Your clients don’t care about the Local Pack

but they do care about this

January 12, 2026

Hello!

Here’s what you might have missed from last week 👇️

1. Vibe-coding advice from a vibe-coder

10 months ago, Anthropic's CEO said that “in 3 to 6 months, AI will be writing 90% of the code software developers are in charge of.” Having vibe-coded a few apps now, I have to laugh at this statement.

Vibe-coding is like trying to get a toddler to cook your dinner. With enough oversight and hand-holding and redirection, you can eventually get dinner on the table, but it’s not going to look pretty, and it’s not going to taste very good.

In my experience, you can’t/shouldn’t vibe-code serious production-ready software that you could charge for, but it does the job (eventually) for building smaller tools, apps, and browser extensions.

One tip: Spend at least a few hours creating a detailed Requirements Document with your LLM of choice before you start coding. Only once you’ve described every detail should you fire up your vibe-coding tool to start making it (I use Cursor).

I recently talked about this on the Agency Growth Podcast. Listen to the whole episode if you want more local SEO agency tips for the new year 👇️

2. Businesses don’t care about the Local Pack. They care about leads

In 2026, your local SEO agency must diversify. Joy showed this chart in a recent livestream we did together in December:

It reflects a steady decline in clicks-to-call from Google Business Profiles over the last 2 years.

Businesses are now getting fewer leads from the local pack because:

  • Local Services Ads look almost identical to organic local results, and they’re siphoning off leads

  • AI Overviews are taking up more space at the top

  • The local pack now appears lower on the page than it did before

  • People increasingly use other channels for local searches (YouTube, ChatGPT, TikTok, etc.)

So, it’s high time local SEO agencies diversified their services beyond just website and GBP management:

  • Long form videos on YouTube

  • Short form videos on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube

  • Social media marketing

  • Reddit/Quora engagement

  • AI SEO

  • Digital PR

  • and I’m sorry, but you probably have to start offering PPC (especially Local Services Ads).

At the end of the day, businesses don’t really care about the Local Pack or Maps. They care about LEADS.

If your services aren’t generating leads, your clients will leave you for a different agency.

See what other agency owners and local SEOs had to say about this on LinkedIn.

3. Citations never left

Three of the top five AI search visibility factors for 2026 are citation-based.

While traditional search is heavily focused on links, with LLMs, it’s more about mentions (in other words, citations).

Here’s what you need to do 👇️

Instagram Reel

AI-powered mobile Google Maps results are definitely here. A study from Juris Digital finds that:

  • AI Map packs are now appearing for 44% of legal searches

  • About 70% of the law firms shown in AI Map packs are not the same firms displayed in traditional Map packs

  • Google is more likely to show AI Map packs for searches containing modifiers like “affordable”, “best”, “top”, and “free consultation”

Miriam Ellis talks about this and 16 other new local SEO developments in her Q4 2025 Roundup, including:

  • Revamped verification issue options in GBP Support forms

  • New Report business conduct form

  • Review extortion guidelines

  • Anonymous reviews

  • AI Agents’ increasing popularity

  • Google removing GBP Q&A and call buttons

  • and more!

Read the full report here 👇️

Darren

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