Darren Shaw

🔹 Founder of Whitespark.ca: local SEO software and services.
🔹 Local SEO educator with 45,000+ newsletter subscribers, 10,000+ YouTube subscribers, and 3,000+ email course sign-ups
🔹 In charge of the annual Local Search Ranking Factors Survey, one of the most cited resources in local SEO
🔹 Speaker at local search conferences around the globe and contributor to SEO publications
🔹 I've been doing web development and SEO for 27 years (yes, before Google existed)

Founder

Whitespark builds online tools and provides services that help businesses and agencies with local SEO. We're known for our Local Citation Finder, Local Rank Tracker, Citation Building & Audit Services, and Local SEO Consulting. Our team often collaborates with other industry leaders and frequently presents at top SEO & Marketing conferences in North America.

Most SEOs don’t realize they can see AI search prompts inside Search Console. I saw this tip from Chris Long on LinkedIn, and it’s too good not to share.

Here’s exactly how to do it:

1. Go to Search Console > Performance > Search Results
2. Set the date range to 12 months
3. Click Add Filter > Query
4. Change the dropdown to Custom (regex)
5. Paste in a regex that filters for long queries: ^(?:\S+\s+){9,}\S+$
6. Click Apply

You’ll now see longer, more conversational queries. Some of these may still be traditional searches, so I like to edit the regex and change the character count from 9 to 20.

Now you’re looking at really long prompts that people are likely typing into AI search.

Why this matters:

- I’m not a big fan of AI visibility tracking tools because, in my experience, their data is often garbage. This method gives you real data straight from Google and lets you see how people are actually asking questions about your business.
- You can identify content gaps and optimization opportunities on your website.
- You can track whether more AI-style queries are starting to show up over time.

Try it out and let me know if you see any crazy prompts in your data!

There’s a wild black-hat SEO case study where Holly Starks put 100 cell phones in her car, turned on driving directions to a business, and that business jumped to #1 in rankings.

Obviously you’re not going to do that, but driving directions WILL boost your rankings, so here’s how you can get more of them without driving around with 100 cell phones in your car:

1. Google your business name.
2. In the Knowledge Panel, click on “Directions”.
3. When the map opens, copy the URL from the address bar. That link is a direct driving directions link from the user’s location to your business.
4. Use the link and send it to your customers:
- Add it to appointment reminder emails/text messages
- Put it clearly on your website’s contact page
- If you’re hosting an event, send it out in email and text campaigns

If you’re getting people to physically visit your location anyway, you might as well encourage them to use the directions link. 

More direction requests = stronger engagement signals = better local rankings

Got any other ideas of where you could use this link?

We just launched an absolutely incredible new feature in Whitespark Local Ranking Grids, and you need to see it. When you click “Plot Competitors on Map”, you can instantly visualize your competitors on the map:

- Who’s outranking you at that exact location
- Where they’re physically located
- How close (or far) they are from that grid point
- How competitor clusters shift across the grid

You can even expand it from Top 10 all the way to Top 100. 

Yes, we track rankings all the way to 100 (unlike all of our outdated competitors).

But what I love the most about this new feature is how visual it makes everything. You can literally click around the grid and watch competitors change depending on their location. It makes proximity, density, and competition incredibly obvious and easy to explain to potential clients.

This data is incredibly valuable for:

- Showing prospects exactly who is outranking them and how close those competitors are.
- Spotting weak areas and competitive clusters on the map and adjusting your strategy accordingly.
- Identifying areas where competitors are farther away and a new location could do really well.

This is one of those features that makes you look really smart on a sales call because instead of overexplaining rankings to potential clients, you can visually show them what’s happening in just a few clicks and they instantly get it.

If you want to test the software for yourself, you can run 8 free 5×5 grid scans with our trial (no credit card required). Go click around. It’s actually fun.

Nobody knows this: you could get sued for spam fighting.

Did you know that a business can subpoena Google and request a record of who’s been making edits to their Google Business Profile?

Yep. It’s a real legal process. And if they go through it, Google will provide a list of accounts that made changes to their Profile.

So, if you’re out there using “Suggest an Edit” on competitor profiles, changing business names, categories, etc, those businesses could potentially find out it was you and take legal action.

That’s why I recommend using the Google Business Redressal Complaint Form.

Doing it this way removes the risk of being personally exposed in a legal request.

It is a great joy in my life to record the Whitespark Local Update podcast with the wonderful Claire Carlile 🎺  We’re 20 episodes in and you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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How do you structure your page in such a way that Google’s AI cites it in its answers?

I love Dan Petrovic. He recently did some amazing technical research into Google’s “grounding snippets”, i.e. the sentences it selects from your page to then build its answer to the user’s query.

The grounding process goes something like this:

1. A user submits a prompt to Gemini, for example.
2. Google breaks this prompt down into smaller sub-queries and finds web pages relevant to these sub-queries.
3. Then, Google selects the MOST RELEVANT SENTENCES from those pages.
4. These sentences turn into the grounding snippets that are fed into the AI model alongside the user’s prompt, so the AI can generate an answer.

One of Dan’s key takeaways from this research is that Google’s system prefers sentences that are both:

- semantically close to the query
- and early on the page

What does this mean for you?

Communicate the main idea of your content succinctly in the first paragraph of the page. This will increase the chances of Google using those first sentences as grounding snippets in its AI answers (which in turn will increase your brand’s AI visibility)

Claire and I discuss this topic on today’s episode of the Whitespark Local Update, plus:

- Google’s Minimum Viable Content Refresh (Steve Toth)
- Google is Nudging Reviewers to Edit Their Old Reviews (Claudia Tomina)
- Reviews + The Real World: Learnings From Famed Restaurant Reviewer, Marilyn Hagerty (Miriam Ellis)
- Updated Privacy Guidelines for Suspension & Reinstatement Requests (Vinay Toshniwal)
- What Extraction Method Is Google Using to Build Grounding Snippets? (Dan Petrovic)
- Careful With Google Business Profile Verification Flow (Claudia Tomina)
- Whitespark’s New Google Business Profile Reinstatement Service 👀

Find the full episode on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify!

Founder of Whitespark. I share local SEO tips and strategy. Lead researcher behind the annual Local Search Ranking Factors survey. Get everything you need for better local SEO at whitespark.ca

Local SEO Expert | GBP Suspension Expert | Google Ads Expert | 500+ GMBs Reinstated- Ex- Googler | Help Local Businesses to get qualified leads. Service for: HVAC, Law Firm, Contractors, Garage Door, Roofing.

Just noticed that GBP now has a “Reply to reviews with AI” feature. Has anyone here tried it yet?
I gave it a quick test, and it looks promising but doesn’t seem fully optimized at this stage.

Interestingly, it directed me to an older one star review and prompted me to generate a suggested reply. The response it produced was actually quite decent. However, when I tried to use the same feature for other unanswered reviews, the option wasn’t available.

Curious to hear if others are experiencing the same inconsistency or if it’s just me.

Joy Hawkins Randy Roberts Darren Shaw 

#GBP #AI #localseo

Most businesses are missing a huge opportunity with their Google Posts. They add photos to their Posts instead of videos. 
Videos stand out way more in the Google Posts feed, communicate more information in less time, and feel more authentic to potential customers.

Sure, recording videos takes a bit more effort than just taking a picture, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Just record a short clip inside your business:

- Have the owner or a team member talk about a current offer.
- Show what’s new.
- Show your space.
- Show a product.
- Show how you perform a service.

And if you or your client doesn’t like being on camera, you can make some flashy videos easy-peasy with a tool like Canva.

Videos in Google Posts → more engagement on your GBP → better visibility → more conversions.

How to See Your AI Traffic in Search Console

Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gKmebB2g

One of the Most Underrated Local Ranking Signals?

Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gPbSb4CY

What if you could sit down with your ideal customer and ask them anything before updating your website, and use those answers to 10x your content’s conversion power?

That’s the concept behind Andy Crestodina’s AI Personas. Here’s how it works:

You give AI a prompt that instructs it to act as your ideal customer. Then you use that “artificial buyer persona” to audit your webpages from the perspective of a potential customer. For example:

- Is the page addressing all the buyer’s objections?
- Is it triggering the emotional response you want your buyer to have?
- What are the decision criteria, and are you covering them all on the page?

Claire Carlile 🎺 and I discuss this in more detail on today’s episode of the Whitespark Local Update, plus:

- How To Mine Google Search Console For Conversation Data (Chris Long)
- AI Talking to AI (Ben Fisher)
- Updated Google Business Profile Policies (Hiroko Imai)
- Stop Chasing the Local 3-Pack (Claudia Tomina)
- Google Business Profile Violations (Sterling Sky Inc)

Find the full episode on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify!

Did you know that you can get SUED for editing a Google Business Profile?

Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gsnyjWrA

Every local SEO who works with restaurants can learn a thing or two from Marilyn Hagerty.

She is an award-winning restaurant reviewer who rose to fame after her review of Olive Garden went viral. Her book Grand Forks (published by the great Anthony Bourdain, btw) holds all the secrets to great customer reviews.

In her new blog post, Miriam Ellis shares her biggest local SEO takeaways from Marilyn’s book. Here’s one:

Every one of Marilyn’s reviews hit on these topics:

- What she ate
- Satisfaction sentiment
- Price
- Atmosphere
- Service quality
- Wait times
- Cleanliness

These attributes happen to be some of the key elements featured on restaurant Google Business Profiles (see image). This is also the exact kind of content Google is now scraping for its new AI-driven “Ask a Question” feature.

What does this mean for restauranteurs and local SEOs who work with restaurants? Read Miriam’s full blog post on Whitespark’s blog to find out 👀

Use Video in Google Posts (Most Businesses Don’t)

Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gBKtZPqP

Whitespark Local Ranking Grids is the only tool on the market that tracks to 100. Delivering real value.

⚡️Get your FREE SEO Surge Summit ticket at my profile!!

Shout out to Whitespark local ranking grids.
Someone reached out and their GBP was in the WRONG STATE!

A normal geogrid caps out at 20+
These geogrids go up to a 100

I showed this to the prospect, they fixed the bug
They're already showing up higher

No, not in the Map Pack
But this is real local SEO progress 💪

Darren Shaw give my best to the dev team 👏

When you search “near me”, I help you find my clients. 

Who are my clients? SMBs, healthcare providers, law firms, and brick-and-mortar enterprises who depend on local search to reach their customers. 

Whether you’re a DIY business owner or a seasoned SEO strategist, I create content for anyone who cares about local search and Google Maps. 

My credentials? 

As a GBP Gold Product Expert with nearly a decade of local SEO experience in various agencies and senior in-house roles, I’ve applied creative and data-driven strategies that solve complex Map issues, win the Map Pack, and increase organic local leads.

What else about me? 

-As a Gold Product Expert for Google Business Profile, I regularly solve complex GBP & Maps issues, such as bulk verification, spam networks, suspensions, duplicates, re-brands, verification, review remediation, bugs, and more. You can find me as a top contributor on the Google Help Community. 

-I’ve grown and monetized my own affiliate websites via SEO

-As Director of Digital Marketing at a behavioral health hospital, I have managed paid search campaigns, social media, and more. 

-I'm an animal lover, so sorry in advance if you hear my Coon Hound, Ellie, howling on a Zoom Call.

Got a serious GBP issue? Ready for better local SEO results? Follow me for regular content or reach out to see if I can help!

Sam Knight

SEO agencies that sell & report "activity" are experiencing a rude awakening, and it's only the beginning.

For context, here's a client report I'm currently working on. 

(We're less than a year into an SEO, AEO, and Dev engagement).

The CMO recently told me that in 20 years of working with countless vendors, we're the first one that primarily focuses on the bankable outcome of our work. 

Besides this making his job 100x easier, it's also 100x easier to justify any additional marketing investments we propose. 

But soon, this type of reporting won't be a "bonus"

It will be fundamentally required to remain competitive as an agency.

Agencies got away with selling & reporting activity for a long time. It was never great, but at least the costs could be justified. 

But now the cost of "activity" is plummeting due to AI + automation. 

That means you either lower your pricing - or wait until you're inevitably undercut by a competing agency doing the same activity for 1/10th the cost.

On the other hand, if your pricing is based on value output... well, it really doesn't matter how much activity costs are reduced. 

And when a competing agency comes knocking, the dirt-cheap prices don't look nearly as intriguing either.

Because the business isn't asking the cost per blog, per word, per hour, or per link... They will be asking: "does it produce more revenue? By how much?"

If option A is cheaper than option B, option A usually has the edge.

Unless, of course, if the options are:

𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗔: Receive 1 blog for $1; or

𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗕: Receive $300 for $100

Now which one are you choosing? 😆 

So, agencies are at a crossroads. They can either:

1. Race to the bottom to hopefully remain competitive in the AI age; or

2. Sell outcomes, revenue growth, value output, performance-based, etc


My bet is on the latter 💯


#seo #digitalmarketing

Local SEO → qualified leads (health, law, home services) | Co-Founder @Hoopless | Google Platinum Product Expert | Named 1 of 47 “Top Voices in Local Search” in Whitespark’s 2026 Rank Factors Report

One of these websites has LLMs.txt ...the other does not. Can you guess which one? 

Both sides compare the same time frame (the last 12 months).

Curious what you think!


#seo #aeo

Did you know you can put your custom Google Ads call extension number on your Google Business Profile? 

It's super easy - but easy to miss! 

It's tucked away in GBP advanced settings.

This is how you can use your custom phone asset on your GBP when it appears in Google Ads.

(and still show your normal phone number when it's organic)



#seotips #localseotips #GoogleAds

GBP Google Ads Extension

Here's a hack for stronger multi-state / enterprise Local SEO: use subdomains instead of simple location subfolders. 


❌ Sub folder → . com / locations / chicago

✅ Subdomain → Chicago . Yourbiz . com 

Most multi-location / enterprise websites just use subfolders.

But if you use a subdomain... You can have an ENTIRE website about that city, and every page, every blog, your About page, your home page, etc - are 100% about one city.

Opposed to your website being about Chicago... and Los Angeles, and New York, and Miami, and…

That matters because the topical relevance of your website in totality is a rank factor (and relevance isn’t just about what you do. It’s also where you do it).

This is separate from Proximity. Being located in that city is just one piece. You also have to be the most relevant.

And when your website is about 20 states and 50 cities, it is never really a total topical authority of one geo. Really, you're more like a generalist.

That’s a big reason why I believe single-location mom and pops often beat huge brands with massive budgets in local search.

You can throw a lot of resources at link building, PR, etc - but if your website is only 10% about a city, it's still going to be hard to compete against one that is 100% about that city.

And since Google sees subdomains as separate websites, you can effectively have a unique website for every location with more brand cohesion compared to having a unique domain for every location.

Plus, with a solid internal link structure, you can still maintain much of the link equity of the parent domain. 


Have you tried this? Would love to hear your result!


#seotips #localseo

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The Battle

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Sam Knight

Followers

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Darren Shaw's LinkedIn Performance

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