# AI SEO Course for Local Businesses | AiSeoCourse.net > A free 8-lesson course on getting your local business found, read and cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. No signup, no paywall. URL: https://aiseocourse.net/ would turn main into a scroll container and break every \`position: sticky\` inside it. --> Skip to main content [#main-content →](#main-content) Published by LocusPilot | AI website builder for local businesses Written by Adam Yong [/author/adam-yong/ →](/author/adam-yong/) # AI SEO course for local businesses: get found, read and cited by AI search A free 8-lesson course for owners and the SEOs who serve them. It shows you how to make ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews understand your business well enough to name it in an answer. No signup. No paywall. Built from 200+ real local site builds. 4.9 ★★★★★ (200+ Verified Business Audits) group **9,400+** readers school **Foundation level**, no coding needed schedule 8 lessons · ~80 minutes · self-paced Start Lesson 1 (Free) arrow\_forward [/lessons/how-ai-search-picks-local-businesses/ →](/lessons/how-ai-search-picks-local-businesses/) checklist View the 90-Day Checklist [/checklist/ →](/checklist/) verified No signup. No paywall. 8 lessons, ~80 minutes. What an AI answer looks like search "who repairs commercial fridges near me, open now" smart\_toy Synthesized answer The assistant names one or two businesses, then cites the sources it leaned on. Those sources are your profile, your pages and what other sites say about you. This course is about all three. Covered in Lessons 1 to 3 Cost to read $0, no signup ![Diagram of an AI assistant assembling a local recommendation from a business profile, a website and third-party mentions](/images/misc/flat-editorial-diagram-of-an-ai-assistant-answer-n.webp) ★★★★★ 4.9 (200+ Verified Business Audits) verified 100% Free, no signup, no paywall group 9,400+ readers schedule 8 lessons · ~80 minutes What you will learn [#what-you-will-learn →](#what-you-will-learn) Who it is for [#who-it-is-for →](#who-it-is-for) The 8 lessons [#curriculum →](#curriculum) Why this course [#why-this-course →](#why-this-course) How it works [#how-it-works →](#how-it-works) Compare [#compare →](#compare) FAQ [#faq →](#faq) ## What you will be able to do after these eight lessons check Explain, in plain language, how an AI assistant assembles a local recommendation and where your business fits into it. check Complete a Google Business Profile that AI engines can read without hedging, and keep every listing consistent with it. check Write service pages that get quoted at passage level instead of skimmed and skipped. check Publish and validate LocalBusiness JSON-LD, with a copy-paste block you can adapt in an afternoon. check Set crawler permissions for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and OAI-SearchBot on purpose rather than by accident. check Run a monthly prompt test and read the result without fooling yourself about what it proves. ### AI search terms covered in plain language Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) Google AI Overviews ChatGPT Search Perplexity Google Business Profile LocalBusiness schema NAP consistency GPTBot Every one of these is defined in the glossary [/glossary/ →](/glossary/) , with a link to the fuller entry on aiseocourse.wiki. Sound familiar? ## Four AI search problems local business owners keep hitting These are the patterns that came up again and again across LocusPilot's local builds. Each one maps to a lesson. record\_voice\_over ### The assistant names a competitor You ask ChatGPT or Perplexity who to call in your town and somebody else gets named. Lesson 1 explains how that choice is made, and the diagnostic guide walks you through the three usual causes. help\_center ### You do not know what AI is reading Your site, your Google Business Profile, a directory listing from 2019: something is feeding those answers. Lessons 2 and 3 show which assets get pulled and what to do with each one. report ### AI repeats facts that are out of date Old hours, a disconnected number, an address you moved out of. One stale record spreads through the aggregators, and Lesson 2 covers how to find and fix it. query\_stats ### You cannot tell whether any of it worked Most advice stops at "publish more content". Lesson 7 is honest about what can and cannot be measured today, and gives you a 15-minute monthly test instead of a dashboard subscription. Who it is for ## Who this AI SEO course is written for It is aimed at one reader and says no to the rest. Checking the fit now saves you 80 minutes if it is the wrong course for your situation. ### check\_circle Written for you if - check Owners and managers of a single-location or small multi-location service business: trades, clinics, salons, restaurants, professional services. - check Anyone who already has a website or a Google Business Profile and wants ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and AI Overviews to name them. - check Freelance and small-agency SEOs who manage local clients and want one repeatable checklist to run per account. - check People with no coding background. Every technical step has a copy-paste block and a way to check it worked. ### block Not written for you if - remove Enterprise SEO teams running national brands across hundreds of markets. - remove Affiliate sites and rank-and-rent portfolios, where the whole model is different. - remove Anyone already running programmatic local pages at scale. Lesson 8 says where that work continues. If that is you, Lesson 8 [/lessons/where-to-go-next/ →](/lessons/where-to-go-next/) points you to AI SEO Rainmakers, a paid community run by Charles Floate. That link is a disclosed Skool referral link. Curriculum ## The 8 lessons in the local AI SEO curriculum Read them in order the first time. Each lesson assumes the one before it, and Lesson 1 is the one that makes the rest make sense. Open the full lesson index arrow\_forward [/lessons/ →](/lessons/) ![Diagram showing an AI assistant assembling a local recommendation from a business profile, a website and third-party mentions](/images/misc/flat-editorial-diagram-of-an-ai-assistant-assembli.webp) Lesson 1 Start here ### How AI Search Picks Local Businesses The retrieval-and-citation mechanics behind every AI recommendation of a local business. schedule 11 min read arrow\_forward [How AI Search Picks Local Businesses →](/lessons/how-ai-search-picks-local-businesses/) ![Business profile record card with name, address, phone, category and hours fields feeding an AI answer panel](/images/misc/flat-editorial-illustration-of-a-business-profile-.webp) Lesson 2 ### Google Business Profile for AI Search Making your Google Business Profile the clean, consistent fact source AI engines prefer. schedule 12 min read arrow\_forward [Google Business Profile for AI Search →](/lessons/google-business-profile-for-ai-search/) ![Web page with one self-contained paragraph highlighted as an extractable passage feeding an answer card](/images/misc/flat-editorial-illustration-of-a-web-page-with-one.webp) Lesson 3 ### Local Site Content AI Can Cite What on-page content AI assistants are willing to quote, and how to write it. schedule 12 min read arrow\_forward [Local Site Content AI Can Cite →](/lessons/local-site-content-ai-can-cite/) ![JSON-LD block connecting a business entity to address, hours, areaServed and external profile nodes](/images/misc/flat-editorial-illustration-of-a-json-ld-block-con.webp) Lesson 4 ### Schema and Structured Data for Local AI SEO Machine-readable facts so AI engines can resolve your business as an entity. schedule 13 min read arrow\_forward [Schema and Structured Data for Local AI SEO →](/lessons/schema-and-structured-data-for-local-ai-seo/) ![Crawler request reaching a server and returning rendered HTML, with sitemap and robots file markers](/images/misc/flat-editorial-illustration-of-a-crawler-request-r.webp) Lesson 5 ### Build a Local Site AI Can Find The technical baseline that lets AI crawlers reach and read your site. schedule 12 min read arrow\_forward [Build a Local Site AI Can Find →](/lessons/build-a-local-site-ai-can-find/) ![Review text, directory listings and editorial mentions flowing into one synthesized answer about a business](/images/misc/flat-editorial-illustration-of-review-text-directo.webp) Lesson 6 ### Reviews, Mentions and Citations How off-site signals feed the facts and sentiment AI assistants repeat. schedule 11 min read arrow\_forward [Reviews, Mentions and Citations →](/lessons/reviews-mentions-and-citations/) ![Monthly scorecard with prompt test results, Search Console trends and referral segments](/images/misc/flat-editorial-illustration-of-a-monthly-scorecard.webp) Lesson 7 ### Measure Your AI Search Visibility A way to tell whether any of the previous work is landing. schedule 12 min read arrow\_forward [Measure Your AI Search Visibility →](/lessons/measure-your-ai-search-visibility/) ![Progression path from foundation tasks to advanced work with a marked decision point](/images/misc/flat-editorial-illustration-of-a-progression-path-.webp) Lesson 8 ### Where to Go Next An honest assessment of what the course covers and where its ceiling is. schedule 10 min read arrow\_forward [Where to Go Next →](/lessons/where-to-go-next/) ![Illustration of more than two hundred local business site builds with Search Console trend lines above them](/images/features/flat-editorial-illustration-of-two-hundred-small-l.webp) Why this course ## Why this AI SEO course is worth 80 minutes lock\_open ### Free, with nothing gated No paywall, no email capture, no account. Every lesson, the schema templates, the 90-day checklist and the glossary are open to read and to link to. construction ### Built from 200+ real builds LocusPilot has built more than 200 local business sites since December 2025. The lessons come from what those builds and their Search Console data actually show, not from theory. straighten ### Honest about its ceiling This is foundation level and says so. Lesson 8 tells you when you have outgrown it and points to AI SEO Rainmakers, a paid community run by Charles Floate, through a disclosed Skool referral link. fact\_check ### Every number sourced and dated Claims carry a date and a source, and the curriculum is reviewed at least monthly. The editorial policy page sets out exactly how that works and how to send a correction. storefront ### Written for owners, not agencies Beginner-friendly language, no coding prerequisites, and no enterprise tactics you cannot act on from a single location with limited hours. visibility ### Relationships disclosed on the page LocusPilot publishes this course and appears as an example in Lesson 5. That is stated wherever it comes up, so you can weigh the advice yourself. How it works ## How the course builds your AI search visibility, step by step 1. 1 menu\_book ### Understand what gets read Lessons 1 to 3 cover retrieval mechanics, your Google Business Profile as a fact source, and the page shapes an assistant is willing to quote. 2. 2 code ### Make your facts machine-readable Lessons 4 and 5 add LocalBusiness schema and the technical floor that lets AI crawlers reach the page in the first place. 3. 3 reviews ### Strengthen the off-site signals Lesson 6 covers reviews, structured citations and brand mentions, which is often what other sites say about you rather than what you say about yourself. 4. 4 insights ### Measure, then decide what is next Lesson 7 gives you a repeatable prompt test and a monthly scorecard. Lesson 8 draws the line around what foundation-level work does and does not cover. ![Eight-step curriculum path from retrieval mechanics through measurement to next steps](/images/misc/eight-step-curriculum-path-illustration-showing-le.webp) Compare ## How this compares to the other ways to learn AI SEO None of these is wrong. They answer different questions, and this one is deliberately the narrowest. | Comparison criteria | This course | Scattered posts and videos | A paid community | Hiring an agency | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Cost to start | Free, no signup or email capture | Free, but time-expensive to piece together | Paid monthly | Paid per month or per project | | Built for local businesses | Yes, single and small multi-location only | Usually written for ecommerce or national brands | Mixed, often advanced and broad | Depends on the agency | | Order to follow | 8 lessons plus a 90-day checklist | You decide the order yourself | Peer discussion, not a curriculum | They decide, you approve | | Claims sourced and dated | Yes, reviewed at least monthly | Rarely dated, often stale | Varies by member | Varies by agency | | Where it stops | Foundation level, and it says so in Lesson 8 | No stated ceiling | Goes well beyond foundations | As far as your budget goes | The paid community column refers to AI SEO Rainmakers, run by Charles Floate. Our link to it is a disclosed Skool referral link, and Lesson 8 explains when it is the right next step. ## Not sure where to start? Lesson 1 explains the mechanics. The checklist turns all eight lessons into a dated plan. play\_arrow Start Lesson 1 [/lessons/how-ai-search-picks-local-businesses/ →](/lessons/how-ai-search-picks-local-businesses/) Open the 90-day checklist [/checklist/ →](/checklist/) Reader feedback ## What local business owners say after the lessons Feedback from owners and SEOs working through the lessons. These are reader comments, not Google Business Profile reviews. ★★★★★ Rated 5 out of 5 > "I'd read a dozen posts about AI search and still had no idea what to actually change. Lesson 2 took me an afternoon and my profile finally matches every directory we're listed in." Dana R. Owner, two-location dental practice ★★★★★ Rated 5 out of 5 > "The schema lesson gave me a block I could paste and validate the same day. No upsell, no gated PDF, which is more than I can say for most of what's out there." Marcus T. Freelance SEO, 12 local clients ★★★★★ Rated 5 out of 5 > "Lesson 7 was the one I needed. It told me plainly what can't be measured yet instead of selling me a dashboard. I run the prompt test monthly now." Priya S. Manager, mobile detailing business ★★★★★ Rated 5 out of 5 > "Worked through the 90-day checklist with a client over one quarter. Perplexity started naming them in answers around week seven. Foundation-level, exactly as advertised." Owen B. Small agency principal ![](/images/misc/abstract-flat-pattern-of-citation-nodes-and-impres.webp) 8 Lessons, start to finish 200+ Local builds behind the curriculum 20+ Years the author has shipped software ~80 minutes Total reading time The 200+ figure is LocusPilot's local business build count since December 2025. Every number on this site is sourced and dated, as set out in the editorial policy [/editorial-policy/ →](/editorial-policy/) . ![Portrait of Adam Yong, author of the course and founder of LocusPilot](/images/squares/editorial-headshot-portrait-of-course-author-adam-.webp) Publisher and author ## Written by Adam Yong, published by LocusPilot Adam Yong is the founder of LocusPilot, an AI website builder for local businesses, and the author of this course. He has spent 20+ years in software, founded Agility Writer, and leads GEO strategy at ADE Marketing. The lessons here come from what LocusPilot's 200+ local business builds since December 2025, and their Search Console data, actually show about AI search. **Disclosures:** LocusPilot publishes this course and is used as an example in Lesson 5. The AI SEO Rainmakers link on this site is a Skool referral link. Both are repeated wherever they come up. Founder, LocusPilot (AI website builder for local businesses)Founder, Agility WriterGEO Strategy Lead, ADE Marketing20+ years in software About the author [/author/adam-yong/ →](/author/adam-yong/) About this course [/about/ →](/about/) Editorial policy [/editorial-policy/ →](/editorial-policy/) FAQ ## AI SEO questions, answered before you start What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) for a local business? expand\_more GEO is the work of structuring your business's entity data, citation consistency and schema markup so large language models, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude, understand your business well enough to name it in a conversational answer rather than just listing your link. For a local business it mostly means getting the same facts stated consistently everywhere an engine can read them. Is this course really free, with no email capture? expand\_more Yes. There is no paywall, no gated download and no account registration. All 8 lessons, the schema templates, the 90-day checklist and the glossary are openly accessible. Who is this course for? expand\_more Owners and managers of single-location or small multi-location service businesses, including trades, clinics, salons, restaurants and professional services, who already have a website or Google Business Profile, plus the freelance and small-agency SEOs who serve them. It assumes no coding background. What if I run an enterprise brand or a large multi-location agency? expand\_more This curriculum is tuned for single-location through small regional operations. For national franchises, programmatic directory architectures or multi-market hubs, the course points you to AI SEO Rainmakers, a paid community run by Charles Floate. That link is a Skool referral link, disclosed here and on the about page. How do LocusPilot and Adam Yong verify these recommendations? expand\_more Every tactic is tested on live client and test domains, checked against Google Search Console AI Overview impressions, Perplexity citation behaviour and crawler logs for GPTBot and PerplexityBot. The course accepts no sponsorship from SEO software vendors. The editorial policy page documents how each number is sourced, dated and reviewed. How long does the course take? expand\_more Eight lessons, roughly 80 minutes of reading in total, self-paced. Actually implementing the work is the longer part, and the 90-day checklist sequences it into a quarter. Do I need a website, or is a Google Business Profile enough? expand\_more A Google Business Profile alone will get you into some AI answers, because engines read it directly. But without a site there is nothing for an assistant to cite when a reader asks a question your profile doesn't answer. Lesson 5 covers the minimum technical baseline if you're starting from nothing. Who publishes this course? expand\_more LocusPilot, an AI website builder for local businesses, publishes it. Adam Yong, LocusPilot's founder, with 20+ years in software, founder of Agility Writer and GEO strategy lead at ADE Marketing, wrote it. LocusPilot is used as an example in Lesson 5, and that relationship is disclosed there and on the about page. ![Illustration of a 90-day plan board with grouped task cards and a completion marker](/images/maps/flat-editorial-illustration-of-a-ninety-day-plan-b.webp) ## Reading is the short part. The checklist is the plan. The lessons take about 80 minutes. Doing the work takes a quarter, which is why the course ends with a 90-day checklist that sequences every task, tags it with the lesson it came from, and tells you what "done" means for each one. - check\_circle Month one: fix the facts AI already reads about you - check\_circle Month two: make your pages quotable and machine-readable - check\_circle Month three: strengthen off-site signals and start measuring Open the 90-day checklist arrow\_forward [/checklist/ →](/checklist/) Open access · Immediate start ## Start with Lesson 1 It explains how an AI assistant picks a local business to name. Everything else in the course follows from that. Start Lesson 1 (Free) arrow\_forward [/lessons/how-ai-search-picks-local-businesses/ →](/lessons/how-ai-search-picks-local-businesses/) View the 90-Day Checklist [/checklist/ →](/checklist/) No signup. No paywall. 8 lessons, ~80 minutes.