Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Whitespark Local Update

Darren Shaw and Claire Carlile are back to break down the latest news, trends, and developments in local SEO and AI search, including:

📝 Can You Change The Order of Google Business Profile Photos? (Miriam Ellis)

📝 AI Picks the Shortlist: Are You Even Showing Up Locally? (Krystal Taing)

📝 The Local Customer Journey: What AI Has and Hasn't Changed (Duda Webinar with Greg Sterling, Mike Blumenthal, Claudia Tomina, & Gyi Tsakalakis)

📝 Google Business Profiles Verification With Government ID (Barry Schwartz)

📝 Is AI visibility a scam? (Rand Fishkin)

📝 Google Business Profiles Review Appeals Are Delayed Again (Barry Schwartz)

Additional Resources:

📝 Report Inappropriate Reviews on Your Business Profile

📝 GBP Review Appeal Delays

🔥 Whitespark Webinar

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Darren Shaw
Claire Carlile

Claire Carlile and Elizabeth Linder break down the biggest news and developments from the past week in local SEO, Google, and AI search, including:

📝 How to Coordinate AI Search Optimization Across Marketing Teams (Crawling Mondays by Aleyda)

📝 How to Coordinate AI Search Optimization Efforts Across Areas (Aleyda Solís)

📝 Google Business Profile Now Has Expanded Dietary Attributes (Lisa Landsman)

📝 You can search in Google Maps directly from Gemini (Andy Simpson)

📝 This Gemini Map feature solved my biggest search frustration in seconds (Haroun Adamu)

📝 How to segment SEO data for multi-location brands (Dayna Lucio)

📝 SparkToro Audience Quiz Tool (Rand Fishkin)

📝 Re-imagining AI Visibility KPIs in a Query Fan Out world (Wil Reynolds): https://www.seerinteractive.com/insights/ai-visibility-kpis

📝 Track What You Can, Let Go of the Rest: Dana DiTomaso on Attribution After GA4 (Near Media, Dana DiTomaso)

Darren Shaw and Claire Carlile are back with another roundup of the news and updates shaping local SEO and AI search, including:

📝 Google Maps 2026 Fan-Favorite Dining List
📝 How to Use AI Mode’s Follow-Up Questions to Create Non-Commodity Local Service Content (Claudia Tomina)
📝 Your competitors’ negative reviews could improve your PPC ads (Laura I. Abreu)
📝 Re-imagining AI Visibility KPIs in a Query Fan Out world (Wil Reynolds)
📝 Google’s Policy Update (Hiroko Imai)
📝 AI and SPAM team up in Alabama and beyond… (Conrad Saam)

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Darren Shaw: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenshawwhitespark/
Claire Carlile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairecarlile/

Claire Carlile is joined by Elizabeth Linder to cover the biggest stories and updates from the past week in local SEO, Google, and AI search, including:

📝 Google Business Profiles Policies Adds Misuse Of Support Channels (Barry Schwartz)

Google Business Profile third-party policies

📝 SEO & AI Tip: Grade Every Page the Way Google's Quality Raters Would, Then Map Them Semantically and Size Them by Clicks (Dan Hinckley)

📝 Why Customers Leave Good and Bad Google Reviews (Miriam Ellis)

📝 Earlier today I attended the GEO KNOW HOW conference. Here is everything I learned (Malte Landwehr)

📝 GEO Is CRO: Ross Hudgens on Chasing Influence, Not Citations, in AI Search (Near Media)

📝 How to Check What Google & LLMs See in Website HTML (Daniel Foley Carter)

Darren Shaw is joined by special guest Edward Sturm to break down the biggest local SEO, Google, and AI search news and updates from the past week, including:

📝 Hacking AI Overviews with LinkedIn Hashtags (Steve Toth)

📝 NotebookLM Parasite SEO (Gagan Ghotra)

📝 5 reasons why I'm skeptical of the entire AI tracking industry (Rand Fishkin)

📝 I Tracked 70K+ ChatGPT and AI Overview Responses to Measure Their Volatility (Glen Allsopp)

📝 King of AEO: The Exact Tactics Ranking Pages and Changing AI Overviews in Hours (Edward Sturm)

📝 How to check if AI has your content in its index (Myriam Jessier)

📝 Rank Faster With the Topical Authority You Already Have (Edward Sturm)

🔥 Compact Keywords
🗺️ Whitespark Local Ranking Grids

Darren Shaw and Claire Carlile break down the biggest local SEO, Google, and AI search updates from the past week, including:

📝 Google Business Profile Verification: Submit a Business Photo (Ben Fisher)

📝 Claude Project for Improving Information Gain for SEO (Steve Toth)

📝 The new rules of AI search (Crystal Carter)

📝 Study: How Keywords in Business Names Currently Impact Google Local Pack Rank and AI Search (Miriam Ellis)

📝 Has excessive use of AI slop knocked us back to an “anti-digital” age? (iPullRank newsletter, Carly Stoenner)

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📝 We Are Living in a ‘ChatGPT Flyer Pandemic’ (Jason Koebler)

📝 Side of slop? Bizarre AI food images jump from online to IRL menus (NBC News)

📝 Google is now asking about edits BEFORE they go live (Claudia Tomina)

Darren Shaw and Claire Carlile are here to unpack the latest local SEO news, updates, and takeaways, including:

📝 Wordfence Argus Finds Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Upload Vulnerability in Gravity Forms (Alex Thomas)

📝 The 2026 Local Discovery Index (SOCi)

📝 How to Grow Your Brand Authority for AI Search (GEO, AEO) (Crawling Mondays by Aleyda Solis)

📝 Practical guide to improving EEAT in your content (Steve Toth)

📝 We tracked 13,184 AI citations across 4 LLMs. Here’s what we learned… (Andy Crestodina, Bill Widmer)

📝 What SEOs Get Wrong About AI Search (Andy Crestodina)

Darren Shaw and Claire Carlile are back with the latest local SEO news, updates, and takeaways from the past week, including:

📝 “Tell Maps” is live! (Claudia Tomina)

📝 Google Business Profile Alert for Local SEOs & Agency Owners (Amy Toman)

📝 What 1.8 million Google Business Profiles tell us about local SEO success (Darren Shaw)

📝 The Best Persona Tool On the Web Is Now Live (Rand Fishkin)

📝 EP 270 - The Hidden Advantage: How Brand Awareness Decides the Click in Legal Search (Near Media, Mike Blumenthal)

📝 THE COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO MARKETING PERSONAS (iPullRank)

In this episode, Darren Shaw and Claire Carlile share the latest local SEO news, updates, and insights from the past two weeks:

📝 Breaking news: View Counts on Google Posts (Muhammad Hussain)

📝Hack to Get Activities on Your Google Business Profile (Claudia Tomina)

📝 Tactics for Building a Local Brand in the Age of AI Search — An Agency Panel (Near Media)

📝 How AI text watermarking works (James Padolsey)

📝 Why AI Search Won’t Rank This Website (Live Audit) (SterlingSky)

📝 Google Local Service Ads Now Pull Content Straight From Your Website (Ishan Gupta)

📝 Direct Traffic in GA4: What It Really Measures (and 10 Ways to Increase It) (Andy Crestodina)

In this episode, Darren Shaw and Claire Carlile share the most exciting local SEO news and insights from the past two weeks:

📝 Links back in GBP products populated via product editor (Claire Carlile)

📝 Whitespark Analyzed GBP Review Questions for 765 Businesses (Miriam Ellis)

📝 Yelp Licenses Its Review, Photo, and Request-a-Quote Data to ChatGPT ((Krystal Taing)

📝 You Need to Nail Your “Brand Facts” (Cyrus Shepard)

📝 New GBP Feature: Report Owner Response (Vinay Toshniwal, Jacek N. Kozio)

📝 15 Tips for Winning in LLMs (Suganthan Mohanadasan)

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Darren Shaw: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenshawwhitespark/
Claire Carlile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairecarlile/

This week, Darren Shaw and Claire Carlile break down the biggest local SEO stories, including:

📝 These SEO Strategies Drive 90% of Your AI Visibility (Cyrus Shepard)

📝 Low-Effort Leap in Local SEO: Target a 2nd Language on Your Site with a Plugin (Phil Rozek)

📝 How to Generate High Quality Leads Through Your Website (Exposure Ninja)

📝 Google’s LLM patent suggests a new goal for SEO: Teaching AI who you are (Rich Sanger)

📝 Why you need to "TikTokify" your Google Ads (Talia Wolf and Jyll Saskin Gales)

📝 I made my nail lady open her Google Ads account before I left the chair (Ameet Khabra)

This week, Darren Shaw and Claire Carlile are unpacking the local SEO stories you need to know, including:

📝 Claiming a Service Area Business (SAB) has changed (Vinay Toshniwal)

Request ownership of a Business Profile

📝 Why Google Business Profile address changes can disrupt local rankings (Claudia Tomina on Search Engine Land)

📝 Who Owns Your Google Business Profile? The Complete Guide to Ownership, Security, Transfers & Recovery (Ben Fisher)

📝 AI Overview 6-pack (Joy Hawkins)

📝 AI Is Killing Content: The Only Way to Win (Ross Simmonds, SterlingSky)

📝 Reddit Keyword Research with Claude: 3 Levels From Beginner to Pro (Usman Akram)

🔥 Whitespark Local Ranking Grids
This week, Darren Shaw is joined by special guest Amy Toman to break down the local SEO stories you need to know, including:

📝 Hack to Move the Map Pin for an SAB (Mika Lepisto)

📝 Warning About GBP Review Management (Amy Toman)

📝 AI Search Visibility & Ranking Factors - For 1,100 Market Segments

📝 Massive Correlation Study of LLM Ranking Factors (Ben Wills)

📝 Google Review Not Posted (Amy Toman)

📝 What Local Brand Actually Means to Google and AI (Near Media Podcast with Cyrus Shepard)

📝 Two Types of GBP Blocks (Amy Toman): article not yet published.

🔥 Whitespark Local Platform

This week, Claire Carlile and special guest Julian Hooks cover the latest local SEO news, including:

📝 The State of Local SEO in 2026 (Joy Hawkins, Sterling Sky)

📝 Why Your Google Reviews Disappear (Ex-Googlers Explain) (SterlingSky, Brad Wetherall)

📝 Where AI agents get stuck on your site (Kevin Indig)

📝 New Google Reviews Bug: You Have No Reviews Yet (Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Roundtable)

📝 Build your own AI search visibility tracker for under $100/month (Julian Hooks)

📝 AI Prioritization Framework for SEOs (Elizabeth Linder)

This week, Claire Carlile is joined by special guest Dayna Lucio to discuss the latest local SEO news and updates, including:

📝 See how content from social and video platforms performs on Google Search

📝 AI summaries of Tripadvisor hotel reviews downplay serious complaints, investigation finds (Robert Booth)

📝 Why TikTok deserves a place in your SEO strategy (Celeste Gonzalez)

📝 AI Traffic vs AI Citations: What Clicks and Cited Pages Show About the AI Search Journey (Aleyda Solis)

📝 Building a brand worth finding: Signals that fuel discovery (Beth Nunnington)

📝 AI Workflows for Local SEO (Amanda Jordan)

This week, Claire Carlile is joined by special guest Krystal Taing to break down the local SEO stories you need to know, including:

📝 June 2026 AI Search News (Caroline Green, Carolyn Wilborn)

📝 New Gemini Features for Small Businesses | Grow with Google

📝 AI's brain is getting bloated with AI content (Megan Morrone)

📝 How to safely implement high-impact technical SEO changes (Dayna Lucio)

📝 Google AI Overviews Study Finds Lost Clicks Weren’t Lower Quality (Matt G. Southern)

📝 AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools

🔥 Whitespark Local Ranking Grids 🔥

This week, Darren Shaw and Claire Carlile are unpacking the local SEO stories you need to know, including:
📝 Connect your Google Business Profile to Gemini
📝 The Review Gap: Finding Client Opportunities In Competitor Feedback (Celeste Gonzalez on the Search Engine Journal Blog)
📝 GBP Help pages have been revised (Hiroko Imai)
📝 Google is bringing back GBP Messaging - with an AI chatbot for your business (Darren Shaw)

This week on The Whitespark Local Update, Darren Shaw and Claire Carlile break down the latest local SEO news, including:
📝 Study: How Review Profiles Impact Brand AI Visibility (Trustpilot and Seer Interactive)

📝 This is the AI prompt you need to track and aren't (Wil Reynolds)

📝 The Click Is Now Optional. Here’s What Isn’t. (Amanda Natividad)

📝 Colorado Banning Lead Gen Companies from Selling Legal Leads to Law Firms (Jason Hennessey)

📝 Apple introduces Siri AI (Apple Newsroom)

📝 Internal Data Mining and Strategic Review Acquisition (Krystal Taing, Near Media)

📝 Social Signals as a Ranking Factor (Michael B. Snow, SOCi)

Local SEO keeps changing with the speed of light, but Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw are here to help you keep up. This week, they cover:

📝 AI Search, Speak Your Customer's Language or Be Left Out of the Conversation (Michelle Ali)

📝 Connect Google Business Profile to Google Analytics (Google)

📝 How to Rank in Surrounding Cities or Towns (Miriam Ellis)

📝 Google’s Review Reply Rejection Filter (Michel van Luijtelaar)

📝 Chunking Your Content for AI? 1956 Called. They Want Their Method Back (Dorron Shapow)

📝 Connect your Google Business Profile to Gemini (Mike G. and Google)

Local search was busy last week. Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw break down what happened, why it matters, and what you should do about it. This week, they cover:

📝 Why B2B Is MORE Emotional Than B2C (Amanda Natividad and Talia Wolf)

📝 Why Do We Need Zero Click Marketing? (Rand Fishkin)

📝 AI Mode + AI Overviews directly in Search Console (Chris Long)

📝 Google Business Profile Video Verification Tutorial (Brad Wetherall)

📝 How Schema Markup Influences Search and AI (Jake Hundley)

📝 The First Edition of The Signal: The AI stuff marketers can't ignore (Wil Reynolds and Alisa Scharf)

📝 Schema, LLMs and the Low Bar for “Evidence” in GEO (Mark Williams-Cook)

We are back with another episode of the Whitespark Local Update, where our host Darren Shaw and special guest Celeste Gonzalez discuss:

📝 Google Already Knows Everything About You — And Their New AI Features Make It Worse (Near Media)

📝 Your Feed Is the Product of a Stealth Marketing Campaign (Lane Brown)

📝 Google Maps just got an AI facelift (Claudia Tomina)

📝 The new playbook for localized AI search optimization (Darren Shaw)

📝 Google Ask Maps: How to optimize for visibility (Rich Sanger)

📝 Google Offer Posts are getting more prominence (Michael B. Snow)

Big local search news dropped last week, and Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw are here to break down what changed and why it matters. This week, they cover:

📝 Google Launches AI-Powered Search Box (Near Media Newsletter)
📝 2026 Google I/O Keynote Bingo (Britney Muller)
📝 Google intelligence and what it means for local SEO (Claudia Tomina)
📝 The ROI of Reputation Connecting Reviews to Revenue, Rankings, and Retention (Brad Wetherall, GatherUp)
📝 Photo View Counts on Google Business Profiles are Back (Muhammad Hussain)
📝 Improving AI Visibility for Local Businesses Through Sponsorships (Ellen Sartin)
📝 Google’s Guidance on AI Search is Naive and Self-Serving (Mike King)

Local search keeps changing, and Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw are here to make sense of it. This week, they cover:

📝 How Google’s Personal Intelligence is Quietly Revolutionizing Your Search Results with Garrett Sussman (Near Media)

📝 AI Citation Ranking Factor Analysis (Cyrus Shepard)

📝 RIP AI Overview Tracking (Dana DiTomaso)

📝 Google is now pulling Reddit threads directly into Google Business Profiles (Darren Shaw)

📝 Google is now pulling social media posts directly into Google Business Profiles (Darren Shaw)

📝 Google Suspended This Profile: Their Calls Stopped Overnight (Sterling Sk)

📝 It Works Until It Doesn't: AI Content Strategies That Backfire (Lily Ray)

Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw are back with a new episode of the Whitespark Local Update. Here’s what they cover in this one:

📝 17 Content Types to Survive Google’s Zero-Click Future (Cyrus Shepard)
📝 5 Data-Backed Features of Websites Winning Google in 2026 (Cyrus Shepard)
📝 Most pages are too long for AI agents to read (Myriam Jessier)
📝 Your GBP Photo Gallery just got Smarter (Google Small Business Bulletin)
📝 Google Ask Maps Deep Dive: Ask Maps Is The Future of Local SEO Panel Discussion (NearMedia)
📝 Google Offer & Event Post highlights appear in search results for the Leisure Industry (Michael B. Snow)
📝 Whitespark’s Guide to Google’s AI Mode for Local Businesses (Miriam Ellis)

On this episode of the Whitespark Local Update, Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw bring you a fresh roundup of last week’s most important local SEO updates. They cover:

📝 Google Ask Maps is moving from listings to recommendations (Rich Sanger)

📝 ‘Restaurants’ and ‘coffee and dessert’ now have local service ads (Eric Levine)

📝 Schema Markup for Internal Knowledge Graphs to Support Topic Entity Strategy in AI Search (Aimee Jurenka)

📝 Google Maps Blocked 292 Million Reviews & Removed 13 Million Fake Profiles (Search Engine Roundtable, Barry Schwartz)

📝 The ghost citation problem (Kevin Indig via his newsletter Growth Memo)

📝Commodity and Non-Commodity Content (Mark Williams-Cook)

📝 Most SEOs Are Preparing for Yesterday's Internet (Ross Simmonds)

We are back with another episode of the Whitespark Local Update, where our host Darren Shaw and special guest Claudia Tomina discuss:

📝 Google Business Profile Updates Identity Change Policy Language

📝 Why Are My Google Reviews Disappearing? What Businesses Need to Know About Google's New Review Policies and Algorithm Updates (Claudia Tomina)

📝 How a Topic Entity Update Increased AI Visibility 10.8% (Aimee Jurenka)

📝 Top Takeaways from the New Google Business Profile Playbooks (Miriam Ellis)

🔥 Reputation Arm

Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw are back with another episode of the Whitespark Local Update. In this one, they talk about:

📝 Google Just Elevated Text Messaging to a Primary Conversion Action (Aaron Weiche)

🔥 Leadferno: https://leadferno.com/

📝 Your guide to local search in the age of AI (Amanda Jordan, Wix Studio)

📝 Ask Maps inside the Google Maps app just got a lot more personal (Claudia Tomina)

📝 How To Contact Support When Your GBP Edit Is Rejected (Stefan Somborac on the Local Search Forum)

📝 Video editing features in Google Maps (Valentina Vasileva)

📝 You can add captions to photos directly while uploading them in the GBP dashboard (Valentina Vasileva)

📝 Can AI responses be influenced? The SEO industry is trying (Mia Sato)

📝 The people who ruined the internet (Amanda Chicago Lewis)

Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw are back with a new episode of the Whitespark Local Update. Here’s what they cover in this one:

📝 The Truth About Multi-Location Franchise SEO (And Why AI Isn’t What You Think) (NearMedia and Steve Wiideman)

📝 Brands, Imagery, Reviews & Intent Pages: What Actually Drives Multi-Location SEO Now (Part 2) (NearMedia and Steve Wiideman)

📝 If your local rankings are off, your map pin may be the reason (Claudia Tomina)

📝 AI Is Not Search. Here's What It Actually Is (Brittney Muller on The Ross Simmonds Show)

📝 How Google Click Signals Drive SEO Rankings and AI Answers (Cyrus Shepard)

📝 The SERP in 2026: A data-driven feature analysis (Stat Search Analytics)

📝 The top 5 SERP features of 2026 and how to appear in them (Stat Search Analytics)

📝 20 Local Developments You Need to Know About from Q1 2026 (Miriam Ellis)

Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw are back with another episode of the Whitespark Local Update. Here’s what they’re talking about today:

📝 Ask Maps in Google Maps – When Local Search Meets Gemini AI (Glenn Gabe)

📝 How we’re reimagining Maps with Gemini (Google’s Official Announcement)

📝 Google Reviews for Businesses: What the New Guidelines Mean for Your Local Reputation (Krystal Taing)

📝 Why Tripadvisor still matters for local SEO in 2026 (Laura I. Abreu)

📝 Star Ratings Are for Humans: AI Reads the Text (Claudia Tomina)

📝 You Know Your Product is Awesome - But Does Anybody Else? (April Dunford)

📝 How AI is impacting local search and what tools to use to get ahead (Miriam Ellis)

Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw are back with your weekly dose of local SEO goodness. Here’s what they’re talking about today:

📝 The AI Playbook for Restaurants: What to Do Right Now (David “Rev” Ciancio)

📝 How should agencies build a business around Google Local Service Ads (LSAs)? (NearMedia)

📝 New Branded Queries Filter in Google Search Console

📝 I Built a 60,000-Page AI Website for $10: GPTBot Crawled It 30,000+ Times in 12 Hours (Metehan Yesilyurt)

📝 New Attribute in Google Business Profile (Claire Carlile, Hava Hadzhiibryam)

📝 New Google Business Profile Playbooks:

• Restaurants & Cafés
• Hotels & Accommodations
• Tour & Activity Operators
• Service-Based Businesses (Plumbers, Cleaners, etc.)
• General Business Playbook

📝 Whitespark + Women in Tech SEO Partnership

In this episode of the Whitespark Local Update, Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw discuss:

📝 New Research: Search Happens Everywhere; an Analysis of 41 Websites with Significant Search Activity (Rand Fishkin)

📝 AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It (Aruna Ranganathan and Xingqi Maggie Ye)

📝 The AI Prompt That Shows Why Your Contact Page Stinks (Andy Crestodina)

📝 The perfect local business contact page built for Google and conversions (Darren Shaw)

📝 Google Review Discrepancies: AI Response Facts, Missing Reviews, and API Issues

📝 Google Posts 101 Workshop (Lisa Landsman)

Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw are back again with another episode of the Whitespark Local Update Podcast. This time, they cover:

📝 Google’s Minimum Viable Content Refresh (Steve Toth)

📝 Google is Nudging Reviewers to Edit Their Past Reviews (Claudia Tomina)

📝 Reviews + The Real World: Learnings From Famed Restaurant Reviewer, Marilyn Hagerty (Miriam Ellis)

📝 Updated Privacy Guidelines for Suspension & Reinstatement Requests (Vinay Toshniwal)

📝 What Extraction Method Is Google Using to Build Grounding Snippets? (Dan Petrovic)

📝 Careful With Google Business Profile Verification Flow (Claudia Tomina)

📝 Whitespark’s New Google Business Profile Reinstatement Service

The local search world never slows down, and Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw are back to break down the biggest developments from the past week:

📝 How To Mine Google Search Console For Conversation Data (Regex Included) (Chris Long)

📝 Have AI Get Prices – Google Business Profiles – AI Talking to AI (Ben Fisher)

📝 Updated Google Business Profile Policies (Hiroko Imai)

📝 How to Create AI Personas: 5 Prompts for Smart Marketing Alignment (Andy Crestodina)

📝 Stop Chasing the Local 3-Pack, Start Building an Entity That Ranks Beyond it (Claudia Tomina)

📝 Google Business Profile Violations Google ACTUALLY Punishes (SterlingSkyInc)

Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw are back to recap the most important local SEO developments from the past two weeks. In this episode, they cover:

📝 Google Reviews Bug on Chrome (Vinay Toshniwal)

📝 New “Insights” section in GBP (Dipa Gandhi)

📝 AI Isn’t Replacing Local Search (Crystal Carter on the NearMemo podcast)

📝 How to improve LSA visibility (Eric Levine on the NearMemo podcast)

📝 What if User Satisfaction is the most important factor in SEO? (Marie Haynes)

📝 Moving from a Google-shaped Web to an Agent-shaped Web (Mike King)

📝 Does Schema Help with AI Visibility? (Mark Williams-Cook)

😍 Whitespark Local Ranking Grids

Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw are back with a fresh roundup of the most important local SEO updates from last week. In this episode, they cover:

📝 Ranking in Google's AI Results in 2026 with Mike King (SterlingSky)

📝 The local SEO gatekeeper: How Google defines your entity (Claudia Tomina)

📝 Franchise Website Migration & Improved Local SEO For BTDT (Kick Point)

📝 We've Analysed 236 SEO, Content, Social, and Digital PR case studies (Rise at Seven)

📝 Whitespark’s Ultimate Guide to Local Business Reputation Management (Miriam Ellis)

📝 The Future of Brand Visibility: Optimizing for AI Citations with Dan Petrovic & Jes Scholz (Patrick Hathaway, Sitebulb)

📝 How To Contact GBP Support (Stefan Somborac)

It was a busy week in local SEO, so Claire and Darren are breaking down the updates you actually need to know. 
In this episode, they talk about:

📝 Query Fan-Out in Practice: Turning One Search into an Omnimedia Content Plan (Francine Monahan)

📝 Tough Reinstatement Season Reminder (Vinay Toshniwal)

📝 Common Crawl is Interesting (Cyrus S.)

📝 Google’s announcement on the ‘Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)’

📝 What UCP Means for Ecommerce SEO: Preparing for Agentic Commerce (Aleyda Solis)

📝 Meta Title Tags Length SEO Experiment (Dr James Davidson)

📝 How to Clone Yourself (or make an AI advisor for anything) (Orbitmedia)

Your favorite local SEO podcast is finally back after the holidays and packed with local SEO goodness 🔥 In this episode, Claire and Darren discuss:

📝 Social profiles showing up in Search Console (Steve Toth)

📝 Google is pulling in “Today” justifications into the Local Pack from Instagram posts (Valentina Vasileva)

📝 1-Minute-a-Day Strategy for Getting More Yelp Reviews (Phil Rozek)

📝 Top digital marketing trends and predictions for 2026 (Phil Wilson)

📝 Why many firms should stop competing on reviews (NearMemo, Gyi Tsakalakis)

📝 The Google Business Profile 2-Hour Rule is a Myth (SterlingSky)

We’re wrapping up the year with a special episode of the Whitespark Local Update! Darren is joined by the one and only Mike Blumenthal from Near Media. In this episode, they discuss:

📝 Google Removing Q&A Feature In Google Maps For AI-Powered Ask Button (Barry Schwartz)
📝 A Guide to Web Guide: Our Hybrid Search Future (Dr. Peter J. Meyers)
📝 AI-generated VS Human-written SEO Content (Andrew van Rossenberg)
📝 People Prefer AI-written Content (Kevin Indig)
📝 The Global Wave of Deleted Google Reviews: What Our Data Reveals About AI, Law, and Trust (Michel van Luijtelaar)
📝 Complaints About Review Takedowns Are Rising (Mike Blumenthal)
📝 AI Mode and Agentic Local Results (Mike Blumenthal)
📝 Future of the SERP Is Dynamic (Near Media)
⭐Near Media Podcast

We are back with another episode of the Whitespark Local Update, where our host Claire Carlile and special guest Elizabeth Rule discuss:

📝 New weekly and monthly views in Search Console (Google)

📝 New AI-powered configuration in Search Console (Google)

📝 Google introduces social channels in Search Console

📝 Stop asking ChatGPT how it works (Britney Muller)

📝 Google review blocks are on the rise (Claudia Tomina)

📝 Google revamped the verification issue options in GBP Support forms (Claudia Tomina)

✍️ Sign up for the December Local U webinar: 3 Major Local SEO Threats to Prepare for in 2026

A lot happened in SEO last week, and we’re breaking down the updates you actually need to know. In this episode, we talk about:

📝 How geotagging photos affects Google Business Profile rank: Study (Search Engine Land, Jake Hundley)
📝 Anonymous Google Reviews Are Here: What Your Business Should Do Now (Whitespark, Allie Margeson)
📝 8-Step Business Name Change Checklist (SterlingSky, Elizabeth Rule)
📝 Google’s prompting guide 101
📝 Actionable AI For Marketers (Britney Muller)
📝 Secret AI Community: Orange Labs (Britney Muller)

Another busy week in SEO! Here’s the roundup of the biggest updates, weirdest bugs, and most interesting findings this week:

📝 The proximity paradox: Beating local SEO’s distance bias (Miriam Ellis)

📝 Ben Franklin Effect applied to asking for reviews (Sam Knight)

📝 RIP Service Area Ranking Factor (Claudia Tomina)

📝 Google Local Pack Links To Places Tab With Pagination Bug (Barry Schwartz)

📝 Google Business Profiles adds scheduling and multi-location publishing to Google Posts (Barry Schwartz)

⭐ Download your Google reviews with the Whitespark Local Platform

Your favourite local SEO podcast is back, and we’ve got two weeks’ worth of SEO and marketing goodness to catch up on. In this episode, we discuss:

📝 Google Business Profile Support Tips Video (Lisa Landsman)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAzpb1ZKwZM
📝 Google announces anonymous Google reviews
📝 Raise the Bar: Optimizing your Google Business Profile
📝 New "Let Google Call" Button (Greg Sterling)
📝 SEO Imposter Syndrome In An AI Era: You’re [Not] On Your Own Kid (Elizabeth Linder)
📝 Mine your competitor’s reviews with Gemini (Anthony Kettaneh)

This week’s episode is shorter and packed with value. Darren highlights some key insights from Whitespark’s 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors report, and Claire tells you about some fantastic SEO and digital marketing content you don’t want to miss.

⭐ Whitespark's Official 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors

⭐ Whitespark's Official 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors Video

Here are the rest of the sources mentioned in this episode:

📝 Agentic capabilities in AI Mode (Rose Yao)

📝 The Ultimate Digital Marketing Training for 2026 (Exposure Ninja)

📝 Big Update to Google Posts (Claudia Tomina)

In this episode of The Whitespark Local Update, Claire Carlile chats with the brilliant Dana DiTomaso about how AI and LLMs are transforming search and what that means for local businesses. They share practical insights on staying visible, adapting to new platforms, and connecting with today’s consumers.

Follow Dana DiTomaso ❤️
LinkedIn | YouTube

Resources mentioned in this episode:

📝 How to Track and Report on Traffic from AI Tools in GA4 (Dana DiTomaso)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlL5ZV8z3H4

🔥 Leadferno

Оur first-ever in-person Local Update, recorded live at BrightonSEO 🎉 We asked four speakers to share one key takeaway from their talks, and here's what happened.

Here are the talks our guests shared their takeaways from:

🎤 Local SEO in the Age of AI Search: Don’t Get Left Behind (Michel van Luijtelaar)
🎤 How to Turn Your Locations' Presence into Performance (Sara Vordermeier)
🎤 Mindset for SEO: Future Career Progression (Greg Gifford)
🎤 Trust & Traffic: How Community Fuels Organic Growth (Erin Simmons)

Another week, another Local Update. But before we dive into today’s show notes, a quick announcement: next week’s episode will be recorded in person at BrightonSEO!

Claire and Darren have a busy few weeks ahead. Here are the upcoming events they’ll be speaking at and answering your local search questions:

⭐ Claire Carlile

• Women in Tech SEO – All Things Local SEO AMA
  📅 October 29th | ⏰ 11 AM EST | 💬 WTS Slack
• Sterling Sky Reddit AMA
  🔗 r/localsearch — coming soon!

⭐ Darren Shaw

• Sterling Sky Reddit AMA
  📅 November 3rd | 🔗 r/localsearch
• Emcee at LocalU Global 2026
  🎤 January 28, 2026 | 🌐 All-day virtual event
  💸 Tickets only $99 until the agenda drops
  🔗 Get tickets here: https://localu.org/virtual-2026

Alright, now let’s get into this week’s episode. Here’s what we cover 👇

📝 Google Local Results Without Call Button - Web Guide Or Bug? (Search Engine Roundtable)

📝 Can Your Business Be on Google? A Guide to GBP Eligibility by Business Type (Miriam Ellis)

📝 How To: Build A Content Audit Assistant With ScreamingFrog and AI (Ian Lurie)

📝 New: Google Business Profile Report Negative Review Extortion Scams (Search Engine Roundtable)

📝 A sudden spike in organic search traffic in GA4, but Search Console shows nothing (Dana DiTomaso)

📝 AI Citations, User Locations, & Query Context (Yext)

On this week’s episode of The Whitespark Local Update, Darren and Claire dive into what’s new, what’s weird, and what actually matters in local SEO.

Here’s what we cover:

📝 Why Local SEO is thriving in the AI-first search era (Rob Tindula on SEL)

📝 Ranking in Local SEO: The One Signal Google Trusts Most (Claudia Tomina)

📝 Citation consistency for LLMs (Matthew Forzan, and thanks to David Iwanow for the heads up)

📝 NEW Bing Places for Business

📝What Google’s num=100 Change Means for SEO Data (Noah Learner)

📝 Advancing your SEO Strategy for AIOs and the AI-era of search (Seer Interactive)

This week on The Whitespark Local Update, Darren and Claire break down the latest in local search:

📝 The Future of AI Search (Britney Muller)

📝 Business Loses 800 Reviews for “Asking for Reviews at the Register” (Claudia Tomina)

📝 Report Business Conduct Form

📝 Places Insights in BigQuery is now Generally Available (Google)

📝 Suspensions Are on the Rise (Barry Schwartz)

📝 How Hospitality & Travel Brands Can Win in AI-Driven Search (Koozai)

📝 Template for Self-Auditing Your AI Local Search Visibility (Phil Rozek)

📝 Spin-off Pages: a Bazooka for Your Local SEO (Phil Rozek)

Another week, another local SEO drop from Claire and Darren. This week we’re talking:

📝 AI mode and Gemini are being integrated into Chrome (Chris Long)

📝 Citation Mining Tool for AI SEO (Dan Petrovic)

📝 The Writing is on the Wall for Q&A (Local Search Forum)

📝 AI Comes to GBP: 'Ask Maps About This Place' (NearMedia)

📝 From SEO to AIO: Why Your Content Needs to Exist in AI Training Data (Stephen Burns)

📝 The AI Search Lab Glossary by Wix Studio (Crystal Carter)

📝 SearchPulse AI Reports (Reflectdigital)

Claire and Darren bring you a hand-picked wrap-up of the biggest local SEO stories and fresh insights from last week. On this episode, we dig into:

📝 Local packs in AI Overviews (Anthony Higman)

📝 No more map results in ChatGPT (Matt McGee)

📝 9 Google Business Profile Verification Tips That Will Save Your Sanity (Sterling Sky)

📝 ChatGPT Doesn't Stand a Chance in Local (Claudia Tomina)

📝 Will AI Overviews always be at the top of the SERP? (Tom Capper)

📝 Custom GPT can analyze a negative review and tell you which content policy it violates (Steve Toth)

📝 The 4 types of AI Marketers - AI Minimalists to AI Builders (Wil Reynolds)