The Whitespark Local Update

Reddit & Socials in GBP, Google Personal Intelligence & AI Search | E31 The Whitespark Local Update

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) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA-pg2UbG5A] 📝 AI Citation Ranking Factor Analysis (Cyrus Shepard) [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cyrusshepard_new-ai-citation-ranking-factor-analysis-share-7458203851335254016-OZvQ/] 📝 RIP AI Overview Tracking (Dana DiTomaso) [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dditomaso_i-have-sad-news-it-looks-like-google-has-activity-7460022186225999872-mjdJ/] 📝 Google is now pulling Reddit threads directly into Google Business Profiles (Darren Shaw) [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/darrenshawwhitespark_breaking-news-google-is-now-pulling-reddit-activity-7458539598885867520-Sfua/] 📝 Google is now pulling social media posts directly into Google Business Profiles (Darren Shaw) [https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7460344757555335169/] 📝 Google Suspended This Profile: Their Calls Stopped Overnight (Sterling Sk) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jz2O0NIuD0] 📝 It Works Until It Doesn't: AI Content Strategies That Backfire (Lily Ray) [https://lilyraynyc.substack.com/p/it-works-until-it-doesnt-ai-content-risks]

Google Ask Maps Deep Dive, AI Mode for Local SEO & New GBP Features | E30 The Whitespark Local Update

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) [https://signal.zyppy.com/p/content-google-zero] 📝 5 Data-Backed Features of Websites Winning Google in 2026 (Cyrus Shepard) [https://signal.zyppy.com/p/winning-google] 📝 Most pages are too long for AI agents to read (Myriam Jessier) [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/myriamjessier_your-content-is-probably-too-heavy-most-activity-7455149132408721408-nlgU/] 📝 Your GBP Photo Gallery just got Smarter (Google Small Business Bulletin) [https://support.google.com/business/thread/431038036/google-small-business-bulletin-%E2%9C%A8-happy-small-business-week?hl=en&sjid=11129011200125413028-EU#:~:text=Your%20GBP%20Photo%20Gallery%20Just%20Got%20Smarter] 📝 Google Ask Maps Deep Dive: Ask Maps Is The Future of Local SEO Panel Discussion (NearMedia) [https://www.nearmedia.co/ep-254-google-ask-maps-deep-dive-ask-maps-is-the-future-of-local-seo-panel-discussion/] 📝 Google Offer & Event Post highlights appear in search results for the Leisure Industry (Michael B. Snow) [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michael-b-snow-a7b7bb3_googlemaps-googleposts-activity-7454555440933392384-gYYa/] 📝 Whitespark’s Guide to Google’s AI Mode for Local Businesses (Miriam Ellis) [https://whitespark.ca/guides/whitesparks-guide-to-googles-ai-mode-for-local-businesses/]

How To Optimize Google's Local AI, LSAs For Restaurants, Schema! | E29 The Whitespark Local Update

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) [https://searchengineland.com/google-ask-maps-recommendations-474192] 📝 ‘Restaurants’ and ‘coffee and dessert’ now have local service ads (Eric Levine) [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/eric-levine-0b35659b_restaurants-now-on-local-services-ads-share-7452430121111818240-zqwl/] 📝 Schema Markup for Internal Knowledge Graphs to Support Topic Entity Strategy in AI Search (Aimee Jurenka) [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/schema-markup-internal-knowledge-graphs-support-topic-aimee-jurenka-kbk1c/] 📝 Google Maps Blocked 292 Million Reviews & Removed 13 Million Fake Profiles (Search Engine Roundtable, Barry Schwartz) [https://www.seroundtable.com/google-maps-spam-fighting-2025-41176.html] 📝 The ghost citation problem (Kevin Indig via his newsletter Growth Memo) [https://www.growth-memo.com/p/the-ghost-citation-problem?r=2d16b5&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action] 📝Commodity and Non-Commodity Content (Mark Williams-Cook) [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/markseo_seo-share-7452832927278600192-c-Hq/] 📝 Most SEOs Are Preparing for Yesterday's Internet (Ross Simmonds) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofe-byzwvpo]

Disappearing Reviews, New Business Name Policy, AI Visibility How-to | E28 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 [https://support.google.com/business/answer/13762416#zippy=%2Cidentity-change%2Cpo-box-address] 📝 Why Are My Google Reviews Disappearing? What Businesses Need to Know About Google's New Review Policies and Algorithm Updates (Claudia Tomina) [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-my-google-reviews-disappearing-what-businesses-need-tomina-24zge/] 📝 How a Topic Entity Update Increased AI Visibility 10.8% (Aimee Jurenka) [https://ricketyroo.com/blog/case-studies/topic-entity-update/] 📝 Top Takeaways from the New Google Business Profile Playbooks (Miriam Ellis) [https://whitespark.ca/blog/top-takeaways-from-the-new-google-business-profile-playbooks/] 🔥 Reputation Arm [https://reputationarm.com/]

New! Google Maps Video Editing Tool, Text Message Button & AI Search | E27 The Whitespark Local Update

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) [https://leadferno.com/blog/google-just-elevated-text-messaging-to-a-primary-conversion-action] 🔥 Leadferno: https://leadferno.com/ [https://leadferno.com/] 📝 Your guide to local search in the age of AI (Amanda Jordan, Wix Studio) [https://www.wix.com/studio/ai-search-lab/local-search-in-ai] 📝 Ask Maps inside the Google Maps app just got a lot more personal (Claudia Tomina) [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/claudia-tomina_ask-maps-inside-the-google-maps-app-just-activity-7446889520576487424-RZXX] 📝 How To Contact Support When Your GBP Edit Is Rejected (Stefan Somborac on the Local Search Forum) [https://localsearchforum.com/threads/how-to-contact-support-when-your-gbp-edit-is-rejected.63157/] 📝 Video editing features in Google Maps (Valentina Vasileva) [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/valentina-vasileva-4656837a_googlebusinessprofile-localseo-searchexperience-activity-7445802213949710336-weEW] 📝 You can add captions to photos directly while uploading them in the GBP dashboard (Valentina Vasileva) [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/valentina-vasileva-4656837a_gbp-localseo-activity-7445804617822601216-azLF] 📝 Can AI responses be influenced? The SEO industry is trying (Mia Sato) [https://www.theverge.com/tech/900302/ai-seo-industry-google-search-chatgpt-gemini-marketing] 📝 The people who ruined the internet (Amanda Chicago Lewis) [https://www.theverge.com/features/23931789/seo-search-engine-optimization-experts-google-results]