Local Marketing Beat: AI Search, GEO & Multi-Location Marketing

How do you get your brand recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity instead of simply ranking on Google?

In this live SMX 2026 session, Christian Hustle shares the results of a 90-day Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) experiment designed to answer one question:

Can YouTube transcripts and structured content increase AI Search Share of Voice?

The answer surprised us.

You’ll see the exact framework we used to improve AI visibility, increase brand mentions, and grow citations across AI-powered search engines by combining YouTube videos, transcripts, and website content into a repeatable GEO strategy.

In this session you’ll learn:

* What AI Share of Voice (AI SOV) is and why it matters

* How ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity decide which brands to recommend

* Why YouTube transcripts became one of our highest-performing GEO assets

* The difference between ranking in search and getting selected by AI

* How embedding videos and transcripts boosted visibility across an entire prompt library

* The role of citations, consistency, and corroboration in AI-generated answers

* A practical 90-day GEO framework that marketers can apply today

Whether you’re an SEO professional, content strategist, local marketer, SaaS company, or multi-location brand, this presentation will help you understand how AI search is changing discovery and what you can do to stay visible.

Topics Covered

* Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

* AI Search Optimization

* AI Share of Voice

* ChatGPT SEO

* Gemini SEO

* Perplexity SEO

* Local SEO

* Multi-Location Marketing

* YouTube SEO

* AI Citations

* Entity Optimization

* Content Strategy

* GEO Framework

* AI Visibility

If you’re still measuring success by rankings alone, you’re already behind.

The future of SEO isn’t just ranking pages—it’s becoming the answer AI chooses to recommend.

#SMX #SEO #GEO #AISearch #ChatGPT #Perplexity #Gemini #LocalSEO #DigitalMarketing #YouTubeSEO #ContentStrategy

In this episode, Christian Hustle and Ari Nahmani, CEO and founder of Kahena, explore how large restaurant brands and franchise operators can win at local search in an AI-driven world. They break down how the customer discovery journey has shifted away from brand websites toward third-party platforms like DoorDash, Yelp, and OpenTable — and what that means for search strategy. They also cover why review velocity and sentiment have become outsized signals for both Google's diversity update and LLM training, how to build location pages that convert rather than just inform, and why A/B testing at the location level is one of the most underused tools available to multi-location brands. They wrap up with a frank assessment of what breaks first at scale — and why reviews, not data hygiene, are now the hardest thing to manage across hundreds or thousands of locations.

👤 Guest Info

Ari Nahmani – CEO and founder of Kahena

https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinahmani/

🧭 Key Concepts Covered

- How the customer discovery journey has fragmented across delivery and review aggregators

- Branded vs. non-branded search: what the balance looks like for large restaurant chains

- Why AI search query fan-out creates new non-brand ranking opportunities

- Local landing pages V2: what best-in-class location pages include beyond address and hours

- A/B testing at scale: how to test category changes, descriptions, and page layouts across location subsets

- Google's diversity update and why it's making reviews more critical than ever for big chains

- NFC tap cards and post-purchase triggers: practical tactics to increase review velocity

- How review responses train LLMs — and why your USP language needs to be consistent everywhere

- What breaks first at scale: reviews, technical errors, and the risk of rolling out changes too fast

🕒 Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Kahena and Ari's Background

01:22 How the Customer Discovery Journey Has Changed

04:35 Branded vs. Non-Branded Search for Restaurant Chains

07:10 The Opportunity in Near Me and Long-Tail Local Search

09:28 Local Landing Pages: What V2 Looks Like

13:46 A/B Testing Strategies Across Locations

17:00 Optimising Location Pages for Conversion

21:16 Sentiment, Reviews and the Diversity Update

24:00 How Reviews Feed AI Search and LLM Training

28:06 What Breaks First at Scale

🔗 Resources

- Discover Kahena: https://kahena.com

- Discover Location Performance Optimization: https://uberall.com/en-us/products/location-performance-optimization

- Meet UB-I: https://get.uberall.com/ub-i/

- Get GEO & LPO Certified at Uberall Academy: https://academy.uberall.com/

- Follow Kahena on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kahena-digital-marketing/

In this episode, Christian Hustle and Melissa Telsrow, President and co-founder of Hiper, explore how multi-location brands can scale authentic social media content that drives real-world discovery. They explain why top franchise systems are winning by moving away from "waterfall" corporate content and instead empowering local operators to share original, unpolished stories that build consumer trust. They also cover the rise of "interest media" on platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts, the growing importance of Employee-Generated Content (EGC), and why technical SEO must be paired with hyper-local storytelling to create a true multiplier effect. They wrap up with practical strategies for building a content framework that balances automated scale with local autonomy to stay competitive in an AI-driven search landscape.

👤 Guest Info

Melissa Telsrow – President and co-founder of Hiper

🧭 Key Concepts Covered

How AI is reshaping "near me" searches and local discovery

The shift from keywords to interest-based discovery on TikTok and Shorts

Why "unpolished" native content outperforms professional photography by 55%

The Rise of EGC: Using employee-generated content to build brand humanization

Collaborator Strategy: Using Instagram Reels and geotagging for local proximity search

How to build a three-pronged scaling system: Baseline, Templates, and Managed Service

The "Waterfall" Trap: Why cascading national content to local pages hurts engagement

Leveraging Facebook as a secondary local SEO powerhouse

Establishing brand guardrails to empower local operator creativity

🕒 Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Hiper Multi-Location Marketing

01:19 Understanding Consumer Behavior in the Age of AI

03:39 The Role of Social Media in Search and Discovery

06:46 Leveraging User-Generated and Employee-Generated Content

09:45 Building Trust with Authentic Content

12:00 Strategies for Scaling Content Across Multiple Locations

16:06 Common Mistakes in Franchise Marketing

19:46 The Importance of Authenticity in Content Creation

🔗 Resources

Discover Hiper: https://hiperlocalmarketing.com

Discover Location Performance Optimization: https://uberall.com/en-us/products/location-performance-optimization

Meet UB-I: https://get.uberall.com/ub-i/

Get GEO & LPO Certified at Uberall Academy: https://academy.uberall.com/

Follow Hiper on Social: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hiperlocalmarketing/

David breaks down 3 moves every marketing leader should make right now:

1. Align your content, comms, and PR strategy around a North Star that reflects where the market actually is today

2. Build your prompt universe. The questions and topics that drive real elasticity and scalable growth

3. The third one? Best to hear this one from David himself 👀

Watch the full episode on YouTube

In this episode, Christian Hustle and Athena HQ’s David Zeledon explore how AI search is rapidly reshaping customer discovery, with predictions that up to 60–70% of traditional search traffic could shift to AI in the near future. They explain why top brands are winning by focusing on answer-driven, intent-based content and building strong signals across websites, social media, PR, and third-party sources, helping AI systems understand and recommend them more often.

They also cover new performance metrics like Share of Voice and ROI per prompt, the growing importance of blogs and YouTube for AI visibility, and why brands must rethink success beyond clicks. They wrap up with practical strategies for adapting content, aligning teams, and investing in AI search optimization (AEO/GEO) to stay competitive.

👤 Guest Info

David Zeledon – Head of Growth at Athena HQ

🧭 Key Concepts Covered

The shift from keywords to answers in AI search

Why top brands dominate through content ecosystems and multi-channel presence

How AI evaluates trust using off-site signals, mentions, and citations

The growing importance of YouTube and video in training AI models

Why blogs outperform product pages as AI entry points

How zero-click behavior is evolving into answer-first journeys

New AI-era KPIs: share of voice, mentions per prompt, and ROI per prompt

How to map prompts to revenue using real customer insights

Why industries like travel and hospitality face the biggest disruption risk

How CMOs should restructure teams and budgets for GEO and AEO

🕒 Chapters

00:00 The Rise of AI Search and Traffic Decline Predictions

00:58 What Top Brands Do Differently in AI Search

03:08 From Clicks to Influence: The New Funnel

05:55 New KPIs for AI Search Success

08:45 YouTube, Context, and AI Training Data

12:24 Why Blogs Are the #1 AI Entry Point

14:02 Industries Most at Risk in AI Search

15:09 GEO Strategy for CMOs in 2026

17:06 Final Takeaways and Where to Follow

🔗 Resources

Discover GEO Studio: https://uberall.com/en-us/products/geo-studio

Discover Location Performance Optimization: https://uberall.com/en-us/products/lo...

Meet UB-I: https://get.uberall.com/ub-i/

Get GEO & LPO Certified at Uberall Academy: https://academy.uberall.com/

Learn more about Athena HQ: https://athenahq.ai/

David Zeledon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-zeledon/

State of AI Seach 2026 Athena HQ Report: https://athenahq.ai/athena-state-of-ai-full-report

This episode explores how AI agents are reshaping online shopping, SEO, and the digital customer journey. Host Christian Hustle sits down with Jes Scholz, Growth Marketing Consultant, Keynote Speaker, and SEO Writer, to unpack how agentic search is redefining what it means for brands to be optimized in 2026.

From AI agents that can shop for users to the new standards like Web MCP, this episode reveals why site design, schema, and measurement frameworks must evolve and how brands can stay discoverable when clicks disappear and agents do the buying.

👤 Guest Info

Jes Scholz – Growth Marketing Consultant, Keynote Speaker & SEO Writer

🧭 Key Concepts Covered

- How AI agents are transforming the shopping experience

- Why pretty design can break usability for both humans and AI

- The role of site speed, simplicity, and UI in agentic discoverability

- Understanding Web MCP and the new “API-first” website standard

- How to measure success in a world without clicks or impressions

- The rebirth of share of voice as the true marketing KPI

- Why agentic search may favor market leaders — and how challengers can compete

- The future of AI SEO and why metrics must give way to meaningful KPIs

🕒 Chapters

00:00 AI Agents and the Future of Shopping

01:27 Why Websites Are Failing Both Users and Agents

03:35 The Hidden Cost of "Pretty" Design

05:34 Introducing Web MCP: APIs for the Agentic Web

07:21 Will Brand Loyalty Survive AI Shopping?

09:38 How to Compete with Market Leaders in AI Search

13:09 GEO, AI SEO, and What We Should Call It

14:48 Tracking Success Beyond Clicks and Sessions

18:41 Why Data Silos Kill True Insight

21:23 How CMOs Should Set AI SEO Priorities

23:40 Tracking the Correlation Between AI Visibility and Market Share

🔗 Resources

Get GEO & LPO Certified at Uberall Academy: https://academy.uberall.com/

Discover Location Performance Optimization: https://uberall.com/en-us/products/lo...

Meet UB-I: https://get.uberall.com/ub-i/

Follow Jes Scholz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesscholz/

Read SEO Brief on Substack: https://seobrief.substack.com/

Not every brand needs to go viral.

But every brand needs to be visible.

In our latest Local Marketing Beat episode, Cindy Krum breaks down how video is your brand’s “proof of life” online and builds trust across AI search.

This episode dives into how brands can build trust and visibility beyond their websites in the era of AI-powered search. Host Christian Hustle sits down with Cindy Krum, CEO of MobileMoxie, to unpack how AI overviews, video content, and authentic engagement are rewriting the rules of SEO and brand discovery.

Explore how video (both long-form and short-form) can help brands appear in AI results, how Google and social platforms rank multimedia content, and why “proof of life” across the web now matters more than backlinks.

👤 Guest Info

Cindy Krum – CEO & Founder of MobileMoxiePioneer in mobile-first SEO, AI discoverability, and video-driven brand strategy.

🧭 Key Concepts Covered

- Why AI search is the next frontier of SEO

- How video content increases brand trust and AI visibility

- The shift from websites to brand ecosystems

- “Proof of life” signals: real humans, real engagement

- How TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram are influencing search behavior

- What AI overviews mean for brand mentions and authenticity

- The importance of transcripts, engagement, and context in ranking

- How to repurpose long-form video into shorts using AI tools

- Why low production value content can perform better than polished ads

🕒 Chapters

00:00 Building Brand Trust in the Age of AI Search

02:54 The Evolution of Mobile SEO and AI

05:08 Leveraging Video for Brand Authenticity

08:14 The Impact of TikTok on Brand Discovery

10:37 Creating Trust Across Digital Platforms

12:44 The Role of Video in Modern Marketing

14:59 Navigating AI and Content Creation

18:00 Putting Authentic Video Into Practice

🔗 Resources

Get GEO & LPO Certified at Uberall Academy: https://academy.uberall.com/

Discover Location Performance Optimization: https://uberall.com/en-us/products/lo...

Meet UB-I: https://get.uberall.com/ub-i/

Cindy Krum on Twitter/X: https://x.com/Suzzicks

MobileMoxie: https://mobilemoxie.com

In this episode, Christian Hustle sat down with James Hocking from Hocking Digital to unpack how structured data, attribution, and adaptive local SEO can keep your brand ahead in AI-driven discovery.

📍Chapters:

00:00 The rise of AI in Local SEO

02:32 Understanding LLMs and Their Impact on SEO

05:05 The Importance of Schema and Data Structure

08:03 Device and Location Influence on Search Behaviour

10:40 Content Strategy for AI and LLMs

12:54 Internal Linking and Discoverability

15:34 Key Takeaways for Brands in the AI Era

🔑 Key Takeaways:

1. AI models prioritize content quality, freshness, and context over traditional SEO tactics like internal linking.

2. Search results now shift based on where and how users search, making localized and mobile-first strategies essential.

3. Evergreen pieces still build authority, but brand pages need regular updates to stay relevant to AI-driven algorithms.

4. The new SEO is dynamic and data-driven, blending structured content, local insights, and AI-ready optimization.

💡 Learn more:

Get LPO Certified at Uberall Academy: https://academy.uberall.com/

Discover Location Performance Optimization: https://uberall.com/en-us/products/location-performance-optimization

Meet UB-I: https://get.uberall.com/ub-i/

Learn more about Get Heard: https://getheard.online/

In this episode of Local Marketing Beat, host Christian Hustle sits down with restaurant marketing expert and official "Expert Burger Taster", Rev Ciancio, to unpack the biggest mistakes restaurant brands make, and the simple fixes that actually work.

From listings management and consistency to the role of AI in restaurant discovery, Rev shares two decades of real-world experience helping restaurants grow visibility, engagement, and loyalty in a crowded digital landscape.

If you’re in restaurant marketing, this episode is packed with lessons on how to stay discoverable, build trust, and keep your marketing engine running without overcomplicating it.

🧠 Key Takeaways

Why mastering restaurant marketing is an ongoing challenge

How AI is changing restaurant discovery and consumer behavior

Why listings management is the foundation of visibility

The real reason consistency matters more than perfection

How to make reputation and reviews work for you

Simple frameworks for building engagement and trust online

Why social media is retention — not acquisition

How to turn weekly newsletters into powerful marketing assets

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 Introduction to Restaurant Marketing

02:51 The Journey of an Expert Burger Taster

05:45 The Evolution of Restaurant Discovery

08:22 Consumer Behavior in Restaurant Selection

11:34 The Importance of Listings Management

14:18 Challenges in Restaurant Marketing

17:10 Strategies for Visibility and Engagement

20:05 Consistency in Marketing Efforts

24:09 Conclusion and Resources

🔗 Resources

Read Uberall's report about the restaurant industry: https://get.uberall.com/lpo-report/

Get free LPO Certification at academy.uberall.com

Subscribe to Rev’s weekly LinkedIn newsletter: restaurantsgrow.tv