The Whitespark Local Update

Darren Shaw & Claire Carlile•whitespark.ca

The Whitespark Local Update is the go-to podcast for Local SEOs and Marketers who want to stay ahead of the curve in local search and the local visibility space. Join industry experts Claire Carlile and Darren Shaw for a lively, insightful roundup of their carefully curated selection of top “must-read” and “must-watch” links, including news, trends, and can't-miss resources.

Last refreshed: June 24th, 2026 at 1:22 PM

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Episodes

The Future of AI Search, Suspensions Surge & Google's Insights Tool | E6 The Whitespark Local Update

This week on The Whitespark Local Update, Darren and Claire break down the latest in local search: 📝 The Future of AI Search (Britney Muller) 📝 Business Loses 800 Reviews for “Asking for Reviews at the Register” (Claudia Tomina) 📝 Report Business Conduct Form 📝 Places Insights in BigQuery is now Generally Available (Google) 📝 Suspensions Are on the Rise (Barry Schwartz) 📝 How Hospitality & Travel Brands Can Win in AI-Driven Search (Koozai) 📝 Template for Self-Auditing Your AI Local Se...

Oct 07, 2025•19 min•Ep. 6

The End of GBP Q&A, AI Citation Mining Tool, AI Glossary | E5 The Whitespark Local Update

Another week, another local SEO drop from Claire and Darren. This week we’re talking: 📝 AI mode and Gemini are being integrated into Chrome (Chris Long) 📝 Citation Mining Tool for AI SEO (Dan Petrovic) 📝 The Writing is on the Wall for Q&A (Local Search Forum) 📝 AI Comes to GBP: 'Ask Maps About This Place' (NearMedia) 📝 From SEO to AIO: Why Your Content Needs to Exist in AI Training Data (Stephen Burns) 📝 The AI Search Lab Glossary by Wix Studio (Crystal Carter) 📝 SearchPulse AI Report...

Sep 30, 2025•22 min•Ep. 5

GBP Verification Tips, a GPT to Delete Bad Reviews, Map Packs in AI | E4 The Whitespark Local Update

Claire and Darren bring you a hand-picked wrap-up of the biggest local SEO stories and fresh insights from last week. On this episode, we dig into: 📝 Local packs in AI Overviews (Anthony Higman) 📝 No more map results in ChatGPT (Matt McGee) 📝 9 Google Business Profile Verification Tips That Will Save Your Sanity (Sterling Sky) 📝 ChatGPT Doesn't Stand a Chance in Local (Claudia Tomina) 📝 Will AI Overviews always be at the top of the SERP? (Tom Capper) 📝 Custom GPT can analyze a negative rev...

Sep 23, 2025•18 min•Ep. 4

AI Bros, Businessplaining, & Bringing Bing Back Big Time | E3 The Whitespark Local Update

Claire and Darren bring you a hand-picked wrap-up of the biggest local SEO stories and fresh insights from last week. On this episode, we dig into: 📝 The Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Bing Places Listing (Miriam Ellis) 📝 Blasting a business in the Updates from Customers section 📝 Businessplaining your Google Business Profile Appeal Documents Won’t Work (Tim Capper) 📝 7 Surprising Truths I Learned from Marketing's Sharpest Minds - LocalU Advanced Nashville 2025 📝 Will The Anti-Monopoly R...

Sep 16, 2025•22 min•Ep. 3

SAB Verification, Bing Review Sites, & How to Keyword Stuff TikTok | E2 The Whitespark Local Update

Claire and Darren dive right in with a curated roundup of last week’s top local SEO news and insights you won’t want to miss. In this episode, we cover: 📝 Want to Rank in ChatGPT? Focus on These Review Sites (New Research) 📝 How to Boost Visibility in AI-Search Through Social – Uberall's Local Marketing Beat with Celeste Gonzalez 📝 Google Business Profiles Links Policies & Guidelines Updated 📝 Can’t find a link to Ikea’s website on a search for “Ikea” 📝 Does LLM Traffic Convert Better T...

Sep 09, 2025•19 min•Ep. 2

AI Search Manual, Chrome's Semantic Engine, Local Ranking Grids and MOAR | E1 The Whitespark Local Update

Welcome to the very first episode of The Whitespark Local Update Podcast 🎉 Claire and Darren kick things off with this week’s hottest handpicked roundup of must-read and must-watch local SEO news. In this episode, we cover: 📝 iPullRank’s AI Search Manual 📝 Aimee Jurenka's TL;DR 📝 Dan Petrovic’s deep dive into Chrome’s Semantic Engine 📝 Dan’s schema test with ChatGPT 📝 Chat Clicks in GBP Performance Metrics 📝 The new GBP Posts Dashboard 📝 Whitespark’s Local Ranking Grids Stay tuned each w...

Sep 02, 2025•19 min•Ep. 1

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