David Hunter, CEO of AI-powered SEO platform Local Falcon, shares how AI can uncover insights that can transform your business’s local search visibility.
The landscape of Local SEO can be challenging to navigate, but David Hunter, CEO of the AI-powered Local SEO platform Local Falcon, is here to demystify the subject and show businesses how AI can simplify the process of improving local search rankings. “AI doesn’t need to be intimidating,” he says. “When used properly, it’s a powerful tool that can guide you step by step.”
SEO has long been essential for helping businesses improve their visibility online. Traditionally, this meant optimizing content and building backlinks to appear higher in search results for relevant keywords. While these strategies remain important, the rise of mobile devices, voice search, and AI overviews significantly shifted the SEO landscape, placing greater emphasis on local search visibility and the importance of local strategy.
Hunter emphasizes that Local Falcon was built with a clear focus on local SEO from the start, driven by the need to help businesses understand their rankings at a hyper-local level as mobile usage exploded. “The AI in Local Falcon isn’t about changing SEO itself,” Hunter explains. “It’s about simplifying the process for businesses, making it easy for them to know exactly what steps to take within their Google Business Profile to improve their local search performance.”
The first local rank tracking platform of its kind, Local Falcon pioneered the geo-grid scan, a visual map that allows businesses to see how they rank across multiple precise locations. This granular insight helps businesses understand how visible they are to customers in specific areas of their city or neighborhood, offering a true picture of local performance.
This competitive edge is further enhanced by the Campaigns tool, which allows businesses to see a consolidated overview of their local SEO performance, making it easier to track progress, identify opportunities, and optimize strategies. Simplifying the complexity of SEO is a key feature of Local Falcon’s services.
Since its launch, Local Falcon has used their innovative geo-grid map format to provide brands with their Share of Local Voice, but Hunter also saw the potential of AI in terms of its relationship with Local SEO.
“Local Rank Tracking is a simple concept but we were the first to do it in a visual way. The system visits a specific latitude and longitude on the map and mimics a Google search from that location. This geogrid format with pins across the neighborhood allows clients to get a true picture of their local ranking.”
It’s what came next, Hunter says, that really made the platform soar. “I had this lightbulb moment of realizing we could take all of our local SEO knowledge and pair it with a client’s actual data and finally with a custom AI. From there, the AI can analyze the performance of the business, along with the geographic area in question, and provide data-backed recommendations on listing improvements that are entirely specific,” he says. “No one has ever done that before. It’s called Falcon AI and we followed up with a copilot called Falcon Assist that uses the same data set to help clients understand what they need to do for best results.”
As well as recommendations for growth, Local Falcon also provides an AI review analysis tool that ingests all Google reviews and provides full-blown business analysis in addition to ranking insights. This ability to not only point out areas of improvement but also offer suggestions on how to implement those improvements is another element that sets Local Falcon apart from competitors.
Hunter advises clients to prepare for the AI future. “The new reality is that SEO has changed because AI optimization is now involved,” he says. “This means you have to focus on things like expert content and social proof, which is real customers talking about your product or service online in a way that is not paid marketing, like Google reviews and testimonials on your website.”
Hunter is keen to impress the point that AI has changed the game for local SEO, and businesses must adapt accordingly. “The days of being able to dump a bunch of keywords into your site and start ranking are long gone. Your brand needs to be an authority in your industry and the only real way to develop that authority is by getting social mentions and publishing expert content on a regular basis. That, and getting real results, of course. There’s nothing better than a happy customer.”
To discover how Local Falcon can transform your business’s online presence and therefore real-world performance, explore their website. You can also follow Local Falcon on LinkedIn and YouTube.
