You’ve put in a lot of effort to grow your online presence. You set up your Google Business Profile, gathered five-star reviews, shared helpful blog posts, and worked on your local SEO. Now, when pet parents look for a pet sitter nearby, your business appears near the top of the search results.
But if someone asks ChatGPT, “Who are the best pet sitters near me?” your business might not appear.
That feels unfair. If you rank high on Google, shouldn’t AI recommend you too?
Not necessarily.
Many people assume AI-powered search works just like Google. But AI looks at more than just relevance, prominence, and proximity. It uses extra signals to decide if it’s confident enough to recommend a business. Knowing this helps pet business owners see why AI recommendations can be different from traditional SEO results.
That distinction is becoming increasingly important as consumer behavior changes. According to Yext’s 2026 Consumer Search Behaviors Report, 47% of U.S. adults used AI to find a local business in the past month, showing that AI is already becoming a mainstream part of local search.
As more people turn to AI for local recommendations, this difference matters even more. If AI can’t quickly figure out who you are, where you work, and what you offer, your business might not appear in its suggestions even if your local SEO is great.
Google and AI Search Have Different Jobs
Google helps people research. AI helps people decide. When someone searches Google for “pet sitter near me,” they’re given a list of businesses to compare. They can visit websites, read reviews, and choose the one they trust most.
AI assistants work differently. Instead of showing lots of options, they usually recommend just a few businesses that best fit what the user wants. They act more like a trusted advisor, giving recommendations instead of just listing search results.
Ranking high and being recommended aren’t always the same. AI doesn’t ask, “Which businesses rank highest?” Instead, it asks, “Which businesses am I confident enough to recommend?” The answers can be different.
AI Needs More Than Proximity
Google’s local search has always used proximity as a key ranking factor. For example, people searching from different neighborhoods, even if they are only a few miles apart, often see different results.
AI assistants do not rely on proximity in the same way.
Instead, AI looks for clear proof that your business really serves a certain area. It gathers information from your website and trusted sources to see if your business fits the location someone is asking about. Clear service area details help AI match your business with local searches.
If your website only mentions that you offer pet sitting but does not list the cities, neighborhoods, or communities you serve, AI has less to go on. Even if Google knows your location, an AI platform might not feel sure enough to suggest your business.
When your website clearly shows your service area, it is easier for AI to match your business with local searches.
Local Relevance Has to Be Easy to Understand
For many pet businesses, the main problem isn’t AI; it’s clarity. Your homepage might describe your services well but not mention the communities you serve. Reviews might praise your professionalism but leave out city or neighborhood names. Even with a great website and strong content, AI may still miss the local details it needs to recommend your business to people nearby.
Now think about a website that has pages for each service area, regularly mentions the cities it serves, shares local content, and features reviews that talk about those communities. This kind of website makes it much easier for AI to understand where the business is located and who it wants to reach.
The difference isn’t about how good the business is. It’s about how clearly the business shows its local connections. When AI doesn’t have to guess, it can recommend your business with more confidence.
Consistency Builds Confidence
Consistency builds confidence, and confidence leads to recommendations. AI checks if it can trust a business by comparing information from different sources. Your business name, service areas, contact info, website content, directory listings, and customer reviews should all match. When these details are consistent, they support each other and help AI understand your business.
Even small inconsistencies can create uncertainty. Perhaps one directory lists an outdated phone number, or your website mentions different service areas on different pages. Individually, those details may seem insignificant, but together they make it harder for AI to determine exactly who you are, where you operate, and whether your information is reliable.
The more consistent your online presence is, the easier it becomes for AI to recommend your business confidently.
Reviews Do More Than Build Trust
Reviews do more than build trust with new clients. They also help AI understand your business better. Each review shares a bit of your story, often with details not found anywhere else on your website. Pet parents often mention the services they booked, the communities you serve, and their experiences, all of which give valuable context.
For example, a review that says, “Our Labrador loved his daily walks while we were away in Huntington,” tells AI much more than a simple “Great service.” It reinforces the type of service you provide, the location you serve, and the positive experience you delivered.
Over time, a steady collection of detailed, authentic reviews creates a richer picture of your business, making it easier for AI platforms to understand why you’re a strong recommendation for future pet parents.
Your Website Needs to Tell a Complete Story
There’s no single switch you can flip to become more visible in AI search. Instead, AI builds confidence by piecing together information from across your entire online presence. Your website content, service pages, location pages, schema markup, business listings, backlinks, and customer reviews all contribute to that bigger picture.
None of those elements guarantees an AI recommendation on its own. Together, however, they help answer the questions AI is trying to solve: Who is this business? Where does it operate? What services does it provide? Can I trust the information I’m seeing?
The easier those questions are to answer, the more confidently AI can recommend your business.
Ranking Well Doesn’t Always Mean AI Understands You
This is where many pet businesses are caught off guard. Strong Google rankings don’t automatically translate into strong AI visibility because search engines and AI platforms evaluate businesses differently. A website can perform exceptionally well in traditional search while still missing the signals AI relies on to recommend it with confidence.
These gaps often aren’t obvious to business owners. Your website might rank well, bring in traffic, and attract new clients, but AI could still have trouble understanding your service areas, expertise, or local relevance. If you don’t check how AI sees your online presence, it’s easy to think everything is working fine.
That’s why measuring AI visibility has become just as important as measuring traditional SEO performance. The more clearly you understand how AI sees your business, the easier it becomes to identify opportunities that strengthen your visibility and increase your chances of being recommended.
Stop Guessing How AI Sees Your Business
If you’ve invested in your website and local SEO, you deserve to know whether those efforts are helping AI understand your business as well.
That’s exactly why Barketing Solutions created the AI Visibility Scanner. Rather than assuming your website is ready for AI-powered search, the scanner evaluates how leading AI platforms currently interpret your online presence and identifies opportunities to strengthen your visibility.
The results often surprise business owners. Some discover that AI understands their services but not their locations. Others realize inconsistent business information is making their online presence harder for AI to interpret.
The Future of Local Search Is About Understanding, Not Just Rankings
Google rankings remain an important part of every successful marketing strategy, but they’re no longer the only measure of online visibility.
As more pet parents ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and other AI assistants for recommendations, businesses that clearly communicate who they are, where they work, and why they’re trustworthy will have a significant advantage.
At Barketing Solutions, we help pet sitters, dog walkers, groomers, trainers, and other pet care professionals prepare for the future of search through stronger SEO, Generative Engine Optimization, and AI-ready websites.
If you’re wondering whether AI would recommend your business today, the AI Visibility Scanner can provide the answers and action plan you need to help you understand how AI sees your business today so you can build a stronger online presence for tomorrow.
Erika Godwin is the President of Barketing Solutions and the Co-Founder and CMO of ProPet Software, an industry-leading kennel management software. Erika has over 8 years of experience with WordPress and graduated from Elmira College in 2009 with a BS, Business Administration- Marketing and Management. View Erika’s Full Bio.
