Top 10 Reasons Why AI and Voice Search Are The Future of Local SEO

Kyle Trotter | March 10, 2025

The integration of SEO, artificial intelligence (AI), and voice search is not just a trend, it is the permanent future of SEO. This will reshape entire digital marketing strategies and change our perception of the balance between human imagination and the power of artificial intelligence.

As an SEO professional since 2009, I’ve witnessed firsthand how quickly voice search and AI have influenced the way search engines rank content and how user intent is perceived. In this post, I’ve used my experience and informed perspective to identify the top 10 reasons why AI and voice search are the future of local SEO. 

1. AI-Powered Search Engines

AI-powered search engines like Google’s Gemini (formerly BARD), ChatGPT Search, and Perplexity AI are changing the way search engines interpret content and user experience. This includes predictive analytics (analyses of past data to predict future market trends) and personalization.

For example, Gemini can use your device’s location to provide more relevant geographic research for local search results. This can help local small businesses get more traffic and produce relevant content.

Gemini and other AI search engines are also designed to understand natural speech patterns and accurate responses during voice searches. This is very useful for utilizing long tail organic keyword strategies in your SEO plan that rely on conversational, question-based keywords that correspond with voice search queries and AI Overview. 

2. Google’s AI Overview

Released in the U.S. in 2024, Google’s AI Overview is now appearing at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) as a replacement for Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE). To support this new Google AI Overview feature, there are cutting-edge tools that are designed specifically for AI Overview keyword research and semantically related long tail keyword research for voice search optimization.

Semrush’s AI Overview tool, also released in 2024, uses AI technology to create concise summaries for search queries directly at the top of the page in search results. In Google’s AI Overview, you will rank as one of the data sources for the generated AI Overview rather than the SERP feature. This Semrush tool allows you to see your website’s visibility within AI Overviews and how to rank better for them.

Google’s AI overviews are not perfect, but they are a strong indicator of the direction search is headed. If AI can start to accurately create streamlined answers to complex queries, Google’s current search engine results may become outdated. Ultimately, SEO is no longer just about ranking high in search engines but also creating a helpful user experience. 

3. The Importance of Voice Search

The increasing use of voice search has created a demand for content tailored directly to long tail and conversationally complex queries. Rapid technological advancements are making voice search a more practical method of searching online. Instead of using a keyboard, you can make a search query using verbal commands through smart speakers, smartphones, computers, cars, and other devices like Siri and Alexa.

For instance, a user might type “injury attorney near me,” but with voice search, they may ask, “Where’s the best injury attorney open now near me?”

Why should a local business optimize for local voice search? It’s not just a trend, voice search is the new Yellow Pages! It’s becoming the standard way people interact with devices. According to current data from BrightLocal, around 74% of voice search users look for local businesses on a weekly basis. IBM has stated voice search will dominate over 50% of all internet queries by the end of 2025, and as a result will require a strategic shift in SEO content optimization.

How can small businesses take advantage of this reality? Make sure your Google Business Profile is fully set up and optimized and use long tail keywords and conversational phrases in your SEO strategy along with FAQ pages. This also includes leveraging platforms like Bing Places and Apple Business Connect. Ultimately, optimizing for local voice search increases user experience and can significantly boost your visibility. 

4. Balancing Human Experience (Quality) with AI Volume (Quantity)

Google announced the addition of “experience” in its search quality guidelines after the ChatGPT launch. This is a part of E-E-A-T and now exists as a ranking factor in organic search. E-E-A-T stands for “Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.”

Experience is significantly relevant to the rise of AI content as AI cannot create a true experience in the content it generates. Only humans can create unique content. This is the main difference between how Google identifies human vs. AI-written content. Human content is considered superior by search engines while AI content is ranked as a lesser user experience. 

Human writers can create content that connects better with an audience while AI can produce large volumes of content quickly. However, you can customize AI content to sound more human, connect with others, and demonstrate a deeper understanding of user intent to rank better. There are benefits to finding the sweet spot between quality and quantity.

5. The Rise of Fake AI Reviews Online

According to recent data, fake online reviews are still on the rise and evolving quickly. Around 30% of online reviews are considered fake, with Google having the largest amount of fake reviews followed by Yelp. Why is this important to local search? Fake reviews can negatively impact local search platforms and affect a company’s business.

2025 has become an important year in the crackdown of fake reviews. While advancements in AI are making fraudulent reviews easier to produce, online review platforms like Google and Amazon are implementing AI algorithms to identify potential fake reviews. As of January 2025, Google has stated that it’s committed to identifying and removing fake reviews on its own platforms. This follows pressure from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) as well as a 2024 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials.

Google has stated they will now do the following as global policy:

• Google will delete all reviews written by people who repeatedly write fake or misleading reviews, either positive or negative, and those repeat fake review accounts will also be banned. 
• Businesses that try to artificially boost their star ratings will face consequences as well. Warning alerts may be slapped on their Google profiles and new reviews may not be allowed. 
• Google has added a new feature that allows consumers to easily report shady reviews. This includes identifying reviews that were incentivised with a reward. While Google does lean on AI to identify some fake reviews, it also relies on tools like this for human feedback.

We still have a long way to go before this process is perfect. Google’s new hardline approach has already resulted in some “friendly fire” such as a large missing reviews bug. In early 2025, businesses all over the globe experienced a significant drop in reviews for Google local listings. This was first reported by Search Engine Land and later confirmed by Google. Google has noted that some of these large “batch removals” may have also been from “policy violations like spam or inappropriate content” as Google further cracks down on their online reviews.

6. AI-Powered Content Translation

AI-powered translation tools like Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, and ChatGPT have made it a whole lot easier to reach more diverse global audiences with content creation. These new AI-driven tools are designed to easily check and correct spelling, grammar, and style across multiple languages.

AI-powered translation greatly reduces the time needed to translate content, and businesses can quickly adapt to various local markets that may have previously been inaccessible due to culture or language barriers. These AI tools can also be used to automatically generate accurate and contextually appropriate translations for video content on platforms such as YouTube (the second largest search engine).

7. The Rise of AI and YouTube

The rise of AI and YouTube has accelerated. In YouTube CEO Neal Mohan’s annual letter, he dubbed AI as one of the company’s four “big bets” for 2025. Why is this important?

YouTube is the second largest search engine on the planet next to Google and has already made some investments in AI tools for creators such as video ideas, thumbnails, and language translation. Another AI feature will identify users’ ages to customize recommendations and appropriate content. This is a new feature rolling out for creators in YouTube’s Partner Program.

YouTube also said it’s investing in tools to control and detect how AI is used on YouTube. This includes an expansion of its pilot program with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) that will help creators identify videos that feature their AI-generated likeness and voice without their permission. In addition, this new AI-detection tool identifies copyrighted material in videos and can detect simulated faces or audio that were made with AI tools. 

8. AI Integration in Website Reporting and Technical Audits

I previously touched on SEMrush’s AI reporting integration, but that was just one of the AI integrations in important local SEO tools.

Screaming Frog’s open AI integration update from 2024 is used to analyze website structure and identify technical issues. Thanks to this update, you’re now able to connect directly to Google Gemini and OpenAI with crawl data. This new AI integration helps with creating custom prompts when crawling a website for technical audits.

Google Analytics has also had a significant upgrade in regards to its AI features in its updated version of (GA4). The upgrade includes predictive metrics that can pinpoint future user behavior in local search. This can increase your understanding of how users from specific geographic locations interact with your website. You can then optimize your local SEO strategy accordingly. This is leveraged through the AI-powered audience segmentation feature. You can also benchmark AI insights against historical data using the reports comparison feature.

The AI-powered features in GA4 are vast, but I’ve only identified some of the practical ways you can leverage AI in your reporting. Similarly, there are many more AI reporting platforms I’m leaving off the list here, but even just scratching the surface, you can see how AI is part of the future of search. 

9. AI and Mobile Voice Searches

Search engines like Google now favor websites that work well on mobile, and this is also true for voice search. It emphasizes the increasing importance of mobile-first website optimization. When focusing on mobile-first optimization, you can make your content more visible through voice queries in local search results.

Here are three ways to improve mobile-first voice search on your website:

• Design with Mobile in Mind: Make sure your website is easy to use on mobile. Use a responsive design and keep your content simple.
• Improve Your Mobile Site Speed: A fast page load time is extremely important for voice search. Make sure images are not weighing down your site with huge file sizes. Also, decrease excess code to speed up your website. You can easily run a page speed audit using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to find these issues. 
• Create Mobile Specific Content That Targets Voice Search Users: This would include FAQ content and generally any content that works well with conversational keyword queries such as long tail keywords.

10. AI, Voice Search, and Structured Data/Schema Markup

Structured data and schema markup are extremely important in making your content more visible in voice search. Think of schema markup as a business card that gives search engines detailed information about your website. This is done through a set of HTML tags to indicate structured data. The most commonly implemented version is using the JSON-LD format within a <script> tag in the <head> of your HTML page.

Why is schema markup important for local search? This optimization increases the chances of featured snippets, which are often prioritized in voice search results. Voice assistants can provide more accurate and informative responses based on your website’s structured data.

As previously discussed, AI-assisted tools for keyword research can help identify what those popular long tail keyword queries might be based upon your geography for local search. 

Honorable Mention: AI and Link Building!

Those are my top 10 reasons why AI and voice search are the future of local SEO. I can only fit so much content into a top 10 list, which leads me to conclude with this honorable mention. 

In an increasing AI and voice search dominated world, make sure you’re working to extend your business listing strategy on the most important networks. For example, make sure you are on top domain authority business directories like Apple Maps, Yellow Pages, Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, and hundreds of other directories to increase your website’s visibility.

When AI Overview crawls the web for local results, it cross references data from many business directories to decide the best match. The more accurate and plentiful your business listings are, the more likely you are to rank for AI Overview queries, voice searches, and traditional search.