Are you adding localities to your title tags? You should 👇 What are localities? 🧐 Localities are areas/neighborhoods. Adding localities to your title tag means adding a bunch of neighborhood names to the end.

Jolly useful find: Dan Petrovic’s citation mining tool for AI SEO and MORE. @clairecarlile.bsky.social and I break it down on this week’s pod!👇 You can watch the whole episode on Whitespark’s YouTube channel below. Or if you prefer listening, you can find it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

This might be the best GBP Products section I’ve ever seen 😂 Most businesses play it safe and look boring. But Rescue Plumbing Chicago went bright + bold + fun: yellow backgrounds, fun photos, and a personality that actually makes you want to call them.

Me: “Down with Schema” 👎👎 Mike: “Well…” Such an excellent conversation on the @nearmedia.bsky.social Office Hours roundtable discussion with Greg Sterling, @mikeblumenthal.bsky.social, @davidmihm.bsky.social, @krystaltaing.bsky.social, and @claudiatomina.bsky.social.

Use these 3 review request templates to get POWER reviews 👇 Are you familiar with the concept of power reviews? Power reviews go a few steps beyond a simple 5-star rating

U-Haul is STILL crushing it with this local SEO strategy... I highlighted this brilliant department strategy last year, and all their department listings are still online and driving leads (I just checked).

@clairecarlile.bsky.social and I are back with the biggest stories from last week 🆕 You can watch the whole episode below! 👇 Or if you prefer listening, you can find it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Are blogs useless for local SEO? Definitely not. Here’s how to do local business blogging the right way 👇

How did this business get a link to Snapchat on their Google Business Profile? Google only lets you add seven specific social sites through the NMX, and Snapchat is not one of them, but rogue social links can sometimes show up.

Fall is almost here, which means it’s time to update your Google Business Profiles 🍁

Can you say “Bringing Bing Back Big Time” three times fast? @clairecarlile.bsky.social and I did pretty well IMO 😅 We talk about this and more on this week's Whitespark Local Update episode. Watch it below or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts 👇

This Jimmy John’s location is run by ancient lizard people and their Google Business Profile is WILD

AI is bringing Bing back big time (try saying this 3 times fast) Which is why @miriamellis.bsky.social has prepared a detailed guide to help you create and optimize your Bing Places listing, which will improve rankings in Bing’s local results, and probably improve visibility in AI results.

Y’all didn’t believe me when I said Updates from customers can be powerful, but look at this 👇 This customer was so mad that they left a negative review AND posted a screenshot of the review as an Update on the Profile.

The #1 problem service area businesses encounter on Google is video verification. Google’s local results are map-based. They don’t care as much about businesses that don’t show their location, and they haven’t sufficiently adjusted the verification process to suit SABs.

Local Search Ranking Factor you NEED to know: Website’s Degree of Focus on a Specific Niche In other words: If you try to be relevant for everything, you’ll end up being relevant for nothing.

Finally got the chance to try @whitespark.ca’s new local rankings grids tool and love it. So much better than other tools I’ve used. Highly recommend if you’re doing local SEO.

This is still one of the funniest reviews I’ve ever seen 😂

Here’s some BAD advice from Google: If you have acquired a business and need to update the GBP, Google will tell you to create a new Profile. OMG don’t do that. You’ll lose all your reviews and have to start from scratch with your local SEO. Here’s a summary of the better way to approach this 👇

Surprising citation site, you've probably been ignoring: Yellowpages. Hear me out.

Big news! @clairecarlile.bsky.social and I just launched our brand new local SEO podcast - The Whitespark Local Update! Every week, we’ll bring you a handpicked roundup of the latest local SEO news - all in one episode. Watch the first episode here or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts 👇

Here’s how to get your Google reviews to do double duty (if you’re in Europe) 👇 Step 1: Copy and paste a good review from Google to your website. That’s it, there’s no Step 2.

Do you get reviews on Yellowpages, Angi, and Porch? You might want to start if you want your local business to be recommended by ChatGPT 👇

One of my favorite functionalities of our new local rankings grids is that they basically tell you WHY you’re ranking worse (or better) than your competitors. Go check it out (no credit card required)

I’m doing some local SEO research 👀 Did you know that for some business categories, Google asks extra questions when customers leave reviews? (1/5)

Now that I think about it, maybe don’t ask EVERY customer for a review 😄

What makes an AWESOME Google Post? Check out the video below 👇 This business is leveraging video testimonials from their customers and uploading them to their Google Business Profile as Posts. Such a smart move. (1/5)

🚨 Google says Service Areas impact local rankings! (Spoiler: they don’t) I have tried adding different zip codes, cities, and neighborhoods - there’s been no impact on rankings. And no, I don’t think this is a bug. I think it’s working as intended. (1/4)

Whitespark has launched Ranking Grids 🎉 P.S. Local Ranking Grids has an easy and beautiful export to PNG feature. Until September 1, when you share one of these on Reddit, Facebook Groups, or social media and send us a link to the post, we’ll add 150 credits to your account for free!

Over the years, I’ve attended my fair share of conferences - sometimes as a speaker, sometimes just to listen and learn. These days, I don’t go to many anymore. (1/6)

Did you know that you can add captions to your photos when you upload them to your Google Business Profile? But man, they don’t make it easy to find this functionality. You can ONLY add captions when you add the photos from the Google Maps mobile app 🙂 (1/4)

If you’ve recently followed me on here to learn about local SEO, you should know that I have two free email courses that are much more structured than the random tips I post on socials 😅 Here’s what they cover: (1/3)

There’s no need for review gating. I was on Near Media’s podcast a month ago, and we were talking about reviews when Mike Blumenthal said something that stuck with me: Most customers who leave a negative review just want to be heard. (1/4)

📑 Bookmark this free tool to check your local rankings from anywhere 👇 (1/4)

I really shouldn’t have to say this, but here we are… If you’re using AI to write your Google Posts, please review the text before publishing so you can avoid looking like the business in the screenshot.

Unhinged local SEO hack 🧠 (the Taylor Swift effect) We know that you can drive your rankings up by increasing branded searches for your business. So, what if… (1/3) #localseo #seo

Local SEO Tip: don’t use hashtags on your Google Business Profile. Don’t use them in Posts, review responses, descriptions, or anywhere else on the Profile. #localseo #seo (1/2)

If you’re trying to rank higher in local, reviews matter A LOT. Тhey are one of the most important local SEO factors in 2025. (1/4) #localseo #seo

This is definitely NOT what I meant when I said you should ask and answer questions as the business owner on your own Google Business Profile 😄 It only took them a year to reply to their own question, but hey, at least they said “thank you”.

How would you rank the elements of a Google Business Profile? In my new YouTube video, I rank every major element of the Google Business Profile from S tier to F tier. Search “whitespark” on YouTube, and my channel should be the first result! #localseo #seo

Ugh, don’t you hate it when spammers change things on your GBP?” No, no I don’t, actually, because I live in 2025 and we have solutions for this kind of stuff 😌 And by solutions I mean the Whitespark Local Platform.  #localseo #seo (1/3)

“Why so cheap? What’s the catch?” That’s what someone asked me about Whitespark’s Local Platform. #localseo #seo (1/4)

Just dropping in to remind you that I made a cool free SEO tool a while back and you should use it 👇 #localseo #seo

If you know me, you probably know that I’m a fan of keywords in the business name (when done right). Keywords in the GBP business name is the #2 most impactful local ranking factor according to the 2023 Local Search Ranking Factors survey. (1/5)

🚨 New free local SEO guide! @miriamellis.bsky.social's new guide is about developing a local SEO strategy from scratch — an especially useful topic for small business owners and SEO agencies that want to start dabbling in local search. Google “Whitespark guides” to read it! #localseo #seo

This review request strategy will have 10 times the success rate as an automated email would 👇 #localseo #seo  (1/5)

It can be annoying when Google rewrites your carefully crafted title tag, but it can also work in your favor. I found an awesome example where Google rewrote this business’s title using the H1 on the page (which is usually what they do when rewriting title tags). Look at the video below. (1/5)

We just hit 10,000 subscribers on YouTube 🎉🎉🎉 I yap about local SEO on here every day, but did you know I also yap about local SEO on YouTube? And I’m much more fun out there, in full picture and sound 😅 #localseo #seo

Though you have no control over the Place Topics Google displays on your Business Profile, you CAN use them to improve your business (and your local SEO). Miriam Ellis wrote a brilliant blog post on Place Topics. Here's what we can learn from her article 👇 (1/13)

Removing negative reviews is difficult, but you can make the most of them by responding properly. Here’s how to handle negative reviews like a pro 👇 #localseo #seo (1/5)