Perplexity for Local Search What Letchworth Businesses Need to Know
Right, so Perplexity is showing up in local search now
Had three business owners ask me about this in the last month. All from Letchworth, all wondering the same thing: why is Perplexity giving different answers about their business than Google does?
Good question. And it matters more than you'd think.
I've been tracking Perplexity's local search behaviour since late 2025, when they started pulling in proper location data instead of just regurgitating website content. What they're doing now in 2026 is... well, it's different. Not better or worse necessarily. Just different in ways that'll catch you out if you're not paying attention.
What Perplexity actually does with local queries
When someone searches "best accountant in Letchworth" on Google, you get the map pack, some ads, maybe a local directory or two. Standard stuff. You know what you're getting.
Perplexity doesn't work like that. It synthesises. Pulls from multiple sources, cross-references them, then writes you an answer that sounds like a person wrote it. Which is both brilliant and a pain in the arse for local businesses.
Here's what I mean. Last week I searched "where to get a will written in Letchworth Garden City" on Perplexity. It gave me three solicitors. One of them doesn't actually do wills anymore, they stopped that service in 2024. One of them moved to Hitchin eighteen months ago. The third one was spot on.
Two out of three wrong. But the answer sounded confident. That's the thing. Perplexity doesn't hedge. It just tells you stuff.
Google would've shown me ten local results and let me figure it out. Perplexity picked three and presented them as the answer.
Different game entirely.
The sources Perplexity trusts for Letchworth businesses
This is where it gets interesting. I've run about forty local searches for Letchworth, Baldock, Hitchin, all around North Herts. Tracked which sources Perplexity actually cited.
It loves:
- Your website (obviously, but only if the information is current and structured properly)
- Google Business Profile... sometimes. Not as much as you'd expect.
- Local news sites. The Comet, North Herts Advertiser, that sort of thing.
- Industry directories, but only the ones with recent activity
- Reddit threads, which is mad but there you go
- Reviews on multiple platforms, not just Google
What it mostly ignores:
- Old directory listings you forgot about
- Your Facebook page (unless it's very active)
- Generic business directories with no recent updates
- Press releases from 2023
That last one caught out a Letchworth client of mine. They had this great press release about an award they won in 2023. Perplexity mentioned the award but got the year wrong and said they were "formerly based" in Letchworth because the old office address was in the press release. They'd moved six months prior.
Perplexity just grabbed what it found and assumed the newer information elsewhere meant they'd left town. They hadn't. They'd moved from Broadway to Eastcheap. Still very much in Letchworth.
What this means for AEO in Letchworth
AEO, Answer Engine Optimisation, is what we call the work of making sure AI systems give correct, helpful answers about your business. It's adjacent to SEO but not the same thing.
With Google, you optimise for rankings. With Perplexity and other AI search engines, you optimise for being the answer. Or at least being in the answer.
The approach is different. You need:
Consistent, current information everywhere. Not just on your site. Everywhere. If your opening hours changed in March, that needs to be updated on your Google Business Profile, your website, your Facebook page, anywhere someone might scrape data from. Perplexity pulls from multiple sources to verify facts. If three sources say you're open Saturdays and one says you're not, it'll probably believe the three. But if the one is your actual website and it's more recent? Could go either way.
Structured data that actually works. Schema markup. LocalBusiness schema at minimum. I've seen Perplexity cite schema data directly when the HTML around it was vague. It trusts structured data more than you'd think, probably because it's machine-readable and doesn't require interpretation.
A clear answer to the question people are actually asking. This is the bit most Letchworth businesses get wrong. Your services page says what you do. Great. But does it answer "how much does X cost in Letchworth" or "who's the best Y near me" or "can I get Z done same day"?
Perplexity is looking for direct answers to questions. If you don't provide them, it'll find someone who does. Or worse, it'll infer an answer from partial information and get it wrong.
The Letchworth-specific weirdness I've noticed
Perplexity seems to struggle a bit with Letchworth Garden City versus Letchworth versus LGC. I've seen it list the same business twice under different location names because the NAP data wasn't consistent.
It also conflates Letchworth and Hitchin more than Google does. Probably because they're close and a lot of businesses serve both. But if you're in Letchworth and you only serve Letchworth, you need to be really bloody clear about that. Otherwise Perplexity might include you in a "best X in Hitchin" answer when you don't even cover Hitchin.
Saw this with a cleaning company. Based in Letchworth, serves Letchworth and Baldock. Perplexity listed them for a Stevenage query because they'd once done a one-off job in Stevenage and mentioned it in a testimonial. One mention. One time. Perplexity picked it up and assumed they covered Stevenage.
The owner wasn't even annoyed. He got an enquiry from it. But it's the kind of thing that could easily go the other way.
What you should actually do about this
First, search for your own business on Perplexity. See what it says. See what sources it cites. If the information is wrong, track down where the wrong information lives and fix it.
This isn't optional anymore. Perplexity's usage is growing. Not Google-level, not even close. But enough that it matters. Especially for certain types of local search where people want a synthesised answer, not ten blue links.
Second, make sure your website has clear, direct answers to common questions. Not an FAQ page that sounds like a legal disclaimer. Actual answers. "We cover Letchworth Garden City, Baldock, and Willian. We don't currently serve Stevenage or Hitchin but ask us if you're on the border." That kind of thing.
Third, keep your information current everywhere. I know this sounds basic but you'd be surprised. Or maybe you wouldn't. Most businesses have at least one old listing somewhere with outdated info. Find it. Update it or delete it.
And look, if this sounds like more work than you've got time for, that's what we do. We're based in Letchworth, 6 Woolston Avenue if you want to drop by. We've been doing SEO for fifteen years but the last three have been almost entirely AEO and AI search work. Perplexity, ChatGPT search, Google's AI Overviews, all of it.
We know what works for Letchworth businesses because we work with Letchworth businesses. And Hitchin. And Baldock. And Royston when they ask nicely.
This is only going to matter more
Perplexity isn't the only one doing this. Google's AI Overviews are basically the same idea. ChatGPT has search now. Meta's got something in the works.
The trend is clear. People want answers, not links. Which means your business needs to be in those answers, with the right information, or you're invisible.
For local businesses in Letchworth, that means getting ahead of this now while most of your competitors are still figuring out what Perplexity even is.
If you want to talk about how this affects your specific business, book a call and we'll walk through it. No sales pitch, just straight answers about what you actually need to do.