New local SEO term you should know

coined by yours truly ;)

October 13, 2025

Hello everyone,

First of all, thank you for 45,000 subs! I can’t believe how many of you want to read my local SEO content 🙏

Alright, here’s today’s read 👇️

1. 7 reasons to get keywords in your reviews

Do keywords in reviews impact rankings?

Research from Sterling Sky says no. Joy Hawkins tested this in 2023 and found no direct ranking boost.

However, keywords in reviews are still incredibly valuable. Swipe through this carousel to learn why you need keywords in your reviews 👇️

Find the carousel on LinkedIn.

2. New SEO Term Just Dropped: Chunk Ranching

You do some query fan-out research and end up with 10+ sub-questions. But now what?

  • Should you cram all questions into one mega-page?

  • Or create a separate page for each question?

Why not both?! Here’s a strategy we’re calling “Chunk Ranching”:

  1. Figure out the common questions around your topic.

  2. Add them to a FAQ section on your page.

  3. Answer each question briefly right there.

  4. Then link each question to a dedicated page that answers it in depth.

Bonus tip: If you’ve got 20 FAQs, don’t drop them all at once. Publish ~8 at a time, then cycle them weekly. For example, remove 3, add 3 new ones (it keeps your content fresh, and Google likes that).

Eric Shanfelt compared this to “cornerstone content”. Check out his comments on Facebook.

3. Which types of businesses can have GBPs?

Can an e-commerce business have a Google Business Profile? What about a practitioner in a multi-practitioner business? Or a business within a business?

Google will understand your business as falling under one of about a dozen different models with three broader groups: address-based, service area, and hybrid.

Discovering which model your business falls under and answering the following questions is vital to your local search marketing success:

  • How many Google Business Profiles (GBPs) are you eligible to create?

  • Do any special guidelines apply to your model in the Google Business Profile system?

  • Can any special marketing opportunities be put to use for your business?

Miriam Ellis’s guide on GBP Eligibility gives you all the answers. Get the full guide, the GBP Eligibility Summary table, and a PDF of the most common edge-case scenarios here 👇️

4. Catch up on the Whitespark Local Update podcast

Apparently, businesses can lose all their reviews if they ask for them at the register? 🤔

Claire Carlile and I discussed Claudia Tomina’s report on this issue on last week’s episode of the Whitespark Local Update podcast, plus:

  • The Future of AI Search (Britney Muller)

  • 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 Search Visibility (Philip Rozek)

Watch the episode here 👇️

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

Darren

Follow me on these platforms for all my local SEO tips: