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dba platform: Google & Local SEO

New GBP categories

  • RV repair and maintenance service
  • probate attorney
  • bilingual preschool
  • donburi restaurant

GBP bugs

  • Review attacks on the rise (they get a bunch of 1-star reviews, then a message to WhatsApp saying “I left bad reviews, give me money or I’ll leave more”). Do not respond, take a screenshot, flag the review, respond professionally, and escalate if needed. Google link: https://support.google.com/business/workflow/9945796

August 2025 spam update rolled out. The last one was rolled out in December, usually takes 1-2 weeks. Targets low-quality content & link manipulation (buying links). Mostly impacts informational sites/blogs.

 

Google Posts Central Dashboard

  • You can see a new screen that shows your previous posts with info about when it was created, the picture, etc.
  • It’s an extra step to post now.
  • Doesn’t look like much now, but it’s likely it’s going to be something later because Google is putting effort into something.
  • Right now there doesn’t seem to be any help for posting with keywords. Not top of the priority. But that might change in the future since Google is spending time on this feature.

 

Google changes things all the time

  • Menu link instead of website link
  • website link might be cut off
  • it changes depending on your category
  • in this example the place saw a decrease in clicks, so the reason was the layout on google maps and on SERP made clicking the website button less accessible

 

 

ChatGPT

  • still says it uses Bing as the default search partner
  • Tests show ChatGPT results align more with Google results than Bing
  • Free version and paid version of ChatGPT access differently. Free version may not have updated as quickly, or the paid version might be more robust so it checks more things.
  • So, most users likely use the free version while marketers might be more likely to use the paid version. Need to be careful when testing for clients, as they might not representative of the “real world.”

Google AI Overview

  • There was a study “how much do you trust AI Overviews compared to regular search snippets or links?”
  • 40%, about the same.

 

  • “Do you still click on website links in the search results after reading an AI Overview?”
  • The click-throughs look like they have increased based on the study, but in reality, we are seeing drastic drops in clicks.

 

Google AIO

  • We’re seeing in the overviews that when you click the button to see the sources the info was pulled from, Google is pulling from itself sometimes via shopping tabs. So, having your products in the Merchant Centre is important.
  • The way AI works is that if I do a search for air conditioning in a town, Google would just give me those links. But AI takes “best ac in city”, and makes lots of versions/questions to send to google and Bing. So, instead of 1 query, it’s more like 20. Not just the best, but the associated questions, like repairs. It looks at who gets mentioned the most often and likely lists them closer to the top.  AI fans out their queries, then aggregates what is the most mentioned option. So, are you mentioned in every type of search variation you can think of?
Google rep talking about AI Overview testing: https://x.com/rmstein/status/1960045095169966197

My Question

Does AI like long, informative website pages or more “to the point”? You mentioned multiple queries, so not sure if just having a short and sweet answer is good, or if there’s benefit to telling a bit of a story. Like, for exterior cleaning in Nanaimo, do I want my gutter cleaning service page to be worshipping “Nanaimo Gutter Cleaning” in every aspect I can think of, or is it too much?

 

More straightforward is better. The narrative content isn’t as good. AI is like the Vulcan, the logic and basic facts matter. I do this, I’m good at this, why am i good at this? here’s proof i’m good at this, i won an award so I’m the best at this. Tell the AI you are the best. FAQ is good. Why should I hire you? why should I trust you? Less keyword stuffing, although we are kinda inbetween right now. What would convince a person? That’s what we want to go for. Don’t fluff, don’t add extra stuff. People want to call, they don’t have much time reseraching. Show your proof right away. 10 employees, 5 trucks, we sponsor little league, i’m a family business owner -> those are keywords AI like to see.

 

Other questions

Im in the self storage industry. We see 2 different primary categories- Self storage facility vs storage facility. How do we know which one is the best for the primary?

You have to test it, but changing category can risk suspension. What’s the primary category of your competitors? It can help guide what Google might like the best. If you have a secondary category like “luggage storage” then have a page on your website that talks about this. Your listing should have things that your website can support/backup.

 

What are the three most beneficial actions, and at what rate, one can take to improve maps ranking?

Reviews, content on the website, and pictures/posts (the easy stuff). Backlinks from local places, like other companies you’ve worked with strengthens the local linking to show a stronger connection.

 

 

 

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