AI search is here: how to get your outdoor business into AI answers
We published our original guide to AI search for outdoor businesses in early 2026. It covered how Google AI Overviews work, what gets you cited, and why your Google Business Profile matters more than it used to. All of that still holds.
But things have moved fast since then. Google AI Overviews now appear on roughly 26% of all US searches, up from under 7% a year ago. ChatGPT holds 17% of search queries. Perplexity partnered with Tripadvisor and now surfaces 300,000 Viator experiences directly in its answers. The question for your outfitting business or campground is no longer whether AI search matters. It’s whether you’re set up to be the one these systems recommend.
Here’s what has changed and what to do about it.
It’s not just google anymore
Our original piece focused heavily on Google AI Overviews, and that made sense at the time. Google was the first major search engine to put AI-generated answers at the top of results pages.
Now your customers are splitting their attention across multiple AI platforms. About 32% of American travelers say they plan to use ChatGPT to plan their next trip. Globally, 40% of travelers are using AI tools for trip planning. Perplexity’s partnership with Tripadvisor means that when someone asks “best rafting near Asheville” on Perplexity, the answer can pull from a billion Tripadvisor reviews and hundreds of thousands of bookable Viator experiences.
Each platform works a bit differently. Google AI Overviews pull from pages already ranking in organic results. ChatGPT draws from Bing’s index, Google Business Profile data, and review platforms like Yelp and Tripadvisor. Perplexity grabs from the top 30 search results and weights local sources heavily.
What this means in practice: your own website alone is not enough anymore. You need consistent, accurate information across your Google Business Profile, your review profiles on Tripadvisor and Yelp, and the directories specific to your activity. The Dyrt for campgrounds, FishBrain for guides, MTB Project for bike outfitters. Wherever your customers look, the AI is looking too.
What gets cited has gotten more specific
In our original piece, we said AI systems favor content that’s clear, specific, and structured. That’s still true. But a year of data has sharpened the picture of what “specific” actually means.
Pages that get cited in AI answers tend to have a direct answer within the first 40 to 60 words. Not a mission statement or a tagline. A sentence like “Half-day whitewater rafting on the Nantahala River, Class II-III rapids, all gear included, ages 8 and up, $75 per person.” That is the kind of content AI systems extract and repeat.
Pricing still matters. AI answers frequently include price ranges, and pages that list them get pulled more often than pages that say “call for pricing.”
The newer finding is about density of facts. If your page includes a concrete number or specific detail every 150 to 200 words, it gets cited at higher rates than pages full of general claims. “We have 42 pull-through sites with 50-amp service” beats “we have lots of full-hookup sites” every time. Your service pages, trip descriptions, area guides: all of them benefit from this.
FAQ sections still pull a lot of weight. The questions your guests ask on the phone are the same questions people ask AI assistants. Write clear, two-to-three-sentence answers and add FAQ schema markup to those pages. Schema helps AI systems parse your content accurately, and FAQ schema alone has been shown to increase click-through rates by up to 45% in traditional search.
Reviews have become a ranking signal for AI
We mentioned this in the original piece, but it deserves a bigger spotlight now. AI systems don’t just count your star rating. They read the actual text of your reviews and use what they find to decide whether to recommend you.
A review that says “our guide knew every fishing hole on the Green River and put us on cutthroat trout all morning, great trip for intermediate fly fishers” gives AI systems facts it can use: location, species, skill level, guide quality. When ChatGPT recommends a fishing guide for “intermediate fly fishing on the Green River,” it draws from exactly those details.
A review that says “Amazing experience!” gives it nothing to work with.
You can steer this without scripting your guests’ words. A post-trip follow-up that says “if you have a minute to leave a review, we’d love to hear what part of the trip stood out” tends to produce more detailed responses than a generic review link. Mention the river, the trail, or the activity by name in your prompt. People take the cue.
Volume matters too. A business with 200 reviews and a 4.6 average will surface in AI answers more often than one with 40 reviews and a 4.8. The AI is looking at the total weight of evidence, and more reviews with specific details give it more to work with.
Respond to every review. This creates additional text that AI systems index. It also signals that your business is active and engaged, which matters for local search rankings and AI visibility alike.
Your google business profile is your AI storefront
For local outdoor businesses, Google Business Profile may be the single most important thing you control when it comes to AI visibility. AI Overviews for local queries pull heavily from business profiles. Your description, photos, reviews, Q&A section, hours: all of it feeds into AI-generated answers.
The Q&A section is still underused by most outdoor businesses. You can post and answer your own questions. “What’s the minimum age for your rafting trips?” “Do you offer multi-day packages?” “Is there camping on-site?” These show up in AI answers, and most of your competitors have an empty Q&A section.
Photos matter more than before. Businesses with recent photos on their Google Business Profile see 45% more direction requests and 31% more website clicks. AI systems also use image metadata and alt text to understand what your business offers. Fresh photos from the current season signal that your business is active.
Keep your hours, seasonal schedules, and contact information current. AI systems cross-reference your profile against your website and other listings. Inconsistencies between platforms cause AI to skip over you in favor of businesses with cleaner data. This is the same NAP (name, address, phone) consistency that has always mattered for local SEO, but AI systems are less forgiving of mismatches than the traditional map pack.
The CTR picture is more complicated than the headlines suggest
You’ll see alarming numbers about AI search killing organic traffic. One study found that organic CTR drops 61% for queries where an AI Overview appears. That’s a real number, and it matters.
But it’s not the full picture. Businesses that get cited inside AI answers see 35% more organic clicks than businesses that just rank in traditional results below the AI Overview. The drop in CTR hits the businesses that don’t get cited. For the ones that do, AI Overviews are a net positive.
The same pattern holds across platforms. When Perplexity recommends a specific outfitter by name, early data shows those referrals convert at higher rates than typical search traffic. Tripadvisor calls them “high intent” visitors because they’ve already gotten the AI’s recommendation and are ready to act.
Think about the math. Traditional search shows your business alongside nine others on a results page. An AI answer names two or three. If you’re one of them, you went from competing with many to competing with almost nobody. Gartner predicted that traditional search volume would drop 25% by 2026 due to AI chatbots. Whether that specific number lands or not, the direction is obvious.
What to do in the next 90 days
If you read our original AI search piece and have been following the advice there, you’re already in decent shape. Here’s what to add or tighten up.
Audit your top five pages for what GEO practitioners call “citation readiness.” Each page should answer its core question in the first 40 to 60 words, include specific facts rather than vague claims, and have schema markup in place.
Then go test yourself. Pull up ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google and ask each one the queries your customers would ask. “Best [your activity] near [your location].” See if you show up. If you don’t, that tells you where the gaps are.
Get your Google Business Profile airtight: current photos, answered Q&A, consistent NAP data, responses to every review. This single profile feeds multiple AI systems at once.
Ask recent guests for reviews that mention specifics. The river they floated, the trail they hiked, the gear that was included. These details give AI something to cite when the next person asks about your area.
And publish content during your off-season. AI doesn’t care what month it is when someone is planning a trip. The outfitters and campgrounds with fresh, detailed content year-round are the ones that get recommended. The ones that go quiet from October to March are giving that ground away.
None of this is separate from the rest of your marketing. It’s the same work, done with more precision, across more surfaces. The outdoor businesses that treat their content, profiles, and reviews as one connected system are the ones AI is already recommending. If you’ve been putting in the work on your SEO fundamentals, you’re closer to AI-ready than you think. If you haven’t started yet, now is a good time.
