Steve Wiideman, Founder and CEOFor decades, SEO has been all about improving keyword rankings and securing higher positions in Google's search results. However, Google’s shift toward an AI-first search experience is reshaping how users discover information, evaluate options and make purchasing decisions. AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity are also creating new pathways for brand discovery. AI-generated responses can potentially reduce the need for users to click through to websites.
Businesses are increasingly competing not only for Google rankings but also for inclusion in AI-generated recommendations. Wiideman develops strategic search frameworks that enable multi-location brands to remain discoverable as traditional search expands into AI-driven discovery.
Organizations managing multiple locations face an even greater challenge. Maintaining accurate, consistent business data, search signals and reputation signals across hundreds of listings is critical to AI and search visibility. A multi-location and franchise SEO consultancy, Wiideman specializes in helping growing brands scale discoverability across evolving search experiences.
“SEO has evolved into a discipline driven by experimentation and discovery,” says Steve Wiideman, founder and CEO. “We constantly test what influences visibility across search engines and AI platforms and continually refine our strategies, ensuring businesses keep pace with changing search behaviors.”
Steve is a veteran multi-location and franchise SEO consultant, author and educator who has advised enterprise brands on search strategy for more than two decades.
Aligning Data, Content and Reputation for Search Success
Most engagements at Wiideman begin with technical, competitive and off-page audits. To create local-intent search strategies, it focuses on data accuracy, data visibility, location-specific content and reputation signals. Search performance is measured against each client's business intent, whether increasing off-premises (takeout, delivery, and catering) revenue, driving location-level engagement or improving customer actions.
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We constantly test what influences visibility across search engines and AI platforms and continually refine our strategies, ensuring businesses keep pace with changing search behaviors.
Wiideman helps clients standardize business information across Google Business Profiles, Bing Places, Apple Maps and other local platforms, making it easier for search engines and AI systems to identify and surface relevant information.
For multi-location clients with specific objectives for each location, Wiideman works with clients’ web teams or contracted third-party platforms to create location- and intent-specific pages that connect relevant services with the right audiences. These pages allow businesses to capture searches beyond their primary offerings.
Wiideman also helps strengthen brand reputation signals. Reviews from Google, Yelp, Reddit and industry-specific platforms are aggregated and analyzed using AI, helping organizations identify recurring operational issues and improve customer experience alongside search performance.
Turning Search Intent into Business Growth
Wiideman leverages search insights to uncover gaps between what brands promote online and what audiences seek.
In one instance, International House of Pancakes (IHOP) approached the company to strengthen search visibility across its franchise network. During the review, it identified a disconnect between IHOP’s content structure and actual customer search behavior. While the website promoted a page titled ‘What’s New,’ customers were searching for ‘breakfast specials near me’ and ‘lunch specials.’
Wiideman addressed the issue by providing guidance to restructure the site's information architecture around actual customer search intent and creating dedicated pages for breakfast specials, lunch specials and other high-interest searches across approximately 1,500 locations. The intent pages now surface in traditional search as well as citation sources within AI-generated responses.
Preparing Brands for the Next Generation of Search
AI is changing not only how people search, but how they make decisions. The next challenge for businesses will be understanding how customers find, evaluate and engage with brands in an increasingly agent-driven ecosystem.
As AI platforms begin facilitating direct reservations, purchases and transactions, visibility will no longer be measured solely through website traffic and rankings. Businesses will need to establish credibility wherever AI systems gather information—from search engines and review platforms to online communities and emerging AI interfaces.
Through a strategy-first approach to SEO, Wiideman is helping multi-location organizations prepare for the next generation of digital discovery.
