Why I Built RankingLocal.ai
The morning I watched ChatGPT recommend three contractors that weren't me, even though I was ranking #2 on Google. Here's what happened next.
Read →Field notes
Writing about AI visibility the way a contractor talks about drywall.
Short posts from Chris — what broke, what I tried, what actually moved the score. No theory without a number. No funnel charts. Practical fixes from running Yellow Pencil on RankingLocal.ai before anyone else did.
The 4-Dimension GEO Score: What Actually Moves AI Citations
A contractor's breakdown of the four GEO Score dimensions, what each one measures, and what separates a cited business from an invisible one.
Read →One-Time AI Audits Expire In About 30 Days
AI models refresh every few weeks. A one-time audit is dead by day 30. Here is the Yellow Pencil drift log that made me build weekly re-scoring.
Read →Why Our Free Tools Ask Nothing From You
Our five free tools need no signup, and the Pro trial needs no credit card. Here is the real reason we built it this way, from the founder.
Read →Robots Check: The 30-Second Test That Saves AI Visibility
Your robots.txt might be blocking ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity right now. Here's the free 30-second check that finds it, plus the exact fix.
Read →How GEO Grader Scores LocalBusiness Schema In 10 Seconds
The GEO Grader checks completeness, correctness, and machine-readability of LocalBusiness JSON-LD. Here's exactly what it measures and why 45s fail.
Read →Schema Generator: Make Your Site ChatGPT-Readable Without JSON
Small-business owners shouldn't have to learn JSON-LD to get found by AI. Here's how our free Schema Generator does it in 3 minutes flat.
Read →The Robots.txt Line Hiding You From ChatGPT
A 2023 AI-ban template still sits in thousands of robots.txt files. Here's how to find it, why it's costing traffic, and the 2026 fix.
Read →FAQPage Schema Is 30 Minutes You Can't Afford to Skip
I added FAQPage schema to one page and ChatGPT started quoting it word for word two weeks later. Here is the exact playbook I used.
Read →LocalBusiness Schema: The 10 Fields That Actually Matter
Most LocalBusiness schema tutorials list 30 fields. Only 10 move the needle for AI citations. Here's the ranked list I use on every Yellow Pencil build.
Read →How Perplexity Picks Sources (And How to Be One)
Perplexity ranks freshness, schema, and entity clarity over raw authority. Here is how Yellow Pencil got cited in 14 days instead of 60.
Read →ChatGPT Named My Competitor Instead of Me
Diagnostic walkthrough for local business owners whose competitors get cited by ChatGPT. Four reasons, four audits, and a real 18-month Markham story.
Read →State of AI Search in 2026 for Local Businesses
A working contractor's year-in-review of AI search in 2026 — what shifted across ChatGPT, Google AIO, Perplexity, Grok, DeepSeek and Kimi for local shops.
Read →SEO vs GEO: A Scarborough Plumber Explains
SEO ranks you on Google. GEO gets you cited in ChatGPT answers. Here's how the two disciplines split, using a Scarborough plumber as the case study.
Read →Why 5-Star Google Doesn't Unlock ChatGPT
Yellow Pencil had 4.9 stars and 87 Google reviews. ChatGPT still didn't cite us for 18 months. Here's what AI engines actually look at instead.
Read →Stop Ranking for Keywords. Start Being an Entity.
Why AI models don't rank keywords, they recognize entities. The 4 signals that make your business a clear thing an LLM can cite with confidence.
Read →Yellow Pencil's 90 Days: A Week-by-Week Operational Log
The unfiltered timeline of how I got Yellow Pencil cited in ChatGPT over 90 days, including the mistakes, reverts, and what actually moved the needle.
Read →Dogfooding: Our Own GEO Score Is 57.6 Out of 100
I run RankingLocal.ai on itself. Current GEO score: 57.6. Here is where we win, where we lose to Ahrefs and Moz, and the roadmap to 70+.
Read →AI Visibility Checker: 7 Engines in 60 Seconds
Paste your domain, category, and city. In 60 seconds you see whether 7 AI engines cite your business. Free, no signup. Here is how it works.
Read →How to Read Your Weekly AI Visibility Report
A practical walkthrough of the RankingLocal weekly report — what the score change means, which dimensions matter, and what to fix versus what to ignore.
Read →ChatGPT missed my renovation company for 2 years. Here's what fixed it.
Yellow Pencil had 11 active projects and a 4.9-star Google profile. ChatGPT didn't know we existed when someone asked 'kitchen renovation in Markham.' The fix wasn't a new strategy — it was three very small schema changes, a Reddit answer, and patience.
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