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November 24, 2025

Hello fellow local SEOs,

Here’s what was on my mind last week 👇️

1. First, some gratitude

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude for the incredible response to our new Local Ranking Grids software.

We set out to build the local grid ranking tool we always wanted but could never find. We were annoyed by platforms that felt clunky, complex, and just... joyless to use.

We wanted to build software that's not only powerful but also intuitive, clean, and genuinely a pleasure to use. We obsessed over creating the most beautiful, easy-to-understand reports in the industry. Reports you'd be proud to share with clients and sales prospects.

Seeing our new software resonate so strongly with our users is humbling (and fun - we're all obsessed with watching the subscriptions channel on our company Slack).

A huge thank you to the brilliance and dedication of our small-but-mighty team of only three: Nick Pierno, Dimitri Trofimuk, and Troy Pavlek. You've created a product that rivals tools from companies with teams 100x our size.

And another huge thank you to all our new customers for taking the time to try us out and switch over. I'm so happy and encouraged that you like what we're doing. We'll keep doing it.

If you want to see what these grids are all about, click here.

2. Whitespark’s GBP is not suspended anymore!

We did it. We finally got the Whitespark GBP unsuspended!

And the crazy thing is that my appeal was approved in less than 12 hours. Google is managing these FAST now!

Here's what was involved:

  • One year of procrastination, 30 minutes of work

  • Advice and guidance from the brilliant Claire Carlile

  • Clean up the GBP to remove the address and set an appropriate service area

  • Gather these 4 documents: banking statement, business registration, tax authority document, screenshot of corporate registry

  • Submit the appeal

  • Back up and running in under 12 hours

Why didn't I do this earlier! 🤦🏻‍♂️

3. Major lightbulb moment for me

I remember being on a call with Joel Headley, former head of Google Business Profile support, and he told me that Google specifically seeks out and crawls the contact page on small business websites.

Most businesses have awful contact pages. They add NAP info, embed a contact form, and call it a day. MAJOR FAIL.

You need to give your contact page the same level of care and attention as an enterprise location landing page.

Last week, Miriam Ellis published the ultimate guide to building the most comprehensive and effective location landing page, including:

- the 20 must-have elements of a good location landing page
- 14 additional elements to help your pages stand out from the competition
- an expert Q&A section featuring answers to your most common questions
- two downloadable checklists to help you ace your location pages (I’ve attached part of one below)

Whether you have two hundred location landing pages or just one contact page, this is the only guide you’ll need to make these pages perfect 👇️

4. Did you watch my latest video?

You’re failing at social media because your short videos suck - or you’re not even making them.

Every major platform is pushing short-form videos these days. They get reach, they get attention, and they’re the fastest way to grow on social right now.

In last week’s YouTube video, I reacted to viral business shorts, broke down why they blew up, and showed you exactly how you can replicate the same success. Plus, I shared a super simple strategy you can use to start creating your own short videos.

Check it out 👇️

Darren

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