The Whitespark Local Update

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)

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 | YouTubeResources 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

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 CarlileWomen in Tech SEO – All Things Local SEO AMA 📅 October 29th | ⏰ 11 AM EST | 💬 WTS SlackSterling Sky Reddit AMA 🔗 r/localsearch — coming soon!⭐ Darren ShawSterling Sky Reddit AMA 📅 November 3rd | 🔗 r/localsearchEmcee 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-2026Alright, 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)

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)