The craziest local SEO stunt I’ve ever seen

and some 🔥 local SEO tips

December 22, 2025

Ho-ho-hello!

Fancy some local SEO to get you in the holiday spirit?

1. Google is watching 👁️

Google is watching everything you’re doing online, and they’re using that information to rank local businesses.

They look at what businesses you click on, how much time you spend on every Business Profile, which photos you click on, how much time you spend watching videos, etc.

These behavioral signals play a huge role in local rankings, and local businesses need to capitalize on them by giving people more content to engage with on the Profile. This means:

  1. Uploading high-quality photos and videos to their Profile regularly, and encouraging customers to do the same.

  2. Publishing weekly Google Posts to promote their products, services, and sales.

  3. Getting a constant influx of reviews that users can scroll through and engage with.

  4. Building out a comprehensive Services section with emojis in titles and detailed descriptions.

  5. Building out an engaging Products section with scroll-stopping images.

  6. Filling out every possible section of their Business Profile.

The more time people spend browsing through and engaging with your Profile, the better you’ll rank.

If you want to download this checklist as a PDF, you can get it here.

2. The craziest local SEO stunt I’ve ever seen

Holly Starks went the extra mile (literally) to prove that following Google’s driving directions to a business increases that business’s rankings 👇️

Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more educational content.

3. How to build perfect service area pages

Local SEO is tough for service area businesses, but you can improve your chances to rank with incredible service area pages.

I often notice the following mistakes on service area landing pages:

  • duplicate content across all pages, with just the city name changed

  • lack of unique, locally relevant content

  • half-assing the content and missing key sections

  • lack of content that matches the intent of the searchers in the given service area

These mistakes can hurt your rankings, reduce your visibility in local and organic search, and cost you valuable leads and conversions.

As a holiday gift for all you local SEOs who work with SABs, Miriam Ellis has prepared the ultimate guide to service area landing pages.

This guide addresses the challenges SABs face online, provides a step-by-step process for building strong service area pages, and gives expert advice on developing unique, helpful content for the customers you want to serve.

It also includes two downloadable checklists that summarize all the foundational and additional elements a service area page needs.

Learn how to build and improve your service area pages and capture more leads in the new year 👇️

4. Catch up on the pod

Last week, Claire had a special guest on the podcast — Elizabeth Rule. One of the topics they discussed is the new AI-powered configuration in Google Search Console, which makes it easier to find and analyze your search data.

However, Elizabeth said that the AI can sometimes show you different results than the ones you’ll see if you filter through the data manually.

Hear all about this development in last week’s episode of the Whitespark Local Update, plus:

  • New weekly and monthly views in Search Console

  • Google introduces social channels in Search Console

  • Stop asking ChatGPT how it works (Britney Muller)

  • Google review blocks are on the rise (Claudia Tomina)

  • Google revamped the verification issue options in GBP Support forms (Claudia Tomina)

Watch the episode here 👇️

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

Darren

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