The 2026 Google Business Profile Review Trends You Can’t Ignore | Claudia Tomina - Local SEO - The Expert’s Guide

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Obviously, when you have huge spikes in reviews, you're getting flagged and it's become a lot

(00:05):
more common with AI and the algorithms being like more sophisticated and they're able to
pinpoint a lot more patterns. It all comes down to the same thing. You've probably had it happen.
A customer swears that they left you a fivestar review. You wait, but nothing shows up. Or worse,
you post, but then it disappears 4 days later. No warning, no email, no explanation. And here's

(00:28):
the scary part. It is not just random. There are algorithmic filters that most businesses
don't even realize exist. And now AI is starting to determine what exactly matters when it comes
to local pack rankings. And it may not be what you think. So I I don't know why Google does this
because it's like so confusing. And there's so many different scenarios. Like it's like reviews
publish and then they're gone and then they come back. But I think it all comes down to the same

(00:52):
thing. There's unusual patterns going on that Google's detecting. categories in general that
like normally don't get three to four reviews a day and all of a sudden you're you're jumping
that high, you have to expect that something's going to go astray. I've seen it where reviews
will go up for 3 months and then boom, all the reviews get deleted and then you're slapped on

(01:13):
with the review manipulation. So, you have to be very careful. You have to make sure that
today I'm sitting down with one of the most respected faces in the local SEO space, Claudia
Tamina. if you manage reviews or run local SEO for clients or depend on Google for leads at all. This
episode is going to change how you think about everything. So, let's get into it. All right,

(01:36):
so I've got a good question to start us off here. Uh, why do Google reviews disappear? And what is
the number one thing that most businesses don't know about why? So, in my opinion,
I think the number one reason Google reviews don't appear or disappear is because there's no real

(01:57):
activity between the reviewer and the business. So, let's just say, you know, you were referred
to the business and then you ask them to leave you a review and you share the um, you know, link that
Google provides you and then they end up leaving you a review. there's a high likelihood that that
review will get filtered out because they never engaged with your Google business profile prior

(02:20):
to that. So, Google may look at that as a flag. Interesting. So, let's say for example, I went
to a business because I saw their billboard or something. Um, like not everybody that interacts
with the business came from Google. So, are you saying that like if I didn't first search for
them and maybe click on their call button like I'm less likely to have that review published? Yes,
that's my belief. So, um I actually learned this tip from uh Venet. He's another product

(02:45):
expert and he always says like just have the reviewer go back, engage in the profile,
hit the call button or the direction button, go back to the review, maybe edit it, and then post.
It's just frustrating because a lot of times you don't want to have to ask a client to do that, but
um the reality is it actually works. Okay. So, other any other tips that business owners should

(03:09):
do like if they're in this boat where the reviews aren't publishing? Um, what is the the step to
get them to publish? What do you do about it? I mean, it's it's complicated and I think it varies
industry by industry, but um if we're looking at, you know, the average plumber or electrician that
doesn't generate a whole lot of reviews, um and they're just, you know, I think the the best way

(03:33):
for them to get their reviews to publish is to have the user search the business on Google Maps
um and then then leave the review. So, like branded searches in my opinion um are more likely
to stick. The review is more likely to stick. But if you're going to use a review link that Google
provides you, you're going to get you you're more likely to get filtered out. So, I actually saw

(03:55):
someone something really interesting recently. A guy sent me a link to review them on Yelp,
but instead of going to their Yelp listing, it actually went to a Google search result for their
business name plus Yelp. And I was thinking like that must be intentional because now you're going
to Google, you're clicking on Yelp, and then uh you are leaving a a business review there. Whereas
I feel like Yelp is filtering out people that are coming directly from the link. And you know Yelp,

(04:17):
they're they're crazy. They uh basically don't want any businesses soliciting reviews at all. So
one of the ways I think they track that is by, you know, people that directly click and go to a link,
they're like, "Oh, that's a business that's asking for reviews." So do you think that Google is doing
something a little similar then, but maybe on like a lesser scale? I do. Um, you know, it's it's, you

(04:38):
know, there's got to be something in the algorithm with that link or like a QR code that's like
basically saying, "Okay, there's a more likelihood that this could be um a solicited review or a
non-authentic reviewer or or something." Or maybe the reviewer themselves doesn't really leave a ton
of reviews. I know Yelp kind of filters out people that aren't very active on their platform and then

(05:00):
all of a sudden start leaving reviews. I actually work with a restoration company that has right
now 15 reviews um that are not recommended and there's only one published review. So think about
that. Like he must be sending the review link from Yelp and not realizing that none of it is getting
published. Wild. Okay. So let me let me back this up. You're saying that like sharing a link

(05:25):
to review page like on Google let's let's make sure we're talking about Google here. Uh, Google
actually promotes people to do this. Like they actually prompt you to do this inside the Google
business profile dashboard. They're like, "Share this link. Share this QR code to get reviews." So,
are you saying that like Google's telling you to do this one thing yet they're actually uh kind
of almost punishing businesses that are doing it? Yeah. And I don't know if it was like intentional.

(05:46):
I think there's just different teams that create these products and I think that this is such a
great idea. Let's like, you know, everybody wants a QR code to ask for reviews. Like,
let's add this to the profile. manager, but then at the same time, there could be another team
that's working in the review and and algorithms and they're studying things and they say, "All

(06:07):
right, you know, if no if there is no engagement and then we see that there's a direct link to
the review page, then you know, that could be a flag." So, um, branded searches just always work
well. And like as a local guide, when I go into Google Maps, I could see like they're asking me
to leave reviews on anything that I've searched, even if I've never actually used the business. So,

(06:28):
I could be searching for a hotel, a restaurant, and then if I go back, it asks me to contribute
a review and I've never even been there. So, are you suggesting then basically for
businesses that are asking for reviews that they don't link directly to their business profile,
they link to a search results page then with like a branded search already inserted? Is that safer?
Exactly that. Yeah. I mean, uh, like Reputation Arm, that's the way we process review requests

(06:52):
when we solicit reviews for our clients. We are not using any type of QR code. we're
not using the link that Google provides. It's a branded search. And then at the end of the day,
that's like helping you uh with rankings and and I've actually like Mike Blumenthal and I have
discussed like is it the review that's actually boosting you or is it that branded search that's

(07:14):
actually boost? We don't really know. You know, it's still a click and engagement on your Google
business profile. So, it's it's that navigational boost that you want to get. And I've seen like
when I send out campaigns for clients, I could see their rankings jump up for the day and then,
you know, it comes back down. When you say campaigns, you mean like review requests?
Like you're emailing a bunch of people to leave them reviews, right? So like it could have been

(07:36):
like 50 to 100 or 500 requests that day that went out by email or whatever it was. And you'll almost
always certainly see an increase because you've had that many more clicks on your Google business
profile. So it's it's that engagement. And it's not that they necessarily left the review because
sometimes you get 10 clicks but only three reviews appear and you find that like that

(07:56):
engagement because it's one time it doesn't really last, right? Like so you said they they jump up in
rankings for like the day but then they um they never last. Yeah. Okay. That's similar to what we
found when we did a a test on CTR manipulation. And I had Bran Fishkin on here about a year ago
um on our YouTube channel and he did a test where he just asked a whole bunch of people to go out
and click on this uh Thai restaurant I believe and um they definitely went up in rankings. They

(08:20):
were on like page two. They went up to the the top three within like a pretty short time window
um of when we were doing it and I I shared all the screenshots and graphs and stuff,
but they certainly didn't stay there. Um they they went back down. And I've heard from people that
do this intentionally to manipulate Google, like if you don't keep doing it, it doesn't work. Um,
like long term. Do you think it like hurts them too? Like if they've done it for so long and

(08:45):
then all of a sudden it just stops. Yeah. So, funny enough, we uh we actually discussed this,
me and Ben Fischer on uh a previous episode. So, if you didn't watch that episode, Ben Fischer,
definitely check that out because I asked him the similar question. And I feel like he always
gets the cases of people that get like the worst penalties and the worst things when it comes to
GDP. And he said he has so he said he's seen he told this crazy story um of this company that was

(09:11):
doing CTR manipulation and got uh suspensions from it. So it's kind of wild but again it's
not something I would say is very common but I certainly have seen this be used as a negative SEO
factor. So I can say confidently that it it does do that. Like if you start doing a lot of kind of
suspicious activity and Google thinks that you are doing it intentionally to inflate your business

(09:32):
and they catch you, they can do the opposite where you tank. Um, so I've talked to enough people to
know that that is possible, which is terrifying. Nobody should be able to do that to a business
in a negative way. And that's the problem with Google. They try to they try to go after tactics.
They try to do it in a way that doesn't make negative SEO work. And it's a really challenging
thing to do because you can't just, right? Because they start penalizing people for this. It's like,

(09:54):
well then all the people will just do it to their competitors. Like it's Yeah, it's a tough spot to
be in. I really don't know. Or like you can have like that viral post and then you're going to see
your rankings jump up. Like you'll definitely see I I've seen it with a client where all of a sudden
like I was I emailed them and I'm like why did you what did you guys do? what kind of event did
you have on this day for these like it was like it lasted like 4 days and it's because they had

(10:19):
uh Detroit Lions team host a dinner and somebody posted something it went viral and everyone was
doing brand searches on the restaurant and so you could just see like huge spikes in uh
Google business profile interactions right which is totally normal um now I want to ask you two
questions the first one being if you're a business that maybe like you didn't know any of this so you

(10:41):
were just doing the the way you said not to do it. You're sending out QR codes. You're sending out
links to your business listing. Uh your reviews aren't sticking. Okay. So, let's say you have
hundreds of reviews that have not published and you're frustrated. Can you do anything about that?
Can you do anything about reviews that were left and then never published? I don't think so. Um,

(11:03):
like I've never had success and but I've never seen a case where you know they claim hundreds
of reviews like they actually get published but then they get deleted. It's typically what I've
seen. Um, so because you're not going to know if you had a hundred re you're not going to
know the exact number and plus you can't trust the client um when they're telling you this if unless

(11:24):
you can actually see you know like okay yeah these published and then they were deleted. Um,
so I think you know obviously when you have huge spikes in reviews, you're getting flagged and it's
become a lot more common in this last like six months to a year with, you know, maybe with AI
and the algorithms being like more sophisticated and they're able to pinpoint a lot more patterns.

(11:50):
So the idea is if you're gonna I'm dealing with a thread in the forum right now. it's a roofer
and he said that his reviews are not getting published. And then I asked him what category
he was in and how many reviews he was getting. He said he's averaging three to four reviews a
day as a roofer, which is like totally unheard of, right? Yeah. So I told him, big roofing company,

(12:13):
how big a company are they? Like that's right. And it's like, well, we we scaled up and we've been
scaling. And I said, "Well, Google is looking at these patterns and it's not normal, especially for
your industry." And so, you know, wait it out. Um, if you're telling me that this is your new normal,
then my suggestion would be to keep doing it so that you can make it your new normal if you

(12:36):
could sustain it. But if you are doing this some type of campaign or review manipulation,
it's going to work. Um, like it's not going to work for you. It's going to be a disadvantage. And
that's definitely the way not to go. Um, but yeah, when you're in like sensitive categories or just
categories in general that like normally don't get three to four reviews a day and all of a sudden

(12:56):
you're you're jumping that high, you have to expect that something's going to something's going
to go astray. Like especially now more than ever, like maybe you could get away with it a year ago,
but you're not going to get away with it anymore. And it's it's been pretty consistent. So, I have a
lawyer that I spoke to earlier this week and they are in a pretty unfortunate situation which I've

(13:17):
definitely run into before where their previous SEO company I think was buying reviews for them
um because they had a bunch that went missing that they were like we actually don't even know where
these reviews came from. Like we don't recognize, but how do they know that they're not buying
reviews, right? They're not their clients. I mean, yeah, he probably knew at the time, right? This is
one of those things. It's like you live and learn. Uh, but a lot of people do it and they justify it

(13:40):
because it works so well and I can't justify it. I'm like, it's just morally can't get behind it.
But I know a lot of businesses do because the the benefit outweighs the risk. You know, the risk is
you might lose the reviews. Well, I would say the risk actually isn't just that. It's uh now
this particular law firm, they're having a really hard time getting any new reviews to publish. So,
they're getting real people now that are trying to leave them reviews and they're not publishing.

(14:03):
And I've seen that pattern where if you have a lot of reviews removed and if Google's like,
"Hey, your patterns are suspicious." It almost like lowers your trust. I think I I discussed
this a bit with like Brad Wearell, right? Lowers the trust of the profile. And then the profile,
if it's like lower trust, you're going to have a harder time getting those reviews to stick,
which is it's like a self-defeating circle, right? Because how do you get out of it? Um,

(14:24):
so it's really tricky. What would you advise in that scenario? I would advise them to make sure
that they're clicking on the profile and engaging somewhere like call uh call directions, a booking
link, something um and then that it might actually stick that way. But then they're going to have to
put so much effort into doing that because I mean a lot of personal injury lawyers, estate lawyers,

(14:46):
they're like all referrals. So somebody can just call you or land on your website. you don't
necessarily know exactly, but I would say possibly like maybe that like them engaging would be
uh more of a trust signal for Google and then maybe they would publish. But they also have to

(15:06):
like there's there's other like things that I've noticed that like in patterns like not
just like we're talking a lot about service area businesses but like in my industry like I work a
lot with restaurants and things like that and and just learning from the forum I I'll notice
like let's just say a big group of guests are at a restaurant and they're very disappointed and they

(15:28):
all decide to leave a negative review at the same time. They don't actually publish. Google sees
that as an Yeah. Google can see that as a review attack. So maybe it depends on the location. So
I actually had this happen and I think they were actually all different customers, but we uh we had
dinner for Valentine's Day at this like one of my favorite restaurants and this restaurant screwed

(15:48):
up royally. They basically booked out um all these things in advance. Had people prepay for their
meals in advance and they were expensive because it was Valentine's Day and then they got behind.
So we didn't even get our like first thing when we were there for like an hour. Like we were waiting
there for an hour and then they finally bring us like appetizers and I was like this is bad because
we're the first wave. I'm like the fact that they were that behind they're going to be screwed

(16:09):
later. So by the time we left at like seven there was a lineup around the entire restaurant of all
these people with their Valentine's dates who had already prepaid who were pissed who had to wait
for an hour. So this restaurant got I think 11 I counted and which is a lot for them. Uh it's not
a huge restaurant. Um they got 11 negative reviews all on that same night um from various guests. I
don't think they were connected to each other per se, but they all published. Um, so I mean,

(16:35):
then they were probably legitimate. I don't know if any of them were together in the same party or
not, but I assumed they were going to get negative reviews based on those experiences. So, I should
actually clarify. Um, is it it's when it's in the same household, like where they're like mother,
daughter, things like that that I'll notice that they like or the same last names that they're

(16:56):
not going to get published. Got it. Okay. But I there are times where like you know there there's
big parties and then one person leaves a review um today and then the next day two three more trickle
in and you could tell it's from the same party. Those will stick because they are leaving it from
different accounts at different times. But it's that cluster of like maybe within the same minutes

(17:20):
and then they can correlate different things or the same location that you might find that Google
will flag it and then not publish it. But they can go back and edit it and publish. Interesting.
Okay. So, the back and edit, you mentioned that earlier. That is like a good idea. So, would
you suggest that as well for this law firm? Um, like they said they had a bunch of their clients

(17:40):
leave a review and they weren't publishing. Like, is there any point in going back and
trying to edit the reviews? I will tell you that every single time I recommend this to a client,
it works. If you run into a situation where your reviews are not publishing on your profile,
ask your client or customer to go back into their review, maybe edit a word or two or prior to that,

(18:03):
hit the call button direction button, go back to the review, edit something, and then republish it,
and it almost always will publish after that. Okay? The only the only bad thing is it's like
annoying to have to ask them to do it because it's you know like just to get them to leave the
review in the first place but then to have to go out of your way to ask them to like hey can
you just like go back and edit and then publish it but that's what you have to do. All right. What is

(18:26):
the difference between a review that never posts versus a review that originally shows up fine but
then later on Google removes it. Is that triggered like differently inside Google? Like do they have
different systems for these two different things or is it all the same? Yeah. So, um there's going
to be that pre-algorithm that's going to like scan the review. Um one thing Google has become really

(18:50):
good at in the last year is removing reviews from employees. So, before it would be like, oh,
I worked here and then we'd have to like escalate in the forum, which was absolutely ridiculous
because it was a clear violation. It was said in the review. Um, I've noticed that at this point,
like we don't I don't see many of those much anymore. I think Google's just gotten really smart

(19:12):
and they can pinpoint those and if they can't pick up on it, if you flag it, most likely it'll fall
off before you even have to escalate anything. Um, but yeah, so if there's like, you know, um,
just like something that's like like I just posted it today on LinkedIn a review that said, I was
told I'd get something free for publishing this review, so here's my review and Google removed it,

(19:39):
which I thought was funny because isn't that against the policy? But like if they you know
like if it runs through um you know like the initial al algorithm and go Google can see a clear
violation most likely it's not getting published or if it's like coming from Pakistan I think
they're getting a little bit better um removing those type of reviews but um a lot of times just

(20:02):
flagging the review is working really really well lately. Do you find that? Um, yeah. I mean,
it depends on what it is, right? So, it depends on how obvious it is. Um, I think the obvious ones,
yeah, flagging usually works. It's generally the non-obvious ones that people are like, "Oh, this
isn't a real experience." Where there's really no evidence or proof, right? Those are usually
the ones that business owners freak out about. And they're not wrong. It's really easy for somebody

(20:26):
to just go fake an experience and how would Google know, right? Like, so that is frustrating. Um, one
of the trends, however, that I've been following, which I'm curious to know if you've seen and what
you think about it is, um, someone was telling me on our subreddit, um, so we have a subreddit over
on Reddit, uh, called local search, and there was a user there that was saying that he's
been noticing this new trend where a review will publish and then four to five days later it gets

(20:51):
removed. And I was curious if that's like a bug or he's convinced it's a bug, but I was curious
if you think that's a bug or if that's just like the way that Google is doing it now where they
kind of let it sit for a minute and then are like, "No, that's gone." So, um, it's definitely not a
bug. I think it's very intentional. Uh, I think a a lot of things we think are bugs. we come to

(21:12):
realize like okay this was by design and it it is intentional especially like if there's no
quick resolution within the first like month or or like even them maybe like making an announcement
um then yes it's very intentional so I think I've seen this trend I've had a couple people
uh reach out to me directly like explaining like this exact scenario where um they publish and then

(21:35):
they they disappear um my guess is that they're getting cued and then there's some type of human
um intervention like looking at it and then determining whether it's actually like legit
or not. But there's got to be something on that profile that triggered it. So whether it's like
u a pattern of an increase in reviews um abnormal category that's receiving like more reviews than

(21:58):
other you know businesses in that same vertical um they could be like causing them to go into a
queue and then having that looked at um manually. I do still think like yes, there's the algorithms
that Google uses, but there still probably is a lot of human intervention to make sure that
they're perfecting the algorithms and making sure they're getting it right. I think there's more

(22:21):
human interaction than Google wants there to be at this point. Um, but yeah. Yeah. So, this is uh I
wanted to ask you what actually triggers a review block on a Google business profile. Is it always
like they think you've bought reviews obviously, but have you seen that it's like certain types
of policy violations that usually result in that? Yeah, it's so in the like I've probably dealt with

(22:44):
this maybe like I've dealt with this a handful of times and it's always the same exact pattern. So,
if you're going to be put in review jail where like you actually have it labeled, you know,
Google labels your business as, you know, Yeah, I think they say like this business has been caught
with suspicious reviews or something like that. So, yeah, definitely if you get put into review

(23:05):
jail, then all the cases that I've dealt with uh where that label was slapped onto the Google
business profile, they had really high unusual review volumes. So, they had an event like
um an open house or like um like grand opening or even just like an anniversary because I had
it for a business that was existed for quite some time and then had some type of anniversary party

(23:30):
and decided to ask everybody that came to leave a review. So imagine like all these people are at
the business, they're probably scanning some type of QR code and then they received like a couple
hundred reviews that day and then were so upset that they never published and then they had the uh
the posting was blocked on their profile. But what the funny thing about that one is it was quickly

(23:53):
removed. It only lasted like five days with that label, but the reviews still um weren't posting.
So the like the block was still there. um it's gone now. The the review block typically lasts
30 days and um you know, but it's it's always the same thing like you have like a really unusually

(24:14):
high volume of reviews. it's unusual patterns and then Google will and then if you're using QR codes
and they can tell that the that the reviews are left inside the business I believe um you're more
likely to get that label slapped on because even now Google has review policies and I don't know if
you've noticed this but they have something called rating manipulation and it specifically says that

(24:38):
um content exhibiting unusual volumes or patterns of review contributions that are indicative of
efforts to manipulate places rating. So obviously if you're getting a huge number of reviews, you're
you're trying to manipulate your rating. And so if you do that now, Google's going to put you in
review jail. So Ben Fischer, when we I spoke to him on our podcast a couple months ago, he

(25:03):
mentioned this silent review block that basically means a business can't get new reviews. Like no
matter what they do or who they ask, nothing sticks, but there's no label. Nothing shows
up anywhere. So, it's a little different than the 30-day like traditional review jail where Google
actually issues a warning. Have you run into this at all? Yeah. So, like I mentioned in the forum
with the roofer. Yeah. Is he's not in review jail and I've had clients that are like our reviews

(25:28):
aren't posting. So, I I don't know why Google does this because it's like so confusing. You know,
there's and there's so many different scenarios. Like it's like reviews publish and then they're
gone and then they come back and then there's so many different scenarios. But I think it's
like it all comes down to the same thing. There's unusual patterns going on that Google's detecting.

(25:49):
And so they might not slap on that, you know, review jail block because they can't for 100% say
that there's some type of review manipulation like confidently. But at the end of the day,
like if you're a roofer and you're getting three to four reviews a day, that's very unusual for
your category. And then it might be unusual like you've been in business for a year and like you

(26:13):
were getting a review a month and then three months go by you get no review and then all
of a sudden you can't you know you think you can just get three to four reviews every single day.
No. Like so I like I had a client tell me that they wanted their QR code and that you know can
I send them the QR code? And I said well what are you guys going to do? and they were like, "Well,

(26:34):
we're gonna have our employees ask for reviews and we're going to try to get three reviews a day."
So, think about that. Three reviews a day. And and this is a restaurant, so it's not like highly
unusual to get that type of volume, but if you think about it, that's 90 reviews more than you
got the previous month, right, from organically. So, you're going to you're going to trigger

(26:58):
something and then if you can't sustain it and so all of a sudden you did it for a month, you did it
for two months. I've seen it where reviews will go up for 3 months and then boom, all the reviews get
deleted and then you're slapped on with the review manipulation. So, you have to be very careful. You
have to make sure that everything looks organic and natural. Like it has to like if people are

(27:20):
engaging with your Google business profile in high volumes and then you're getting reviews,
maybe that's not going to be as big of a flag. But if you're a a roofer that's not getting a ton of
clicks on your Google business profile and all of a sudden you're getting three to four reviews
a day, that's a flag, you know? So, it's it I mean there's multiple scenarios and and things
that Google's looking at and like it's hard to pinpoint everything, but at the end of the day,

(27:43):
it's based on patterns. Sure. I'll tell you one pattern that uh appears to be working. We did
actually a video on this one business. So, that's a personal injury lawyer, and they do this really
unique thing where they have um kind of festivals. You know how like cities, small towns, whatever,
will have like little um I don't know how to there like events where you have like a bunch of vendors

(28:05):
and maybe things going on uh like bounce houses and things like that at the park. Um so there's
this like one event in this town that they have a booth at and at their booth they give away free
bicycle helmets for kids. So they're promoting bic bicycle safety basically because they're personal
injury lawyers and they deal with those types of injury cases. So they get a spike of around 200

(28:25):
reviews all in the same day. Um, and this was I've been tracking them for a while. So this
they have this happen like maybe once or twice a year and they'll get this massive spike. So 200 at
once. All the reviews stick. It's actually insane. They a lot of them have photos. A lot of them like
will have photos of kids wearing the helmets. They'll be like, "Thank you for the helmet."
Like it doesn't have anything to do with law. Um, and it's funny because I I remember asking Google

(28:49):
about this and Google's kind of like, "Yeah, you shouldn't do that." But of course, like they
don't remove any of the reviews. Like they're all still there. So it's like, well, do you even want
to listen to Google if there's no enforcement? That's so infuriating. But my point being that
like they've obviously figured out like maybe it's the the presence of the photo as well. Um or the
fact that the person is on site, but but it's not their office. I don't know if that like matters,

(29:10):
but it because it's like in a park, right? It's not actually at the law firm address, but they
all stick. So whatever pattern that they've got there doesn't seem to be affected by maybe they're
all like connected to different cell towers and so like maybe that's the thing. I I don't
really know but it's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's ironic cuz like it puts us in a

(29:32):
weird situation too because when I'm talking to a client and they're like, "Yeah, but these are like
real reviews and this and that." and they're like, "But I've done this before and this never happened
or we did it at this location and you know that you know so they're like can't you do something
about it and I'm like I mean I'll try I'll submit the form but I know that you know historically

(29:53):
submitting the form hasn't done anything for any of my other clients. So, it's one of those
things that's frustrating, you know, for for me because I don't know, it's like something like
the client just almost doesn't believe it because for so many years people were using QR codes and
asking for reviews at the register and then now it's becoming more of a thing, but it's obviously

(30:13):
not super consistent. And I'm going to give you a really good example of what I've been noticing.
Google updated their um policy about employees asking for reviews. And so it it actually says
merchants requesting that staff solicit reviews that include specific content including content
that identifies a staff member. So I thought that was like super interesting because I have lots of

(30:39):
restaurants that do this and like I'll come in and I'll notice like this, you know, there are like
60 reviews from the weekend and they all say staff names different like three or four different staff
names. It's like really annoying. So this is what happened. I saw that Google released that. Are
they enforcing it though? So this is what I'm noticing for smaller businesses, service area

(31:04):
businesses, when the staff name is there, it's like removed. But then for some of my restaurant
clients, it's not. And I think it's because the depth of the review because it's not they're not
just mentioning the staffer. are saying how great the food was and they celebrated a birthday and
then they might have tagged an attribute or a menu item or left and added a photo. So,

(31:27):
the content and the depth of that review maybe is like Google's like, "No, we're not going to remove
this." Even though it says the staff name, but I do notice a trend where I'm noticing like cuz we
track deleted reviews in our app and I'm like, why why did Google remove this review? And the only
thing I can correlate it to is having a staff name in there. And I'm talking about for a restoration

(31:50):
company. That's so I actually know some very largely successful home service companies that
do this and preach this because it's one way that they can incentivize their staff to do it because
if let's say you know Claudia you work for me and I'm like hey go get a whole bunch of reviews for
Sterling Sky. Well the reason why I know they're from you is because they mentioned Claudia in
them. So then I give you a bonus as your you know as your boss or whatever. So this is what a lot of

(32:13):
companies do and we actually recommend it cuz I'm like there's nothing wrong with incentivizing your
employees, incentivize your customers. Yeah, don't do that. But up until now, uh there was
no like bad part of doing that. So this is really if Google's actually enforcing this, I think this
could be huge because I'm just thinking about how many businesses this is pretty seen this. Yeah,

(32:35):
they added this like uh I think early 2026, right? So I saw the the help center article got updated
and they literally I sent a message to Colin and was like, "Do you think Google's going to enforce
this?" I was like, "How could they enforce this?" Um, but that's interesting that you're seeing
that they are. And is the enforcement part of it new or have you been seeing it for a while? No,
I feel like I've just started noticing it, but to be fair, after I read that, I started like kind

(33:00):
of investigating it a little bit more and and I'm and I did notice like like why why did this review
get removed? Like there's no reason like all it said was, you know, the someone's name was great,
you know, and then that was it was deleted. So, I'm like, well, maybe. I don't know for sure,
but it's interesting. Assuming that a business is already following all of Google's policies,

(33:22):
is there any other things that we haven't already mentioned that they should ensure they're doing
or not doing to kind of prevent themselves from getting suspended or losing reviews? I think they
should just be um like extremely aware of the trends. um you know if if all of a sudden you
know asking for reviews is going to become a big part of the culture fine do that but you have to

(33:46):
stay consistent and try to be care like I think investing in a review uh solicitation like SAS
platform is is the easiest way to go but obviously you want to keep it like super organic so somebody
like places a curio order like that that touch point is important you know because I have some
clients that you know like we don't have uh open API I with open tables. So, but we do with the

(34:11):
uh carry out. So, yes, we we ask for reviews organically throughout the month, but then there's
that time where we import a reservation list. But I think it's just making that extra step of
maybe asking only for like a hundred a day and not like trying to solicit a thousand in one day. So,
be a little bit um more organic about it. and um you know making sure like you're staying within

(34:33):
industry norms and maybe like building up like gradually I don't know if that's something or
just you have to be able to go through the pain point of losing the reviews to get to the point
where Google can trust you again and say like okay maybe this is the new normal and who knows
maybe older reviews will get published I've seen it in the forum where they're like these reviews
were deleted and now they came back like I don't know how that happens but thanks will never know

(34:59):
um Right. Have you noticed any patterns as far as when you're soliciting reviews,
what's likely to be more successful? Uh text messaging, for example, versus email, is there
a preferred format? Well, the link and the text message and the email could be the same. So,
it's it's I would say it's it's just the link itself. So, like we discussed earlier, do it

(35:19):
as a branded search and not like the link that Google provides you to share. I would avoid that
at all. I would avoid that and and the QR codes because it's like I don't know there's something
about that that they're tracing or something built into the algorithm that um they're looking
at. And then when you guys send send out a review request, are you sending an email and a text like

(35:41):
at the same time or uh one or the other? For some verticals like restaurants, you could definitely
get away with it. Um, some people like don't want to over like, you know, be too overbearing,
so they might only do email and then or some might just do text only. It just really depends on the
client. But for the most part, um, I most I would say like 75% we do text and email and then we send

(36:07):
a follow-up email two days later. Okay. So, you don't really have any like hard uh stance on which
one's better. like between text and email. They're both text converts way better than email because
but I just think email can end up in like a spam folder and that could be part of the problem.
Yeah. And also I also think email is one of those things that like professionally I'm in front of
all day long but it's not like certain age groups don't even really use email. Right. So Right. I'm

(36:34):
way better with email than I am with text. Like if I'll leave it in my inbox and I'm that inbox
outg girl. my inbox is clean and so like if I want to leave somebody a review I will actually
leave that like in my inbox and make sure that I go back to it later and take care of it or at text
I might just forget about it. So speaking of text messages one of the things that Google has rolled

(36:55):
out recently is these automated calls and we see this label on Google. I think this is US only
right now, but there's a label that talks about how Google can check prices for you and they will
send you an automated call uh and they'll ask the business what are your prices and then they curate
it all and they email the person. Um have you had any experience with this feature? Any businesses

(37:18):
that you work with actually get results from it? So, um, for the calls on service area business,
like service companies, no, but I've actually used the feature for booking reservations for a
restaurant, and it worked seamlessly. Like, I was actually surprised that this restaurant picked up
because they they do get probably 1500 calls a month, and it's not the way that they like to

(37:42):
take reservations. Um, but for some reason it was enabled for a client and so I was like intrigued
and I tested it out and they actually successfully booked my reservation and I had no issues. Um,
so I I could see it as um as something that's going to definitely be prominent in the next

(38:02):
upcoming years. I think um like the whole agentic flow and the bookings is definitely going to be a
priority and um I think businesses are going to have to opt in if they're going to want to show
up. It's going to be like the new ranking factor. Yeah, I what I kind of noticed with some of these
features is that they work. They they do exactly what they're meant to do, but the adoption rate is

(38:24):
just ridiculous. Like nobody uses it. So I kind of saw this with actually with booking links,
with the chat feature. Um, both of those I was like, they're great features. Actually, chat,
I'm really kind of surprised didn't take off, but from all the businesses that we work with,
I do not see the number of chats like it's either zero or non-exist practically non-existent. Have

(38:46):
you seen either of those features result in, you know, way more leads for a business? Well, there's
I see exactly what you see. There's two reasons for it. One, spam. So like three like if you get
four messages, three out of the four are like spam messages which is it's super frustrating for the
business to see. And then you know again like it's just another channel to communicate through. So

(39:09):
like if if you're used to getting calls or having a call center and then all of a sudden like you
have to train your staff to get these check this new platform for like text messages that
you're you normally weren't and then who do you assign it to? which employee, right? So, there's
certain verticals where it's just doesn't make any sense. Like for a restaurant, for example,

(39:31):
unless they have a dedicated staff member that's going to like constantly like have their number
there and like or WhatsApp and then be checking it and you know, they might be off one day and then
what happens if you don't respond? It it seems complicated. I tried to have one of my restaurant
clients like test it out because I was like, it could be great. it could help you like boost in

(39:53):
rankings and engagement and you know like it could help you overall. Let's test it out but they're it
they were just way too busy and the end of the day like they just prefer people to go and book
on open table like they don't want to they don't want to get calls and then even if they do like
large parties and and things like that because they don't allow for bookings of large parties

(40:14):
online so that's where most their calls are. It's like they take a voicemail and then somebody's
calling them back. Yeah, it's interesting to see if like Google actually keeps up with some
of these features because anytime they don't get wide adoption, they usually end up canning it,
right? So, um to be determined on which ones these actually stick around and which ones don't.
Um yeah, but that but they create some of these features but they don't enhance them. Like they

(40:39):
don't make them better and they don't take the feedback and then it's like then they just die.
Like they did it with posts. But then finally they like rebuilt the whole post structure, right? So
they're like, "Well, nobody used posts or you know, nobody's engaging." Well, it's because you
hide the post. Like how can people engage? Yeah, I know. I'm I'm with you. I'm not really one that
uh deals with Google posts very much. We stopped doing Google post for our clients years ago. I

(41:04):
couldn't measure any ROI from it. That being said, I don't deal with restaurants. So, I do think like
if you were in an industry like a restaurant that posting things like your specials or your weekly
things like you know maybe you've got a specific thing for Easter or for Thanksgiving or whatever
like I could see that actually getting engagement. Have you seen that doing Google posts is actually
worth it like worth the effort? Yeah. So, I had a client um like I started posting like birthday

(41:29):
packages and so as people were driving to the location, it was like one of those trampoline
jumping places that you know. So, um people were driving to the location, they were getting to the
register and they're like, "I saw your birthday package. I want to buy it." And so, in one day,
he sold three birthday packages. He called me up ecstatic like, "What did you like, what did you

(41:51):
do?" Like, and I was like, "Yeah." And he's like, "Post these all the time for me." and like this
is great and he was so happy because he sold three birthday packages. So yes, I mean it it will work
in some verticals and like I like to do it for like happy hour cuz if you're scrolling and then
all of a sudden you know like okay there's a happy hour and there's like you know something on like
special like and somebody might be more inclined to visit you. I I definitely like I train my my

(42:16):
team on like Google posts are like bottom of the funnel, right? like this is that we're not here
to get likes. We're here to convert. And so if somebody's landing on your Google business profile
and you have some type of like event or something that you want to promote, that's what you should
be doing. But like stop like I can't stand when my clients have like their like SAS channels

(42:37):
integrated and then they just post everything from social onto Google. That's definitely the wrong
approach. Like you have to be like and and it's not about the quantity. like post once a month,
you know, like just post something relevant, right? I think the two categories I see posts the
most in that are the most useless is personality lawyers. They have no socials. Like there's no

(42:57):
coupons. There's nothing that they have to post about this. I've seen it just be a total waste of
time. Realtors are another one. Realtors seem to always think like, "Oh, I need to post my house
listings and whatever." So, they just clutter up their Google post with their house listings. I've
never seen it result in anything. Like, I just I don't know. It's it takes time and I can't measure
any ROI from those ones. But I definitely think in retail it's a totally different story. Um and

(43:23):
I certainly would do it in that instance like what you're describing. That's how we actually see AI
mention a post in like the summary then maybe we like it'll like relive but yeah miracles. Yeah
for sure. I can absolutely if I if I worked with restaurants we don't work with restaurants but
like if we did 100% I would suggest doing them. Um, one of the things that we have noticed as a

(43:46):
trend is that Google is substituting uh, a lot of AI generated content onto the Google
business profile. So we've seen you know like AI generated descriptions there's an AI generated
little summaries uh and that kind of trend seems to be increasing and if Google is pulling all this
information from somewhere else do you think they are like moving in a direction where it actually

(44:08):
reduces the amount of control business owner has on what shows up in the search results that they
actually filled in on their profile. Yeah. So most definitely because what happens is you
have this kind of ghost sentiment. So like you have these reviews that are older that mention
certain things that might not be the truth of your business in its current environment. So it's

(44:32):
definitely more of a like an issue for businesses that they that they should be paying attention
to. So like I've had three or four businesses that I had to help remove editorial summaries
because the editorial summary on your business is taking the lifetime of reviews. So like six years
ago they offer beer. Six years ago they used to paint. They don't do that anymore. And then the

(44:57):
business is emailing me saying like why does it say that we paint? We don't paint. And then if
I look back at the reviews it says like you know they painted and it's like one or two reviews. So,
it's it's quite, you know, like it's like I don't know how AI is like pulling this summary,
but they are. And the only way to get it removed is through support and then escalation and then

(45:18):
it's deleted. So, I don't know if you'll ever get an editorial summary back. Interesting. Okay. So,
they don't just like edit the text, they just delete the feature if it's wrong. And can you also
break down what an editorial summary is because I'm not sure everybody knows what that term means.
So, the editorial summary is usually usually going to be below your um your business name or right

(45:39):
above the business name and it's just like one sentence or two sentences at the most and it just
gives like a very big like brief overview of your business. Um, and so Google used to handw write
these and they had a team that would go and write them and not everybody gets them. Um, but now
they're using AI and it's like you're starting to notice them a lot more and so it it's definitely

(46:01):
looking at a lifetime of reviews. So that's the risk there. So then you have review summaries
which you have to understand the review summary is going to take the last year not like it's not a
lifetime of reviews. It's just the last year and it refreshes weekly. So, it's just um and then
that's basically it's it tends to be like more positive, more of a positive sentiment. And in

(46:25):
the past, I noticed that anybody who had like 3.5 stars or lower was not getting a review summary.
I think um that's that may have changed. I got to check that again. But, um yeah, review summaries
are almost always going to stay a little bit more neutral and positive. And then you have the no
before you go which is also pulled from reviews but it also could be pulling from other areas

(46:49):
like your website, thirdparty directories and they're highlighting um reviews or and and they
can say something they almost always say something negative. So it could be something positive and
then that's something like a little bit neutral or something like heads up the you know customers say
that there are long lines or you know they don't serve something um at like they don't serve liquor

(47:12):
at the bar. So that's where that go sentiment kind of comes into play where you have bad customer
service and then it gets played out in the what what to know like know before you go and you have
to start like getting an influx of more positive reviews to kind of like flood that out. Uh who
do you recommend to follow when it comes to small business local SEO services? Uh what kind of names

(47:35):
would you suggest people pay attention to in the industry? I like it might not be like so local,
but I think it's they're worth following because you can just learn a lot and you apply it into
like local SEO, but I really like Kevin Indig and Britney Mueller. I think they just like provide
like such useful AI content and their research and their case studies like um you could just

(47:57):
you'll learn a lot from them. And I also really like uh Matt McGee. His newsletter is like super
informative. He he puts like his heart into it and he like always puts like I don't know the
information he includes is like you you're always going to learn something from him. So I think he's
another good one to watch. And then um as far as like social media and like storytelling content,

(48:19):
which I think is important in local SEO and just making sure you're staying up to date with like
social media, um I like to follow Sean um Walchef. um he's in the restaurant industry and he's all
about like storytelling and telling your story and don't overthink it and just you know shoot
and nobody's watching and don't like get too over wrapped up in you know being embarrassed

(48:41):
and I try to preach that same thing to even like some of my service area clients like when you
get to a job you know show the job like take a recording and you don't have to necessarily edit
it like you could still upload that to your Google business profile because at the end of the day AI
is reading into that video, they can understand exactly the service you're providing. So,

(49:02):
just getting the content because everything is about content now. It's all context content,
you know, it's not about the keyword and the review anymore. It's it's about the visual.
Those are good suggestions. Uh, we had a question from our audience that I wanted to ask you. Um,
so I'll read what they said. I manage Google business profiles for two locations that bring
in a high volume of Google reviews every week, 25 to 40. They've been consistently bringing in this

(49:28):
many reviews for a long time. From time to time, each location will have pauses or delays in Google
reviews. Sometimes anywhere from a week to 5 weeks will go by and zero reviews are published to the
business profile. And we know they're receiving reviews during these times. Eventually, the
reviews are published. Sometimes coming through in batches a week at a time. Google has never told us

(49:49):
why this is happening. When I've reported it, they gave me the same answer, which is nothing useful.
Yeah, I've never seen or heard of this situation, but I would say like if they are publishing,
you're in really good shape, right? And my guess is that there's definitely some type of human
uh intervention that like you're being flagged, you know, for because maybe it's not industry norm

(50:12):
to get that many reviews like we mentioned before. So, you're getting queued up and then people are
looking at it and saying, "Okay, there's some type of engagement." Obviously, you're putting
in the right signals. and then the publishing the reviews or maybe they're just looking and seeing
like they've been consistently getting reviews these so we can go ahead and and publish them
but the algorithm is most likely holding it up and then my guess would be a humanist taking a

(50:36):
second look. That's a really good theory. Um when it comes to removing negative reviews,
this is a very popular question. What actually works and what is a complete waste of time?
So, complete waste of time. A negative review with no content, you're never going to get removed.
Just forget about it. And I I know it's so heartbreaking, but it's it's the truth. Unless you

(50:58):
know it came from a different country and or like maybe yes, you can flag it and it could fall off.
Um, but if you're like constantly trying to go after it, just give up. It's not getting removed.
Um, as far as like um having multiple accounts flag uh a negative review works because like I'll

(51:19):
see clear violations. For example, um a client uh had emailed me and there was uh three reviews left
all from similar names. So like the first name was spelled a little bit differently but it was like
the same last name but it was the same name. She left a review because she was really upset because
they ruined her birthday party and she left three negative reviews from three different accounts.

(51:41):
I flagged them. They didn't fall off. But then I had other people flag them. So like maybe two or
three more people flagged it. And then I also had it escalated in the in the forum too at the same
time because I just do it all at the same time. And it it was removed. So, if you do see a clear
violation, like the same names, things like that, I say put forth the effort to do the flagging,

(52:06):
have multiple people flag it, and then if it still doesn't get removed, go into the forum, try to
have a product expert uh remove the review. But be very clear, provide like your evidence because
we're not there to like write the explanation for you. Like give your proof, write your explanation,
provide the links, and then somebody is more likely to escalate the review for you. Yeah,

(52:27):
it's funny. I always tell business owners, they freak out when they get a high volume and negative
reviews at a time. And I'm like, actually, it's a good thing. Google's more likely to remove them if
there's a high volume because they look fake. So, don't panic if you're one of those businesses and
you get like 12 negative reviews in a row. You're actually way more likely to get somewhere with
those than you would if you got a single onear review. Um, kind of silver lining there. Um,

(52:49):
all right. I'm going to move away from reviews slightly here. Uh let's talk about Google posts
which uh we we talked about briefly but what causes Google to put a block on posting? I
get these threads all the time in the the business profile community and people will be like Google's
put a block I can't do Google posts. What do you see usually is the cause for that? Um a
glitch most of the time like for real like maybe just a glitch or it could be the user. So like a

(53:16):
bad user on the profile um is another reason I've seen. Um, but like just let's just say your post
gets removed or it's not publishing. The other day I had a client say that they published a
video and it wasn't posting. It's because of the music in the background. It was copyrighted. So,
that's another thing you have to think about. If you put a phone number inside the like in the

(53:38):
image or um you're not supposed to do that, that's a violation. It'll get removed. Um,
so there's like the the obvious violations, but if you're completely blocked and you just can't
publish anything, I think it's more of like a user related issue or it's like a bug. Got it. Okay. So
either way, contact support, see where you get, but you you might might actually get somewhere.

(54:01):
Um, this is kind of a loaded question, but if you were starting a brand new local business today and
you only had 5 hours a week for marketing, how would you allocate your time for this to get the
maximum ROI? So, first make sure the foundation is there like your Google business profile and
then your main citations. So, make sure you're listed on Yelp. I always love to recommend uh BBB.

(54:25):
It's just that like especially for service area businesses or any service-based company with a
storefront. Um, anything industry relevant, you're going to want to make sure you're there. Freshen
it up. Put good photos. Try to get a review or two across, you know, review diversification. Um, make
sure you like focus on that strategy. Claim your like handles, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit. Even

(54:51):
if you don't have the bandwidth to start posting, I think it's always useful to make sure like your
name is claimed and have it there just in you know so when you are ready to go full-fledged in your
marketing and then you know once that foundation is set up I would say focus on generating reviews
and then content on your website has become increasingly more important with AI like so

(55:15):
be the be the first main voice like on your website make sure you have like good content
find somebody that can um create your website that you can maintain yourself and maybe
add an FAQ as needed so that you can get the stuff on your website that you want and then
um I would focus on like video content and photos and you don't have to hire somebody to do that

(55:38):
like just do it yourself and like those five hours like if you focused on video and photo um content
and posting that across you're going to it's going to help you in uh in a major way. Uh now talking
about content, this is one of those things where I don't think the average business owner really
understands what type of content they need. So I think there I have strong opinions on this,

(56:00):
but I'm curious on what you what you've seen. Uh what types of content are currently working for
businesses that you would suggest focusing on? And then is there any that you're kind of seeing
that are dying off? I mean it it's it's kind of a loaded question because it's very like vertical
driven. So like, so I think there's some verticals that you're not really publishing content for your

(56:24):
audience. You're more publishing it for AI now. Um, but then I also think that like if you're
in like the restaurant category, obviously like you have to be on Tik Tok and you want to have
um because Google might be the like last funnel for you, right? Nobody's nobody's finding Yeah,
maybe they are finding you on Google, but like a lot of brand awareness is done on social media.

(56:47):
So having content there and just you have to learn to be a storyteller. So there's there's certain
industries where you have to just really become a storyteller and be relatable. But then there's
like I don't know like if you're a painter like show before and after photos. uh take a video of
before and then you know have the end of the video show the like end result and then put that on your

(57:12):
Google business profile because you're just going to get engagement and Google likes to see those
engagements and you might actually convert that way and then like for content like I tell people
like why not take a video of yourself introduce yourself give a little background tell people
that you're a familyowned business you could publish that video on your Google business profile

(57:34):
somebody's going to be more likely to like kind of listen in on what you have to say
because if you don't have a ton of context and content, people are just going to kind of like
slide by you and scroll past you. But if they see something and they see somebody talking,
they might be more inclined to stop and listen and then that might convert. So you're you just need
something to convert. You need to be relatable and every industry is a little different. Now you

(58:00):
mentioned Tik Tok. Uh would you say that social media is becoming more crucial for businesses
that they have to have a social media presence in order to do well on Google and do you see it
as like a direct ranking factor? Most definitely. I think that like I don't even like working with
um brands that have like no content like in certain in certain industries, right? Like because

(58:25):
I kind of know like there's only so much I can do to help you, right? uh if you're not going to like
participate and provide, you know, good photos and content, then you're only going to go so far. So,
um like Med Spas, like that's a good example. Like they need to like have like video content and like

(58:45):
they don't need to have a ton of followers and and it I think investing in like micro influencers is
going to like is huge, right? So just getting like a mention from a micro influencer saying like they
they got lip injections with you is going to go a long way and that does help with like brand
awareness and then you know people might search your business and then so you're they recognize

(59:07):
you on Tik Tok or some other social platform and then they go to Google and search your brand to
learn a little bit more about you and read your reviews. Now I'll throw an incredibly
boring industry at you as an example. What would you do if you were let's say an insurance agent?
Yeah, they'll suck. Like this is where I'm like there are some industries where I'm like what

(59:28):
do you do for content on social media because it's so boring. Um even in finance I think you
can go after you know the money aspect that's interesting to people but insurance is one of
those like incredibly boring uh industries that it's definitely challenging to come up with a
content plan for it is. But I think if you did like 60second clips educating people like here's

(59:50):
why you need insurance. Um you know like this is what like this is what happened with a client of
mine but they had insurance like you know they can be more they would have to provide a little
bit more video content but it's just like it's so hard to get people to become storytellers.
Yep. Um especially like if they're like older generations and they're just like not used to it

(01:00:12):
or they're they they're not used to social media. It's really hard. Like like I'll give you the best
example. Like I have had a couple people call me like they're financial advisors and they're
like wildly successful and they have zero Google reviews. They're like, "Well, I don't, you know,
I don't care. I don't really need Google. I get referrals, but you know, I'm getting near

(01:00:33):
retirement and I want to pass down, you know, my business to my my son or you know, the next
generation." And I'm like, "Well, like look what you did for your son. like you left him like yeah
you left him a legacy but it's your legacy people trust you and so now he has to go and start over
with this Google business profile where you could have been maintaining and like giving him so much

(01:00:57):
more of an asset if you just focused in on getting Google reviews even if you didn't even if you knew
they weren't going to convert right it's such little effort but just over the years getting
those reviews and putting forth that effort you would have left such a bigger legacy to
to your next generation that you pass that down that business to, but now they like it's like

(01:01:18):
starting over for them. So that makes me think what was a a recent local SEO problem that you
were able to solve and tell us how you did it. See, uh, so one easy one was just like changing
um the website landing page to like the ser the service area page. So guy calls me up in

(01:01:40):
a panic. He's like, I'm just I'm not getting calls. I am not happy. Blah blah blah. Um,
so the page was going to like the domain name forward slash city. So all I did was change it to
uh the service area page in the city name and immediately started generating calls. So that
helps. So what was it before? So it was like plumber.comdenver like or that's a terrible.

(01:02:06):
So like plumber.comdenver. Okay. And then it was changed to plumber.com/waterleakdenver.
So just adding that keyword for the service into the domain like all of a sudden generated calls
for him. So you know like he obviously was a ranking factor for him in his vertical. So it

(01:02:29):
works like simple things really work well. Another really like simple thing but it's like so highly
overlooked. Um, I was able like I did a case study on um why I couldn't get this restaurant to rank
for halal restaurant like for like halal searches. Like they're their interactions are crazy. Like
I'm talking about like 120 interactions on average and I could and they have tons of

(01:02:55):
reviews that mention halal that I have it in the business category. It's mentioned on the
website. I was like why are they not ranking for halal restaurant? Well, the primary category is
steakhouse. And I've learned that like your primary category is going to dictate a lot of
like broader searches. So like if if I switched it to to halal restaurant, obviously they're

(01:03:18):
immediately going to rank, but I don't want them to be at a primary category for halal restaurant,
you know, they're a steakhouse. And then but then if I switched it to another restaurant related
category. What was interesting about that one is it's a little technical but if you look at the
um actual like category it's steak_house. That's how Google has it and like behind the scenes but

(01:03:41):
like any other category for restaurant is going to be like the cuisine restaurant. Yep. So I'm like
is Google just not recognizing steakhouse as a restaurant? Like it's something as simple as that.
So like you probably see it in the dental industry like if you're an orthodontist as
a primary category, you're probably not showing up for dentist related searches. Correct. Yeah.

(01:04:03):
So it a lot like the average person is not going to be able to like pick up on that on
their own. Yeah. I will tell you one that's really challenging. We work with a lot of HVAC companies
and so they do HVAC, they do electrical, they do plumbing, let's say for example,
and let's say they put plumbing as their primary category. The crappy thing is that means that they
will rank worse for electrical searches. And if they put electrical as their c primary category,

(01:04:28):
they'll rank worse for plumber searches. That is probably the most challenging scenario to deal
with. Uh have you ever run into any of those like situations where a business is having a hard time
picking? Yeah. So, not specifically for a client, but like you know in the forums or just like in
different groups that like you know people will ask me and I'm always tell them like you you you
can't like you're just you pick your primary and then stick with it because that's where

(01:04:52):
you're going to show up in the local pack and then focus on you know LSA or like ads or social media
to get a uh brand awareness around you know but like think you have to like really decide
as a brand your your most important like keyword ranking that you want to rank for and then go from
there. I'm like and I don't really like suggesting multiple Google business profiles for that. Do you

(01:05:17):
uh again it's like a depends answer. So I'll tell you one time I did it where I don't actually think
the business liked my answer at all because he wasn't expecting me to do tell him this but it
was an immigration lawyer and they were starting to branch out. I think they were going to start
doing personal injury and they had an immigration domain and they had their like the whole brand
of a business was based around immigration and so they weren't thinking of going to this generic uh

(01:05:39):
domain that encompasses like all law whatever and then so they could like branch out different types
of law and I was like I wouldn't do that. I'm like all you're going to see is that you're going
to kill your rankings for immigration because you have so much relevance. It's in your domain. It's
in your business name. Like you are amazing for immigration. You don't want to like ruin that.
And if you water it down and make it generic, all you're going to do is rank nowhere for anything.

(01:06:02):
You have to pick a specialty. I'm like, this is how Google unfortunately designed the local
product. Like they want specialists. They want people that are really good at that thing. So I
was like, what you should do if you want to branch into personal injury is start a new practice and a
new website. And he did not like that answer. Like because it's way more work and it's going to take
longer, right? But at the same time, I really just don't see it working if he was to like keep it all

(01:06:24):
in the same house, the same domain. All that's going to happen is you're just going to have a
negative on your primary thing right now. And I don't see the other stuff picking up for a very
long time, if ever, if it's not in your business name or it's not in your domain name itself or
uh Google's just really bad at associating a single brand with a bunch of different entities.

(01:06:45):
uh but it's going to change like with AI with AI it's 1,000% going to change like the ranking
factors are all about like the context and so I tell people like be careful like if you're going
to decide to invest like I like I'm talking about like a month ago I was like I don't know like with
AI coming into play I don't know if I'd go down that route. Okay so we're going to get to AI in

(01:07:06):
one second. I have one question for you before you jump into AI because I do want to talk about
this. Um, Google business profiles in general, one of the trends that we are seeing is that they are
driving fewer calls than they used to. If you compare to two years ago, a business if their
ranking stays the same, they're the same as they were, they're dominating, whatever, they will get
less calls today than compared to even a year ago or two years ago. Is this a pattern you have seen?

(01:07:29):
And if so, what are you seeing replace it? Like why is this happening? Where are the calls going
instead? Well, yes. So definitely I've learned a lot from your post and then just reading about
it. And then I do have one brand that I work with that's a restoration company and they've been hit
hard with not generating calls. And so when you reposted that article, it specifically talked

(01:07:51):
about that vertical being hit one of the hardest. So I it was like so timely for me because I had
just had a call with the CEO and he was like, you know, just kind of venting and saying, you know,
like they had changed their website. They did a whole new revamp and but he wasn't like spec
particularly happy with his you know website development team and SEO team he had and I told

(01:08:13):
him I was like I don't think you're going to have much more success switching to another marketing
company because this like you're not really paying attention to the fact that the whole
SER is changing right like when people search the local map pack is getting pushed down call buttons
are no longer there you know like you have to pay attention to these things so like you you um like

(01:08:34):
you know you have to focus more on LSA or you know other things but at the end of the day like you're
in this weird transition where Google's testing a lot of things and you're not going to get those
calls back you're just you're not you're not the map hack is pushed down uh AR overviews
are taking over like I don't know like where are they going are they just calling the first

(01:08:55):
person in AI overviews are they go jumping into AI mode or is it just Google guarantee at this
Yeah, I mean I think it's a mixture of everything, but the number one that I am seeing for small
businesses specifically where it's going is ads. Um, and it's it's a different answer than again
depending on the vertical and the industry. Like if you talk to somebody who deals with SAS or
maybe B2B, they might say it's going to AI. I've absolutely seen that trend for Sterling Sky for my

(01:09:20):
agency. Uh, a lot we're getting a ton of traffic from AI. I'm not seeing that for SMBs. For SMBs,
where I'm seeing an increase is ads. Um, so I do think that's intentional on Google's part.
Uh I will also include a link to that study that you mentioned uh Claudia. Uh so this study that
Claudia mentioned was actually really cool. It was sent to me on Reddit uh by a guy that basically

(01:09:42):
did a study on it was a study that was done on 41 different niches, 15 different cities and
172 different keywords. And he basically looked to see what the impact was across all of these
different industries and found that four out of five searches in the map pack have no call button,
which is wild. I knew it was a lot, but I didn't know it was that much. And I certainly have not

(01:10:03):
done that many um searches to to get that stat. So, he did two he looked at 2580 results and out
of those 510 had a call button, which is 19.8%. Um but that is the trend we are seeing across
lots of industries and I think it broke down which industries are being hit the hardest.

(01:10:23):
I think it's like really affecting agencies as a whole because you know like a lot of things with
LSA you can't really control you know like are you picking up your calls like and like sometimes like
the leads are bad and you know like specifically in restoration like mold you know it's not a
category and like people like might search something and you might not service something

(01:10:44):
mold related and then you're getting that call so it's a bad lead if you mark it as a bad lead
that works against you if you decline the call and it's being recorded I mean there's there's
so many factors that uh as an agency you're not going to really know what your customer is doing
and so so many things can work against you. I mean Google's definitely like raising the bar for like

(01:11:04):
those verticals. Yeah. I keep wondering when we've hit the peak of how often we are going to see
local service ads and local pack ads in the search results. So, we've been tracking this for about
a year now, and uh it started at 7% of the time Google was showing LSAs last year, like a year,
actually, sorry, not last year. Back in November of 2024, it was 7%. Uh I believe the peak so far

(01:11:28):
is 44% of the time, which is insane. For map pack ads, or local pack ads, as I like to call them,
that one had some pretty crazy stats as well. Let me see if I can get you the numbers.
So the percentage we were basically tracking a large set of ranking reports that we run on a
regular basis. In the fall of 2024, there was less than 1% of the search results on mobile

(01:11:52):
would show an ad in the local pack. Uh it jumped to 21% at the beginning of 2026 and then I believe
February's numbers were even larger. February of 2026, the number was 28% of uh searches basically
on mobile were showing a local pack ad in the local pack. Sometimes they are in addition to

(01:12:15):
the three that are there. We've seen other cases where they just boot somebody out. So it's like
add organic organic. So it's quite disrupting and then like you said the the removal of call
buttons is also quite disrupting. So and you're tracking mobile and desktop just mobile. Um,
so we don't actually see that they show up on desktop as much at all. Uh, that might change,
but where we are prominently seeing them is on mobile's mobile results. Um, so I want to talk

(01:12:40):
about AI. You did this post on LinkedIn and you said that the signals that matter for traditional
Google Maps rankings are not the same signals that influence AI mode and Gemini. Now, I want
to clarify because we I have them all listed down here, but you're not talking about AI overviews,
right? like you're just talking about searching via Gemini or the AI mode. Is that correct?

(01:13:00):
Correct. Okay, perfect. I want to make sure we do that distinguish this I want to make sure we
distinguish that because the AI overview or the AI powered local packs is also an AI overview. It
is a bit different. Um now before we get into the factors, I want to ask you have you seen any way
to track the amount of traffic that is coming from either AI mode or Gemini? No. Okay. Well, that's

(01:13:24):
honest. um because there is a lot of companies out there that are claiming that they can I don't
know see this somehow but unless you're getting uh like a verbal confirmation from the call and
you know and then you're like noticing so I had um a marketing agency um pay into this AI startup and
basically was just generating AI flop like tons of pages and they were showing up in Chad GBT and

(01:13:49):
any other uh you know AI um search engine and they were like so happy they were getting leads and I'm
like it's going to backfire on you. I want to demonstrate the AI mode here so that we have a
uh a visual here. So let me just go ahead and um do a search. What would be you said you deal with
uh so do this one search that I I always do this often but go into AI mode. Okay. Well,

(01:14:15):
I want to show both side by side so people can see. So what would be the search?
um like a best um sushi restaurant in Michigan.
All right, so this is what people are traditionally used to seeing, right? You've got
the the local pack at the top, you've got Yelp, you've got a bunch of other Oh, Reddit, of course,
we've got Reddit for everything. Um so now I'm going to go into AI mode. I will say that Google

(01:14:38):
has been pushing AI mode like crazy, trying to get people to click on it. And he's right here. I've
also seen some times where if I search in AI mode and then I go back to regular Google, it tries
to take me back to AI mode. like they are really trying to push this. Uh so I think out of anything
this is likely to be the most disruptive possibly in the uh local SEO space if Google pushes a

(01:14:59):
button and makes this the default. Okay, so we've got on the left our traditional searches on the
right we've got and so it was S O Z AI is that did we see it up there? So Z Yeah, they're closed
on this one. And it showed permanently closed. Hosting is currently turned off. They might have

(01:15:20):
sold it. I swear the other day I looked at it and uh Oh my god. No, no, no. Okay. Okay. Okay. Sorry.
So, definitely openness is not a ranking factor. Oh my god. Okay. So, let to be clear, there's
nothing even on here that says they're closed. Even when you go to usually usually the what to
know will show up and say it's closed. Oh my god. So, I'm I'm surprised it's not showing up for you.

(01:15:43):
the um you know the AI overview like what to know. So basically AI mode is showing a business that is
actually permanently closed but you wouldn't even know clicking on it because it doesn't actually
show me that they're closed in any way, shape or form. Now of course this business isn't visible
over here. I don't even know if you'd be able to find this business with the traditional uh search

(01:16:04):
results because they're pretty good at filtering out businesses based on opening hours. So I
don't see restaurant anywhere over here. business description because I in the business description
it told me why they closed down like the the b the business owner moved to another country. It says
it's permanently closed. If that is wrong, please suggest an edit. Um I don't see a description

(01:16:28):
anywhere. Um but maybe if I search it on Google and AI mode, if you scroll down, usually it it
shows up, but no, maybe not. So wild. And like posting turns off, it's closed. um wild and this
is the number one thing that AI mode is surfacing for what is the best sushi restaurant in Michigan.

(01:16:50):
Again, your results may vary depending on your search because that's the other frustrating
thing with AI is that it is very hard to reproduce the same thing. I found that generally speaking,
if you and I were to do like the same search, we would see different things, but if we did enough
of it over a period of time, we'd be likely to see a lot of the same ones over and over. Yeah. Um,
the analogy I always use for describing how AI works is it's kind of like rolling a dice,

(01:17:15):
right? You can't determine that you are going to see the same result every time, but the odds are
what they are, right? One in six times you're supposed to get a one. That doesn't mean you
will get a one one in six times, right? So I think visibility on AI is all about probability which is
very different than what we are used to with the search results being all deterministic where you

(01:17:35):
search this you get this based on this logic and this algorithm and AI is like no roll see what you
get and so I agree with that but I also in local I think um I disagree a little bit I think okay
for the most part like every single time over the past six months that I've searched this same query

(01:17:58):
my uh client shows up every time for you like well yeah because maybe it's personalized but I
do try different workspacing but I do think about that like oh is it because I'm clicking on it or
I'm engaging but it it but I think more or less the context is there so they have the H1 header

(01:18:18):
that says it that they're the best in in Michigan. They have on the contact us page they have stuff
in there. They're on a Reddit thread that mentions like best sushi in the area and they're listed by
a couple people and with a few up votes on it. Um, so but here's like what I really noticed.
Like traditional local map pack, if you were to search sushi, if that's not your primary category,

(01:18:43):
you would never show up. But in AI mode, it's it's it's showing you like a Japanese restaurant
or like, you know, other related categories. But I think the photos and the mentions of sushi were
played a bigger role than the actual primary category or the business name. So I don't like

(01:19:03):
I don't really think that that's like a a big factor. I think having the context is going
to be the most important thing uh for you to show up in AI mode. So like photos, videos,
uh reviews, third party mentions, um micro influencers mentioning you as being the best,
just anything like that. You're the AI is going to prioritize more than the structured data.

(01:19:29):
Yeah. So let's talk about your post. I'm going to go down these in order. Opening hours huge factor
for local pack rankings. Not as much if at all a priority for AI mode. Correct. Correct. Like
you could show up if you're closed. you can show up if you're permanently closed. Yeah,
and I've seen this as well. Uh so for sure it is not the same. Um so that hack unfortunately
might go away. Uh if again we're we're speculating here, but if Google starts pushing AI mode more,

(01:19:54):
and that's a big if as of right now, we're not even sure how much traffic it's sending. Um so
it's it's a big if, but they they're trying. But don't forget like we know that like traditional
SEO like Kevin Indig always does like case studies like chat GBT might prioritize like
uh like your placement on the first page. So that might be a factor in chat GBT but

(01:20:15):
not so much so in AI mode. So it's still all relevant. Uh keywords in the business name you
mentioned are not as much of a priority. I think that's a big plus but again going to be bad for
some businesses that are getting a huge boost for that. um the aligned primary category. This could
be the solution to that plumber example I had earlier, right? Like if you're an HVAC company
that does plumbing, electrical, and uh HVAC and you currently rank crappy for whatever one's not

(01:20:41):
your primary category, this could be helpful. One other use case I have seen and I haven't seen it
like again a ton. those use case, but uh there was a client of mine who um is not in Toronto,
but he services Toronto and he's in a city in the suburb and he actually ranks really well in
AI mode for Toronto queries um just fine and he doesn't actually have an office in Toronto. So,

(01:21:05):
it's like this could be the solution for service area businesses that like that is one of the
challenges that we've run into over the years where it's like, oh, I'm right outside the city
I service. Well, maybe AI doesn't care as much as as the map pack does. So, that could be good.
Yeah, for sure. And you don't need multiple like virtual offices. Like you can just list them on
the top of your homepage and AI is going to know that you have like you service those and you have

(01:21:27):
virtual offices there and you're all set. Yeah. Uh the other thing you mentioned is reviews. So are
they uh the same priority because reviews matter a lot for local pack rankings. Are they basically
the same on both? Yeah, for sure. And maybe even more so. Interesting. Um, you said H1 headers on
the website is more important for AI. I mean, I find it's important across the board. Yeah, I mean

(01:21:52):
it is important across the board. So, you could say it's like equal weight. Yeah. Listicles, best
X and Y. So, we're talking like best restaurants in Michigan list, best chiropractors in Ann Arbor,
that kind of thing. Third party listicles. We're talking right not on your own website. Yes. So,
like the Yelp list. Yes. Yeah. Honestly, these are way too powerful for AI. It's like I think

(01:22:17):
it can change over time, don't you? Yeah. Yeah, I do because we are winning like crazy with these.
Like factoring it AI only. Like we're This is not a big mover for organic uh SEO. It definitely also
impacts local pack rankings, not at the same scale as AI. Like we can move businesses in AI pretty
fast with um these types of lists or like you know just sending out a press release. Um, it's

(01:22:43):
ridiculous. It shouldn't be that easy. It's very easy right now. Um, and I do agree that it's not
going to be that easy maybe a year from now. Yes. Um, but great right now. Um, third party reviews
are more important for AI mode. Yeah. So, getting a recommendation off of like whether it's Reddit,

(01:23:05):
uh, a micro influencer or like a Yelp review. I think they all kind of carry the same weight.
I'm not like I don't I'm not convinced that like one is more important than the other. I
think just having that diversification and you know the reinforcement that like whatever the
person's searching and it's reinforced through a third party directory is going to just be like

(01:23:26):
it's going to align and work in your favor. Now you specifically mentioned Reddit which
is interesting. Um you said Reddit is a high priority. Are you seeing that Reddit matters
a lot more for AI mode than it would for like traditional Google local pack? For local pack,
yes, for sure. Okay. Reddit is everywhere. I mean, you can't get rid of it. I don't think
it's dying anytime soon either. I uh I think the brand is pretty strong. Um so I have no hunch

(01:23:51):
invested in it. I mean, they train their models on it. So it it's definitely not going anywhere.
Okay. And then I there's two other here on here that I wanted to touch on. Business descriptions.
Are you talking about like the description that the business owner fills out on the business
profile? Yes. You you actually seeing Google use that more in the whether it's Yep. Whether it's
in your Yelp business description like if you mention like offering like a certain offering.

(01:24:17):
Um it'll get like reinforced in AI whether it's on Yelp, whether it's on your website or whether it's
now. Um, before I never used to see Google looking at the attributes and business description in your
Google business profile. They always prioritized thirdparty directories, but that's changing now.
I did a post recently that talks about how um your attributes and everything is is now being trained

(01:24:43):
by the LLM and it's being mentioned. Interesting. Any particular sites? I've only seen Yelp so far,
which is irritating as as I'll get out because I just can't stand Yelp, but I'm seeing Yelp
quoted a lot in AI overviews as like a a place where Google is grabbing details like especially
a description for a business. Um, are there any particular sites that you're seeing more

(01:25:04):
so than others? It's funny like when I'm in AI mode, you can see just like for example like the
best example I can give is when you're searching like anything halal. So there's this like blogger
like and it's like you this blogger would never be surfaced ever in in history, right? That and and

(01:25:24):
it's a post from like years ago, but it's getting cited in AI mode just because of the like URL has
like halal and it it might mention like the best halal restaurants to eat in the area. And so now
all of a sudden it's like prominent. So like things that have zero domain authority are
going to be cited. And so like domain authority is like definitely not a thing. Is it wild if

(01:25:48):
this brings back like food blogging because I got to tell you I've talked to so many who got
just like annihilated with the helpful content update and like for them to make a resurgence
with AI would be really ironic. Like that's just I don't know full circle. Okay. I think we're going
to I definitely think we're going to see that like they like they like like a the the models or like

(01:26:08):
whoever is behind the scenes like they like that original content. Like that's what they're looking
for. So, we're definitely going to see more of that. That'll be interesting to to watch for
sure. All right. I want to talk about this last thing here, which is a recent post that you put
out talking about ranking and talking about how your map pin influences ranking. and it's kind

(01:26:30):
of technical and kind of complicated. So, I want you to try and dumb it down for people watching or
listening. Um, let's talk about this article. It talks about ranking and service area businesses.
Uh, give me an overview of what you kind of have discovered with this. Okay. So, I'm noticing a
hu like a a lot more than usual in the last month or two. Map pin placements are like all over the

(01:26:56):
place. So, you're you're verifying and then your map PIN is um at like like never updated. So,
you you changed your address and you verified but your map pin still ended up in the old spot or
um just you're you know historically Darren Shaw you always talk about how you know if you're an

(01:27:18):
SAB your rankings drop you know like so like what is the problem with hiding your address? So I I I
mean I've been researching this for like over a year and I constantly go back and forth and with
it, but I finally published something that I felt confident enough to publish. And so yes, it is it
is technical. So there's there's multiple things uh that is going on and like one that we know

(01:27:43):
about and that you've uh documented is if you move and you're an SAB and you hide your address, your
address almost always will revert to the address that you created your Google business profile in.
So, if if you're a service-based company that's servicing like, you know, a metropolitan area and

(01:28:03):
you only moved a mile away, it's probably not going to be a big deal uh that you're pin it
moved to your old address. But, um you just if you're running ranking reports in this certain
mile radius, you're obviously going to see like bad rankings because you're not you're you're
not placed in the right vicinity. So, you know, that's that's something to think about. Plus,

(01:28:27):
like a lot of these ranking um systems, they're placing your map pin in the centroidid of your
service area. And so, if you're running your ranking report based on the centrid of your
service area, that's also going to really affect how you're ranking, right? You have to really know
where your map pen placement is to understand if you're ranking well for those keywords. So, that's

(01:28:50):
that's another thing to think about. Um, I moved and I like I updated my address and I was showing
my address. I was verified and everything and I was messing around with my profile because I was
testing something and I triggered a suspension or verification and I couldn't get reinstated because
I didn't have signage because I I work from home, but I do have an office that I can travel to when

(01:29:14):
needed if I'm meeting a client. So, um, I ended up hiding my address and now I found my I every
time I run ranking reports, it's run always at my old address because even though I was a storefront
for several months and my my pin was at the new location, as soon as I toggled, hi hide's your

(01:29:35):
address, the the map pin moved back. So, I'm like, okay, why like why exactly is Google doing this?
like what's what's exactly happening behind the scenes. And so basically what I'm concluding is
once you once you toggle hide that address, it's causing the map pen to be like repositioned. So

(01:29:59):
if like it has to anchor somewhere. So if the only plausible thing it's going to anchor to is
the address that you created your Google business profile in. So, everyone needs to understand that
like you're going to toggle your address to hide and if you're not in that same area, you almost
always have to create a brand new Google listing and then transfer your reviews. And that's the

(01:30:20):
best solution. You're not going to be able to like troubleshoot this through support because
I don't think support understands or is capable of even knowing where your map pin is at that point.
Um well and the the other complication is something that Brad Weatherall told me is
that support can't even see the address on a hidden area a hidden address listing. So they
won't even be able to tell you where you verified it. They have no idea. So actually I've run into a

(01:30:43):
couple cases where people don't remember where they verified it. Um and they're like I don't
know where it was verified. I'm like well you'll know because wherever you verified it is where
you rank. So if you rank in that city then that's where you verified it. But there's no way around
it other than creating a new listing, which is why you can't move a service area business listing.
It's impossible um to get around this. Um but not something a lot of people would know because it's

(01:31:05):
so clunky. You would think, oh, just go add the address. The moment you hide it, it reverts back
to the verification address. So stupid. Correct. And I'm I'm convinced that nobody at Google knows
that it functions this way. Uh most of the people you're talking to in support would not. No, I'm
saying like even people that like are engineers and create these products, they're not they don't

(01:31:27):
know how this functions because it was probably developed, you know, like years ago and you know,
whoever developed it, like it's one of those products that was like nobody understands it or
it lives in that product. It's not being looked at and so this is not something that's going to get
fixed. Um, but like in my article I mentioned like geocoding and Google has this like website. It's

(01:31:50):
like the for like developer and so basically you can like enter the address and you'll see exactly
where your map pin is going to fall. And so now like I I just brought on a brand that's mostly
SABS and they had 10 locations that didn't have any Google business profiles created and I had
to create them. And so before I even create any listing, I run it through that website and one of

(01:32:13):
the locations I found ended up in the middle of the road. So like thankfully I didn't create the
listing first. So I can go back to the client and say like this address is like the pin placement is
going here. Uh we don't want that. So like what what is your address exactly? Like there's got
to be a typo or something. And then um if I had a client that's has a storefront. So this can happen

(01:32:40):
if your address is hidden or even if your address is visible. So if you reverify if you move or or
anything happens, your PIN still gets stuck at the old location. And so like if somebody but you'll
know because when that somebody hits the driving directions, it'll take you to the old location. So
you have to work through it and make sure that the pin placement gets um corrected. But in my case,

(01:33:04):
uh, the sweet number was added in the address line and not like So, be very careful when you're
typing in the address and make sure you don't have any typos in the zip code because then
you can totally mess up your pin placement and then you're going to go down this rabbit hole
of verification and like you're going to get stuck in this verification loop because it's all caused

(01:33:26):
by your pin placement. And this can happen if it's a newer construction or like you know the
map view isn't like present like in Google's like system. So using that website is like going to be
like super helpful for a lot of people that are creating listings is like make sure like your
pin placement's getting put on a rooftop like you want it set to a rooftop and not on like a highway

(01:33:50):
median or like on in the parking lot. Um so that's one of the things. And then another thing
I touched on was I did this test case um where I created a brand new listing uh called Claudia's
Tutoring Service and I put the city in Detroit. I put the zip code in Ann Arbor and I and I made

(01:34:13):
up a street name and it went into processing. It didn't get suspended and thankfully Yeah. And then
like crazy thing is is three days later I got verified. And so I was like this is crazy. I'm
verified. Like now I can like figure this out. So I took the fake address that I created. I put it
into the website and I found my pin placement and then I ran a ranking report at that exact area and

(01:34:39):
I ranked. I didn't rank great like I ranked 12th but still I was ranking versus like 100 plus. So
I knew my pen placement was there. And what was interesting is that there happened to be
a road called Manchester that I and I created that road Manchester and it in that zip code.
So it it really defaulted to the zip code and it found the road and the zip code. So it didn't know

(01:35:03):
exactly but it was like this is the best option to place this pen. So that's all it's doing. It's
like guessing based on the address that you're inputting where it's going to place that pin
placement. And that's exactly where you're going to rank. It's not the address that's visible that
you're ranking at. It's where your pin placement is where exactly where you're going to rank at.

(01:35:23):
And that's everything that determines proximity for everything. 100%. We've seen this with
businesses that fall outside of city borders, too, right? They they have the right city. Enter it.
It doesn't matter. It's where the pin is. That pin is not inside the city borders. The limits of what
Google Maps puts for the city, you're not going to rank for that city. Um, so that's yeah, certainly
true for what we've seen. Um, we have time for like two or three of these little short rapid fire

(01:35:45):
questions. So, I will throw a few of these at at you. Um, I'm going to throw you a few rapid fire
questions. You have 30 seconds or less to answer them and uh give it your best shot. All right. So,
first up, what is the most overrated local SEO tactic? I don't think anything's really overrated,
but if I had to say one, I would say like service area settings. Like people just think that's a

(01:36:10):
ranking factor and it's not. So, all right, let's go with the reverse. What is the most underrated
local SEO tactic? Primary category and business name alignment. All righty. What is one thing that
business owners are doing that is secretly hurting their reviews? Getting an influx of reviews in
a fast amount of time and not setting it at an organic pace. Reviews or backlinks. What matters

(01:36:37):
more for 2026? Reviews. Agreed. A thousand% agreed. Yeah. Uh, if your reviews were to stop
publishing tomorrow, what is the first thing you would check? I'd ask a friend to publish a review
and if that didn't publish, I would make sure that I got a local guide to publish a review because a
lot of times local guides could get through. Um, so if you notice that reviews aren't publishing,

(01:37:03):
but a local guide might come through, there's almost always certainly a block that's on your
profile and um, at that point, I guess the panic comes in. Awesome. Claudia, we just want to thank
you for spending um so much of your time talking to us today. I'm sure we'll get lots of questions
and comments from our audience. Um and we'll try to get you to answer as many of those as possible.

(01:37:23):
But until then, uh what would you like to say to anybody? Where can they find you if they want to
learn more about what you guys do? Uh the best option is to follow me on LinkedIn or you can
go to reputationarm.com and subscribe to our newsletter. Thanks so much for listening, guys.

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The 2026 Google Business Profile Review Trends You Can’t Ignore | Claudia Tomina

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The 2026 Google Business Profile Review Trends You Can’t Ignore | Claudia Tomina