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.

Have you seen the new “Insights” section on your Profile? Dipa Gandhi recently shared a screenshot of it, and it’s pretty cool. It highlights optimization opportunities right inside your Profile.

Local SEO hack you NEED to know: Google says you can only upload 30-second videos to your Google Business Profile. That’s what the guidelines say. But that’s not actually true.

Let’s settle this once and for all. The business Description is NOT a local ranking factor, even if you stuff it with keywords. Google does not use it as part of the local search algorithm.

Here’s a mistake I see businesses make all the time: They try to make one Google Business Profile rank for multiple categories.

Well, it usually can’t. That’s just not how Google works.

There’s an annoying Google Business Profile bug going on right now. When you try to edit a Profile, the entire editing dashboard (the so-called NMX) is just missing. The good news is, there’s a workaround (thanks to Syed Amir).

Did you know that your local rankings can change dramatically depending on whether your business is open or closed at the time of the search? Watch the example below.

Quick Google Business Profile Tip: Google Posts are NOT social posts. They’re free advertising space.

Does the 360° view on Google impact local rankings?

Short answer: not directly. But I still think you should do it.

When you have 360° views on your Google Business Profile, you tend to get more engagement.

People click. They explore. They spend more time checking out your Profile.

One of my favourite features in Whitespark’s Local Ranking Grids is how you can customize the layout to cover only the areas you actually care about.

Did you see that there is a new type of local Justification?!

In today’s episode of The Whitespark Local Update, @clairecarlile.bsky.social and I talk about this and reminisce about the good ol’ days when we had all kinds of local Justifications.

If you still haven’t connected your socials to your Google Business Profile, this is your sign. Google is pulling information from your social profiles directly into search results. Valentina Vasileva shared this on LinkedIn, and it’s pretty wild.

The whole point of rank tracking is to measure the impact of your local SEO work. So, if your rank tracker stops tracking at position 20, what are you really measuring?

This feature hits different (literally) 📦

My kid had too much fun throwing boxes at my head for this short. There’s a whole behind-the-scenes bit in tomorrow’s YouTube video. Can you guess what it’s about?