A brilliant review tip you DON'T know about

Hi,

Find your weekly dose of local SEO below 👇️

1. A brilliant review tip you haven’t heard before

My new Slovenian friend Tadevž Ropert used to own laundromats, and he found a clever way to generate Google reviews through Facebook ads.

1. He created a giveaway post where people had to leave a comment to enter the contest.

2. Then he paid to boost the post.

3. People started commenting things like “Love this place” and “Best laundromat in town”.

4. Then he sent those people a direct message and asked if they’d be willing to leave a Google review. And many of them did.

And this makes sense. If someone is already publicly saying they like your business, they’re much more likely to leave a review if you ask.

Big shout-out to Tadevž, who shared this with me when we were hanging out at BrightonSEO.

He was so thrilled about his local SEO success that he sold his laundromats and is now a full-time SEO!

See what other local SEOs think in the LinkedIn comments.

2. Our client was outranking a major national brand and lost it overnight

Sometimes the biggest SEO losses aren’t caused by competitors, but by clients who inadvertently mess up their own SEO.

Here’s what happened with one of our clients:

• They were ranking extremely well for “climate-controlled storage”.

• They went through their site and replaced every instance of “climate-controlled storage” with “heated storage”.

• Our SEO team noticed the change through our reporting, and did some quick keyword research. It turns out that “climate controlled storage” has a monthly search volume of 3000 whereas “heated storage” only has 150.

• We had a quick conversation with the client, added the keyword back to the site, and their rankings returned.

I know it’s obvious to us SEOs that if you want to rank for a term, you need to add it to your website, but many clients just aren’t thinking about the SEO impact of their decisions.

Good thing they have us SEOs to catch things like this 😉

3. If your brand isn’t getting mentioned everywhere, it’s as good as dead in AI search

Citations are having a major revival because of AI. Unstructured citations are the #4 most important AI visibility factor in the 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors Survey.

As opposed to your traditional SEO citation work, you should focus more on unstructured citations for AI SEO.

Your business should get mentioned (and linked to) in the following places to increase your AI prominence:

• Hyperlocal and industry blogs

• Online news sites

• Local and industry podcasts and video channels

• Social media mentions

• Press releases

• Curated/best-of lists on sites like Yelp

• And many kinds of websites

Miriam Ellis’s latest guide explains just how you can earn these valuable unstructured citations. Read it and get your copy of the ultimate list of unstructured citation opportunities (with instructions on how to find them) 👇️

4. Catch up on the pod

Google’s new Ask Maps feature brings Gemini into Google Maps, letting people ask detailed questions about places and get personalized recommendations.

What does this mean for local businesses?

Google Maps is becoming another AI interface you need to pay attention to. If you have access to Ask Maps, test your most important searches, ask it about your business, and see what it knows:

• Does it understand your services?

• Does it mention the things you want to be known for?

• Does your business even show up?

If not, that’s your signal to improve the information Google can pull from:

• your Google Business Profile

• your website

• your citations

Claire and I discussed this in last week’s podcast episode, plus:

• What the New Review Guidelines Mean for Your Local Reputation (Krystal Taing)

• Why Tripadvisor still matters for local SEO in 2026 (Laura I. Abreu)

• Star Ratings Are for Humans: AI Reads the Text (Claudia Tomina)

• Obviously Awesome: April Dunford’s Updated and Expanded Book

• How AI is impacting local search and what tools to use to get ahead (Miriam Ellis)

Watch the full episode 👇️

🎧 Or if you prefer listening, find it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Darren

P.S. Whitespark can help you ⬇️

😍 Visualize your local search performance on the most beautiful ranking grids

🚨 Get notified when Google updates your GBP and reject unwanted changes

🚀 Increase your local rankings and conversions

📈 Track rankings across different zip/post-codes

⭐️ Get more reviews

🧹 Clean up and build citations

🔍 Find citation opportunities

✍️ Learn local SEO for free

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