GBP Eligibility, Optimizing for AI Citations, & Google Support Tips | E19 The Whitespark Local Update

Darren (00:00.236) Welcome to another episode of the Whitespark Local Update with me, Darren Shaw. with me Claire Carlile And as you know, this is the podcast where we scour the world for the finest linky linky links, and then we share them with you. So I'm going to give you my first linky linky link, which is a webinar with Joy Hawkins and with Mike King. And so I started watching it because I knew I wanted to watch it because Darren and I love to talk about query fan out so much and chunking, but mostly query fan out, which I was not convinced that I needed to learn about last week. And now I am convinced just in the sense that I really enjoyed the webinar, which I watched most of, but most of all, it is about the tool which is being built by, I imagine. the team at iPool Rank, so it's called Hewphoria. So I watched it and I thought, hang on a minute, now you've just explained to me what query fan out is and why it might actually be of interest to me. basically my main interest is not because, well, yeah, obviously it's because people are thinking I would like to have visibility in LLMs and LLMs use this. But for me, I just loved the out of the data that was coming out of this, which would feed into, I want to know about how people might think about topics, what sort of queries are of interest. So I ran the tool. I had to actually get an API key, even though Mike said that you didn't need one. Yeah. Have you done? Yeah. Okay. And then I, okay. So Mike, I did a good query on having wonky teeth and what my options might be. Darren (01:49.634) Do that too. Claire (02:01.526) And I gave it a geographic spin by saying budget is useful. I'm going to have to keep my budget in mind. And I'm also, live in Pembrokeshire in Wales, so you'll need to keep this in mind. So it was a geographic imperative. And I really, really liked the output because I like the way that the tool makes you think about what the intent could be behind the query. What sort of format might meet that the needs of the engine that was looking at this information. I just really enjoyed it. So yes, I am a fan out fan. It's a whole new world for you, Claire. That's amazing. So I'm to ask you the same question you asked me. Explain what is the difference between query fan out and people also asked. So people also asked is a feature in Google that is based actually on people's queries. It's not machine learning is actual real queries. So it gives you a very small data set of search queries that people might make that Google thinks is related to that search query. That is my understanding orbit. But when it comes to query fan out, it's not actually about real queries that people have made. doesn't take that data set. It is just a machine extrapolating what it thinks is either tight, tangential, or is going to give it all of the information that it needs to give the best result for that glory, however that works. Darren (03:34.668) I guess the thing I'm still trying to fully like figure out is, OK, we run the query fan out with a tool like Q4. And we get this output. How are you thinking you're going to use the fan out, the output? How is that going to inform your content strategy? What are you going to do? be using my brain mostly for that bit, the same way that I would have in the olden days where I would have just been thinking purely about the SERP. So I'd be thinking about what I know about consumer behavior and what users want, but also what Google was showing in the SERP, which is what, you know, this is giving me a list, this is giving me a table, this is giving me a product page, this is giving me a group of products. So I would use it in the same way to inform my content strategy, but a lot of it, you know, it's not a super slick process. It's a process that happens in my brain. So that's how I would be using it. It's like the subqueries trigger ideas. You're like, yeah, that's something I should talk about in this content. Yeah, or that should be something completely different. That should be another type of content that exists on my website. Darren (04:45.09) Right. Yeah, that's actually another great use of query fan hours, like subpages, like subtopics of pages for sure. So my first link is I'm going to go on record saying that this might be one of the most important articles of 2026. You will look back on this one. It's very smart. So Claudia Tamina. wrote an article on search engine, Claudia again, good job Claudia. She wrote an article on search engine land called the local SEO gatekeeper, how Google defines your entity. And so this is very interesting kind of new way to think about local search. She dug through the Google API. So she was seeing some things and then she looked through the Google API leak to sort of validate some of what she thought she was seeing and it really checks out. So the idea here is that before any rankings happen, Google determines eligibility. And we kind of mostly thought about eligibility from your primary category, right? So if someone searches for towing company Denver, Google's not going to throw people that have a primary category of dentist. into those search results, right? So are you eligible to rank for towing company? If you were both a combination towing company and dentist, then maybe, but I don't think that exists. Unless they like toe the teeth, just like. Elephant's then the tow truck drives and it pulls your teeth out. anyways, sorry for that distraction. The idea that she proposes here is that it's a combination of your primary category Really big teeth. Darren (06:26.264) plus your business name. We know that business name has a big impact on rankings, and this is a great example of how the combination of the two really determines your eligibility, and she presents a great example. there is this kids dance lessons. So if you search for kids dance lessons, then you are going to see a number of businesses in the results that have primary categories like dance company. But then if you just search dance lessons, those businesses do not come up. They are stricken from eligibility because they have Tiny Tots is one of them, I think, or Tippy Toes, Tippy Toes, which Google is pulling as sort of like that's a kidsy thing. And then the other one actually has kids in the name. And so this is a great example to demonstrate that what you put in your name combines with your primary category to determine your eligibility to even rank. And so these two, businesses only rank for kids related terms, they don't for others. So the real takeaway here is just kind of understanding how those two work together, but also thinking about how you might niche down too hard with your business name. Your business name, if you start putting like real modifiers in there, that might cause a challenge for other terms. Because Google's, like let's say for example, you were an HVAC company and you had your business name was Bob's HVAC. But then you're like, I really want to rank for air conditioning. So you put Bob's HVAC air conditioning repair. If you do that, you're going to actually hurt your eligibility for just standard HVAC terms. Google's like, this guy only does air conditioning. So I think it's very interesting. It's a good sort of discovery, a good way to think about things. think we could have maybe figured this out. But don't know. Claudia lays it out very nice in this article. And it's must read, in my opinion. and then there's one final note, is that once Google has determined your eligibility, they validate it with behavioral signals. So they're like, you know, are we seeing the, you know, people interact with this listing and that kind of stuff. So I thought that it was a very good article. Another one from our friend, Claudio Tumina. Good job. Claire (08:42.03) Thank Claudia. I'll go and have a look at that. That sounds very interesting. So my second link for today is actually from the Kick Point newsletter, which I consume with great happiness every time it pops into my inbox. And one, I love the way that they do content generally because they write good stuff about doing content. then actually they do good content for their own website. This is a case study, an actual case study of the work they have done with a client. Case studies are super important. One thing is really interesting because it's a case study. Two is case studies are super important for all sorts of businesses all over the world, but specifically local businesses. It's such a great way to showcase how well you did for that client. What was the problem? How did we solve it? what was the outcome. So, I really like this case study itself. It's full of useful information about the actual task, which is migrating all of these franchise websites. We can learn from this on so many levels. One, how to write a really, really good case study. Two, how to actually go about doing the work that they're talking about. And then, strangely, just as I was reading this, I was on the LinkedIn. and I saw, this is my bonus link that I get told off for, I saw a post from Carrie Rose at Rise at Seven who just happened to have written a blog post which is called Analyzing Our Case Studies. So Carrie Rose then in a very meta way looks at all of the case studies that they have written to work out which ones did well. I really like this piece. Another reason I like it is because Carrie goes ahead and gives measurables, so metrics for how to know about the performance of your case studies. So that was a long way of saying case studies are important. then you should go and look at the, you should go and look at these two links because they're really interesting and good. Darren (10:51.778) The amazing thing about this is like, you know, you do a case study to convince people that you're really good at what you do. And these are the results you got. So other people want to hire you. This is like the ultimate, cause it's like a combination of all of our case studies showing you how awesome we are. Speaking of links, Miriam Ellis, our good friend Miriam Ellis wrote another piece for the white spark guide section. So we have a new guide, which is the Ultimate guide everyone loves an ultimate guide. So it's the ultimate guide to local business reputation management. Basically everything you need to know about building a fantastic review strategy. What not to do, how to get positive reviews, review templates. So like really nice like here's how to ask for reviews for both email and SMS. Like a bunch of templates you can use. Review response, how to respond to reviews and getting templates for responding to reviews. sentiment analysis, competitive analysis, review remarketing, a slept on tactic where you take your best reviews and you use them in other places, you put them on your website, you put them into your Google business profile, that kind of stuff. And then she talks about review spam finding, like dealing with unfortunate reviews and those kinds of things. And you know, it is ultimate. So if you are thinking it's time to step up your review strategy, I highly recommend starting here. This is a fantastic article from Miriam and it is the ultimate guide so that you don't need to really look anywhere else. is the one. Don't look at anything else. I love an ultimate guide. Ultimate guides are the ultimate. Darren (12:32.31) I was just gonna, I was thinking the same thing. As you started saying it, I like, I knew what you were gonna say. So predictable. My final linky link, and I must tell you a little secret. I haven't finished watching all of this. What? I know, I know. know, I know. So, SiteBold, you will probably know is a crawling tool and SiteBold are really good at the content. So Jojo looks after their content. This is a I'm wanting any of Claire (13:06.01) good webinar with two people. You should know one of these people because you talk about them quite a lot. Claudia? No, it's not Claudia, it's Dan Petrovic! yeah, yeah, let's talk about Dan Petrovich too. Yeah. Okay. So sorry if I said that wrong. Dan Petrovic and Jess Schultz and I like both of them. The name of the webinar is the future of brand visibility optimizing for AI citations with Dan Petrovic. Now, rather than going, you have to watch this because then you know how to rank in chat GPT. It's not about that. It's talking about visibility, about, you know, the whole relevance thing being seen. Claire (13:54.542) It's like old school. I keep coming back to it's like old school marketing. So I need to finish watching all of it because it's two super clever people that are going to talk to you about one, how LLMs are finding the information that will be cited. So if you want to have visibility, then you need to be cited. So they're both talking about that. I think you should watch it. So those two together on a podcast, this is gonna be like, whoa. Hahaha! okay. I got one more link. It's from our good friend, Stefan Somborac. How do you say his last name? That's it! You did it! Stefan Somborak. Yeah! Darren (14:34.542) He's a very fantastic Canadian. We love Canadians. He wrote a really great article. It's like a forum post, but it's kind of an article. He wrote it on the Local Search Forum, how to contact GBP support. And you might think, well, I just go to the one forum. Well, this is a great article because he talks about five forums. There are different routes in. Google deliberately makes it complicated. They're like, What can we do to make sure people don't contact us? It's like Google has a big sign that says, no support for you. And so you have to know how to navigate through the system. And that's what this article will tell you. This article will tell you the special tips and tricks to actually get real support. And he really talks about a key one, which is the problem publishing edits to the profile. So let's say you've changed your category and it's It never goes live or it's impending forever. There is a form that you can click to work through the work through. And he guides you. like, don't press that big button there. Press the little one that says next step. And then you're going to get more options. So it's like he knows the nuances of the system. And so you, if you want to get support from Google, this is a must read. You should definitely check out this article before you contact Google for support next time, because it covers all the little ways. to contact about different problems. Extremely valuable. Bookmark this one. Thank you, Stefan. Super duper. Darren (16:08.366) So we did a whole podcast, that would be it for today. And I hope that you have a nice time going to Apple Podcasts and leaving us a review for our podcast. I hope that you enjoy that activity. We really appreciate it. And we hope you have a great week ahead. And catch us next week where we're gonna talk about six whole new links. Not even any of these same ones. We're gonna have six new ones. We're gonna talk about them. And yeah. Just imagine. Okay, no, don't go. One last thing. Make sure that you watch the podcast on YouTube and you will get extra points if you say who made a guest appearance during this podcast and what they were wearing and what they were fetching from my room. I know the answer to this one, I'll leave it to the audience. I don't want to spoil it. No, it's exciting. All right. Okay. guest appearances. Bye, everybody.