This week on Local Search Tuesdays, I’m breaking down why customer reviews should be front and center in your AI search strategy. Reviews have always been huge for Local SEO, but with AI systems analyzing sentiment and looking for diverse content, they’re more important than ever. And it’s not just about Google or Yelp anymore—review diversity across multiple sites could be the secret to staying visible in AI-driven results.
There’s been a lot of noise lately about AI taking over the search world — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini — and whether you, as a business, should be throwing all your efforts into these platforms.
But here’s the reality: Google is still king. Let’s break down the data and what it means for your strategy.
According to Yext’s AI Search Archetypes report:
57% of people (across age brackets and continents) prefer traditional search engines for personal, medical, and financial research.
48% verify answers across multiple platforms, even if they use AI tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity.
Only 19% trust AI-generated answers vs. 45% who trust search engines.
That means, when it comes to trust and decision-making, search engines still have the edge.
This week on Local Search Tuesdays, I’m diving into a major shift you need to make with your website content — and it’s something that’s even more critical in the age of AI search: content chunking.
For years, people got caught up in chasing word counts for SEO, turning helpful info into unreadable word walls. But now, with AI breaking queries into sub-queries and analyzing specific content sections, the game has changed.
This week on Local Search Tuesdays, I’m calling out the nonsense around AI rank tracking. Yeah, AI search is shaking things up—but that doesn’t mean we can slap old-school SEO metrics on it and call it a day. The truth is, traditional rank tracking just doesn’t work with AI systems, no matter what some tools are trying to tell you. I break down why it’s not possible right now, how AI results actually work, and what you should be paying attention to instead.
In this week’s episode of Local Search Tuesdays, I’m diving into a big problem I’ve been seeing lately—businesses dropping the ball on traditional SEO because they’re chasing AI search results. Look, I’m not anti-AI. I use ChatGPT and follow the changes just like everyone else. But here’s the deal: AI search still isn’t where it needs to be for local results, and most people are still finding businesses through Google.
So yeah, keep an eye on AI, but don’t abandon what’s working. SEO is still where the bulk of your leads are coming from. Tune in and I’ll explain why the shiny new thing shouldn’t distract you from the basics that are still crushing it today.
In this week’s episode of Local Search Tuesdays, I dive into the heated debate around what we should call the process of optimizing for AI and LLM-driven search results. Is it still just SEO—or is it time for something new like GEO or AIO?
I'll explain why renaming SEO might confuse clients and the general public, and why sticking with familiar terms might be the smartest move—at least for now.
In this week’s episode of Local Search Tuesdays, I’m sharing our Ultimate Guide to Google Business Profile Optimization. There are hundreds of blog posts, videos, and courses out there that tell you how to optimize your GBP - but often they provide conflicting guidance.
To make things easier for everyone, I wanted to put together a simple, quick video guide that walks through the important elements of your Google Business Profile and how you should optimize for success. Check out the guide, and let us know if there’s something you think we left out!
In this week’s episode of Local Search Tuesdays, I dive into how AI is rapidly reshaping the world of digital marketing. From the days of losing keyword data in Google Analytics to the rise of AI-driven search and query fan-out, the way we track visibility and conversions is evolving fast. I break down what this shift means for marketers, why traditional SEO still matters, and how businesses can prepare for a future where influence—not just visibility—is the key to success.
In this week’s episode, I dig into the mass deletion of over 2,500 Google Business Profiles for car dealerships. For dealers who were affected, I share an update from Google and next steps based on what happened after you were deleted. Check out the full video for all the details - and make sure you never give “owner” access of your GBP to any vendor partner, no matter how hard they press you!
I spent the first week of June on the beach in Spain for the amazing SEOnthebeach conference. If you ever get a chance, you should definitely go. It’s a really fun event and the speakers shared incredible presentations. As always, I grabbed my camera and microphone and asked the speakers and experts for tips to help digital marketers and business owners - check it out!
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