals and directories offer a "claim your business" or correction process that hands you back control of your own entry.
The practical path: start with the sources that matter most — the map service, the major industry directories, the review platforms you show up on. Claim your listing on each one and unify the details: name, address and opening hours need to match your own website exactly — it's the leading source everything else should follow.
The effort pays off beyond the correction itself: AI systems cross-check multiple sources before recommending you. The more consistent your details are across every platform, the better the chance an AI cites you reliably. Your own digital foundation is the reference point — the place you align every outside listing to, instead of chasing down each outdated directory one by one.
Why does an AI recommend me with the wrong number or opening hours?
Because AI assistants mostly pull their facts from map and directory data. If your details are inconsistent or outdated there — an old number, a wrong opening hour — the AI picks up exactly that and states it confidently as an answer.
Directories also often copy from one another, so a single error spreads across several platforms. For your business, that means a small inconsistency in one place can end up as a wrong answer in several AI responses.