How to teach Google's AI about your business

and more local SEO advice

January 26, 2026

Hello,

I have so much to say! This email will be recapping last week + this morning 👇️

1. You need a new strategy for the new “Ask a Question” GBP feature

Now that the AI-powered AAQ feature (acronym for “Ask a Question”, coined by Miriam Ellis) is replacing the Google Business Profile Q&A, you have to know how to effectively feed your business information to AI.

Luckily, Google’s AI-generated answers in Google Maps will give you clues as to where the information comes from.

Miriam wrote this excellent checklist for feeding AAQ as much data as possible so that it doesn’t respond with “I don’t have enough information about this place,” which can make your customers move on to a more informative competitor listing:

Learn more about this feature and how to prepare your business accordingly in Miriam’s newest blog post 👇️

2. New Google Maps justifications 👀

If you still haven’t connected your socials to your Google Business Profile, this is your sign. Google is pulling information from your social profiles directly into search results (credit to Valentina Vasileva).

Google is adding a special tag that looks a lot like a justification. It says something like “Today: event” or “Tonight: event”, and it is pulled straight from a business’s social media posts:

This is so powerful! It’s yet another clear signal that Google is actively looking at the content on your social profiles and using it to understand your business better.

So yes, you need to connect your social profiles to your Google Business Profile. And yes, you actually need to be active on them.

See more examples on Instagram 👇️

Instagram Reel

3. How to save money and get better data from your grid rank tracker

One of my favourite features in Whitespark’s Local Ranking Grids is how you can customize the layout to cover only the areas you actually care about.

For example, if you set up a 10×10 grid, and half the grid points are in the ocean, then you’re just wasting money because nobody is on a boat searching for your business.

Instead of wasting your money, you can simply remove those grid points. Clean up anything over water, farmer’s fields, or areas where, you know, humans don’t actually live.

And one more important thing:

We are the only grid rank tracker that tracks rankings up to position 100. All other tools stop at 20. That’s a huge difference if you actually want to measure progress and see SEO gains over time.

You can run 8 free 5x5 grid scans with our trial, no credit card required.

4. This would make anyone want to ask for reviews

Save these stats for the next time a business tells you they don’t want to ask for reviews 👇️

These stats come from Miriam Ellis's guide on local business reputation management. Not only does she explain how to increase your reviews and their quality, but she also provides:

  • 5 customizable review request templates (for email and text)

  • 4 customizable review response templates (for 5-star, 4-star, 3-star, and 1-2-star reviews)

Get the templates and learn how to improve your reputation management here 👇️

5. Catch up on the pod

In last week’s episode of The Whitespark Local Update, Claire and I discussed the new social media justification I told you about above, as well as:

  • Social profiles showing up in Search Console (Steve Toth)

  • 1-Minute-a-Day Strategy for Getting More Yelp Reviews (Philip Rozek)

  • Top digital marketing trends and predictions for 2026 (Phil Wilson)

  • Why many firms should stop competing on reviews (Near Media, Gyi Tsakalakis)

  • The Google Business Profile 2-Hour Rule is a Myth (Sterling Sky Inc)

Watch the episode here 👇️

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

If you’ve missed us over the last couple of weeks, we’d really appreciate a quick review on Apple Podcasts. It helps the show and means a lot to us 🙏

Darren

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