Episode 29: Mastering Google Business Profiles and Local Visibility in the AI Era

Key Takeaways

• Your business name, opening hours, and review frequency are the three highest-impact Google Business Profile factors for local pack rankings
• ChatGPT is generating leads for B2B businesses but remains unreliable for local search
• LLMs are pulling local business data from unexpected sources, making broad listing consistency and reputation monitoring more important than ever
• Photos impact ranking only in visual industries — check whether Google shows image carousels for your keywords before investing heavily in photo uploads
• Reddit is the biggest untapped opportunity for multi-location brands, both for reputation management and AI search visibility

Google Business Profile remains the single most important asset for local visibility, but the landscape around it is shifting fast. AI-powered search tools are introducing new competitors, new data sources, and new consumer behaviors that multi-location brands cannot afford to ignore.

In this episode of the Local Marketing Beat podcast, host Christian Hustle sits down with Joy Hawkins, Owner and Founder of Sterling Sky, to break down the top ranking factors for Google Business Profile, what ChatGPT gets right and wrong about local search, how reviews and photos actually impact rankings, and why Reddit may be the biggest untapped opportunity for multi-location brands.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction and Joy Hawkins’ journey in local SEO

02:00 Driving visibility into engagement: texting and chat

04:04 ChatGPT for local search: lead volume, quality, and tracking challenges

09:26 What content works for LLM visibility: awards and niche questions

11:03 Top three Google Business Profile ranking factors

13:56 Most overlooked GBP elements: services and menus

15:12 Listing consistency and unexpected LLM data sources

17:32 The future of local commerce in AI: calls, texts, and buy buttons

18:27 Tracking ROI from local SEO and LLM traffic

20:42 Myths busted: when photos matter and when they don’t

22:46 The biggest opportunity: Reddit for multi-location brands

ChatGPT Is Growing Fast but Still Unreliable for Local Search

“I do not think you should be throwing all your effort at ChatGPT and then like ignoring Google because Google is still where the majority of the traffic leads are coming from. But I do think ChatGPT has... it’s possible that it could catch up.” — Joy Hawkins

Joy offers a candid reality check on where ChatGPT stands for local businesses. While her own agency, Sterling Sky, is seeing exponential growth in B2B leads from ChatGPT — with a conversion rate double that of Google — the story is very different for local SMBs.

Most of her local clients are still only getting a handful of leads per month from ChatGPT. The highest she has seen is a lawn care client with 41 leads year-to-date. The reason, Joy explains, is that ChatGPT is still producing inaccurate local data: mismatched business names, wrong phone numbers, and incorrect addresses.

For multi-location brands, the takeaway is to monitor AI visibility and prepare for growth, but not to redirect resources away from Google Business Profile optimization.

Joy notes that ChatGPT is also pulling data from unexpected sources — including MapQuest — which makes consistent listings management across all platforms more important than ever, even for directories that may seem outdated.

The Three Google Business Profile Factors That Matter Most

“Your business name has a huge impact on ranking. Second would be your business hours... And third, I’d have to say reviews. The biggest thing that matters is the frequency.” — Joy Hawkins

When asked to name the top three GBP elements for driving visibility and conversions, Joy’s answers are practical and data-backed.

First, business name: If your name contains a keyword related to your core service, you will rank better. This is a factor that some businesses can control through legal name changes or DBAs. Second, business hours: Google ranks businesses significantly higher when they are open. Joy shares an example of a business that reduced its hours to three per day and saw rankings decline not just during closed hours, but even during open hours — because reduced visibility lowered overall interaction rates.

Third, and perhaps most actionable, is review frequency. Joy emphasizes that it is not just the total number of reviews that matters — it is the consistency of new reviews coming in. Her team has repeatedly observed that when clients stop generating new reviews, their Local Pack rankings decline, and when they resume, rankings recover.

For brands managing review management at scale, this means building systems that generate a steady flow of reviews across all locations — not just occasional bursts.

What Content Actually Works for LLM Visibility

“Informational content and then also awards. ChatGPT seems to care a lot more about those award sites... We’re seeing awards, we’re seeing people spam this, we’re seeing fake awards. It’s working. It’s actually wild.” — Joy Hawkins

Joy identifies two content types that are driving LLM visibility for local businesses.

The first is niche, question-based informational content — the kind of specific queries that users are now asking LLMs directly. She gives the example of a dentist creating content about whether you can eat pizza after getting dentures. These highly specific pages serve a dual purpose: They feed LLMs with citable answers and they link internally to money pages, boosting authority across the site.

The second type is awards and recognition. Joy notes that ChatGPT appears to weight award-based sites heavily — using the example of Super Lawyers dominating legal queries on ChatGPT.

While she cautions that spam and fake awards are already emerging, the signal is clear: Third-party validation matters for AI search visibility. For multi-location brands, this suggests that earning legitimate industry awards and ensuring they are well-documented online can meaningfully influence how LLMs recommend your brand.

The Photo Myth: When Images Help Rankings and When They Don’t

“Photos are one of those things that yes, they do help your ranking, but we have found that they only impact certain industries... If there isn’t an image carousel on Google for these terms, photos probably don’t matter for ranking.” — Joy Hawkins

Joy busts one of the most common assumptions in local SEO: that uploading lots of photos to your Google Business Profile always helps.

Her team’s testing shows that photos only impact rankings in visual industries — restaurants, hotels, pools, salons — where Google displays image carousels in search results. For nonvisual industries like law or accounting, pumping out daily photos is a waste of resources.

The practical test Joy recommends is simple: search your target keywords on Google and look for image carousels. If they appear, photos matter for your industry and you should invest in high-quality, keyword-relevant images. If they do not appear, your time is better spent on other ranking factors like reviews and services.

Reddit Is the Biggest Untapped Opportunity for Multi-Location Brands

“Most big brands are completely ignoring Reddit. And if you’re a multi-location brand, you probably have some problems on Reddit because what we usually see is that there are negative threads that rank for their brand name.” — Joy Hawkins

When asked about the single biggest opportunity in local search right now, Joy’s answer is unexpected: Reddit.

She explains that Reddit threads are increasingly ranking for brand-name searches on both Google and LLMs, and for brands that are not actively participating, the threads that surface are often negative. This creates a reputation problem that most multi-location brands are not even aware of — and it directly influences how AI search engines talk about their brand.

Joy’s advice is to participate genuinely on Reddit — not through fake accounts or self-promotion (which Reddit communities detect and punish quickly), but through authentic engagement, answering questions, and contributing value.

For brands already investing in review management and local social media management, Reddit should be the next platform on the radar. The stakes are particularly high because Reddit content is now a primary source for LLMs — meaning that what people say about your brand on Reddit directly shapes how AI tools recommend (or warn against) your business.