From the newsletter
Search Notes
What I'm seeing in local search, Google Business Profiles, and AI answers, written for the owners and marketers on my list. Short, opinionated, and usually something you can do this week.
- 19 things we learned about AI visibility in the last 12 monthsLessons from a year of AI visibility audits: crawlers, site speed, content, PR, and why results take months to show.AI visibility · Websites · Local search
- 4 Steps to Better AI VisibilityA four-step Local SEO workflow to check, define, spread, and build your AI visibility over about five weeks.AI visibility · Reviews · Websites
- Why AI picks them and not youThe signals AI looks at when it recommends a local business, and a checklist to see where you stand.AI visibility · Reviews · Websites
- What SEO taught you to stop doingPress, awards and community work stopped feeling worth it for SEO, and they're exactly what AI recommendations draw on.AI visibility · Local search · Reviews
- How to start measuring AI visibilityA five-step way to measure whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews recommend your business.AI visibility · Tools
- Your customer's search started before GoogleCustomers now often ask AI first and use Google to verify, so you can rank well on Google and still be invisible to AI.AI visibility · Local search · Reviews
- Google is killing the LSA platformGoogle is folding Local Services Ads into Performance Max, and I explain what changes and why I'm cautious.Ads · Local search
- The Agent Readiness Checklist for Local BusinessesA checklist of what to fix on your website so AI agents can read, book and choose your local business.Websites · AI visibility · Local search
- How AI agents will browse the web in 6 monthsWebMCP could let AI agents call your site's functions directly, and why the basics you fix today still matter.Websites · AI visibility
- Your contact form is brokenCommon contact form and booking mistakes that make your site unusable for AI agents, and how to fix each one.Websites · AI visibility
- Your GBP is ready. Your website isn't.AI agents read your website's structure, not its design. Here's what they see, why it matters, and a free tool to check your site.Websites · AI visibility · Google Business Profile
- Zero-click is rising. So are agent visits. Are you ready?AI agents now visit websites to complete tasks like booking. Here's what they need from your site and why local businesses should care.Websites · AI visibility · Local search
- Your GBP is becoming a data feedGoogle's new GBP features make profiles easier to run and also turn them into a data feed for AI. Here's what that means and what to do.Google Business Profile · AI visibility · Reviews
- Reddit for Local SEOReddit threads now show up in local search, so here's how to see what's said about your business and what to do about it.Local search · AI visibility
- Google Gets More Yelpian With New Review PoliciesGoogle's new review policies sound reasonable but enforcement looks Yelp-like, plus what to stop, keep, and document.Reviews · Google Business Profile
- AI search doesn't work like Google searchReal AI prompts are long, messy and full of constraints, so tracking 'best plumber in Dallas' misses how people actually search.AI visibility · Tools
- Your Service Area Is Too BigA huge service area dilutes your relevance. Here's why a tighter one ranks better, and how to pick where to focus.Google Business Profile · Local search
- What If Google Rewrote Your Profile?Google is using AI to write parts of your business profile, and why feeding it good, current inputs matters more than ever.Google Business Profile · AI visibility · Reviews
- The Citation MythWhy paying monthly for directory citations rarely helps, and the few cases where citations still matter.Local search · Google Business Profile · Tools
- Ask Google Maps just changed local searchAsk Google Maps makes local search conversational, so Google reasons about your business as an entity instead of matching keywords.Local search · AI visibility · Google Business Profile
- Stop writing blog posts no one readsWhy location pages beat blog posts for local search, and what makes a location page work.Websites · Local search · AI visibility
- Your GBP photos are killing your profileGoogle reads your profile photos to judge what you do and whether you're real. Here's what to upload, and how often.Google Business Profile · Local search
- Why your competitor ranks with fewer reviewsWhy review velocity and recency can beat a bigger review count in the local pack, and how to fix yours.Reviews · Google Business Profile · Local search