The State of Local Visibility 2026
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The State of Local Visibility 2026 analyzes 50,000+ local businesses across 16 industries to answer one question: what's actually moving leads in a search landscape now dominated by AI assistants, Google Maps, and review platforms? The report introduces the AI Visibility Gap - the 23-point delta between the top decile of any industry and its average - and shows which underlying signals (schema density, review velocity, GBP completeness, content depth) close it fastest. Restaurants, dental, and hospitality lead on Maps and reputation; legal, financial advisory, and medical lead on content and AI visibility; home services lag on AI but lead on Maps share-of-voice. Average industry VisibilityScore™ across the cohort: 62.4. Top 10%: 85+. Full methodology, charts, and per-industry tables in the executive summary below and the downloadable PDF.

Key Takeaways:
 - Average VisibilityScore™ across the 50,000-business cohort: 62.4.
 - Top 10% threshold: 85+ - a 23-point gap from average.
 - AI Visibility is the lowest-scored category in 11 of 16 industries.
 - Review velocity > 6/month correlates with a +14 point overall lift.
 - Schema density correlates with +9 points to AI Visibility.

Methodology
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We scored 50,000+ US local businesses across 16 industries using the VisibilityScore™ framework: nine categories, each independently benchmarked against industry cohort. Data collected Jan-Nov 2025. AI Visibility measured via 1.2M panel queries on ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Maps coverage measured via grid-search across the businesses' declared service areas. Review signals pulled from Google, Yelp, and industry-specific platforms. Full methodology in Appendix A of the PDF.

Key findings
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- Average overall score: 62.4. Top decile: 85+. Bottom decile: 38.
- AI Visibility lags every other category: average 44 across the cohort.
- Review velocity is the single strongest predictor of overall score (+14 pts at 6+/month).
- Schema density correlates strongly with AI Visibility (+9 pts on average).
- Restaurants and dental lead on Maps & reputation; legal and financial advisory lead on content & AI.

Per-industry highlights
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Restaurants: Maps avg 78, AI avg 41. The category with the largest Maps-to-AI gap.
Dental: Reputation avg 76, content avg 52. Reputation-led category.
HVAC/Plumbing: Maps avg 71, AI avg 39. Lowest AI in the cohort.
Legal: Content avg 74, Maps avg 58. Content-led; weakest on Maps.
Medical: Reputation avg 69, AI avg 51. Balanced but underperforming on AI given clinical authority.