The Whitespark Local Update

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 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)

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)

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)

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 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 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 & CafésHotels & AccommodationsTour & Activity OperatorsService-Based Businesses (Plumbers, Cleaners, etc.)General Business Playbook📝 Whitespark + Women in Tech SEO Partnership

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

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

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)

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

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)

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)