Search Engine Land analyzed 1.8 million Google Business Profiles and found that specific primary categories, aligned additional categories, and higher profile completeness all correlate strongly with better local rankings.

Steady Demand's study of 14,472 local queries found Gemini cites business websites in nearly 60% of results, but AI recommendations are inconsistent—repeating the same query yields different top business suggestions 93% of the time.

An audit of 71 Canadian businesses found that AI search systems can verify only 16% of business identity on average, due to technical and structural gaps most businesses can fix.

Search Engine Journal analyzed 120K mentions to identify four key signals that drive multi-location business visibility across five AI models including ChatGPT and Gemini.

SOCi's analysis of expanding versus contracting restaurant chains reveals expanding brands earn 6–7x more ChatGPT recommendations and maintain consistently higher scores across search, reviews, and social signals.

GatherUp analyzed nearly 9,000 businesses to benchmark review volumes, NPS, and star ratings across healthcare, insurance, restaurant, legal, storage & transportation, and construction sectors for 2025.