A new study of Google Gemini’s local search answers offers a useful reminder for businesses in Bath and across the South West: your own website still matters. In the research, business websites were the most frequently cited source when Gemini answered local queries.
That is encouraging, but it is not a promise of stable visibility. The same study found that repeated searches often produced different recommendations and sources. A business might appear in one answer and disappear from the next, even when the question barely changes.
The sensible conclusion is not that there is a new trick for “ranking in Gemini”. It is that a clear, trustworthy website gives an AI system useful evidence, while local visibility still depends on several signals and remains variable.
What the study found
Search Engine Land reported on research by Steady Demand covering 14,472 citations from 1,487 local prompts across 50 large US metropolitan areas. Business websites accounted for nearly 60% of citations, ahead of third-party sources.
However, consistency was low. When prompts were repeated, the leading business recommendation changed in the great majority of cases. That matters because a single manual check is a poor way to judge whether a company is genuinely visible in AI search.
The research was carried out in the United States, so its percentages should not be treated as a direct forecast for Bath, Bristol or Somerset. It is still a valuable indication of how Gemini assembles local answers and which source type it often finds useful.
Your website is first-party evidence
A business website can explain details that directories and social profiles often compress or miss: where you work, what you provide, who it is for, how the service differs, and how customers can contact you. Those details help conventional search engines, prospective customers and AI systems understand the organisation.
For a Bath business, that means writing plainly about genuine locations and service areas. A company serving Bath, Keynsham and nearby parts of Wiltshire should say so where it is relevant, rather than scattering place names across every paragraph. Pages should connect each service with useful evidence such as staff expertise, examples of work, delivery arrangements or frequently asked questions.
This is part of good local SEO for Bath businesses, not a separate layer of copy written solely for machines.
Do not mistake one answer for a measurement
AI answers can vary because of prompt wording, location, personalisation, fresh information and the model’s own selection process. Asking Gemini “Who is the best?” once and saving a screenshot may be interesting, but it is not a reliable performance report.
If AI visibility matters to your business, test a small, repeatable set of realistic customer questions over time. Include different stages of intent: broad research, a specific service, a location-qualified need and a comparison question. Record whether the business is mentioned, which page is cited and whether the description is accurate.
Look for patterns across several checks rather than celebrating or worrying about one result. The study’s inconsistency suggests that visibility should be treated as a distribution, not a fixed position from one to ten.
What to improve on the website
Start with the pages that describe your principal services. Each should answer basic questions without making visitors hunt through vague sales language. State what the service is, who it helps, where it is available and what the next step involves.
Then check the evidence surrounding those claims. Keep contact and location details consistent. Make the people or organisation behind the website easy to identify. Add relevant credentials, policies, case studies or customer information where they genuinely build confidence. Update outdated opening hours, pricing explanations and service areas.
Technical accessibility matters too. Important information should be present in the page’s main content and reachable through ordinary links. Clear headings, descriptive page titles and sensible internal navigation make the site easier for people and automated systems to interpret. Structured data can reinforce facts, but it cannot rescue thin or contradictory content.
Businesses reviewing this area may find it helpful to consider AI search optimisation alongside ordinary website improvements. The fundamentals overlap more than the terminology sometimes suggests.
Check how others describe the business
Although business websites led the citations in this study, third-party sources still contribute to local discovery. Review the company’s Google Business Profile, important sector directories, professional memberships and reputable local listings. Names, addresses, phone numbers and service descriptions should not conflict.
That does not justify submitting the business to hundreds of low-quality directories. Concentrate on sources that customers would reasonably recognise and trust. Genuine reviews, local coverage and accurate profiles can support the picture established by the website.
A practical check for local businesses
- Review the main service and location pages for clarity, accuracy and useful detail.
- Make ownership, expertise and contact information easy to verify.
- Ensure important pages are accessible through normal internal links.
- Correct inconsistent information on major local and industry profiles.
- Test several realistic AI queries repeatedly and record patterns, not isolated wins.
The strongest lesson is reassuringly ordinary. Businesses do not need to abandon sound website work for an obscure AI tactic. They need a site that explains the organisation accurately, gives customers useful answers and provides credible evidence. Gemini may not cite it every time, but the business website remains one of the few sources the organisation can improve directly.
Source: Search Engine Land’s report on Gemini local search citations.
