Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Whitespark Local Update is the go-to podcast for Local SEOs and Marketers who want to stay ahead of the curve in local search and the local visibility space.
Join industry experts Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw for a lively, insightful roundup of their carefully curated selection of top βmust-readβ and βmust-watchβ links, including news, trends, and can't-miss resources.
Darren (00:00.088)
Hello and welcome to another episode of the White Spark Local Update with me Darren Shaw.
And with me, Claire Carlile.
All right, and as usual, we're going to talk about the latest news and happenings and shakeups in the world of local search marketing. So Anthony Higman on the LinkedIn, he says that he shares a screenshot and then I don't know why he did it. He links it over to Twitter and he's got like a video, but you could have just put the video on LinkedIn. But anyways, it's a it's an AI overview.
that has a local map pack in the AI overview. This is, I've been waiting for this because for the longest time, freaking Google's AI results were not incorporating the incredible wealth of data they have in their Google business profile databases. Like, what are you guys doing? Get together and figure this out because Chagg ABT, you know, they're coming for the crown. They've got...
a whole like map pack and local results and people, know, chat GPT is like, well, we could make these look like Google's local results and they were doing a decent job of it. But related to this, also yesterday, Matt McGee shares a post also on LinkedIn and he says that he can no longer trigger a like a map and like a map pack style thing in chat GPT.
Darren (01:36.482)
And I was like, well, that's weird. So I did some testing myself and I couldn't do it either. I was like, come on, Chad GPT. I prompted, was like, could you please show me all of these businesses you're suggesting on a map? And Chad GPT says, here's like a Python code to do it. And I'm like, what? No, I don't want to build my own map in Python. Can you just show me on a map? And so, so.
Kind of fascinating because we were talking about this on the near media office hours. Huge shout out to near media. If you don't subscribe to their content and you don't join those office hours, I'm telling you, you are missing out. But we were talking about how, like, you know, what is the real threat to Google's local search? And everyone agrees that, well, Google has the data and Google has a chance to really win if they can incorporate their Google business profile data into
AI mode and AI overviews and it looks like it's happening. And at the same time, Chad GPT is in the bed on the local. So I think it's really happening. And this is good news as they prepare to make AI mode the default. What do you think, Claire?
I'm thinking many things. I just think it is a movable feast. So everyone is seeing different things at different times, in different surfaces, in different LLMs. So I think we can get a little bit bogged down with the details of what we're seeing one day and what someone else is seeing one day. So meanwhile, it's very interesting, but yes, that is the thing that we are waiting for.
is for Google to take advantage of all of these wonderful things that they have access to, including knowledge graph, local business knowledge graph, Google Maps, all of these things, and bring that into one interface where we can get shit done. And at the moment, we're not there. But it's what we're hoping that it is a step towards that. So yes, those are my thoughts on that item, Darren.
Darren (03:54.254)
Astute thoughts as always. Thank you. What do you got? What do you got to tell us about exciting happening?
exciting having. I really liked a piece on the Sterling Sky website, which was nine Google business profile verification tips. Now I love a list. love a list. I love a list. Who doesn't love a list? It's classic content, but also just really useful tips on, you you need to gather these little tips together and keep them in your master list of
These are all the things that I need to do when I'm looking for verification. So stuff that we already partly knew, but it is just nice to see them all together in one place. One thing that you did touch on, which is just like, make sure that the foundational aspects of your business footprint are in place before you get verification. Be using a domain name, email, use that email. So you've got Google Analytics set up and search console, and then you have your citations sorted where Google will expect to see them.
basically set all that up before you do your verification. So top tips along those lines, but there's also other bits and bobs in there. So a very worthwhile read, I would say.
Yeah, required reading, really good stuff. So many tips in here. is, yeah, Sterling Sky. They're so good. They're so good at this content stuff. And I was actually reading this and I'm thinking, is this what they mean by chunking? Because each of these seems so, like, I would assume, I would expect them to be on top of this. And they're like,
Claire (05:37.838)
Darren, chunks. H1, H2, H3, H4. Do know what I mean? It's like...
Great, they're chunk masters actually. would call the Sterling Sky crew the chunk masters of local search.
Chunking makes me blow chunks.
Claire (05:59.79)
You get all query sign-out.
Yeah, or query fan out. Yeah, great job Sterling's guy another fantastic chunky piece, okay Claudia Domina Our friend the brilliant Claudia Tomina always sharing interesting stuff. So she shares something on link LinkedIn. Apparently that's the only place I go for content these days but she shares Google's AI mode includes a feature
that makes the experience much more convenient. You can pick a suggestion or even a few and keep asking questions about it. So she shares a little video of this and it's really cool. It's like, you know, she's doing a localized search, she's getting the AI mode and then she can check the businesses off and be like, tell me if these ones have these types of dishes, which is really cool. And so this is a great kind of first look at some of the enhancements and power we're gonna get from AI.
being integrated into Search. just think, ChatGBT does not stand a chance in local, specifically. It's like, Google already has the data. Google's results are good. And I was saying this. It was like, we have Google Workspace. We don't really need to pay for ChatGBT. If Gemini is good, if AI results are good, that's like, why would I pay for ChatGBT? See you later, ChatGBT.
I got everything I need right here at Google. already paying for it. I just kind of think ChatGBT is having its moment. It's growing, of course, but I think Google is going to catch up and crush them in the long term, over the course of the next few years. That's my opinion. Do you think ChatGBT is still going to be the killer, the Google killer in two years, or do you think Google is going to crush ChatGBT?
Claire (07:56.462)
I don't know if it's the Google killer now. I we're just at an interesting time and I'm not going to do any crystal ball gazing, but we will come to in a moment one of the pieces that I was going to talk about, which is the idea that there are a lot of different LLMs and there are a lot of different agentic AIs.
And just again, slinging all of your eggs in the Google basket, which is what is going to happen if we say Google is, you know, the search results are all going to be great. There's so much more to AI and all of the tech. It's not just about the Google search. So in the context of understanding how our customers and potential customers search and how they surface information, then maybe Google will be the default. But when it comes to
AI and us as marketers and what we do, then I think we do need to consider, keep considering alternatives because they're also...
Yeah, do you think there's any optimization differences like OK, I want to optimize to rank in Google's AI results. I want to optimize rank in chat GBT's local results. Would you do anything differently?
think possibly I would, but until I am in a position where I would know that more than 0.05 % of potential customers are actually using it. So at the moment, will trust, you know, what I'm doing is going in, monitoring different LLMs outside of Google for my branded, non-branded, all parts of the journey for a potential customer.
Claire (09:36.831)
And my surfacing is my client's surfacing, what type of information. I think it's interesting, everything, client leads and money and revenue and conversions are mostly coming via Google.
Yeah, and it's also it's early days. It's hard to know like what is the difference? What would you optimize differently? And I think we're all just still trying to figure that out
Good. All right. Real quickie, quickie, quickie, because we are talking about AI probably too much. And all of my posts are about AI. Anyway, on GetStack, there's just a little post talking about AI overviews potentially moving down the Cirque. And I was sort of, I'm not doing a, is it showing for everyone? Is this blah, blah, blah? I think it's just quite interesting because I would like that to happen because...
I know that AI mode could potentially be the future of what all of the Google search looks like, but until we have that, AI mode would be great that you can go in and you will see all of this, you know, LL generated information and then you could click away and it's not also right at the top of the page on your general search. So I just like the idea of, can we just...
see some results that aren't generated by AI. Just for fun, you know? Let's see what ranks. Let's see what's happening. Anyway, it's not like this is going to happen because I think, again, we focus a bit too much on what is where in the surf and how it shows and everything is changing every two minutes. So let's not worry about it too much.
Darren (11:15.47)
Great article. Good job, stat. Good job, Tom Capper. All right, it's my turn. Steve Toth. He's lovely Canadian. He made a custom GPT that does something very clever. I'm like, damn it, why didn't I think of this? This is really smart. So it's a Google Business Profile Review Violation Checker and Responder. So it does two things.
It's your turn.
Darren (11:44.93)
You basically take a screenshot of your negative review. Somebody left you a negative review and you're like, ugh, I wanna get that removed from my profile. I hope it violates one of Google's content policies, but there's a lot. There's a lot of different things. What am I supposed to flag this one as? Is it defamation? Is it never had an experience at the business? like.
The content of the review is generally what Google is looking at to determine if it violates the guidelines. Well, this custom GPT will do the thinking for you. We won't have to think at all in the future. We'll just have a custom GPT for everything. will just be drooling and like floating around with our Starbucks. so that's our future. And here's a glimpse into our future right now.
So you do not have to look at all of the violation options. You can just paste your review into this and it will tell you if it thinks that it's violating any of the guidelines. And so I tested it on three negative reviews that my client with 600 plus reviews has. And so I'm just dig into the bottom and found a few of those negative ones. And so two of them had said, yeah, no, these are legit. can't, don't bother, don't waste your time.
And then one of them was like, well, you could try this angle. So I thought that was pretty cool. And then so it just kind of gives you a suggestion. So you can check that out. Steve Toth, seonotebook.com. If you are not subscribed to this, you are not living your best life. This is a fantastic, just a tip. Like this dude is always dropping really good stuff. And so you should definitely subscribe.
to seonotebook.com, Steve Toth, and check out the GBP review violation checker and responder.
Claire (13:38.914)
Hey, so I'm here with the Will Reynolds fan club as so sorry. Okay. We've got badges, card that goes in our wallet. it give us free free entry to anything? Okay. This one. Okay. It's cool. The four types of AI marketers, AI minimalists to AI builders.
I'm also a member of this fan club.
Claire (13:56.736)
I don't think so, no.
Claire (14:08.27)
And like all of the things that I like to read, it's really, really long and very in-depth and very clever. so I sat there reading it because I wanted to talk to everyone about it. And I read it all and I loved it. And so listen, this is without notebook, L-L-L-L-M. This is my summary. Are you ready for it? I'm ready. Are you sitting comfortably? Oh, I've overplayed it now. It's not going to be a very good summary. One of the things like,
Because it is so in-depth and it's so interesting, and sometimes when I read things like this, it just makes me feel like an incredibly bad marketer. And I just think, no, I'm so at level one of my AI knowledge. And sometimes you can use that as a rod to beat yourself with and just think that I'm no good and blah, blah, blah. But I want you to go and read it, but I don't want you to feel like that because I feel like...
I've said this before, you can't be good at absolutely everything, but it is probably quite important that we become at least reasonably good at this thing as marketers and in our day-to-day lives, delivering our product and service, whatever that looks like. So apart from it just being so detailed, I really like the way that you can pull out examples of, these are some of the things that I should be thinking about using AI for.
And these are some examples of what like maturity might look like in terms of using AI for my systems and processes and how to add value to the people you're working for. So anyway, that's my top level overview is don't give yourself a hard time if you feel like you're still at level one, but use this to give you an idea about how you could, you know, just create some passion in yourself about using these tools.
to help you improve your systems and processes, to make yourself more employable, to stay employed, and to deliver more value.
Claire (16:14.286)
do you read such a long article? I struggle with like, I'm like, need the like seven sentences on LinkedIn for me to be able to absorb this information. But a massive article like this, although I gotta say, I've been using Speechify. Have you tried this app? Speechify. I get an article like this and I'm gonna save it to Speechify. And then I'm gonna be driving in my car and I'm gonna go into Speechify and I'm be like.
No, no, what does it do?
Claire (16:43.052)
read this to me and it doesn't sound like a robot is reading it to you. It actually does a great job of text to speech and it sounds like someone's reading the article and you can adjust the speed and be like, read it to me faster. And so then it'll read it faster while you're driving or doing dishes or whatever. And so that's what I would do with an article like this. I would use Speechify and I would just listen to it.
Well, thank you very much, Darren.
Thank very much, Claire. Always pleasure chatting with you.
That is it for this week's White Spot Local Update. I hope you've enjoyed listening to it as much as we have enjoyed making it. So you're going to find all of the links to the pieces we have discussed in the show notes. And basically, we must insist that you leave a review on Apple Podcasts. And we must insist you do that immediately.
Don't do anything else. Yeah, you gotta go straight to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review.
Claire (17:39.136)
and we will see you next week. Thank you very much.
Thanks. Bye, everybody.