Mar 29 2026
The Death Of The Static GBP: Why Dynamic Profiles Are The New Local Ranking Factor via @sejournal, @AdamHeitzman

You probably set up your Google Business Profile a while back, filled in your address, picked your categories, maybe chased down a few reviews, and then called it done. Totally understandable. That was enough, once.

But here’s what’s changed: If you haven’t meaningfully touched that profile in months, you’re losing visibility to competitors who figured out something you haven’t yet. Google transformed GBP from a directory listing into a live engagement surface, and businesses that treat it like the former are quietly bleeding map pack rankings they don’t even know they’ve lost.

This applies to every local business. Retailers, yes, but also law firms, dental practices, restaurants, gyms, plumbers, and salons. If your GBP isn’t actively signaling to Google that you’re open for business and earning it every day, you’re leaving real visibility on the table.

Let’s talk about what killed the static profile, what Google built in its place, and exactly what you need to do about it.

When “Set It And Forget It” Actually Worked

Cast your mind back to the directory era. You filled out your name, address, and phone number (NAP), chose a category, uploaded a logo, and crossed your fingers. Google treated these profiles as reference points, fixed coordinates in the physical world. The algorithm cared about NAP consistency across directories more than anything else. Match your citations across 50 listing sites? You were golden.

It worked because that’s genuinely all Google needed. The platform was confirming you existed at a given address. Nothing more.

The New Table Stakes (And Why They’re Not Enough)

Those fundamentals haven’t disappeared; they’ve just become the entry fee. According to the 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors report, the primary GBP category is still the No. 1 factor for local pack visibility, followed by proximity to the searcher and keywords in the business title. These matter enormously. But when every serious competitor has them dialed in, they stop being differentiators.

Screenshot from Whitespark, March 2026

The report also makes clear that behavioral and engagement signals, posts, photos, clicks, calls, direction requests, and review cadence are climbing fast in importance. Google is actively rewarding businesses that “look alive.”

There’s also a finding worth pausing on: Being open when users search is now the No. 5 local pack ranking factor. Your hours aren’t just informational; they’re a ranking signal. This was first noted by Joy Hawkins of Sterling Sky and subsequently confirmed by a BrightLocal study of 50 businesses across 10 categories, which found that rankings tended to drop when a business is listed as closed. Don’t treat your hours as a set-and-forget field. Audit them quarterly, set special hours for holidays before the holiday arrives (not after), and consider whether your current hours are costing you visibility during high-intent search windows.

A static profile with perfect NAP and a 4.8-star rating is like showing up to a job interview in a great suit but refusing to speak. You look the part, but you’re not convincing anyone you’re the right choice.

Google’s Shift: From Listings To Live Engagement

Google didn’t randomly decide to make GBP harder to manage. They followed user behavior. People aren’t browsing businesses anymore; they’re searching with immediate intent. “Who can help me with this right now?” isn’t a research question; it’s a decision waiting to happen.

So Google built GBP into an active engagement surface. For retailers, that meant integrating Merchant Center so real-time product inventory could surface directly in search results and Maps. For service businesses, it means appointment booking, Q&A, and post-activity are all live signals. For restaurants, it’s menus, wait times, and reservation links. The platform expects ongoing input, and it rewards the businesses that provide it.

The core principle is the same whether you sell hiking boots or handle divorces: Google favors profiles that continuously demonstrate relevance and activity. The mechanism differs by business type. The outcome doesn’t.

The Signals That Actually Move The Needle

Review Velocity, Not Just Review Volume

Reviews have always mattered, but the 2026 Local Search Factors Ranking Report data adds important nuance. Fresh reviews don’t just help you rank; they help people pick you over a competitor with the same star rating. Research further confirms that review signals are gaining influence across local rankings, with proximity earning you the look, but review content helping secure the top spot.

Do this: Make review requests part of your operational workflow. Send the ask within 24 hours of a completed service or transaction while the experience is fresh. Respond to every review, positive and negative, within 48 hours. Owner responses are an engagement signal, not just a reputation management courtesy.

Not that: Don’t batch review requests monthly or rely on a generic follow-up email. Don’t respond to positive reviews with a copy-paste “Thanks for your feedback!” Google and potential customers can both tell.

A law firm that earns 12 reviews over three years and one that earns 12 reviews over three months are sending very different signals to the algorithm, even with identical star ratings.

GBP Posts: The Most Underused Freshness Signal

Most businesses either never post to GBP or publish one post in January and forget it exists. That’s a significant missed opportunity. Posts, whether offers, updates, events, or business news, are a direct freshness signal that tells Google your profile is actively managed.

Do this: Post at least once a week. Tie posts to things that are actually happening: a seasonal promotion, a recently completed project, a staff milestone, or a local event you’re involved in. Use the “Offer” post type when you have something time-sensitive; the expiry date creates urgency and signals recency.

Not that: Don’t recycle the same “Welcome to our business!” post every few months. Don’t post only when you remember to; build it into a recurring task, same as you would any other content channel. And don’t ignore the post types Google gives you; Events and Offers get more real estate in the profile than standard Updates.

Photos: Recency Matters As Much As Quality

According to Birdeye’s State of Google Business Profile 2025 report, verified profiles with photos consistently receive more website visits, direction requests, and calls, and listings with recent photos and video see measurably higher engagement than those with stale or infrequently updated imagery. That “recently updated” part is key. A profile with 80 photos, all uploaded three years ago, isn’t sending the same freshness signal as one with steady uploads over recent months.

Do this: Set a recurring reminder to upload new photos at least twice a month. Show real things: recent work, your current team, your updated space, seasonal inventory. For service businesses, job-site photos and before/after shots are gold; they’re authentic, specific, and far more compelling than stock imagery.

Not that: Don’t upload a batch of 50 photos once a year and call it done. Don’t use obviously staged or stock photos as your primary images; research on competitor GBP analysis shows that photo quality and authenticity are increasingly factored into how profiles are perceived. And don’t ignore customer-uploaded photos; respond to them or flag inappropriate ones rather than leaving them unattended.

Booking And Messaging: Closing The Loop Inside Google

Google increasingly wants to keep searchers inside its own ecosystem. For local businesses, that means enabling every feature your business type supports: “Book Online” links, appointment URLs, and the Q&A section. These aren’t just convenience features; they’re engagement signals. When a user books directly through your GBP, that interaction tells Google your profile is functional and driving real-world action.

Do this: If your business supports appointments, connect a booking link (Google supports integrations with platforms like Booksy, Vagaro, OpenTable, and others). Seed your Q&A section with the three to five questions customers actually ask most, and answer them yourself before strangers do it for you.

Not that: Don’t leave your Q&A section empty or unmonitored, unanswered questions (or worse, inaccurate answers from random users) erode trust and represent a missed engagement opportunity.

For Retailers: Real-Time Inventory Is Its Own Category

If you sell physical products, everything above applies, but you have an additional lever that service businesses don’t: real-time inventory.

Google integrated Merchant Center with GBP specifically to surface what’s on your shelves in search results and Maps.

Do this: Prioritize your top 50 highest-intent, most-searched products first. Get those live and accurate before trying to sync your entire catalog. Add product schema markup to your website’s product pages so your feed and your site are telling Google the same thing.

Not that: Don’t upload a feed manually once a week and assume that’s close enough to real-time. Don’t skip the Merchant Center diagnostics step; a feed with errors will silently underperform, and you won’t know why until you check. And don’t assume inventory feeds only matter for paid ads; enabling free local listings through Merchant Center unlocks organic product visibility in search, Maps, and your GBP profile at no additional cost.

The AI Layer: Why This All Matters More Than Ever

Here’s the dimension that makes everything above more urgent: GBP signals are now feeding directly into AI-driven local results, not just the traditional map pack.

Google’s AI Mode pulls from the same signals discussed in this article: review recency and sentiment, photo freshness, post activity, accurate hours, and service completeness. The Whitespark 2026 report introduced an entirely new AI Search Visibility category for the first time, with three of the top five AI visibility factors being citation and entity-based signals. Businesses that keep their GBP current and consistent are the ones being surfaced in AI-generated answers. Businesses with stale profiles aren’t just losing map pack spots; they’re becoming invisible to AI-driven discovery entirely.

Treat every update you make to your GBP not just as a ranking tactic for the traditional local pack, but as a data signal for AI systems that are increasingly acting as the front door to local search. Accurate hours, fresh photos, recent reviews, and complete service descriptions aren’t just best practices; they’re the inputs AI needs to confidently recommend your business.

What To Measure

Once you’re actively managing your profile, track what’s actually moving:

Profile interactions: calls, direction requests, website clicks, and (where applicable) booking clicks tell you which features are actually driving action. 

Review velocity: not just your total count, but how many you’re earning per month and how quickly you’re responding. 

Post engagement: views and clicks on GBP posts help you understand which content types your local audience actually responds to. For retailers, add product impressions and store visit conversions to this list.

The Compounding Effect

Here’s what makes dynamic GBP management so powerful over time: the signals compound. Consistent posting builds freshness and authority. Steady review velocity builds trust signals. Updated photos drive higher engagement. Higher engagement improves rankings. Better rankings bring more profile views, more reviews, and more interactions, which further improve rankings. And now, all of those same signals are feeding AI systems that are reshaping how local businesses get discovered in the first place.

Local visibility is increasingly built on engagement, credibility, and connection, not just keyword optimization. Static profiles erode authority over time. Dynamic profiles compound it.

The businesses treating GBP like a compliance checkbox are the ones watching competitors steal map pack spots they used to own. The ones showing up consistently, posting, earning reviews, updating photos, keeping information current, and (for retailers) feeding Google live inventory, are building durable local visibility that’s genuinely hard to disrupt, whether the search happens in the traditional map pack or in an AI-generated answer.

That’s the gap. The only question is which side of it you want to be on.

More Resources:

Featured Image: A_stockphoto/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Feb 6 2026
90 Days. 1 Plan. Improved Local Search Visibility [Webinar] via @sejournal, @hethr_campbell

A 90 Day Plan to Prepare Every Location for AI Search

AI is changing how consumers discover and choose local brands. For multi-location businesses, visibility is no longer decided only by search rankings. 

AI agents now evaluate location data, reviews, content, engagement, and brand trust before a customer ever clicks. This shift means each individual location is judged on its own signals, not just the strength of the parent brand.

Without a clear plan, enterprise teams risk silent exclusion across entire location networks, leading to lost visibility and declining demand. The challenge is not understanding that GEO matters, but knowing how to operationalize it at scale.

In this session, Ana Martinez, Chief Technology Officer of Uberall, shares a practical 90-day framework for making every location AI-ready. She will explain how AI agents surface and exclude local brands, which location-level signals matter most, and how teams can execute GEO across hundreds or thousands of locations.

What You’ll Learn

  • A phased GEO roadmap to prepare, optimize, and scale AI readiness
  • The key location level signals AI agents trust and what to fix first
  • How to operationalize GEO across large location networks

Why Attend?

This webinar gives enterprise teams a clear, actionable plan to compete in AI-driven local discovery. You will leave with a framework that protects visibility, supports demand, and prepares every location for how discovery works today.

Register now to learn how to make every location AI-ready in the next 90 days.

🛑 Can’t attend live? Register anyway, and we’ll send you the on-demand recording after the webinar.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Dec 18 2025
How Will AI Mode Impact Local SEO? via @sejournal, @JRiddall

In organic search, disruption has always been the norm, but the integration of AI into Google Search – with AI Overviews and now AI Mode – is not an incremental change; it is a fundamental restructuring. For marketers overseeing single or multi-location SEO strategies, the transition from the traditional blue-link environment to a conversational, synthesized search experience carries important stakes.

The initial manifestation of this shift, the AI Overview (AIO), which claims the premium “Position 0” real estate on a search engine results page (SERP), provided the initial shockwave. However, the long-term competitive reality is defined by AI Mode, a full conversational ecosystem where users can engage in multi-stage dialogue with AI. This interactive mode anticipates a user’s entire “information journey” by mapping out potential subsequent inquiries, known as latent questions or query fan-out, negating the need for users to click through for additional information.

The implications for local SEO are profound. Data confirms that when an AIO is present and a business’s content is not cited, organic click-through rates (CTR) can plummet by as much as 61%.

The priority for local marketing has irrevocably shifted: Success is no longer defined by securing Position 1 in the traditional organic listings, but by achieving inclusion and citation within the Position 0 AI Overview and the expanded AI Mode. Some are of the belief Google could go full AI Mode at any moment.

This blueprint outlines eight strategic imperatives for marketers to ensure resilient local visibility and drive high-intent conversions in the AI Mode era to come.

The Paradigm Shift: From Blue Links To Entity Authority

The mechanics of AI Mode fundamentally alter local search competition. For high-intent, local or transactional queries (e.g., “best walking tour in Chicago”), the AI often replaces the traditional Google 3-Pack with an expanded, enhanced local AI Mode display including Google Business Profile (GBP) cards.

AI Mode GBP Cards screenshot
Screenshot from Google search for [best walking tours in New Orleans], November 2025

A limited study conducted in May 2025 found AI Overviews (now typically accompanied by AI Mode) appeared for local search queries 57% of the time and were particularly dominant for informational, as opposed to local/commercial, intent queries.

A more recent behavioral study of travel booking in AI Mode found Google Business Profiles to be among the most highly displayed and engaged content for searchers booking local accommodations and experiences. This is likely the case for any locally oriented search. This creates new opportunities, but demands a strategic overhaul to ensure top-tier visibility.

The AI’s choice of businesses for this enhanced local pack leans heavily on Entity Authority. LLMs synthesize business summaries and attributes by drawing information from diverse, omni-channel sources. This reliance on verified, consistent facts across the entire web makes the digital ecosystem, rather than just the website’s content or backlink profile, the primary ranking vector.

In this new environment, traditional SEO and link acquisition strategies must be rebalanced with unique fact provision and entity authority strategies

8 Local SEO Recommendations For Visibility In AI Mode

To command a dominant position in the conversational search environment, local marketers must execute a comprehensive strategy focusing on local authority, data integrity, technical compliance, and an answer-first content structure.

1. Fortify Your Google Business Profile (GBP) As The Verified Core

GBP has been identified as generative AI’s most critical source of verified local data. Full optimization and consistent verification are non-negotiable gatekeepers for inclusion and visibility within AI Mode.

Non-Negotiable GBP Optimization:

Primary And Secondary Category Selection
Choose the most relevant and appropriate primary category for the business, along with limited additional secondary categories. Do not select generic or non-relevant categories as a means to being included or found within the same via AI search. Far too many businesses make the mistake of choosing as many categories as they think are even tangentially related to the services they offer, often diluting their primary area of expertise.

Comprehensive Service Listings
Ensure accurate and comprehensive listings of all services offered, aligning them perfectly with the services listed on the website and within schema markup. Here again, do not over-extend into generic or non-relevant service offerings.

Verified Hours and Attributes
Maintain current, verified hours of operation, paying special attention to temporary or seasonal closures. A newly important factor in organic and AI search visibility is whether or not a business is physically open when a search is being conducted.

Fill out all relevant business attributes, including payment types accepted, amenities (e.g., parking) available, and anything else which may set the business apart.

Active Engagement Signals
Behavioral signals, such as in-store visits tracked by Google Maps, and engagement signals on the GBP are increasing in importance, suggesting the AI weights profiles demonstrating real-world activity. Responding promptly to reviews and questions posed via GBP is critical, as is regularly posting photos, offers, updates, and other helpful content for your target audience.

Recommendation: The GBP must be treated as a live, mission-critical data feed, not a static listing. Any change to a service, hour, or attribute must be propagated across the GBP first, then the website, and finally any other third-party local or industry-specific directories.

2. Mandate Technical Precision With Schema

Structured data can support AI search visibility. Large Language Models (LLMs), in part, use schema markup to categorize, verify, and ingest factual information directly. Failure to comply with stringent technical specifications may render an entity ineligible for expanded, visually-rich AI results.

Required Technical Specifications:

LocalBusiness Schema And Service Schema
These must be implemented meticulously, defining the business type (e.g., Dentist, Vacation Rental Operator) and precisely describing the services offered using the Service and makesOffer properties.

Geographical Precision
The geo property (latitude and longitude) must be included in the LocalBusiness schema to satisfy the AI’s need for hyper-local accuracy in “near me” and navigational queries.

Visual Asset Compliance
To qualify for visually enhanced AI results, websites must provide multiple relevant service, product, and location-specific images. All images require relevant descriptive filenames and alt text, which must include pertinent keywords, where applicable.

Recommendation: Implement all schema using JSON-LD for simplified maintenance and validation via Google’s Rich Results Test and Schema.org markup validator, keeping the technical markup separate from page design.

3. Achieve Omnichannel Entity Consistency (NAP Harmony)

Generative AI systems rely on consistency and verifiability of a business’s factual data across multiple sources. Any conflict in Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) details, or service descriptions, across primary and third-party sources introduces ambiguity. AI models, like organic search algorithms preceding them, are programmed to reject or hesitate to cite conflicting data points, significantly degrading a business’s trustworthiness.

The Data Harmonization Mandate:

GBP Vs. Website
If a business lists four specific services on its website, but six on its Google Business Profile (GBP), the AI may not be able to provide a definitive, confident summary of service offerings.

Comprehensive Auditing
Invest in robust, real-time auditing and monitoring tools to ensure 100% NAP consistency across the corporate website, all individual location pages, GBPs, and major third-party directories (e.g., Yelp, Tripadvisor).

Recommendation: Treat your structured data and GBP as the single source of truth, and enforce a technical and content compliance mandate across all third-party listings and local data aggregators to eliminate signal dilution. Local authority is now synonymous with holistic entity management.

4. Harness The Power Of Authentic Review Sentiment (E-E-A-T)

Within AI-search, Google continues to emphasize the E-E-A-T framework (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). For local entities, this can in part be demonstrated through verifiable user interactions, authentic customer feedback, and structured review data. The AI synthesizes customer reviews into concise, attribute-level summaries serving as the user’s immediate decision cue.

Shifting Review Strategy To Influence The AI Summary:

Attribute-Level Prompting
The strategy must shift from merely gathering high star ratings to encouraging customers to mention desirable operational attributes (e.g., “fast service,” “knowledgeable staff,” “great atmosphere”). This provides the AI with positive attributes to feature prominently in the generated summary, which acts as a primary conversion trigger.

Review Schema Implementation
Implementing Review and AggregateRating schema is critical for providing the AI model with a structured roadmap to quickly identify recurring sentiment themes.

Proactive Management
Active, prompt management and response to both positive and negative reviews, focusing on service attributes, further establishes the ‘A’ authority and ‘T’ trust in E-E-A-T.

5. Adopt Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) And Query Fan-Out Mapping

Content strategy must transition from traditional keyword SEO to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). AI Mode prioritizes highly informative, concise content specifically structured to answer user queries directly. Query fan-out refers to the process of not only answering the first query submitted, but also anticipating and providing answers to a range of subsequent related questions users have.

Content Strategy For Conversational Search

Map Latent Questions
Since complex queries often trigger AI Overviews, and AI Mode builds on the same multi-step reasoning systems, Google’s LLMs attempt to map the user’s broader information journey by predicting the follow-up questions they are likely to ask. Content therefore needs to address not only the initial ‘head query’ but also the latent questions that make up the next steps in that journey.

Structure For Extraction
Content inclusion is assessed partly by structure. Utilize clear formatting elements easy for the AI to extract and cite:

  • Hierarchical Headings: Implement a clean, tiered heading structure to guide LLMs through content based on its hierarchical importance.
  • Answer First Content: Incorporate semantically related questions and answers tied to perceived user intent naturally into body content.
  • FAQs/Q&A Formatting: Use structured Q&A formats along with FAQPage schema.
  • Ordered Lists: Present verifiable facts in easily digestible formats like bulleted and numbered lists.
  • Short, Concise Paragraphs: Ensure maximum readability and extraction suitability for the LLM.

Implement A Dual Content Strategy

  • Tier 1 (Informational/AEO): Unique, helpful, experience-backed content optimized for AIO citation (FAQs, guides) to establish E-E-A-T and secure brand visibility.
  • Tier 2 (Transactional/CRO): Core service pages and hyper-local pages focused on high-intent, bottom-of-the-funnel queries (“emergency plumber near me”), prioritizing clear calls-to-action and conversion architecture.

6. Diversify Entity Authority: Chase Branded Web Mentions

The AI’s holistic approach to entity authority means links are less important than they once were, while branded mentions are experiencing a resurgence. Research indicates a strong correlation between brands cited in AI Overviews/AI Mode and the frequency of their mention across the broader web (including social media, blogs, and forums like Reddit). In AI SEO, brand mentions (linked or not) are the new link. This shift is supported by data showing web mentions correlate highly with AI visibility.

Strategy For Earning “The AI Vote”:

Omnichannel Entity Acquisition
Proactively pursue high-quality, non-linked citations from authoritative local news sources, industry blogs, and high-quality directories. The goal is to maximize the sheer volume of high-quality, reinforcing brand mentions AI can reference.

Social & Video Integration
Leverage social media platforms and, critically, YouTube content. LLMs scrape video and social channels for entity information and context, making these verifiable sources of service and brand attribute data.

Recommendation: Shift resources from low-value link-building activities toward Digital PR and Content Distribution campaigns designed to earn non-linked brand mentions and reinforce local expertise across third-party industry and media sites.

7. Optimize For High-Velocity Conversions (CRO)

The inevitable decline in raw organic traffic is accompanied by an efficiency challenge. The traffic successfully navigating from AI Mode to the website should typically be more qualified and higher-intent, as the AI has already satisfied low-intent informational needs. The traffic remaining is typically the commercially valuable “bottom-of-the-funnel” user.

The Conversion Imperative:

CRO Over Traffic Generation
Resources should be strategically reallocated away from mass traffic generation toward maximizing the conversion potential of the qualified users who land on the website.

One interesting finding from the aforementioned AI Mode behavioral study was the number of users who expected to simply be able to complete their transaction once they left AI Mode, i.e., just click Book Now and pay. While this may be coming in the form of future Google integrations, the current transactional workflow requires users to start their booking from the beginning.

While the percentage of traffic from AI search may initially be less than 1%, the potential volume – with 1% of a trillion searches equating to 10 billion opportunities – justifies a dedicated focus on conversion for this high-value segment.

Perfecting Conversion Architecture
The final click from AI Mode to the website must lead to a seamless, high-velocity user experience. This involves:

  • Above-the-Fold CTAs: Ensuring clear, single-focus calls-to-action (CTAs) are immediately visible on landing pages.
  • Minimal Friction: Reducing form fields and providing one-click access to the most high-intent action (e.g., “Request a Quote,” “Book Now,” “Call Us”).
  • KPI Recalibration: Focus key performance indicators (KPIs) on high-value, direct actions tracked through Google Business Insights and Search Console, emphasizing direct calls, requests for driving directions, and specific booking actions, rather than low-intent clicks. Visibility in AI Mode becomes a more meaningful success metric than a singular keyword rank.

8. Future-Proofing: Un-hide Content And Prioritize Accessibility

A foundational requirement for AI Mode visibility is ensuring technical accessibility of content for the LLM’s consumption.

Accessibility As A Generative Requirement:

Un-hide Critical Content
Content crucial to establishing entity authority (e.g., licenses, certifications, key service attributes, location details) must not be hidden within toggles, tabs, accordions, or JavaScript requiring a user click to reveal.

Plain Text And HTML
While visuals are important, the core factual assertions must be rendered in clean, accessible HTML any machine can easily read and interpret.

Proactive Monitoring
Use LLM analysis tools (or reverse question-answering prompts) to regularly audit which questions your site is answering and which critical facts are not being found by the AI, ensuring your core message is the stuff being crawled and indexed.

The Generative Mandate For Local SEO In The AI Era

Google AI Mode represents the definitive passing of the torch from traditional link-based SEO to a sophisticated strategy centered on fact provision and entity validation. For marketers, the shift is not one to debate, but one to embrace immediately.

The future of local search visibility is a high-stakes competition for the top-tier real estate of the AI Overview and AI Mode. The required investment is a mandate across the entire digital portfolio:

  1. Technical Compliance: Adhering to strict schema and content specifications to gain eligibility.
  2. Data Integrity: Enforcing omnichannel consistency to build undeniable entity trust.
  3. Content Refinement: Adopting Answer Engine Optimization to answer the full spectrum of user queries.
  4. Link or Unlinked Branded Mentions: Earn and establish visibility in relatively high authority local and industry-relevant places.

This strategic pivot – away from mass-traffic keyword pursuits and toward precise entity authority management – is the only way to mitigate the risk of CTR collapse and capitalize on the high-quality, high-intent traffic AI Mode will deliver. Your business must now be structured as an impeccable source of verified, structured facts for AI to cite. The time for strategic adaptation is now.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Koupei Studio/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Dec 4 2025
Google Maps Lets Users Post Reviews With Nicknames via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google Maps now lets users leave business reviews under a custom nickname instead of their real name. The feature is part of a four-feature Maps update and is rolling out globally on Android, iOS, and desktop.

Local SEO agency Whitespark was among the first to document the change in detail, describing it as one of the more notable shifts to Google’s review system in years.

What Changed

Google’s support documentation outlines the new setting. Users can enable a custom display name and picture for posting through their Maps or Google profile. Once enabled, that identity appears on reviews, photos, videos, and Q&A posts across Maps.

The feature works retroactively. If you edit your nickname later, past contributions update to show the new name.

Whitespark notes that people have long created Google accounts with aliases. This is the first time Google has offered a dedicated posting identity separate from your main account profile and documented it officially.

How It Affects Spam Detection

Google’s blog post says its existing review protections remain in place. Reviews written under a nickname are still tied to an account and its history. Businesses can still report reviews they believe violate policies.

Whitespark calls this “pseudonymous rather than truly anonymous.” The public display name differs, but Google still sees the underlying account and contribution history.

Why This Matters

Expect to see more nicknames and illustration-based profile pictures in review feeds. Whitespark highlights industries like legal, medical, and financial services where clients often hesitate to post under their real name. This could increase review volume in those categories.

If you work with businesses in privacy-sensitive categories, you may want to update review request templates to mention the nickname option.

Looking Ahead

The nickname feature is live or rolling out for most users, though some local SEOs, such as Joy Hawkins, report they don’t yet see it in their own profiles.

Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Nov 18 2025
From Listings to Loyalty: The New Role of Local Search in Customer Experience

Ask yourself the following:

  • Do you reply to reviews?
  • Do you engage?
  • Do you make the interaction feel personal?
  • Do you follow through on your promises?
  • Do you keep information consistent across every platform?
  • Do you share fresh updates (ex: photos, posts, or promotions) that show you’re active?
  • Do you provide transparent details like pricing, wait times, or insurance accepted?

If you answered no to any of the aforementioned, it’s time to switch to a brand experience mentality. That shift shows up clearly in the data. Six in ten people say they at least sometimes click on Google’s AI-generated overviews, which means discovery is no longer only about traditional rankings. It’s about whether your brand shows up well when search engines pull together information in context.

Reputation follows the same logic. In Rio SEO’s latest study, three out of four consumers said they read at least four reviews before deciding where to go. And it’s not just the rating itself. Many put just as much weight on whether a business responds; silence feels like neglect, while engagement signals you’re listening.

The clock has also sped up. Nearly six in ten customers now expect a reply within 24 hours, a sharp jump from last year. For many, that means a same-day response is the expectation. Fast, human replies aren’t a nice touch anymore; they’re the baseline.

The major search platforms reinforce this reality. Google’s local pack favors businesses that post fresh photos, keep details up to date, and engage with reviews (and not just negative reviews but positive ones too). Apple Maps is becoming harder to ignore as well, Rio SEO’s research reveals about a third of consumers now use it frequently. With Siri, Safari, and iPhones all pulling from Apple Business Connect as the default, accurate profiles there can tip the balance just as much as on Google.

Put it all together, and the picture is clear: search visibility and customer experience are already intertwined. The brands thriving in 2025 treat local search as part of a unified Brand Experience strategy and Rio SEO helps brands stay visible, responsive, and trusted wherever customers are searching.

The BX Advantage: Connecting Signals to Action

Every brand gathers signals. Search clicks, review scores, survey feedback; it all piles up. The trouble is most of it never makes it past a slide deck. Customers don’t feel or see the difference.

That’s where Brand Experience (BX) comes in. BX connects visibility and reputation with actionable insights, so signals don’t just sit in a dashboard.

At Rio SEO, we put BX into motion. Our Local Experience solutions help brands connect discovery with delivery and turn what customers see in search into what they feel in real life. It’s the bridge between data and experience, helping enterprise marketers identify patterns, respond faster, and build trust at every location.

The goal isn’t to watch the numbers. It’s to quickly identify and make changes customers notice, such as faster check-ins, smoother booking, and clearer answers in search; all of which amount to better experiences and outcomes, for customers and employees alike.

Technology helps make this possible. AI platforms now tie search data, reviews, and feedback into one view. With predictive analytics layered in, teams can see trouble before it shows up at the front desk or checkout line. And with Google’s AI Overviews and Bing’s Copilot changing how people discover businesses, brands that prepare for those formats now will have an edge when others are still catching up.

Industry context shapes how this plays out. A retailer might connect “near me” searches to what’s actually on the shelf that week. A bank has to prove reliability every time someone checks a branch profile. A hospital needs to make sure that when a patient searches for “urgent care,” the hours, insurance info, and provider reviews are accurate that very day. Different settings, same principle: close the gap between what people see online and what they experience in real life.

And this isn’t just about dashboards. The real win comes from acting quickly on what the signals show. Think about two retailers with dipping review scores. One shrugs and logs it. The other digs deeper, notices the complaints all mention stockouts in one region, and shifts supply within days. Customers stay loyal because the brand responded, not because it had a prettier chart.

That’s the difference BX is designed to create. Reports tell you what already happened. Acting on those signals shapes what happens next.

The New Mandate for Marketing Leaders

In the experience economy, BX isn’t abstract; it’s actionable. And Rio SEO gives brands the tools, data, and automation to operationalize it, turning every search, review, and update into a moment that builds loyalty and long-term growth.

Today’s marketing leaders aren’t being judged on traffic spikes anymore. What matters now is whether customers stick around, how much value they bring over time, and what it costs to serve them. That shift changes everything about the role of local search and puts Brand Experience (BX) at the center of the conversation.

When search is treated as a checklist—hours updated, pin fixed, job done—brands miss the bigger opportunity. Worse, they give ground to competitors who recognize that discovery is experience, and experience drives revenue.

BX gives CMOs and marketing leaders a framework for connecting visibility, reputation, and responsiveness. It bridges the gap between what people see in search and what they experience when they engage. And that’s where Rio SEO delivers real advantage: by giving brands the unified data, automation, and insights to make BX tangible in every market, every listing, and every moment.

You can see the difference in how leaders approach it across divergent industries:

  • Retail: Linking “near me” searches directly to in-stock inventory so shoppers know what’s available before they walk in.
  • Restaurants: Connecting menu updates and “order online” links directly to local search profiles, so when a customer searches “Thai takeout near me,” they see real-time specials, accurate hours, and an easy path to order.
  • Financial Services: Displaying verified first-party reviews on branch profiles to boost credibility and reassure customers choosing where to bank.
Image by Rio SEO, Nov 2025

The common thread is dependability. Local search is no longer about being visible once. It’s about proving, again and again, that your brand can be trusted in the small but decisive moments when customers are making up their minds. BX provides the vision; Rio SEO provides the infrastructure to bring it to life: connecting discovery with loyalty in a world where customers expect precision, empathy, and instant answers.

The Strategic Case for Local Search

The business case for local search doesn’t sit on the margins anymore. It ties directly to growth, trust, and efficiency. Within a Brand Experience (BX) framework, it links customer intent with measurable business outcomes, and Rio SEO gives brands the precision tools to manage that connection at scale.

Revenue Starts Here

Local search is full of high-intent signals: someone taps “call now,” asks for directions, or books an appointment. These metrics are crucial moments that can lead to sales, often within hours. In fact, most local searchers buy within 48 hours: three-quarters of restaurant seekers and nearly two-thirds of retail shoppers. That urgency makes consistency and accessibility non-negotiable.

Trust is Built in the Details

Reviews have become a kind of reputation currency, and customers spend it carefully. Three out of four people read at least four reviews before making a choice. If the basics are wrong—a missing phone number, the wrong hours—trust evaporates. More than half of consumers say they won’t visit a business if the listing details are off. Rio SEO’s centralized platform keeps data clean and consistent, ensuring that every profile communicates reliability, the foundation of trust in BX.

Efficiency That Pays for Itself

Every time insights from search and feedback flow back into operations, friction disappears before it gets expensive. Accurate listings mean fewer misrouted calls. Quick review responses calm frustration before it snowballs. Clear online paths reduce the burden on service teams.

In healthcare, that can mean shorter call center queues. In financial services, fewer “where do I start?” calls during onboarding. For retailers, avoiding wasted trips when hours are wrong keeps customers coming back instead of leaving disappointed. Each fix trims cost-to-serve while strengthening trust—a rare double win. Rio SEO automates these workflows, saving teams time while enhancing experience quality.

Your Edge Over the Competition

Too many organizations still keep SEO and CX in separate lanes. BX unites them and Rio SEO operationalizes that unity. The ones who bring those signals together see patterns earlier, act faster, and pull ahead of rivals who are still optimizing for clicks instead of experiences.

The Power of Brand Experience

BX blends rigorous data with customer-centric urgency. It gives leaders a way to not only show up in search but to be chosen, trusted, and remembered.

Winning the Experience Economy Starts in Local Search

Search no longer waits for a typed query. With AI Overviews, predictive results, and personalized recommendations, it increasingly anticipates what people want and surfaces the businesses most likely to deliver.

That shift raises the bar. In this new environment, local search isn’t a maintenance task but rather the front line of Brand Experience (BX). Accuracy, responsiveness, and reputation aren’t side jobs anymore; they’re the signals that decide who gets noticed, who gets trusted, and who gets passed over.

The companies setting the pace already treat local presence as a growth engine, not a maintenance task. They link discovery with delivery, reviews with real replies, and feedback with action. Competitors who don’t will find themselves playing catch-up in an economy where expectations reset every day.

The message is clear: customers don’t separate search from experience, and neither can you. Local search is now where growth, trust, and efficiency intersect. Handle it as a checklist, and you’ll fall behind. Treat it as a lever for Brand Experience, and you’ll define the standard others have to meet.

That’s where Rio SEO makes the difference. We help enterprise brands connect the dots between visibility, data, and experience, empowering marketers to act on signals faster, measure impact clearly, and deliver consistency at scale. With Rio SEO, brands don’t just show up in search; they stand out, stay accurate, and turn visibility into measurable growth.

Image by Rio SEO, Nov 2025

Ready to lead in the era of AI-driven discovery?

Partner with Rio SEO to transform your local presence into a connected, data-powered experience that builds trust, drives action, and earns loyalty at every location, on every platform, every day.

Learn more about Rio SEO’s Local Experience solutions today.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Oct 29 2025
How To Do A Complete Local SEO Audit: 11-Point Checklist via @sejournal, @JRiddall

Local SEO includes several specific tasks geared to establishing the relevance and authority of a business within a targeted geographic area.

Search engines and large language models (LLMs) like Google Gemini and ChatGPT reference many different data points to determine who will be surfaced in their respective result sets, which include AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google, featured snippets, local map packs, image or video carousels, and other emerging search formats.

So, how can you identify and prioritize optimizations with the greatest potential to deliver converting traffic to your website or your business door from traditional organic local SEO or AI search?

Below, we’ll walk through an evaluation of each key facet of your local search presence and uncover your best opportunities to improve your visibility in traditional organic and AI search.

These tasks are listed in typical order of completion during a full audit, but some can be accomplished concurrently.

1. Keyword Topic/AI Prompt Audit

Although the introduction of AI in search has changed the keyword-first strategy, the natural place to start a local SEO audit is in organic and AI search results. Start with the topical keywords, phrases, and AI prompts you are hoping your business will be found for, in order to identify where you are positioned relative to your competitors and other websites/content.

This research can help you quickly identify where you have established some level of authority/momentum to build on, as well as topics upon which you should not waste your time and effort.

SEO is a long-term strategy, so no keyword or prompt should be summarily dismissed. Even so, it’s generally best to focus on keyword topics you realistically have a chance to gain visibility and drive traffic for. Pay close attention to the intent behind the keywords you choose and ideally focus on those with commercial or transactional intent, as informational content search results are largely being dominated by AI summaries.

You will also need to consider optimizing for conversational search queries or prompts and voice search, as AI Mode will increasingly rely on natural language processing.

Further, some younger users have developed different searching behaviors altogether and are using social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok for local searches. Search optimization for these platforms is a different conversation, but having an eye on how your business and its products/services are found when searching here can provide insight into how searches are conducted in more traditional and emerging AI formats.

Different people search in different ways, and it’s important not to limit your research to single keywords, but rather account for the various ways and phrases your audience may use to try to find you or your offerings; hence, taking a topical approach. This only becomes amplified in AI search, where every prompt is the beginning of a potentially long, drawn-out chat.

2. Website Audit

You can now conduct full content and technical website audits to ensure your site is optimized for maximum crawlability, indexability, and visibility by search engine and LLM crawlers. A typical audit is designed to analyze the underlying structure, content, and overall site experience.

Here again, there are many site auditing tools to crawl a website and then identify issues and prioritize actions to be taken based on SEO best practices.

A website audit and optimization can be broken down into a few buckets:

Page Optimization

Webpage optimization is all about ensuring pages are well structured, focused around targeted topical keywords, and provide a positive user experience.

As a search engine crawls a webpage, it looks for signals to determine what the page is about and what questions it can answer. These crawlers analyze the entire page to determine its focus, but specifically focus on page titles and headings as primary descriptors. A well-structured page with a hierarchical heading structure is key to helping site visitors, search engine and LLM bots easily scan and consume your content.

Ideally, each webpage is keyword topic-focused and unique. As such, keyword variations should be used consistently in titles, URLs, headings, and body content.

Another important potential issue raised in an audit, depending on the nature of your local business, is image optimization. As a best practice, all images should include relevant descriptive filenames and alt text, which may include pertinent keywords. This becomes particularly important when images (e.g., product or service photos) are central to your business, as image carousels can and will show up in web search results. In every case, attention should be paid to the images appearing on your primary ranking pages.

Lastly, an over-reliance on JavaScript can be particularly detrimental for LLM visibility, as some LLMs currently do not execute JavaScript. If your site is powered by JavaScript, you’ll want to address this with your developer to see how the most important content can be presented in raw HTML or via server-side scripting to enable crawling and indexing.

Internal Link Audit

A link audit will help you quickly identify any potential misdirected or broken links, which can create a less-than-optimal experience for your site visitors and may confuse search engine and LLM bots.

Links are likewise signals the search engines use to determine the structure of a website and its ability to direct searchers to appropriate, authoritative answers to their questions.

Part of this audit should include the identification of opportunities to crosslink prominent pages. If a page within your site has keywords (anchor text) referencing relevant content on another page, a link should be created, provided the link logically guides users to more relevant content or an appropriate conversion point.

External links should also be considered, especially when there is an opportunity to link to an authoritative source of information. From a local business perspective, this may include linking to relevant local organizations, partners, or events.

Schema Review

Schema or structured data can help search engines and LLMs better understand your business and its offerings and offer enhanced visibility. An effective local SEO audit should include the identification of content within a website to which schema can be applied.

Local businesses have an opportunity to have their content highlighted if they:

  • Publish highly authoritative and relevant content.
  • Use structured schema markup to tag content.

Relevant local business schema markup includes LocalBusiness, Product, Service, Review, and FAQPage, among others. All schema markup code should be validated via Google’s Rich Results Test and/or the Schema.org validator.

Mobile Audit

As most consumers search via their mobile devices – especially for local services – it’s essential for local businesses to provide a positive mobile web experience. Websites need to load quickly, be easily navigated, and enable seamless user interaction.

Google offers a range of free mobile testing and mobile-specific monitoring tools, such as Page Experience and Core Web Vitals, in Google Search Console.

More in-depth user experience and SEO analysis can be done via Google Lighthouse, though a local business owner will likely want to enlist the help of a web developer to action any of the recommendations this tool provides.

Duplicate Content

High-quality, authoritative content is, by definition, original content.

As such, it’s important to let Google know if your website contains any content/pages you did not create by adding a canonical tag to the HTML header of the page. Most pages, which are unique unto themselves, will have a self-referencing canonical.

Not doing so can have a detrimental effect on your authority and, by extension, your ability to rank. Most site auditing tools will flag content missing or having malformed canonical tags.

3. Google Business Profile Audit

A Google Business Profile (GBP) effectively represents a “secondary” website and highly visible point of presence for most local businesses. Increasingly, this “secondary” website is becoming the consumers’ first point of contact.

An accurate, comprehensive GBP is critical to establishing visibility in organic and now AI search results.

A recent behavioral study of travel booking in AI Mode conducted by Propellic found GBP to be among the most highly displayed and engaged content for searchers booking local accommodations and experiences.

A Google Business Profile audit should focus on the accuracy and completeness of the various components within the profile, including:

  • Business information and location details.
  • Correct primary business category.
  • Hours of operation.
  • Correct pin location in Google Maps.
  • Proper categorization as a physical location or service area business.
  • Products.
  • Services.
  • Appointment link(s), if applicable.
  • Photos or Videos.
  • Social Profiles.
  • Offers.
  • Regular updates.
  • Events.
  • Informational content.
Google Business Profile screenshotScreenshot from Google Business Profile, September 2025

The more complete the profile is, the more likely it will be viewed as a reliable local resource and be given appropriate billing in the search results.

Assuming you have claimed and are authorized to manage your GBP, you can access and edit your info directly within the search results.

4. Review Monitoring And Management

Another very important aspect of a GBP is reviews.

Local business customers have an opportunity to write reviews, which appear on the GBP for other customers to reference and play a significant role in determining visibility in the local map pack. They are most certainly a determining factor with regard to appearing in Google AI Overviews.

Google will notify business owners as soon as reviews are submitted, and they should be responded to as soon as possible. This goes for negative reviews just as much as positive ones. Include an analysis of your reviews to ensure none have fallen through the cracks. This will also help determine whether there are recurring customer service and satisfaction issues or themes to be addressed. A detailed analysis of reviews can be a great source of content ideas aimed at answering customers’ most pressing questions or concerns.

Of course, there are also several other places for consumers to submit reviews, including Facebook, local review sites like Yelp, and industry-specific sites such as TripAdvisor and Houzz. A full audit should take inventory of reviews left on any of these services, as they can show up in search results.

Pro tip: Request positive reviews from all customers and politely suggest they reference the product or service they are reviewing, as keywords contained in reviews can have a positive effect from ranking perspective.

5. Local Business Listing/Citation Audit

Local business listings and citations provide search engines and LLM bots with a way of confirming a business is both local and reputable within a specific geographic region. Recent studies have revealed unlinked brand mentions and citations play a significant role in AI Visibility.

It is important to have a presence in reputable local directories, review sites, business directories (e.g., Chambers of Commerce), or local partner sites to prove your “localness.”

Depending on the size and scope of your local business, an audit of your listings and citations can be done in an automated or manual fashion.

Business listings and citation management tools can be used to find, monitor, and update all primary citations with your proper Name, Address, Phone Number (aka NAP), and other pertinent business details found in broader listings (e.g., website address, business description).

If you manage a limited number of locations and have the time, one quick method of identifying where your current listings can be found is to simply conduct a search on your business name. The first three to four pages of search results should reveal the same.

It’s also important to find and resolve any duplicate listings to prevent confusing customers and search engines alike with outdated, inaccurate information.

Local business owners and managers should also monitor Reddit for their brand and local product/service offerings to gauge activity and sentiment. Reddit is a unique platform where “karma” and trust are tantamount, but there is an opportunity for brands and local businesses to engage with their customers if they do it in a transparent, authentic, and non-promotional way.

6. Backlink Audit

Backlinks or inbound links are similar to citations, but are effectively any links to your website pages from other third-party websites.

Links remain an important factor in determining the authority of a website, as they lend validity if they come from relevant, reputable sources.

As with other components of an audit, there are several good free and paid backlink tools available, including a link monitoring service in Google Search Console, which is a great place to start.

An effective backlink audit has the dual purpose of identifying and building links via potentially valuable backlink sources, which can positively affect your ranking and visibility.

For local businesses, reputable local sources of links are naturally beneficial in validating location, as noted with citations above.

Potential backlink sources can be researched in a variety of locations:

  • Free and paid backlink research tools, such as Ahrefs or Semrush identify any domains where your primary competition has acquired backlinks, but you have not.
  • Any non-competitive sites appearing in the organic search results for your primary keywords are, by definition, good potential backlink sources. Look for directories you can be listed in, blogs or articles you can comment on, or publications you can submit articles to.
  • Referral sources in Google Analytics may reveal relevant external websites where you already have links and may be able to acquire more.

7. Local Content Audit

People search differently and require different types of information depending on where they are in their buying journey. A well-structured local web presence will include content tailored and distributed for consumption during each stage of this journey, to bolster visibility and awareness.

You want to be found throughout your customer’s search experience. A content audit can be used to make sure you have helpful content for each of the journey buckets your audience members may find themselves in.

Informational content may be distributed via social or other external channels or published on your website to help educate your consumers on the products, services, and differentiators you offer at the beginning of their path to purchase.

As AI is consuming and repurposing much of this informational content, it’s important to ensure your informational content includes your unique perspective based on your experience and expertise. This content ideally answers your prospects’ why, how, and what types of questions.

Transactional content is designed to address those consumers who already know what they want, but are in the process of deciding where or who to purchase from. This type of content may include reviews, testimonials, or competitive comparisons.

Navigational content ensures when people click through from Google after having searched your brand name or a variation thereof, they land on a page or information validating your position as a leader in your space. This page should also include a clear call-to-action with the assumption they have arrived with a specific goal in mind.

Commercial content addresses those consumers who have signaled a strong intent to buy. Effective local business sites and social pages must include offers, coupons, discounts, and clear paths to purchase.

Optimizing Content For AI

From an AI search and visibility perspective, keep in mind the vast majority of AI results are responses to long-form questions/prompts from consumers. As such, it is crucial for some of your content to be in a direct question/answer format.

One quick and effective tactic is the creation of an FAQ section within product or service pages. However, avoid overseeding FAQs by including generic questions and answers. FAQs should be specific to the pages they reside on.

We’ve previously touched upon the importance of structured content for improved crawling, scanning, and comprehension. When reviewing your content, look for opportunities to incorporate defined heading structures, tables of contents for long-form content, and ordered lists.

Content Variety And Distribution

Quality content is content your audience wants to consume, like, and share. For many businesses, this means considering and experimenting with content beyond simple text and images.

Video content shared via platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and others is easier to consume and generally more engaging.

8. Google Search Console Review

Google Search Console is an invaluable free resource for data related to keyword and content performance, indexing, schema/rich results validation, mobile/desktop experience monitoring, and security/manual actions.

A complete local SEO audit must include a review and analysis of this data to identify and react to strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats outlined in each section.

Google Search Console screenshotGoogle Search Console screenshot, September 2025

Website owners and managers will want to pay particular attention to any issues related to pages not being crawled/indexed or manual actions having been taken based on questionable practices, as both can have a detrimental effect on search engine visibility.

Google Search Console does send notifications for these types of issues as well as regular performance updates, but an audit will ensure nothing has been overlooked.

9. Analytics Review

Whether you are using Google Analytics or another site/visitor tracking solution, the data available here is useful during an audit to validate top and lesser-performing content, traffic sources, audience profiles, and paths to purchase.

Findings in analytics will be key to your content audit.

As you review your site analytics, you may ask the following questions:

  • Are my top-visited pages also my top-ranking pages in search engines?
  • Which are my top entry pages from organic and AI search?
  • Which LLMs are sending traffic to my site?
  • Which pages/content are not receiving the level of traffic or engagement desired?
  • What is the typical path to purchase on my site, and can it be condensed or otherwise optimized?
  • Which domains are my top referrers, and are there opportunities to further leverage these sites for backlinks? (see Backlink Audit above).

Use Google Analytics (or another tool of your choice) to find the answers to these questions, so you can focus and prioritize your content and keyword optimization efforts.

10. Competitor Analysis

A comprehensive local SEO audit should identify and review the strengths and weaknesses of your competition.

You may already have a good sense of who your competition is, but to begin, it’s always a good idea to confirm who specifically shows up in the organic search and AI results when you enter your target keywords. You may find different competitors in these two formats, which represent both a threat and an opportunity.

These businesses/domains are your true online competitors and the sites you can learn the most from. If any of your online competitors’ sites and/or pages are ranking ahead of yours, you’ll want to review what they may be doing to gain this advantage.

You can follow the same checklist of steps you would conduct for your own audit to identify how they may be optimizing their keywords, content, Google Business Profile, reviews, local business listings, or backlinks.

In general, the best way to outperform your competition is to provide a better overall experience online and off, which includes generating more relevant, unique, high-quality content to more fully address the questions your mutual customers have.

11. AI Search For Local Businesses

AI Overviews and AI Mode are increasingly superseding traditional organic search results in Google, as the search engine aims to provide the answers to questions directly within its SERPs. Further, Google has signalled its commitment to AI Mode by recently integrating it into the Chrome address bar.

While AI search optimization has some new considerations, a strong foundation in traditional SEO will go a long way to building visibility in AI search results; chief among these at a local level is a fully optimized Google Business Profile, which appears prominently for local searches with commercial intent as outlined above.

Google Business Profile Cards accessible within AI ModeScreenshot of Google AI Mode displaying Google Business Profile Cards, September 2025

AI Mode Strategy Checklist Should Consider:

  • Enhanced GBP Features: Stay updated on new features within Google Business Profile, allowing for direct interactions or transactions, as these will be favored by AI Mode.
  • Focus on User Intent: Understand the transactional and informational intent behind local searches. AI Mode aims to provide immediate solutions, so businesses facilitating this will gain an advantage.
  • Voice Search Optimization: As AI Mode becomes more conversational, optimizing for natural language queries and voice search will be crucial. Ensure your content answers questions directly and uses conversational language.
  • Direct Action Integrations: This may still be a ways away, but review and explore opportunities to integrate with Google’s booking or reservation features, if applicable to your business. This could become a direct pathway to conversions within AI Mode.

Prioritizing Your Action Items

A complete local SEO audit is going to produce a fairly significant list of action items.

Many of the keyword, site, content, and backlink auditing tools do a good job of prioritizing tasks; however, the list can still be daunting.

One of the best places to start with an audit action plan is around the keywords, AI prompts, and content you have already established some, but not enough, authority for.

Determine how to best address deficiencies or opportunities to optimize this content first before moving on to more competitive keywords or those you have less or no visibility for. Establishing authority and trust is a long-term game.

These audit items should be reviewed every six to 12 months, depending on the size and scale of your web presence, to enable the best chance of being found by your local target audience.

More Resources:

Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Oct 16 2025
Google Business Profile Tests Cross-Location Posts via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google Business Profile appears to be testing a feature that lets managers share the same update across multiple locations from a single dialog.

Tim Capper reported seeing the option. After publishing an update, a “Copy post” dialog appears with the prompt: “Copy the update to other profiles you manage.”

The interface displays a list of business locations with checkboxes so you can choose which profiles receive the same update.

We’ve asked Google for comment on availability and eligibility requirements and will update this article if we receive a response.

What’s New

From what’s visible in the screenshots, the workflow streamlines cross-posting for multi-location accounts.

You publish an update to one profile, then immediately see a pop-up listing other profiles you manage.

You can select one or many locations and post the same update without repeating the process.

Why It Matters

If you manage multiple locations, this could save time by reducing repetitive posting. It may also help keep messaging consistent across locations.

Make sure updates remain locally relevant before copying them everywhere.

How To Check If You Have Access

If you manage more than one profile in the same account, publish a standard update to one location.

If your account is in the test, you should see a “Copy post” dialog immediately after posting, with a list of other profiles you manage.

If You Don’t See It

Not all accounts will have access during tests. Keep posting as usual and check again periodically. If you manage many locations, confirm that all profiles are grouped under the same account with the correct permissions.

Looking Ahead

If Google proceeds with a wider launch, expect details on supported post types, scheduling, and limits. We’ll update this story if Google confirms the feature or publishes documentation.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Oct 3 2025
Microsoft Launches New Bing Places For Business via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Microsoft has rolled out a redesigned Bing Places for Business platform, moving business listing management to bing.com/forbusiness and introducing a new recommendation tool with streamlined import workflows.

The platform lets businesses create and manage listings across Bing Search and Bing Maps at no cost. Consolidating the experience under the Bing.com domain is meant to make the product easier to find and use.

Why Did Microsoft Rebuild It?

Microsoft says the redesign follows months of research with business owners who reported difficulty discovering the product, navigating the interface, and importing locations at scale.

Microsoft wrote:

“Before we wrote a single line of code, we spent months listening to business owners about their challenges and goals.”

Here’s what Microsoft added after those discussions.

What’s New?

Improved Google Business Profile Import

For multi-location brands and agencies, Microsoft has overhauled the Google import flow.

The update aims to preserve key attributes, such as names, hours, and contact details, while also introducing more efficient management features, including dashboards, bulk editing, and real-time status updates.

Recommendation Tool

A new Recommendation Tool evaluates listing health and suggests specific additions, such as photos, website and social links, hours, and category-specific items. For restaurants, that can include menu links or online ordering.

The feature is designed to help owners who may be newer to local SEO prioritize high-impact fields.

Automatic Migration

Current Bing Places users and their listings are being migrated automatically. Logging in with existing credentials redirects to the new experience.

What’s Next

Microsoft says more updates will roll out in the coming months, including deeper integrations with Bing Maps and Copilot and expanded support for agencies and partners.

Why This Matters

A Bing Places profile can appear in Bing search results and on Bing Maps. That includes the map results and the place page people see when they click through for directions, call, or website info.

Claiming and keeping your listing up to date helps Microsoft show accurate location, hours, and contact details across Bing’s local results and Maps. In short, you control what customers see when they find you on Bing.

The improved Google import process simplifies keeping your Bing listing in step with your Google Business Profile.

Availability

The new Bing Places for Business is live at bing.com/forbusiness.

Featured Image: PixieMe/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Sep 23 2025
Review Signals Gain Influence In Top Google Local Rankings via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

A new analysis from Search Atlas quantifies the interaction between proximity and reviews in local rankings.

Proximity drives visibility overall, while review signals become stronger differentiators in the highest positions.

This study examines 3,269 businesses across the food, health, law, and beauty sectors.

It shows that for positions 1–21, proximity influences 55% of decisions, while review count accounts for 19%. In the top ten, proximity’s influence decreases to 36%, but review count increases to 26%, with review keyword relevance reaching 22%.

Search Atlas writes:

Proximity is the top driver of local visibility.

The study also notes:

Proximity does not always dominate in elite positions.

What It Means

You’ll have a better chance of achieving top results by focusing on earning more reviews and naturally incorporating service-specific terms into reviews, rather than relying on your pin’s location on the map.

The report suggests that Google understands review text semantically. Using service-specific language in reviews can help your rankings for high-value queries.

How To Apply This

Think of proximity as your default setting. It’s fixed, so focus your attention on the inputs you can control.

When crafting your review requests, aim for natural, service-specific language. For instance, “best dentist for whitening” tends to work better than “great service.”

Also, ensure that your GBP name and profile details are aligned. The research shows that matching your business name to the search intent, such as “Downtown Dental Clinic” for someone searching “dentist near me,” can make a positive difference.

Sector Behavior

While the overall pattern remains consistent, shoppers can exhibit different behaviors across categories.

Per the report:

  • For Law, proximity tends to be the most important factor, with reviews playing a secondary role.
  • In Beauty, reputation signals are more influential. While proximity is still key, review volume and keywords are also important.
  • When it comes to Food, review content and profile relevance become especially valuable, particularly in crowded markets.
  • Health balances proximity with strong reviews and service alignment in reviews.

Looking Ahead

This study quantifies something practitioners have long suspected: proximity earns you a look, but review content helps you secure the top spot in the close contest.

If you can’t change your location, shape the language around it.

For more data on GBP ranking factors, see the full report.

Methods & Limits

The authors applied XGBoost to grid visibility, GBP metadata, website content, and reviews, achieving a global model that explains approximately 92–93% of the variance.

They emphasize that feature importance indicates correlation, not causation. Additionally, they warn that proximity might be overstated due to fixed grid collection and note that their results represent a snapshot in time.

Use these insights as guidance, not a strict rulebook.

Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Aug 28 2025
2025 AI SERP Changes: New Strategies To Gain Local Search Visibility

This post was sponsored by DAC. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

The new reality of Search and brand discovery requires an Enterprise-to-Local strategy.

Traditional keyword-driven search engine results pages (SERPs) are being disrupted by AI-driven experiences that anticipate, summarize, and even act on users’ needs.

As generative AI tools like Google’s AI Overviews and platforms such as Perplexity become more prominent in the Search journey, the marketer’s task expands: It’s no longer just about ranking well on Google but being visible wherever decisions begin.

For multilocation businesses, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. AI is flattening the competitive playing field, restructuring what influences purchasing decisions, and automating formerly human-led interactions.

Here are four key takeaways to help local marketers understand what’s changing, what strategies are needed right now, and what the future holds.

Strategy 1. You Must Navigate Google’s AI-First Search Experience To Stay Visible

Google’s inclusion of AI Overviews has introduced an entirely new kind of SERP.

These AI-generated summaries often sit atop the page, pushing traditional blue links down. Unlike the 10-blue-link layout of old, AI Overviews synthesize answers across sources, citing a few but effectively removing the need to click.

What To Look For, Learn About & Incorporate

Google’s AI Mode, now available as a Labs experiment, prioritizes user intent by stitching together information to answer nuanced queries (e.g., “best affordable Thai near me for a date”) into a conversational response.

For local queries, it factors in:

What No Longer Works

Structured data or map pack signals alone do not supply enough context to be recognized in a modern AI-first search experience.

Strategy 2. Adopt An Enterprise-To-Local Strategy To Capture Both Informational & Local Intent

DAC’s study of over 700 real SERPs across four major verticals (Apparel, Auto Services, Financial Services & Insurance, and Home Services) revealed a clear divergence between the kinds of queries that trigger AI Overviews (AIOs) and those that surface the traditional Maps Pack.

Only 1% of queries triggered both features in the same SERP. When both appeared, the AIO came first, pushing the Maps Pack below the fold.

What To Look For, Learn About & Incorporate

AIOs dominate informational queries, while Maps Packs dominate transactional or locational ones:

  • Queries beginning with question words (“how,” “why,” “what”) triggered AIOs 28% of the time, but Maps Packs <1%>
  • “Near me” queries triggered Maps Packs 100% of the time and never triggered an AIO.
  • Pluralized terms (e.g., “jackets”) were more likely to trigger AIOs than singular or specific terms.

Marketers, especially those managing multilocation brands, need a bifurcated strategy:

For AI Overviews

  • Invest in informational content that addresses common customer questions.
  • Ensure that content is structured, educational, and aligns with E-E-A-T principles (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).
  • Use clear question-answer formatting to increase chances of AIO inclusion.

For Maps Pack Visibility

  • Optimize your Google Business profile.
  • Encourage reviews and manage responses.
  • Create localized landing pages with clear CTAs and schema markup.
  • Use local backlinks and citations to build trust.

Strategy 3. Gain Visibility In Alternate Search Experiences With A Distributed Content Footprint

Many users, especially younger generations, are increasingly bypassing traditional search engines altogether.

Inject your brand into new channels and open your windows and doors to complete visibility.

Perplexity AI has seen a remarkable rise in adoption, with around 22 million monthly active users in 2025, positioning it as a major alternative search platform.

Perplexity can geolocate the user and surface locally-relevant searches through its own web crawling, but also offers specific Local Search functionality that is enriched by a Yelp integration, and a restaurant booking capability that integrates with OpenTable – highlighting the importance of strong business listing data partnerships for any AI-based search that wishes to challenge Google’s dominance.

Reddit has become a trusted resource for recommendations, given the importance consumers are placing on social proof. Reddit commands strong loyalty among younger users, with over 70% of its user base being Millennials or Gen Z.

Its long-lasting content delivers value over time; 34% of Reddit posts continue to be viewed more than a year after posting. While Reddit does not offer an explicitly local search function, local business discovery is discussion-based.

Local content can be prioritized in the interface through the user’s geolocation, and explicitly local subreddits (e.g., r/Vancouver) can become forums for brands to build authentic connections with local customers.

TikTok is also a strong contender. A 2024 Adobe study revealed that 64% of Gen Z and 49% of Millennials have used TikTok as a search engine. While TikTok does not provide a maps-based search, its “Nearby” feed supports the discovery of content posted by local creators.

TikTok is currently testing an experimental feature that will place user-generated reviews into the Comments section when a place or local business has been tagged in the content.

In this way, TikTok can support local brand discovery through a blend of metadata, location tagging, and algorithmic signals. TikTok’s rapidly evolving paid search capabilities also support geotargeting as granularly as the zip code level.

The generational differences in Search behavior are clear. Gen Z often turns to TikTok and Reddit for inspiration and discovery rather than Google.

Millennials blend traditional, AI-assisted, and visual search, while Gen X and Boomers still lean toward Google, though they’re increasingly open to AI-generated summaries.

What To Look For, Learn About & Incorporate

To reach these diverse platforms and audiences requires tailored content. Video-first assets optimized for TikTok, Reels, and YouTube cater well to short-form, visual-first consumption.

On forums such as Reddit and Quora, building textual credibility through authentic, conversational answers is key.

Pinterest thrives on visuals and moodboards, while FAQs, how-to guides, and structured content (with schema markup) are crucial for AI engines that reward clear, structured information.

In this evolving landscape, marketers must build a distributed content footprint to ensure a presence wherever people are searching, and where AI tools may source it.

As AI platforms increasingly summarize content from various social and community channels, your brand’s participation in those discussions becomes essential,  not just for visibility, but to be cited accurately.

Strategy 4. Prepare For The Future Of Agentic Local Search

We are entering the agentic era, where users don’t just search, they delegate.

Google’s experimental “Call with AI” feature allows users to let an AI assistant call local businesses on their behalf. This transforms search from a real-time human task into an asynchronous agentic process.

What To Look For, Learn About & Incorporate

Key Impacts:

  • Proximity matters less: If AI finds a better deal 20 minutes away, you may be willing to make the trip
  • Price pressure increases: Transparent price comparisons and AI-led negotiations could initiate a race to the bottom
  • “Vibes” matter less: Warm greetings won’t influence the AI. Decision-making shifts from emotional to transactional.
  • Big brands lose leverage: Without human biases for logos or familiarity, small businesses can compete if they meet the decision criteria

Operational Challenges

  • Call volume may spike, but call value drops; your business could receive 100 AI-generated inquiries while winning only a few sales.
  • Unanswered calls = lost sale. AI agents will move on quickly if a call goes unanswered.
  • Scalability issues: AI can contact 100 businesses in seconds. Human-staffed phones can’t scale similarly.

Long-Term Adjustments

  • Structured pricing data must be public and machine-readable.
  • Agent-to-agent negotiation will require new infrastructure, with bots communicating with each other to confirm inventory and schedule appointments.
  • Local search becomes asynchronous: Agents might initiate requests at midnight and complete transactions during business hours, with no human involved.

Evolving Local Search, Enduring Foundations

There has been a seismic shift in how users discover brands and make decisions.

Businesses, especially multilocation enterprises, must adapt to a new hybrid model where visibility is dictated by both informational depth and local precision.

What’s Changing:

  • AI reshapes SERPs: Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode prioritize synthesized answers and intent-matching over clickable links, reducing organic link visibility.
  • Query types split visibility paths: Informational queries are now more likely to trigger AI Overviews, while transactional/local queries still favor Maps Packs; rarely do both appear together.
  • New platforms drive discovery: Reddit, TikTok, Perplexity, and Pinterest are no longer fringe sources – they are now primary discovery tools for younger generations.
  • Agentic search emerges: Users increasingly delegate tasks to AI (e.g., “Call with AI”), reshaping search from human-led interactions into asynchronous, bot-to-bot transactions.
  • Operational pressure increases: Businesses must prepare for surges in AI-driven interactions, increased price competition, and reduced influence of brand familiarity or emotional cues.

What’s Staying The Same:

  • Relevance and trust still rule: Google’s EEAT ranking principles remain crucial for AI visibility.
  • Local optimization is still vital: For transactional/local intent, the Maps Pack remains dominant. Accurate business listings, reviews, and structured local content continue to impact discoverability.
  • Content matters: Informational, structured, and platform-tailored content remains the cornerstone of any successful visibility strategy, only now must it live across multiple channels and formats.
  • Brand credibility drives citations: AI systems rely on trustworthy sources, so being the “answer” in AIOs or Perplexity depends on being referenced as a reputable, visible voice across the web.

To thrive in this transformed landscape, marketers must double down on creating a distributed content footprint, intent-driven optimization, and technical readiness for AI delegation, while still leaning on the fundamentals of trust, relevance, and local authority.

At DAC, we help brands thrive in this complexity with strategies that balance informational depth, local precision, and future-ready adaptability. Our recent analysis of 700+ SERPs across four major industries reveals how AI Overviews and Maps Packs divide visibility and what multilocation brands must do to capture both.

If you’re ready to turn today’s search disruption into tomorrow’s growth, get the full insights in our new whitepaper.

Download the Whitepaper

Image Credits

Featured Image: Image by DAC. Used with permission.

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