A perfect example came from Wil Reynolds’ talk at BrightLocal’s Local SEO for Good. He showed a sign from a Philadelphia cheesesteak shop that claimed to be “authentic.” The image on the sign was AI-generated and featured the Statue of Liberty floating above Philadelphia’s skyline. As Wil put it:

“When you use AI to build out your image… what does that do to your authenticity score?”

That small detail instantly collapsed trust. The business did not intend to deceive anyone. Still, in an AI-saturated world, customers are paying closer attention to what feels fake.

This idea kept surfacing throughout Local SEO for Good. Whether it was Melissa Popp explaining why people immediately spot generic content, or Leighanne Jones reminding us that AI has never lived a human moment, speakers repeatedly returned to the same point. Authenticity is becoming a defining competitive advantage for local businesses.

AI can produce content quickly, but customers want honesty, human presence, and local relevance. They are not asking for more content. They are asking for more connection.

This article brings together these perspectives to show how local businesses can stay authentic while using AI in thoughtful and practical ways.

Why Authenticity Matters More Than Ever in Local Marketing

Local customers weigh a long list of factors when choosing who to work with. They pay attention to the people behind a business, the way a company communicates, and whether it feels trustworthy. Authenticity plays a central role in how those impressions form.

Melissa Popp captured this shift clearly:

“People can see right through” generic or AI-generated content.

This is especially visible inside Google Business Profile (GBP), where people are ready to act. Trust grows through:

• Real photos
• Human review responses
• Helpful Google Posts
• Up-to-date service information
• Clear answers in the Q&A section

BrightLocal’s Google Business Profile Audit highlights issues that weaken credibility.

Melissa also warned that posting the same asset across every platform creates distance rather than connection. AI has amplified this divide. When customers scroll, authentic content stands out while generic content blends into the background.

For local businesses, authenticity is no longer optional. It directly influences whether someone reaches out.

The Limits of AI: What Machines Cannot Recreate

AI can help with tasks, but it has no lived experience to draw from. Leighanne Jones explained this memorably:

“AI has never experienced a heartbreak. It has never lived a human experience.”

A machine has never reassured a stressed homeowner, walked into a flooded basement, or sensed the tension in a customer’s voice. Without that grounding, AI often produces content that feels disconnected from reality.

Leighanne noted that AI works best as an assistant, not a replacement. “It can provide the foundation or the bones of a strategy,” she said, “but it shouldn’t be the full implementation.”

Industry reporting continues to highlight how often AI tools introduce factual errors or “hallucinations.” A recent analysis from The New York Times showed how systems from ChatGPT to Google still fabricate details with confidence, sometimes producing misleading or entirely incorrect responses.

For local businesses, tasks like metadata, outline drafting, and research summarization work well with AI. Tasks involving empathy, lived experience, and nuanced judgment do not.

Tools like Reputation Manager support the human side of communication by helping teams manage and respond to reviews consistently.

The Authenticity Battleground: AI Pollution and Real-World Signals

Authentic work does not always rise to the top of AI-generated results. Wil Reynolds shared a revealing example from his work in banking SEO. He developed a high-quality page grounded in real interviews and industry expertise. After 30 hours of effort, the page still lost to a competitor using mass-produced content written at speed.

His reaction reflected a frustration shared by many marketers:

“My 30 hours of work got beat by what they did in 30 seconds.”

Current AI models often treat repetition as authority. Large sites can flood the web with repetitive content in ways that smaller businesses cannot match.

Google has also acknowledged the scale of AI-generated spam creeping into search, updating guidance on the risks of “scaled content abuse” and how websites should approach generative AI:

“Generative AI can be particularly useful when researching a topic, and to add structure to original content. However, using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users may violate Google’s spam policy on scaled content abuse.”

Despite these challenges, Wil highlighted a shift that works in favor of local businesses. As people personalize their AI tools, they direct results toward brands they already trust. Human preference, social proof, and real-world reputation begin to outweigh content quantity.

In Wil’s words, “Human data is gold.” The trust built offline and on social platforms influences how people use AI and who they choose to work with.

BrightLocal’s Local Search Audit helps uncover strengths and weaknesses in these credibility signals.

How Local Businesses Can Stay Authentic Across Today’s Most Important Platforms

Authenticity appears differently depending on where customers interact with a business. Melissa Popp offered practical guidance across four major platforms.

Google Business Profile: Trust Through Consistency

GBP rewards businesses that keep their information accurate and active. Melissa emphasized GBP’s importance:

“Google Business Profile is one of the most important places we are sharing content.”

Authenticity strengthens when businesses:

• Upload photos from real jobs
• Maintain accurate hours and service details
• Respond to reviews with care
• Use Posts to address timely questions
• Share seasonal and local updates

The GBP Post Scheduler helps teams maintain this presence without losing momentum.

Facebook: Community Conversations, Not Announcements

Melissa described Facebook as a platform rooted in neighborhood conversations. People turn to groups for recommendations, updates, and local knowledge.

During Denver’s severe hail season, she observed that promotional posts rarely resonated. Practical advice and supportive updates performed far better.

For visibility across social and directory listings, Citation Tracker helps identify inconsistencies that weaken trust.

Instagram: Honest Visuals Build Confidence

Instagram favors visual storytelling rooted in real experiences. Melissa encouraged teams to take their own photos, even if simple:

“Pull out your iPhone. Use them. That’s real.”

People respond to:

• Before and after photos
• Candid team moments
• Quick behind-the-scenes clips
• Visual stories tied to local challenges

Authenticity in imagery increases trust. Stock photos and AI visuals rarely capture that effect.

TikTok: Small, Genuine Moments Travel Farther

TikTok thrives on spontaneity. Melissa described it as a place defined by “micro moments of authenticity.”

Local businesses can share quick tips, surprising job moments, or light-hearted clips that show the personality of the team.

Using AI Without Losing Your Voice

Each speaker agreed on one key point. AI works well as a support tool but not as the creative engine that shapes a brand’s identity.

AI can lighten busywork. It speeds up research, outlines, metadata, and idea generation. Leighanne described it as useful for the “bones” of a strategy.

The limits become clear when AI is asked to imitate emotional intelligence or local understanding. Review responses, community messages, and service-oriented content benefit from a human voice that reacts with context and empathy.

AI can help you deliver faster. It cannot help you sound more genuine.

The Authenticity Playbook: five practical steps

1. Begin with customer language

Interview real customers. Pull keywords, concerns, stories, and local references straight from the people you serve. No model can recreate that texture.

2. Adapt a single idea into multiple formats

Melissa’s guidance still applies. One concept can be shaped differently for GBP, Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. Each platform rewards a different kind of storytelling.

3. Infuse content with local detail

Use examples that only someone in your region would know. References to weather patterns, neighborhood quirks, or common homeowner issues give content a sense of place.

4. Highlight the team

People trust a familiar face. Real staff photos, quotes, and day-to-day glimpses anchor a business in humanity.

5. Reinforce your true differentiators

Wil’s testing revealed that repeating accurate, meaningful information about your business helps AI models understand what you do. Authentic details, when reinforced across your site, become stronger signals.

Conclusion: Authenticity Remains a Durable Advantage

AI will continue to evolve, but lived experience will always shape the most compelling stories. Wil expressed it clearly:

“You’re not going to win by outsourcing your authenticity.”

Melissa showed how trust grows through steady, real engagement.
Leighanne reminded us that human insight cannot be automated.
Wil demonstrated the long-term value of real-world credibility.

These themes surfaced across Local SEO for Good because they reflect how people decide who to work with. Customers rely on honest communication and meaningful connections when making local choices.

AI can help teams work faster. It cannot replace the qualities that make local businesses memorable and trusted. Authenticity remains the strongest foundation for long-term success.

You can see how we’re implementing AI to help teams and small businesses work faster in our AI Roadmap.

The big changes we saw bubbling up in 2025—things like super-smart AI and how customers actually find places—are now the new normal. The message is clear: the customer experience is the new algorithm. Stop focusing so much on old, technical SEO tricks and start focusing on creating moments that people love and want to talk about online.

Success next year belongs to the businesses that inspire organic chatter on social media and community sites, platforms that the search engines and new AI tools actually trust.

Ready to see what the experts are predicting? Let’s dive in.

Myles Anderson on Gaining Confidence and Taking Action

"Your local marketing strategy for 2026 and beyond should prioritize Google first, and LLMs second."

Co-founder and CEO at BrightLocal

If 2025 was about reacting to the unknown, 2026 is about gaining confidence and taking action. We’ve realized something quite reassuring: the fundamentals of good, long-term SEO strategy, based on the goals of building trust and authority, are still the backbone of earning visibility.

My predictions for 2026:

• Google first, LLMs second: Google owns the live data of the physical world. Your primary strategy should still center on Google, while treating LLMs as a secondary (but growing) discovery layer.

• Websites must become transactional: We are moving into an era where AI agents (like those powered by Gemini and ChatGPT) are visiting your site to take action. Ensure your booking forms and stock levels are “agent-friendly.”

• Reputation everywhere: To earn trust in the AI era, you must build a strong reputation on a wider set of platforms, such as Yelp and industry-specific sites, which serve as vital data sources for LLMs.

• The agency pivot: Successful agencies will shift toward measuring “share of voice” and focusing on customer retention, helping clients turn their existing base into lifelong advocates.

• The Reddit evolution: As Reddit becomes a key source of “authentic insight” for AI, focus on genuine community participation rather than low-quality, automated spam.

Rachel Ellen on a Strong Local Presence 

"Strong local presence won’t just mean being found; it will mean being remembered, recommended, and revisited."

Local Search Strategist at Croud

In 2026, local marketing will be less about “find a store near me” and more about “where can I go that’s actually worth showing up for?” 

Consumers will always check for the basics, such as opening hours and phone numbers, but they also want to be inspired and given real reasons to visit. The spark often starts somewhere completely off-platform: a TikTok video showing a new drop happening only in one store, a Reddit thread sharing honest experiences, or a niche community recommending a location because something is happening there. Brands that turn stores and spaces into places worth talking about, through events, experiences, exclusives, or simply great local culture, will outperform those relying on templated landing pages and generic copy.

And crucially, this shift will make local marketing much more exciting and collaborative! Store staff, creators, local communities, loyalty teams, and customers will become contributors, not just recipients. Local will expand beyond “visibility” into something closer to hospitality and enthusiasm-building. Strong local presence won’t just mean being found; it will mean being remembered, recommended, and revisited. The brands that embrace this will see that community-powered experiences create measurable demand online, higher conversion offline, and a genuine reason for customers to turn up in person rather than scrolling past. I, for one, am super excited for the strategic evolution that we’ll need to embrace!

Crystal Carter on AI Agents

"If your forms, checkouts, appointment scheduling, and restaurant bookings are not accessible by AI agents, you won’t even be in the game."

Head of AI Search and SEO Communications at WIX STUDIO

I expect the agentic web to hit its stride in 2026. In case you haven’t noticed, agentic use of AI is ramping up. Google launched its Agent to Agent Protocol, OpenAI launched its Agentic Commerce Protocol, and Google also dropped the Agentic Payments Protocol, all in 2025. And they are just getting started.

At Wix, we’ve configured our website builder with the Agentic Commerce Protocol because automated shopping from AI tools will be a game-changer for users. We understand that for site owners, it means it’s not enough just to be mentioned in Google, ChatGPT, and the like; you need to build your website to become a tool for autonomous AI use via agents. If your forms, checkouts, appointment scheduling, and restaurant bookings are not accessible by AI agents, you won’t even be in the game.

Claudia Tomina on Agentic Workflows

"Visibility will depend on how well a business supports AI-assisted actions and transactions."

Founder at ReputationArm

Agentic workflows will become far more visible, moving users from discovery to action with fewer steps in between. Rankings alone won’t carry the weight they once did. Visibility will depend on how well a business supports AI-assisted actions and transactions.

Steve Wiideman on the Shift from Keywords to Context

"You can spend a month attempting to spam the web... or be the business customers are raving about, thereby allowing them to do all the LLM SEO work for you."

Owner at Wiideman Consulting Group

In the realm of multi-location SEO, platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini pay attention to focal points we already include in modern optimization: consistent business data and important passages within location or intent pages.

Most importantly, reputation takes precedence in local intent answers… We see reputation and sentiment used to solve for prompts like “highly-rated” or “top-rated,” while personalization eventually removes the need for these modifiers.

Four Key Focus Areas for 2026:

• AI-Powered Data Management: Leveraging AI to research, discover, and update business data.

• Powering LSEO with Vectors: Semantic vectors will reward listings that offer rich, contextually relevant, and entity-based information rather than just keyword matches.

• Smarter Location & Intent Pages: Moving away from 2019-style templates toward AI-driven, data-rich landing pages that are more helpful than ever.

• Convergence of Citations & Reputation: Moving past traditional “NAP” data entry toward authentic marketing on destinations visited by real people (Reddit, Yelp, TikTok) to foster visibility.

Final Thought

You can spend a month attempting to spam the web… or be the business customers are raving about, thereby allowing them to do all the LLM SEO work for you.

Will Scott on Comparison Content

"The data is clear: even self-referencing top X and comparison content is winning in AI."

Co-founder and CEO at Search Influence

We’ve been spoiled in local SEO as Google AI Overviews have left us alone so far. That’s about to change, big time. If you’re not already on the hunt for “best of [your category and city]” and “top X” lists, it’s time to get going. And if nobody else is writing them? Write them yourself. The data is clear: even self-referencing top X and comparison content is winning in AI.

Stefan Lozo on Monetizing AI

"LLM companies will try to monetize AI results..."

Founder and SEO Consultant at Lozo Digital

Businesses and bad agencies will try to use AI aggressively for quick and fast results. This will create a lot of mess, and a good SEO expert will have a lot of work to do and clean up the mess. For success, SEO alone won’t be enough, so there will be more demand for paid channels and digital PR, and their prices will increase. LLM companies will try to monetize AI results with some ad formats. SEO will definitely continue to evolve and continue to be a strategic part of the marketing strategy.

Andrew Optimisey on AI Features

"AI-geddon is coming!"

SEO Consultant and Owner at Optimisey

Google is going to push more and more AI features into local. They have to, they’ve invested so heavily in AI now it has to earn its corn:

• AI overviews in Maps +++

• “Use Gemini to book” buttons where AI calls businesses for you

• “Check stock with Gemini” ditto

• AI summaries of reviews, services, and service pages

• Web Guide style Map Packs with it split in sections, e.g., for restaurants: “Pet-friendly restaurants”, “Highest reviewed restaurants”, “Menu highlights”, etc.

AI-geddon is coming!

Key Takeaways: Your 2026 Local Marketing Action Plan

The roadmap for 2026 is clear: the era of “gaming the system” is over. To win, you must stop focusing solely on technical loopholes and start focusing on becoming a pillar of your community—the kind of business people mention by name without needing a search engine.

Here is how you can guide your business toward success in the local landscape this year:

• Be worth talking about: Search engines now prioritize “social chatter” and real human recommendations. Don’t just exist; create experiences, events, and a culture that people want to share on TikTok, Reddit, and in their own local circles.

• Build an “agent-ready” website: AI agents (like those powered by Gemini and ChatGPT) are increasingly handling the “doing” for your customers. If your website doesn’t have structured, easy-to-read forms for booking, scheduling, or checking stock, these AI tools will skip you in favor of a competitor who is more “agent-friendly.”

• Prioritize Google, but feed the LLMs: Google remains the king of live local data, but AI models like ChatGPT can’t see Google reviews. To be found everywhere, you must build a 5-star reputation on diverse platforms like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and industry-specific directories.

• Content must be actionable and opinionated: Generic landing pages are no longer enough. 2026 rewards “comparison content” (e.g., The Top 5 Coffee Shops in London) and raw, authentic human writing. Don’t be afraid to show some personality; the “messy” truth beats AI-generated fluff every time.

• Shift your definition of success: Visibility is the new gold. As organic clicks become harder to track, focus on your “share of voice.” If people see your brand mentioned across multiple platforms—even if they don’t click a link immediately—you are winning the long game.

• The fundamentals still rule: At its core, SEO is still about trust and authority. While the tools have changed, the goal hasn’t: be the most reliable, highly recommended business in your neighborhood, and the algorithms will naturally follow your lead.

With two days of incredible talks and presentations about what you need to know for local marketing success right now.

Whether you tuned in live or are just catching up now, we’ve rounded up the key moments and insights from the event so you can dive straight into the good stuff.

Building a Brand That Locals Love, and How That Just Might Help You Battle Against the Big Behemoths

Wil’s keynote talk inspired us to consider the real need for authentic marketing in an age of AI. He talked us through various examples of brands that do this well, and gave practical tips on how to appear in AI search results.

Wil Reynolds

Founder and CEO at Seer Interactive

“There’s a lot of different ways to win in this new future. The question is, are we going to go back to what SEO was founded on, which was low quality, sometimes spammy stuff? Or are we going to go try to win for humans? And really, I want you to think you’re not going to win by outsourcing your authenticity. So lean into that. As a local business, I think now’s the best time to be rewarded for that.”

From Google Maps to TikTok: Adapting Local Content for Every Platform

Melissa walks us through creating bespoke content for a mix of social media channels, including Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. She explains how to repurpose content and ensure everything is localized and authentically valuable for potential customers.

Melissa Popp

Content Strategy Director at RicketyRoo

“Show the things that go wrong. People love human stories. Don’t shy away from failures. They’re actually a goldmine for content. And make sure that you’re tagging every post with a location and any businesses you’re asked… You want to invite people to that conversation, whether it’s a good review or a bad review. Talk to those people about it and share with your community about that.”

Rad Ranking Roadmap for Reddit

Andrew showed us how authentic engagement on Reddit can boost both Google rankings and AI visibility.

Andrew Shotland

CEO at Local SEO Guide

“I don’t care about your website. Maybe when I go to find your phone number, fill out a form. I do, but I don’t care about your 500 blog posts you wrote about how to fix your toilet. I care about people telling me how to do things and giving me advice. And so if you can get on Facebook or Reddit or whatever and be there with the content you put on your website, I think you have a lot better chance of ranking better and a lot better chance of actually converting customers from those sites.”

The New Customer Journey: How Local Searchers Find and Choose Lawyers

Near Media’s session uncovered how consumers really search for personal injury lawyers. Reviews, response times, and knowing where people start their search can make all the difference in capturing high-intent leads.

David Mihm

Local Search Consultant at Near Media

“Law firms need an outrageous number of reviews and near-perfect ratings in order to get those initial clicks and additional considerations. And if you do happen to get a phone call from somebody who has done a search and has chosen you for their first call, you’d better respond within a couple of hours because you might lose the case if you’re more delayed than that.”

Greg Sterling

Co-Founder at Near Media

“We found a number of demographic differences… younger people are more inclined to start their lawyer search on Google. And older people are more inclined to tap into word-of-mouth referrals. That doesn’t mean that older people aren’t using Google, or that younger people aren’t using word of mouth. It just means this is sort of their go-to entry point for this kind of inquiry.”

Mike Blumenthal

Co-Founder at Near Media

“I would add that in terms of Google AIOs… it’s a function of query length, and low funnel queries are typically shorter. Google delivers the local pack where longer queries… are not as local in nature. So Google sort of makes this transition, apparently based on query length, whether they show AIOs or whether they show the local.”

Technical SEO for Local Websites and Why It Matters

Iva reminded us that technical SEO isn’t separate from local; it’s the foundation. A site that’s fast, structured, and easy for search engines to understand helps every part of your local strategy shine.

Iva Jovanovic

Freelance SEO Specialist at Self-Employed

“There’s this division in SEO of doing on-page, off-page, technical, and local. They all benefit one another, and local SEO definitely benefits from technical SEO. Technical SEO is the thing that allows the content from your website to perform to its full potential. It is what helps search engines find and get what your website is about and ultimately index your website and its content.”

GBP Problems and How to Solve Them + AMA

Joy and Ben shared practical tips for navigating Google Business Profile hurdles, from verification tricks to maximizing your ranking radius.

Joy Hawkins

Owner at Sterling Sky

“If you’re a service business, you actually don’t have to verify your business at your home address. A lot of people think you do. You can actually drive out, like if you’re a realtor, you can drive out to a home that you are selling in the neighborhood that matches your service area. And as long as you can, like start your car, open the door to the house, and then like, show your sign on the front line, you’re good to verify there.”

Ben Fisher

Founder at Steady Demand

“From the work that we’ve seen and done, we see that a service for your business on average… will rank, you know, up to about two miles a day, right? Whereas, you know, a storefront can now rank anywhere from 5 to 10 miles… So it’s a clear win if you can get a physical address, of course, you have to abide by the guidelines.”

Marketing Advice from the Best Marketer You’ve Never Heard Of

Andi’s keynote talk showed how sharp strategy and tight targeting can transform results.

Andi Jarvis

Founder and Strategy Director at Eximo Marketing

“Most marketers are terrible at this, but great positioning is like having one tennis ball and throwing it at someone. You throw a tennis ball at someone, and they’ll catch it. You throw ten tennis balls at someone, they’re not going to catch any of them… You’ve got to focus, you’ve got to remove to improve.”

A Conversation with Google

Omar reinforced that the fundamentals still matter: clear SEO, a complete GBP, and content that brings real value to customers.

Omar Riaz

Strategic Partnerships at Google

“The fundamentals of SEO are even more important now than before. Even the way people are searching is evolving, the core goal remains the same, and the goal is to help people find outstanding original content that adds unique value… Now, in the new world, where the more informed users are coming to the website, it’s really important to look beyond the click-through rates, to measure what really matters, like engagement, conversations, and building a loyal audience.”

Choose Wisely: GBP Category Strategies for Maximizing Google Maps Visibility

Elizabeth showed why GBP categories are a big deal. Use every available slot thoughtfully to give your business a stronger shot at visibility.

Elizabeth Rule

Local SEO Strategist and Account Manager at Sterling Sky

“Once we choose the best primary category, you then want to spell out all the possible secondary categories that are available… since we have nine available sections in the additional category section on GBP, you’re going to want to fill up all nine if at all possible with relevant categories. Because, remember, secondary categories were number seven on the list of local search ranking factors out of over 100 factors. So they’re still very important for local rankings.”

Mining Gold from Customer Feedback

Julian explained how to turn customer feedback into insights. He explained how to spot keyword-rich themes in reviews, use them in on-page content, and learn from negative feedback to improve operations.

Julian Hooks

Senior Manager of SEO at Asurion

“There’s a ton of value in criticism, and no one likes getting one-star reviews, but a lot of times they are very much justified… Frequent complaints highlight operational and content opportunities. You can use these to fix the issue if it’s something happening in real time in the store… Rewriting service descriptions to clarify expectations… using this for CRO tests and user experience updates to the site. If people are frustrated about something, try to fix it.”

Keeping Humans in Marketing

Leighanne encouraged using AI as a tool, not a replacement. She emphasized that true connection and trust come from human insight.

Leighanne Jones (Rayome)

SEO Manager at Beyond Blue Media

“AI can provide the foundation or the bones [of] strategy, but I don’t think it should be used as a full implementation of everything that you’re doing… writing content faster with AI doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to get you results faster. Nothing is a guarantee. So Google still follows its own ranking processes. And answer engines generally mirror Google, and we’re seeing more of that as well. So speed doesn’t guarantee visibility or success”

Local SEO: How To Make More Customers Click, Choose, and Walk Through Your Doors

Krystal and Paul wrapped up the event with data-driven insights from Uberall’s Consumer Survey Report on how consumers find and choose local businesses online.

Paul Modaley

Senior Marketing Programs Manager at Uberall

“So we ask consumers to select their three preferred ways to search local businesses…Google search in our consumer survey came out number one, followed by Google Maps and social media. AI tools back in May… things like ChatGPT… came in fourth most used at 19% and then Apple Maps just behind that.”

Krystal Taing

VP Solutions at Uberall

“One of the most interesting things that we’ve got is so much feedback about pricing, either not having pricing online that someone can access or having conflicting pricing… So if you’re a business and you have a menu, whether it’s food or services, even having a starting at price range is really important to capture those customers that are deciding between you and another business.

Conclusion

From AI to authenticity, from technical SEO to the power of reviews, Local SEO for Good 2025 delivered a wealth of insights to help local marketers stay ahead. Whether you’re refining your content strategy, tightening technical foundations, or engaging your community, these lessons set the stage for a stronger, more visible local presence in 2025 and beyond.

Catch up on all the talks from day 1 and day 2 now on our YouTube channel.

We’ve previously talked about the changing nature of SEO, and how that means some tactics can become outdated or even no longer seen as best practice. Combine that with some of the, um, questionable advice that can sometimes be found online, and you can find yourself in a bit of a pickle.

Mistakes happen, but some can be more costly than others. If your business no longer ranks in the local map pack or organic results, that’s a problem because it means prospective customers aren’t able to find you. If you’ve recently received several negative reviews and didn’t respond to them in the hope the issue might go away, that’s a problem because it’s going to affect the way consumers perceive your business.

Understanding the consequences of mistakes and missed opportunities can help you make sure they don’t happen. And if they do? We’ve gathered some of the biggest local SEO mistakes from our industry friends, and shared their fixes here with you. 

Not investing in the right platforms

It may come as a surprise, but the biggest mistake could be simple inactivity.

In August 2025, we surveyed 778 SMB owners and managers. While 72% of them said that SEO had a medium-high impact on their business, the reality of their tactics highlighted some serious mistakes.

• 40% said they have a dedicated website.
• 35% of SMBs have Google Business Profiles.

So before we get into the specific mistakes that experts often see across these platforms, it’s worth knowing that the biggest mistake of all is not being present in the first place. A Google Business Profile and a website are basic foundations for ranking and interacting with your customers.

The good news is these mistakes are simple to fix, and we can help. Read our guides on creating a Google Business Profile (they’re free, and simple to claim), and our step-by-step advice on creating a website from scratch.

Google Business Profile mistakes

There are many mistakes you can make with a Google Business Profile (GBP) beyond being among the two-thirds of businesses that don’t have one. If you are, quickly go and claim one now. Read on for tips to help you avoid a profile suspension and find out why adding secondary categories is more than just a tick-box exercise.

"GBP category errors are almost always highlighted in our audits and pitches."

Rachel Ellen, Local Search Strategist at Croud

When setting up or managing your GBP, you’re given the option to choose one primary category and up to nine additional ones. Sounds simple enough, but this is hands down one of the most common (and costly) mistakes I see across the wide range of clients I work with, no matter the industry.

Correctly chosen categories help your listing show up in the right local searches. But get them wrong, or worse, leave out relevant ones, and you’re practically handing over visibility to your competitors.

Take a recent example: I was reviewing a client’s GBP who specialises in boots and shoes. They hadn’t selected either “Boot shop” or “Shoe shop” as a category. Instead, they’d gone with something vague and less helpful. No wonder they were struggling to rank for the terms that actually mattered to them.

And it’s not just about visibility, it’s about instilling confidence in potential customers. Even if your profile does rank, having a broad primary category like “Clinic” while your competitors are listed as “Physiotherapy clinic” or “Chiropractor” can make you seem like a less relevant choice. Someone looking for a specific service is much more likely to click on the profile that spells it out clearly.

In multi-practitioner scenarios, think doctors, therapists, or dentists, shared primary categories across all profiles can even result in a practitioner profile outranking the main business listing. One way around this is to diversify categories across listings to protect your brand’s presence in local results.

"Time and time again: a merchant gets unsuspended or verified, and immediately makes changes to their GBP"

Ben Fisher, Founder and Lead Consultant at Steady Demand

I see it time and time again: a merchant gets unsuspended or verified, and they immediately do things like change their business name or add or remove an address. This can trigger another verification process and usually a suspension.

Another big thing I see is with profile suspensions in particular. The situation usually unfolds like this: the merchant is suspended and they do not read the appeal screen properly and rush through the process. They will ignore the section for adding proof or forget about it. Then, after the appeal is denied, they rush through the review process. These are your two chances to appeal, so don’t waste them.

Missed opportunities for content

Many business owners don’t realize the opportunities that posting their own photos, videos and posts to GBP presents. As Claudia Tomina explains below, it’s now more important than ever.

"Photos and videos aren’t just nice-to-haves anymore; they’re ranking signals"

Claudia Tomina, CEO at Reputation Arm

One of the most common mistakes I see in local SEO is the lack of content. Specifically, not generating enough photos and videos. These aren’t just nice-to-haves anymore; they’re ranking signals. Google now uses visual content to extract context, keywords, and relevance, so when businesses neglect this area, they’re missing a major opportunity to improve visibility.

The fix? Stop overthinking it and start recording. For service-based businesses like plumbers, contractors, or restoration teams, the job site is your content studio. Capture before-and-after photos, record quick videos explaining what was done, and upload consistently.

You don’t need to be a polished presenter, authenticity will resonate. Over time, this habit will build trust with potential customers and strengthen your brand presence across search.

"Hire a professional photographer to upgrade the quality of your images"

Mike Blumenthal, Co-founder at Near Media

For Mike Blumenthal, one of the biggest local SEO mistakes is:

Using stock photography. Hire a professional photographer for a day to upgrade the quality of the images uploaded to GBP.

Not carrying out competitor research

Local-level competitor research may seem like a ‘nice to have,’ but if you aren’t monitoring your closest competitors then you could be harming your own visibility without even realizing. Amsive’s Bambi Frazier explains in more detail below.

"People think they know what’s holding them back, when in reality, it’s their top competitors simply executing better at the local level."

Bambi Frazier, Sr. Product Manager (Local SEO) at Amsive

Review management missteps 

We’ve all seen funny examples of negative business reviews with sarcastic owner responses. But in reality, this response sentiment can be a detriment to the brand and how others perceive it. And not responding to reviews at all? Customers do notice.

"So many business owners don’t realise they shouldn’t do this: replying poorly to negative Google reviews."

Elizabeth Rule, SEO Analyst at Sterling Sky

"Appreciate those who write reviews"

Greg Sterling, Co-founder at Near Media

Not responding to business reviews. Business owners or managers should respond to all reviews to address concerns, appreciate those who wrote reviews and demonstrate general engagement and responsiveness. This will help with consumer perceptions of the business and may indirectly help with local visibility.

Responding to all of your business reviews

The 2025 Local Consumer Review Survey found that 89% of consumers would use a local business that responds to both positive and negative reviews.

 

Hopefully, these mistakes and missed opportunities have given you some food for thought, and something to keep front of mind as you navigate the realms of local marketing. But if you feel that these have simply added to your never-ending list of things to do, you might also want to consider how fully managed local SEO services could help you.

This article is from our Agency Growth Handbook—a collection of guides created to help local SEO agencies grow and succeed. It is chapter eight of ‘Part 3: Retention & Growth’.

Running an agency is difficult. Growing your agency is even harder.

For many, that growth comes organically with some big client wins. For others, it requires years of grinding. Regardless of how you’ve achieved your growth, there’s a good chance it’s going to come with difficulties that need to be navigated.

“The bigger you get as an agency, the easier it is to slip away from the things that made you successful to begin with”

– Laura Salter, Director of Operations, Kick Point

Maybe it’s the right hire, but at the wrong time. Or, suddenly, you find yourself floundering without the right processes in place, leading to a lack of consistency. Maybe important clients suddenly leave. It could be that you’ve not been able to scale headcount fast enough.

“This taught me a crucial lesson: scaling an agency isn’t just about adding headcount.”

– Vera Shafiq, Fractional CMO and Consultant

Whatever it is, you’re probably not the first agency to have those issues. Our 2024 Local Marketing Industry Survey found that 66% of agencies were planning to hire new staff in 2025.

So to help you navigate these chaotic times, we’ve talked to a number of agency founders and leaders to find out what problems they had as they grew, and how they overcame them.

"Let Go and Keep Learning"

Blake Denman, President & Founder at RicketyRoo

The biggest challenge I have faced while growing RicketyRoo has been letting go.

I founded the agency on February 1, 2009, and have been actively involved for the vast majority of its life. However, as we’ve continued to grow, the things that I had been in charge of have been taken over by someone else on the team.

Operations was the last thing I truly let go of, and for a period of time, I felt more or less like the Pulp Fiction meme of John Travolta standing there with his coat, pointing one way, then pointing the other way, not sure which way to go.

Up until that point, I knew what I needed to get done within the agency to keep moving forward. I’ve learned that the only way to keep growing is to let go and remain teachable in all aspects of not only agency life, but life in general.

"Never Lose Focus on Your Culture"

Laura Salter, Director of Operations at Kick Point

The bigger you get as an agency, the easier it is to slip away from the things that made you successful to begin with. You’ll likely find yourself questioning whether a few tight months mean you should sacrifice the things that made your culture attractive and retain those talented, engaged people on your team.

Wherever you can, find creative places to trim that are not essential to who you are as an organization. If you don’t know what those essential things are, ask your team. And listen.

"Putting Processes in Place to Save Quality"

Nick Meagher, Owner at icepick

The biggest challenge for me was scaling without sacrificing quality.

What made the difference was creating clear SOPs and processes, then hiring talented people who could execute them well. That foundation allowed us to grow quickly while maintaining high standards.

"Talent Getting Bogged Down with Admin"

Vera Shafiq, Marketing Strategy Consultant at Vera Shafiq

The biggest challenge I have faced during rapid growth periods at agencies is watching talented media buyers and strategists get bogged down in administrative tasks while client demands intensify.

Despite hiring great people, our team’s strategic output would suffer because they were spending too much time on reporting, manual data entry, and repetitive processes instead of the innovative thinking that drives real results.

This taught me a crucial lesson: scaling an agency isn’t just about adding headcount.

It’s about ruthlessly automating the mundane work first. By prioritizing process streamlining and removing administrative friction, we could free our team to focus on what they do best: developing breakthrough strategies and delivering measurable growth for clients. By doing this, not only does work quality improve, but team morale soars when people can actually practice their craft.

Grow Your Own Way

Each of these agency leaders has gone through distinctly different issues. But the key message is one of adapting without losing sight of what you started in the first place.

While processes are important, for instance, you shouldn’t be against changing them. But doing so in a way that could affect your culture is one you should avoid.

If you need more help growing your agency, the Agency Growth Handbook offers insights from local SEO and digital agencies to help you grow your own without facing the same pitfalls they did. 

We’d love to hear what’s happened on your growth journey so far. Drop us a comment on Linkedin, X (formerly Twitter) or Bluesky with your own.

We summoned our brave community to share their most spine-tingling, hair-raising, and downright terrifying local SEO experiences. Prepare to be haunted by client catastrophes, cursed Google Business Profiles, and marketing stories that are best told under the cloak of darkness. Read on if you dare!

Greg "Ghostly" Gifford

Chief Operating Officer at SearchLab Digital

Claire "The Crypt Keeper" Carlile

Local SEO Expert at BrightLocal

In addition to Greg’s totally terrifying Q&As, Claire found even more horrifying answers on a Google Business Profile. 

As you can see, one local car dealership’s poor customer service was brought to the forefront of their GBP Q&A section. Surely answering the phone isn’t as scary as they think? 

In the words of Stephen King, “hotels are superstitious places. No thirteenth floor or room thirteen, no mirrors on the back of the door you come in through, stuff like that.”

However, the Stanley Hotel that inspired his book, The Shining, is making good use of their Q&A section, with guests asking the all-important questions. 

Melissa "Poltergeist" Popp

Content Strategy Director at RicketyRoo

“RicketyRoo welcomed a client fleeing from an evil past agency, a villain that had orchestrated an unholy contract, claiming copyright ownership over every piece of content on the client’s existing website. Like an eerie ghost story where the antagonist traps the innocent in a haunted mansion, this agency had the client ensnared in a legal nightmare, forcing them to relinquish their own digital home.

“The terror didn’t stop there. As we hurried to recreate their website, we felt the haunting pressure of the clock ticking ominously, knowing the previous agency’s shadow loomed large. This unsettling episode wasn’t just a jump scare but a full-length horror film that unfolded right before our eyes. We managed to exorcise the client’s digital demons, but the fear for our industry—now revealed to have its own set of lurking monsters—still lingers.”

Elizabeth "Ghoul" Rule

SEO Analyst at Sterling Sky

“Here is a Local SEO horror story I think many can relate to!!

“It takes a lot to scare me, but when a client sends an email that they have moved their office address without consulting their SEO team I get instant chills down my spine.

“The chills only get worse upon checking the new address when we discover it happens to be located in the SAME building as some of the toughest competition in their industry. This scenario would make even the bravest local SEOs want to run and hide.

“Turns out ALL the injury lawyers in the area rent offices in the same building the client just moved into… guess PI lawyers get a good deal on rent there Cue the Psycho style scream as I realize I will need to explain to the client how the local filter was now going to be working OVERTIME on their listing and their rankings were going to take a hit. Making major business decisions without consulting your SEO team? Now THAT’S scary!!”

Blake "Dracula" Denman

Founder at RicketyRoo

“A former PPC client sent someone to my apartment to threaten me. The client thought I was clicking on his ads. He added single keyword, broad match and upped the budget to $5k/day. I fixed it, and he sent me a commercial grade Vitamix that was used in a Burger King promo. Still have it!”

Amy "Tomb" Toman

SEO Analyst at Digital Law Marketing

“I’m aware of a website that has 200+ “keywords” added in an exceptionally small font on the bottom of every single page (not a footer; customized to each page). I thought that went out in 2010 2005. ”

Dana "Dastardly" DiTomaso

President & Partner at Kick Point

“[I once had] a client who originally wanted to focus on organic traffic increases but then didn’t actually say what they do at their company on their website, in their marketing materials, literally anywhere at all. ”

Ben "Boo" Fisher

Founder and VP of Marketing at Steady Demand

In our latest webinar, Ben Fisher shared a rotten example of a business who created their own business signage to get their GBP verified… This led to a suspension, and we all know there’s no worse local SEO horror story than a GBP suspension! 

Celeste "Gory" Gonzalez

SEO Strategist at RicketyRoo

“A client demanded to know why they did not receive the same amount of leads as they did the year before when they had never done SEO before or tracked leads from their website. Their leads from the previous year came from their paper flyers, Facebook groups, and NextDoor posts. Then that same client then also was upset about Google Ads leads coming from the location radius that he had set and confirmed with our PPC team.”

Krystal "Fang" Taing

Solutions Engineer, Strategic Partnerships at Uberall

“I once had a multi-location eyeglass retailer where a customer spammed their listings and added pictures of Lord Voldemort in glasses to about 50 different locations. This was fun reporting and escalating to Google! “

“Be afraid. Be very afraid.”

The Fly (1986)

Even More Tales from the Web-keepers

We also asked our community of local SEOs for their spooky tales, and let’s just say, you might want to sit down reading some of these; they’re guaranteed to scare the hell out of you (or at least make you laugh!). 

Nina P, SEO Lady shared:

“The eCommerce [I owned] sold same sex wedding table decorations, like Mr & Mr / Mrs & Mrs. However, it’s a site I built which had my home office address [on it]. Putting it on Google Maps was a dreadful mistake. We had swingers knocking on the door asking to buy latex clothing and wanting to come in. I still have an answerphone message with a mobile phone number asking me whether I’d like some fun this weekend!”

Nina followed up with another story…

“I was in Tunisia on holiday with my school friend and drinking wine by the pool when my phone pinged and it was the front door CCTV. A very dapper older gentleman with white hair, a leather man bag and golf umbrella was waiting.

“My husband answered the door, there was a short exchange, and the door slammed leaving the gentleman standing there for a second.

“My phone pinged, hubby was furious. Marriage ending mad. “WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING?” and I had to put down my wine.

“The gent had politely enquired what range of butt plugs we had in stock, and could he come in to take a look at our toys. What surprised us both is that we are on a residential street with no shop front. 

“My husband thought I was having an affair! I explained about Google Business and in 15 years not one person has come knocking on our door to speak with the SEO Lady. Clearly I’d underestimated the gravitas of naming my business samesexgifts.co.uk which was named Same Sex Gifts on Maps and Facebook.  

“When I got home I hid our address. The domain and eCommerce site are for sale .” 

Ash Nallawalla explained:

“I didn’t keep a screenshot, but my detailed check of a bank’s GBPs showed a horror story that had not been picked up. Google had scrambled up entries of many entities. e.g. Bank A’s ATM showed the address of Bank B or of Bank C, all on the same page. During the same Google glitch, I lost my own “Melbourne SEO” ranking in GBP to a competitor on the same floor of our building. Their photos were shown among ours and the two addresses were mixed up.”

Stefan Janjić Lozo told us: 

“There’s an auto wrecker and spare parts business in Serbia where the reviews on the business are becoming a meme in the region.”

A note from BrightLocal:

Upon further investigation, we found the owner of the business is just plain rude to his customers! We’ll keep the business anonymous, but as you can see from the 1-star review below, he’s certainly left a curse on his customers!

This, in turn, has led to an onslaught of reviews from those commending his rudeness, and as Stefan says, has turned into a bit of a meme.

The website even details at length, how not to behave and communicate with him. The translation includes “Please do not call us before 9am and after 9pm. Most people know when to call, but there are also those who for some reason think it’s okay to call in the morning at 6am or in the evening after 11pm!?” 

“The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years—if it ever did end—began…”

Stephen King, It (1986)

And with that, we close the book on spooky stories, hide the book in a locked box, and keep the locked box well out of sight. Have a great Friday 13th, and remember to avoid breaking mirrors, crossing black cats, or getting your GBP suspended.

We asked the experts how they’re using AI at the moment, and how they think SGE will change the landscape of local search. 

(One small caveat—in the past few weeks we’ve seen new features and functions added to SGE. By the time this piece goes live, we’re sure there will have already been some major changes!) 

Ben Fisher

Founder and VP of Marketing at Steady Demand

What are you doing with AI at the moment? What tactics are you currently using?

AI is a great assistant for our SEO team. They use it for research, some technical tasks, and coming up with ideas for our writers. We don’t use AI for anything that is forward facing like blog post content, and our clients prefer it this way. We play with prompts every day and create a vault of useful prompts. AI assistants can save us a lot of time, especially with the right prompt. Our SEO team can focus more on strategy and critical thinking/analysis because AI can execute many tasks to save time.

Overall, AI assistants can be a valuable asset to any SEO team. They can help SEO professionals save time, improve the quality of their work, focus on more strategic and creative tasks, and stay ahead of the curve.

Despite AI’s impressive capabilities, the human touch remains integral to our processes, ensuring that our strategies are not only data-driven but also empathetic and user-centric.

What do you think about SGE? How do you think SGE will change the landscape of local search?

There is a glimmer of hope for the local SEO profession, as the 3-pack results appear to be the same as what you would see in a regular search. However, I think that as Google learns, there will be new winners and losers. Unfortunately, I think that SMBs will suffer, as the real estate they were used to will be replaced by new features.

Dayna Lucio

Strategist, SEO at Amsive Digital

What are you doing with AI at the moment? What tactics are you currently using?

Mainly it’s been a lot of testing of different platforms to understand the capabilities and differences of each. Right now, I’ve been using AI to help streamline processes such as summarizing data, mapping cities to zip codes for local tracking, or building regex filters for GSC. It’s also been helpful in brainstorming ideas for content such as sourcing questions for FAQs or coming up with metadata tests. I think in general things are moving really fast—something new seems to come up every day! Brands should definitely be thinking about how platforms like BingChat, Bard, ChatGPT, and SGE are providing information about their company, products, or services, and what types of content gaps need to be filled or opportunities they can explore.

What do you think about SGE? How do you think SGE will change the landscape of local search?

I think what we’ve been able to see so far has been interesting, the local examples that Google shared with the comparison layout between restaurants definitely shows how this can be used on a local level. However, I think it more or less is continuing to showcase the things we already stress in local SEO—provide the information that users are looking for on GBP profiles and within on-page content and continue to pay attention to reviews, because this is another way that Google is highlighting those. Like anything with Google, I expect there to be multiple tests and changes as time goes on, so its hard to say what the impact will be. Once more people have access to SGE I think it will be important to test different types of queries and questions about local businesses to see how the answers and layouts changed based on what’s being asked. 

Amanda Jordan

Director of Digital Strategy at RicketyRoo

What are you doing with AI at the moment? What tactics are you currently using?

I currently use AI to help generate ideas and consider new ways to think about data. Right now I think the best use case for many AI tools is for SEOs to understand how generative AI actually works. Knowing the capabilities and limitations of this technology can help us understand what to expect from Search in the future.

What do you think about SGE? How do you think SGE will change the landscape of local search? 

I hope SGE is the end of sites being filled with generic content. My hope is that SGE will encourage websites to focus on unique, personalized, and usable content for users. I believe truly understanding your customers and being obsessed with the customer experience will be extremely important in the future.

Jess Peck

Machine Learning Engineer at Local SEO Guide

What are you doing with AI at the moment? What tactics are you currently using?

We’re currently using machine learning for a series of tasks: analysis, clustering data, forecasting, text analysis, and to an extent content generation. We use several different ML techniques including lda, keyword extraction, text summarization, and technologies like using Google’s APIs and TensorFlow. Like many people, we are also using LLMs like GPT, though not entirely relying on them. For example, we tend to chunk our outputs, and then use other ML techniques to check the input matches the output, and check for plagiarism: we use knowledge graphs and entity extraction to try and streamline parts of these processes.

What do you think about SGE? How do you think SGE will change the landscape of local search? 

Despite being a machine learning engineer in practice I’m deeply ambivalent about SGEs. I don’t actually think these kinds of experiences usually improve sites, and it still feels like Google is scrambling to catch up while ChatGPT eats it’s lunch. 

While I do think SGEs are a logical next step for Google and other search engines I also see it as a way for Google to wash its hands of the consequences of serving certain data to the public. LLMs are trained on all of us, so surely it’s all our fault when they go astray? I think an ideal scenario would have Google back away from OpenAI style chatbots and towards using a combination of LLMs and extractive data to continue down the conversational path they have been going down, but how can that be done without robbing sites of their advertising? 

Fundamentally if your site relies on visitor metrics you must focus on unique aspects that cannot be replaced by a machine. I think UGC might end up being extremely useful: sites like Wirecutter that specialize in human, comprehensive reviews: small hobbyist sites with a human touch. The race is as it has always been: do it better than Google, and invite people into your site.

Andy Simpson

Senior SEO Specialist at Digital Law Marketing

What are you doing with AI at the moment? What tactics are you currently using?

Our team is currently learning how we can use things like ChatGPT as a tool for SEO. We’re definitely not using it for creating site content, we have our own brilliant content team for that. They have been using ChatGPT for some content outlines and ideas but we’re a firm believer in creating good, unique content, unlike the content spewed out by ChatGPT. Bing Chat and Google’s Bard are way off the mark when it comes to anything related to content creation. Very recently we used ChatGPT to expand and suggest additions to our local business schema, it’s fantastic for writing the code for FAQ and HowTo schema, we verify what’s produced but it’s been very good to date. Will Reynolds very recently posted how you can use ChatGPT to help with internal link-building suggestions, it’s a great video to watch and make you start thinking about how you can use ChatGPT as a tool for SEO.

What do you think about SGE? How do you think SGE will change the landscape of local search?

Not an easy one to answer in just a few lines, I recently voted “Meh” to Lily Ray’s question on Google’s SGE, BUT I do like it! It’s “meh” because it’s good but not great and that’s not surprising as this is Version 1.0 of whatever SGE will be eventually before it’s launched to the masses. There’s no doubt it will be launched but in what iteration we don’t know yet. SGE is only open to those that want to take a look at it, it’s not open to the general public yet, so I’m not too worried about what we are currently seeing i.e. I am not panicking if my client does/does not display in results displayed by SGE—it’s nice when they do and interesting to see what does display when they don’t. As someone who’s been doing SEO for more than two decades, it’s great to have a new toy to play with. SGE (and Google’s Bard) is seeing constant updates and changes, so what we see this week can be different the following week. It’s an exhilarating time to be in the local search space, how will it change the landscape of local search and/or search in general? At this moment in time, depending on the search query, it dominates the top of the desktop/mobile search experience, users are going to either ignore it and think “what the hell is this” until they get familiar with it OR they won’t scroll down to the 10 blue links below, and the organic SERPs will be lost to many users forever… let’s just see where this ride takes us!

Conclusion: 

Overall, it looks like AI is a great tool to help SEOs manage processes, generate top-level ideas, and help structure content. But, we’re all clear that generative AI should not be a replacement for content creation. 

Additionally, SGE proves an exciting time for local search specifically, with a general sense of optimism around it. Let’s see what happens in the coming months! 

Read on to find out their advice, and learn how you can make the most of your reporting efforts. 

Krystal Taing

Solutions Engineer, Strategic Partnerships at Uberall

Typically the success of a local SEO campaign is measured by its ability to drive more relevant traffic and leads to your business, increase your brand awareness and visibility, and, ultimately, lead to more revenue. It’s imperative to define the success criteria before you launch the campaign, as well as identify the tools you will use to measure this. I typically use a combination of the following:

• Google Business Profile Insights to track GBP clicks
• Monitoring the increase in reviews and the average ratings on critical sites
• Website analytics to evaluate traffic and conversion rates
• Rank tracking to measure visibility for the targeted keywords
• Ideally, sales, calls, or bookings during the defined period

Stefan Somborac

Founder at Marketing Metrology

SEO is more than just ranking. It’s about driving business results that matter. In most cases, the desired outcome is revenue. But that’s not always the case! For example, your goal might be getting volunteers for a local charity event, signatures on a petition, sign-ups for a loyalty program, or downloads of a coupon to be redeemed during in-store visits.

Achieving that ultimate business goal is generally a series of events. Valuable metrics measure the outcomes of each step along the way. While SEO isn’t just about ranking, rankings are fundamental. So, yes, rankings are a vital metric.

Rank for keywords that your customers are using to search—ranking well for keywords no one is searching for will prove fruitless!

Business owners may think in terms of industry terms that lay people aren’t likely to search (e.g. “injectable hyaluronic acid” vs. “lip filler”). Don’t ignore the industry jargon, but focus on the more common search terms.

There may be a significant local component to consider as well. A keyword with a large national search volume may not be a common search query in your region.

Similarly, a common search term in one region might not be a common term in another—for example, New Yorkers looking for a winter hat might search for “beanie”, while Torontonians might search for “toque”.

How do you measure this? Search volume is a good starting point but you can do more. Check your rankings to make sure you’re ranking for your target keywords. Then, check Google Search Console and Google Business Profile performance insights. Are those keywords leading to search impressions? If you rank well for a keyword people are searching for, there should be impressions!

Pay attention to click-through rate (CTR)

Rankings should lead to impressions, which should lead to clicks. Check Google Search Console for click rates. Check Google Business Profile performance insights for Business Profile interactions.

Don’t worry too much about the Overview; aggregate data often hide important details. Look at the more detailed breakouts: calls, website clicks, etc. Unfortunately, GBP Performance doesn’t connect which keywords are leading to interactions.

SEOs are marketers. It took me a while to grasp this simple notion. (h/t Rand Fishkin.)

Dayna Lucio

Strategist, SEO at Amsive Digital

It’s important to look at insights around actions that are important to your business. So, if you’re a service area business, you’re looking at phone calls and website visits from GBP, but maybe not direction requests. However, if you are a restaurant, then looking at all of those action metrics from the listing is going to help show growth and if what you’re doing is working.

Additionally, from an organic visibility standpoint, I like to look at Total Search Impressions and especially Discovery Search Impressions from GBP insights.

It’s important to use UTMs to help measure other metrics in Google Analytics, so you can see what’s driving sessions and conversions.

Also, tracking rankings to understand the changes from that standpoint. However, I really think looking at conversions and how you’re driving customers to action is one of the most important. Seeing more form fills start coming in after optimizing a profile or local landing page is definitely a sign of success.

Greg Gifford

Chief Operating Officer at SearchLab

It depends on the client’s business goals—but, ultimately, you should be tracking organic traffic and leads, and they should be increasing over time. Increased visibility SHOULD result in more traffic, which SHOULD result in increased leads, which in turn SHOULD lead to more sales. Most agencies/freelancers don’t ask for sales information to tie everything together, so most people will use organic traffic and leads as the bar.

Elizabeth Linder

SEO Strategist at Kick Point

First, make sure tracking is set up properly on their site, and then build reports that specifically target a client’s goals. Every local SEO campaign should have a purpose to meet a specific goal.

Friendly reminder: it’s important to always set realistic expectations with your clients on any local SEO project or campaign.

Celeste Gonzalez

SEO Strategist at RicketyRoo

A local client is investing in SEO to gain new customers for their services. While trying to measure success for a local SEO campaign includes tracking organic traffic and traffic from maps, the most important metric to track is how many leads clients are getting from this traffic. We want to know the ROI, and it’s important to track form submissions and phone calls that come in from organic users.

Amy Toman

SEO Analyst at Digital Law Marketing

While steady and increasing traffic is lovely, qualified leads are the true mark of success. Getting tons of traffic to blogs twice a year is helpful, but if the traffic arrives nationally and not locally, it doesn’t help. So while those occasional bumps are nice, they’re not indicative of success locally. For that, I look to calls, social interaction, and LSA leads.

Claire Carlile

Local SEO Expert at BrightLocal

I usually measure the success of a local SEO campaign against the KPIs that are put in place before a campaign starts. These are usually based on what it is that a business needs to drive leads and conversions—things like phone calls, form fills, and other inquiries. 

Harmony Huskinson

Local SEO Specialist at Portent

Often, the strategist’s measures of success and the business’s measures of success can be different. While a business ultimately cares most about the leads achieved from local SEO, we are responsible for explaining what it takes to achieve those leads.

By growing local rankings, we can improve organic traffic, which then results in more leads. This concept seems simple to explain, but I’ve seen SEOs get excited about rankings that aren’t really bringing in traffic or leads.

Ultimately, the bottom line for success isn’t a metric; it’s building sufficient trust with the business to help them understand that local SEO is an ever-evolving discipline based on several modalities. If the business trusts the SEO, that means more investment in the channel, more acceptance when something doesn’t work, and a celebration across both sides of the aisle when initiatives are successful.

Colan Nielsen

VP Local Search at Sterling Sky

As far as metrics go, it’s still all about traffic, leads, and sales. 

How do you report on your local SEO campaigns?

Let us know over on Twitter or in our Facebook Community, The Local Pack.

We know the same few tips always get all the attention, but some of those can take a while to implement, and ultimately require more expertise, sign-off, and resource!

That’s why we asked a group of local SEO experts to share their most under-appreciated tactics for local SEO success. These are the simplest of tips that most busy marketers might overlook.

Colan Nielsen

VP Local Search at Sterling Sky

Become an expert at utilizing geo-grid ranking reports. Understanding how you rank across your entire market is just the tip of the iceberg as far as what you can use them for.

Greg Gifford

Chief Operating Officer at SearchLab

Meta keywords, baby…

Joy Hawkins

Owner/President at Sterling Sky

A lot of people that focus on local pack rankings seriously neglect traditional SEO factors onsite. They think ranking has more to do with the actual listing when it really has more to do with the content on the website.

Elizabeth Linder

SEO Strategist at Kick Point

I’m not sure these are necessarily underrated or overlooked by everyone, but they can be depending on the client:

• Asking for reviews! The quality and quantity of reviews can make such a big impact on local search performance and it’s a great way to not only help with local search, but to improve overall customer experience.
• Writing unique, helpful, relevant content. Depending on the industry, making sure you’re going above and beyond for content creation can build links faster than outreach.
• Treat local content creation like a game of Jeopardy. What are all the things potential customers can ask about a business, service, or product? If this was going to be a Jeopardy category, what would I need to know to get all the answers right?
• Not repeating keywords in your title tags. You have ample room in your title tag to incorporate close synonyms. For example, if your business name already incorporates the target keyword for a page, utilize a close synonym elsewhere in the title tag, rather than repeating the same keyword more than once, so you can help rank for closely related queries.
• Schema markup! Just because some schema types don’t have rich results on Google, doesn’t mean they never will. Google is adding rich results for schema all the time; by adding in all and any relevant schema now, you’ll always be one step ahead.

Amy Toman

SEO Analyst at Digital Law Marketing

One of the most underrated tips is the use of photos on Google listings. Adding new photos on GBPs are a great way to “teach” Google and users about the services you provide, especially if there is not a category that matches them. Because Google’s systems can understand the content of images, these can be almost as important as posts at portraying your business. 

Claire Carlile

Local SEO Expert at BrightLocal

Improving site speed, improving internal linking, on-page optimization, and link earning are the nuts and bolts of our industry, and rightly so in many cases.

The part that is so often missed out is sitting down and drawing out the marketing insights that exist within the organization—especially small and medium-sized businesses. This is a lesser utilized building block for success and something which so much of marketing strategy and tactics should rest upon.  

Ask questions like:

• What is our marketplace – both geographically and vertically?
• What problem(s) are we solving for our potential customers?
• How are we (or can we) solve it in a more effective/friendly/faster (or whatever is important to our key client groups) way than our competitors?
• What are the key frustrations for our potential customers in terms of finding a service or product to meet their needs?
• Who are our evangelists?
• What can we learn from them in terms of what we are getting right?
• Who are our detractors and what can we learn from them in terms of improving our product or service?

You get the picture!

Crystal Horton

Local Service Ads & Google Product Expert at Crystal Horton Digital

Adding photos to a Google Business Profile increases views you wouldn’t otherwise have, which could turn into a potential inquiry.

Emily Brady

Sr Manager, SEO at Podium

One thing a lot of businesses overlook is updating their GBP category to accommodate seasonality. Your primary category is one of the strongest “ranking factors” you can actually control on your Google listing. So, if you’re in an industry that’s impacted by seasonality, don’t be afraid to change your primary category as your customers’ needs change. A great example of this is HVAC companies, which can update their business category to be more “air conditioner” specific during the summer months.

Dayna Lucio

Strategist, SEO at Amsive Digital

• For multi-location and franchise businesses, develop a plan for new locations opening throughout the year. Build out local pages with information and grand opening messaging or specials. Build out your GBP before opening. Add your opening date and your GBP will display “opening soon” or “recently opened” on your profile. This allows you to start building up your local presence and start adding posts to educate potential customers about your business. 
• Also, for GBP – monitor your Q&As. Sometimes the questions are from people that are trying to message the business, so answering these could turn that person into a potential customer. Additionally, you can flag questions on your profile that are offensive, perhaps a misplaced review, or questions that are irrelevant to your business. Typically, Google will remove these without hassle. 
• For content, take advantage of the experts within your business. This is a great opportunity for small businesses, especially with the continued evolution and emphasis of E-E-A-T. Make the time to do interviews with the individuals that are doing the ins and outs of various jobs within the business. For example, a plumbing company could interview their lead plumber about common problems and then create a blog series. 
• Add videos & photos to GBP. Continue to add new photos regularly. 
• Take note of the categories that competitors are using on GBP to ensure you’ve chosen the correct primary category. You can always test changing your primary category or add them as secondary categories. 
• Check your NAP information on citations. Yes, beyond GBP. You don’t want to miss out on a potential customer because your hours or phone number are wrong on Yelp. 
• For location pages, don’t overlook adding information like FAQs, reviews, and team bios. That’s all unique information that sets your location apart. Also, remember to use schema markup. If you have the opportunity to choose a specific type of LocalBusiness schema like “Restaurant” to describe your business, then do it. 

Are there any tactics you often overlook? Perhaps this list has inspired your local search strategy and reminded you of the most underrated ideas to get your client to rank higher. What are your preferred local SEO tactics that most people ignore? Let us know over on Twitter or in our Facebook Community, The Local Pack.

We know that employee wellbeing is important for the growth and success of an agency. By putting your people first, you’ll create a culture for your company that people love being a part of.

With that in mind, we spoke to a group of local SEO experts, to find out what makes their company culture what it is. They’ve shared valuable ideas to help you make your agency the best place to work!

Blake Denman

Founder at RicketyRoo

Employee wellbeing; our core ‘culture’ word is ‘balance’. RicketyRoo has been 100% remote since 2018 and we’ve learned a lot in the last five years. I look at a big part of my role as acquiring great talent for our team. Once we acquire great talent, I need to keep them happy. How do I do that? I’ve implemented things that I would personally be looking for if I were looking for a job. Such as:

• Competitive compensation
• Average 33-35 hour work weeks (not 40+)
• 100% remote
• Employees set their own schedules
• Company-paid health, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) with a 5% company match
• 12-week paid maternal, paternal, and adoption leave
• PTO, sick pay, natural disaster, and bereavement pay policies

Those are all ‘things’ that have served the agency as a great foundation. 

When it comes to the company culture, that’s a bit harder to define. 

The culture, in our case, has mainly been set by the team. The agency didn’t go through some elaborate process or workshop to figure it out, it just became what it is. As our team grows, the culture will naturally evolve, too.

Here’s what’s really helped us have a STELLAR culture:

• I meet with each person on the team every week for a weekly sync
• One weekly all-hands meeting
• Every quarter I meet with each person on the team. It’s a reverse performance review where I’m wanting to make sure they feel like the work they are doing is aligning with their career path, what their career path is, and how the agency can help them get there.
• Roo Book Club
• Cafe Disco—We all go over a process together or we bring in an expert to school us on their expertise.

Joy Hawkins

Owner/President at Sterling Sky

I think understanding what your employees care about is crucial. It’s not the same for everyone. One of the best decisions we ever made was our unlimited vacation policy. It allows people to have the freedom to take the time off work they want instead of dictating it for them.

Elizabeth Linder

SEO Strategist at Kick Point

I spoke with another Kick Point team member Laura Salter, Co. Director of Strategy to help provide you with an answer to this question:

• The number one thing is to treat each other as humans first—even (and maybe especially) when that goes against what we’ve all been taught about how businesses ‘should’ run.
• Pay fairly, give people the time off they need (without guilt), and work at creating safe spaces for people to be themselves.
• Really spend the time to determine what kind of workloads are possible, manageable, and sustainable for each of your team members and structure your timelines and deadlines around that.
• Be realistic and clear with clients about timelines (and how they will change as the project goes on) from the beginning instead of overpromising and under-delivering.
• Be deliberate in choosing to work with clients that see your working relationship as an equal partnership.
• Listen and follow through. If something is making your team unhappy, actually work to change it. No empty promises.

Colan Nielsen

VP Local Search at Sterling Sky

In my experience, employee well-being comes down to many factors. If I had to isolate one I would say this: Treat your employees well and provide opportunities for them to do the things they love most and are good at.

Claire Carlile

Local SEO Expert at BrightLocal

It’s just me here at Claire Carlile Marketing Towers so I’m my own Career Architect, Business Coach, and HR Manager. I think I’ve come a long way in understanding what I personally need in order to balance work life, home life, health and fitness, family life, personal life, and emotional health—from investing in psychotherapy to embracing the role of meds in helping keep myself in balance.

Greg Gifford

Chief Operating Officer at SearchLab

We’ve doubled down on work-life balance and company wellbeing. We’ve instituted profit-sharing bonuses and retention bonuses to reward our team. We’ve recently switched to unlimited PTO, and we’re monitoring the time people take away from work to ensure that everyone takes a break… If someone goes too long without taking time off, we require a few days off. With so many remote employees, personal connections aren’t as easy to make, so we make sure to have social hangouts where people can chat and get to know each other. It’s also important to keep the team learning, so we’re constantly training and teaching.

Amy Toman

SEO Analyst at Digital Law Marketing

Work culture is changing rapidly in the aftermath of the pandemic, and the rise of working from home. For companies to continue to draw and retain staff to this structure, elements that may have previously been overlooked need to be addressed. Communication should be easy (I love Slack for this), and occasional get-togethers are nice. Yearly gatherings are also a great way to build positive company culture among those who are based far apart. But truly the best thing is to encourage positive communication on a regular basis. Slack channels, video chats, and message boards are great for sharing resources and experiences.

Amanda Jordan

Director of Digital Strategy at RicketyRoo

The places I’ve worked with the best cultures have focused on transparency, curiosity, acceptance, empowerment, and personal development. These weren’t just nice words on an “about us” page but principles that the agency owners lived by and practiced themselves. One of my favorite things about working at RicketyRoo is that Blake cares about what each member of the team wants to do with their career.

The biggest mistake agencies can make with their culture is to not consciously consider their principles when making new hires, choosing clients, communicating internally, and producing work.

Ben Fisher

Founder and VP of Marketing at Steady Demand

Having a voice and being heard is super important. We use slack as our main way of internally communicating, and we have a specific channel where no owners are involved in, this allows our people to communicate effectively with each other with zero oversight. A. It is a sign of trust, B. It allows for creativity and venting. 

Then there is our feedback loop, we have calls with all staff bi-weekly and touch base on everything from personal issues to professional needs. Additionally, most ideas from the owners are vetted by the team and this allows for changes and sometimes even vetos, we are very aware that our team is in the trenches and their wellbeing is paramount, no one likes to do things they are told to do, it really needs to be more of a hey we all feel this way.

Also, every meeting ends with any thoughts, ideas, or concerns that you want to discuss. This can be as open-ended as our team wants. Everyone has a voice.

Lastly, we are a 100 % remote team, this is a benefit for sure but can always lead to problems for some. So we make sure to team build at least once a year in Vegas for a retreat.

Dayna Lucio

Strategist, SEO at Amsive Digital

I think collaboration is great for company culture and that cross-team collaboration can be beneficial as well. You can learn so much from your coworkers and especially in an agency where people have so many backgrounds and experiences to share. Nothing really compares to a big team brainstorming session.

One of my favorite things that we do is have a Slack channel dedicated to shouting out team members. It’s great to see our team members supporting each other and hearing about all the great things that everyone is doing.

We continued the conversation around agency culture at our recent webinar with Greg Gifford and Jen Salamandick. Catch up with the replay to learn more about how strategy and culture are the keystones of a successful agency.