As more people ask AI assistants who to call, the answer a local business gets is decided by information it does not directly control. 11 Marketing + Design has expanded its local search work to track and influence how AI engines describe and cite local businesses, alongside the conventional local SEO the agency has run since 2017.
The shift is practical, not theoretical. An AI engine assembles an answer from a business's website, its Google Business Profile, directory listings and third-party sources. When those disagree, the engine either picks one or leaves the business out. Most of the work is making them agree.
What the client data shows
AW Broadband, an internet provider in Amarillo, is the clearest example. Its AI citation count went from zero in August 2024 to a peak of 418 in May 2026. As of July 2026 it sits at 94. All three of those numbers are from the same SE Ranking measurement, unsmoothed.
That last number is the one worth publishing. AI visibility is not a fixed ranking. The same question asked twice can produce different sources, and a count that climbed for eighteen months can fall in two. Reporting the peak and stopping would describe a result nobody can hold us to.
"We don't hand you a spike. We raise your floor," said Walter Steelman, founder and owner of 11 Marketing + Design.
What has not moved for AW Broadband is the position underneath: a #1 organic ranking held three years running, and 3,649 call-button clicks from the Google Business Profile in six months. The AI citations arrived on top of that foundation, not instead of it. The full numbers are in the AW Broadband case study.
Jasper Plumbing shows the same sequence earlier in its run. The Google Business Profile recorded 275 call-button clicks from February to June 2026, with organic and paid both active, and the account produced its first AI citations in July 2025. The detail is in the Jasper Plumbing case study.
What this means for a local business
The practical move is unglamorous. Check how the business is represented across its own website, its Google Business Profile, and the directories that describe it, and make those sources say the same thing. Name, address, phone and hours are the first place engines disagree, and the cheapest place to fix.
Businesses that want this measured rather than described can start with AI search optimization, which is where this work sits in our service list.
A note on method: every figure above comes from a published client case study on this site and can be checked against it. We do not quote a number in a release that we are not willing to show the whole line for.
About 11 Marketing + Design
11 Marketing + Design is a digital marketing agency founded in 2017, serving Amarillo, Lubbock, Canyon and the Texas Panhandle. Its headquarters is at 600 S Tyler St Ste 2100, Amarillo, TX 79101, with a second office at 1001 Main St #600, Lubbock, TX 79401. Phone 806-412-1100. On the web at https://11marketing.com.
