In the summer of 1999, I helped my first local business get found online. The owner of a small HVAC company in Maryland wanted to know why his competitors showed up on Yahoo! and he didn't. The internet was still a novelty for most people. Google was barely a year old. The iPhone wouldn't exist for another eight years.
Twenty-five years later, I'm still doing the same thing—helping local businesses get found—but the landscape has changed so dramatically that it would be unrecognizable to that HVAC owner. Or would it?
That's the paradox I've come to understand after a quarter century in this field: Everything has changed, and nothing has changed. The technology is completely different. The principles that determine success are exactly the same.
The Eras I've Lived Through
Let me walk you through the major shifts I've witnessed, because understanding where we've been helps clarify where we're going.
Local search meant directory listings. Yahoo! Local, SuperPages, the digital Yellow Pages. Success was about being listed everywhere, with consistent information. The businesses that won were simply the ones that showed up.
Google Maps launched in 2005 and merged with Google Local in 2006. Suddenly there was a single dominant platform for local discovery. The 7-pack appeared in search results. Local SEO became a real discipline.
Smartphones made local search personal and immediate. "Near me" searches exploded. Reviews became critical. Google+ Local tried and failed. The local 3-pack emerged. Mobile-first became survival.
Google My Business (now Google Business Profile) became the de facto homepage for local businesses. Posts, Q&A, messaging, booking—the profile expanded into a full customer interaction platform.
AI is reshaping how people find and choose local businesses. Search is becoming conversational. Zero-click answers are expanding. The rules are changing again—but the fundamentals aren't.
The Three Truths That Never Changed
Here's what I've learned that I wish I'd understood from day one: across every era, every algorithm update, every platform shift, three principles have remained constant.
1. Relevance Beats Everything
In 1999, the HVAC company ranked when his information matched what people were searching for. In 2025, it's the same. Google's methods for measuring relevance have grown infinitely more sophisticated, but relevance itself—being the right answer to the right question—has always been the goal.
The businesses that struggle with local visibility almost always have a relevance problem. They're trying to rank for what they want to be known for, not what they actually are and do.
The question isn't "how do I rank higher?" The question is "am I actually the best answer for the people searching?" If yes, the ranking follows. If no, you're fighting the algorithm instead of working with it.
2. Trust Compounds Over Time
In the directory era, trust came from being listed in established sources. Today, it comes from reviews, citations, backlinks, and engagement patterns. The signals have changed; the principle hasn't.
Local businesses that build trust systematically—through consistent service, review generation, community involvement, content creation—accumulate advantages that become nearly impossible to overcome. The businesses that chase quick fixes stay on the treadmill forever.
3. Users Always Win Eventually
Every major algorithm update Google has ever made—and I've lived through dozens—has had the same underlying purpose: better serve users. Pigeon, Possum, Vicinity, the unnamed updates that happen daily—they all push toward the same goal.
This means the winning strategy has always been obvious: be genuinely useful to the people searching. Help them find what they need. Make their decision easier. Deliver on your promises.
The businesses that optimize for users have never been hurt by algorithm updates. The businesses that optimize for algorithms are perpetually one update away from disaster.
What AI Changes (And What It Doesn't)
I get asked constantly about AI and local search. How will ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI-powered search change things? My answer: it will change everything about how the principles are applied, and nothing about the principles themselves.
AI will make relevance matching more sophisticated. It will find new ways to measure trust. It will serve users in new ways. But the businesses that are relevant, trusted, and user-focused will win in the AI era just like they won in the directory era.
The specific tactics will evolve. The strategy remains constant.
The Do-No-Harm Philosophy
If there's one thing I've learned that I'd want every local business owner to understand, it's this: the best local SEO is invisible. It doesn't feel like optimization. It feels like becoming a better business.
Every action should make your business genuinely better, not just temporarily boost rankings. If an action would embarrass you if customers saw it, don't do it. If an action would help customers even if Google didn't exist, do more of it.
This isn't naive idealism. It's what 25 years of data has taught me. The businesses that think long-term, that invest in genuine improvement, that treat SEO as business development rather than technical manipulation—those are the businesses that are still thriving decades later.
Looking Forward
I don't know exactly what local search will look like in 2035. But I know this: there will still be local businesses trying to be found by local customers. There will still be some mechanism—probably AI-powered, possibly something we haven't imagined—for connecting them. And the businesses that are relevant, trusted, and user-focused will still be winning.
The technology changes. The principles don't.
That's what 25 years has taught me.