For years, the game was simple. You loaded your pages with phrases like “best roofer in Houston” or “emergency plumber near me.” You bought or built backlinks. Then you waited for Google to move you up the list.

That worked for a while.

Today, the internet runs on something different.

Search engines and AI tools now act more like answer engines than simple search engines. Tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude do not just look at keywords. They pull facts, names, places, and relationships. Then they give the user one clear answer.

If your SEO person is still stuck on keyword density and backlink counts, he is already behind.

The Death of Traditional SEO

From Search To Answers: How The Game Flipped

In the old days, Google looked at pages and tried to match words on your site with the words in someone’s search.

Now it looks at something deeper. It looks at entities.

An entity can be:

Your business name
Your city or service area
A product or service you offer
A person on your team
A brand, tool, or certification you work with

Google and modern AI tools like Gemini and ChatGPT connect these entities across many sources:

Your website
Your Google Business Profile
Review sites like Yelp or Houzz
Local directories and chambers of commerce
Social media and Reddit conversations
News stories and blog posts

They retrieve this information, reason about it, and then respond with an answer.

That is where RAO (Retrieval Augmentation Optimization) comes in.

What is RAO (Retrieval Augmentation Optimization) in Simple Terms?

RAO stands for Retrieval Augmentation Optimization.

RAG, or Retrieval Augmented Generation, is how AI systems work behind the scenes. They first retrieve facts and data, then generate an answer on top of that information.

RAO is how you make sure your business shows up in that retrieval step.

You are no longer just trying to rank number one for a keyword in a list of blue links. You are trying to be the business the AI chooses when it answers a question like this:

“Which fence company in Houston installs horizontal cedar fences, has great reviews, and works in my neighborhood?”

To answer that, the AI pulls from:

Your Google Business Profile
Your website content and schema
Review platforms like Yelp or Angi
Local blogs or news mentions
Social platforms and Reddit threads
Industry directories

If you are not present and clear in those places, you are invisible to the AI.

Entity SEO: The Foundation of RAO

Entity-based SEO is about teaching machines exactly who you are, what you do, and where you work.

Google uses a knowledge graph to map entities and their relationships. It is not just reading words on a page. It is building a graph of people, places, and services and how they connect.

When we build your online presence with clean structure and clear entities, we help that graph understand you.

For a contractor or local firm, that means:

Your business name is consistent everywhere
Your address, phone, and hours match across all sites
Your services are described the same way across pages and profiles
Your service areas are clearly listed and reinforced
You have reviews and mentions that connect your name to your services and city

Entity-based SEO is not about clever wording. It is about clarity and consistency.

Practical RAO And Entity SEO Strategy For Local Businesses

Here is how I suggest local contractors and attorneys start winning in this new world.

1. Get Mentioned On 10 To 15 Trusted Sources

You still want links when you can get them, but right now simple mentions matter just as much.

Aim to be listed or mentioned on:

Local news sites and feature stories
Chamber of commerce or business associations
Neighborhood blogs or HOA newsletters
Review platforms like Yelp, Houzz, or Thumbtack
Industry directories and trade groups
Relevant Reddit threads where real people talk about local services

When your business name, city, and core service show up together across these sites, AI tools see you as a real, trusted local option.

2. Fully Complete Your Google Business Profile

Most business owners think their profile is done. It usually is not.

Fill out everything you can:

Exact business name
Categories and services
Service areas or physical address
Hours and holiday hours
Phone, website, and booking links
Payment types
Photos of real work and teams
Attributes like “women-owned” or “veteran-owned” when they fit

Then keep it active:

Ask for fresh reviews monthly
Respond to every review
Post updates and offers
Add photos of new jobs

AI systems lean heavily on Google Business Profiles when they choose local providers.

If your profile is thin or out of date, you slide down the list.

3. Use Schema Markup To State The Facts

Schema is a simple way to mark up your site so machines do not have to guess what your page means.

At minimum, you should have:

Organization or LocalBusiness schema for your company
Service schema for each main service you offer
Review or Rating schema where you show testimonials
AreaServed information for your service locations

This is not about tricking Google. It is about speaking directly in its language.

When we build schema for our clients, we use it to confirm:

Who you are
What you do
Where you work
Which services you want to be known for

Done right, schema aligns with your actual content and supports your whole entity profile.

If you want to learn more about the old style of SEO that led to this shift, you can read about search engine optimization, then compare it to what we are doing now.

4. Show Up Where AI Was Trained

Most large language models were trained on huge amounts of content from platforms like Reddit and X.

If real people are talking about your company on these platforms, that helps.

You do not need to live on social media, but you should:

Claim your profiles on key platforms
Post proof of work and client stories now and then
Encourage happy customers to tag you or mention you in local threads

When users recommend your business by name in public spaces, you give AI systems more proof that you are a good answer for local questions.

5. Publish Content With Semantic Clarity

Content still matters. It just has to be clear and structured.

On your website, focus on:

One main topic per page
Straightforward headings that match what the page is about
Simple, direct language that says who you are, what you do, and where you work
Real examples of jobs, case results, or projects in specific cities or neighborhoods

On your blog and service pages, we like to tie each page to a specific service and city. If you want to see what this looks like, you can look at our Local SEO services page for the structure we use with contractors.

Clear content makes it easy for AI to connect you to the right questions.

MCP: Where This Is All Heading

There is another shift coming, and it is already starting.

MCP, or Model Context Protocol, is a way for AI tools to not only answer questions, but also take actions, like booking appointments or sending messages.

Instead of:

“Who is the best electrician near me?”

People will say things like:

“Schedule a generator maintenance visit with a top-rated electrician near me next Tuesday after 3 pm.”

The AI will then:

Look up local providers
Check availability
Place the booking or send the request

No website visits. No form fills. Just direct action.

To be ready for this, your business needs:

Online booking or at least a clear request form that tools can find
Clean service menus with standard names and prices where possible
Hours, service areas, and payment options that are easy for machines to read

RAO is how you prepare for that future. It is how you make sure your business is one of the options the AI can safely choose.

What We Do For Clients At GBC Digital Marketing

For our contractor and attorney clients, we focus less on chasing keywords and more on building a strong, trusted entity across the web.

That usually includes:

Cleaning up and unifying your business info across all major directories
Building and fixing schema across your main pages and service pages
Creating clear, helpful content tied to real services and real cities
Fully optimizing and maintaining your Google Business Profile
Building out mentions and listings on trusted third-party sites
Tracking where you show up in AI answers and adjusting over time
Preparing your site and systems for booking and call flows that AI can use

The goal is simple. When someone in your area asks an AI for the best provider, we want your name to be one of the first it pulls.

Takeaway

SEO is not dead, but the old version of it is on life support.

If you are a contractor, home service provider, or local attorney and you want to keep getting leads from search and AI tools, you need to move toward RAO and entity-based SEO.

Do not wait until every prospect is asking an AI to pick a provider for them.

Be the business that shows up in those answers. Not the one that was left behind in a pile of old blog posts.

If you are ready to talk about a plan for your business, reach out and let us help you build a system that works with RAO and entity-based SEO.

Cindy Pruitt
Founder, GBC Digital Marketing
Helping contractors own their market since 2003