How to Optimize Your Google Business Profile: A Step-by-Step Guide
Most local businesses still treat their Google Business Profile like a digital business card. Fill in the name, address, phone number, add a few photos, done. That approach stopped working a while back, and in 2026 it’s actively costing you visibility. Google runs local ranking algorithms separately from core organic search, and the profiles winning the map pack right now are built...
The Best Local SEO Tools in 2026 (And Which Ones Are Worth Paying For)
I’ve run local SEO for enough clients now to have opinions, not just a list. So this isn’t a neutral “here are ten tools” roundup. This is what I’d actually tell another agency owner sitting across from me asking where to put their tool budget. Here’s the mistake I see agencies make constantly: they buy one all-in-one platform expecting it to cover rank...
Do Backlinks Still Matter for AI Search? What the Data Actually Shows
I get asked this every second week now. Usually by a client who just watched a competitor with a weaker backlink profile show up in a ChatGPT answer where they didn’t. Same industry, same keyword, opposite result. Feels unfair. Feels random. It’s not random. There’s actual data on this now, not just opinions on LinkedIn, and it points to a pretty specific answer. Short...
GEO vs SEO: What Generative Engine Optimisation Means for Your Business
You’ve probably seen the term GEO everywhere in the last year, usually paired with a claim that SEO is dying and you need an entirely new strategy to survive. That’s not quite right, and the confusion around it is doing more harm than good. Let’s clear it up properly. What SEO Actually Is Search Engine Optimisation is the practice of getting your website to rank well in...
Why Your Reviews Matter More Than Ever for AI Search (And How to Get More)
Reviews used to be simple. More stars, more trust, more customers. That part hasn’t changed. What has changed is who’s reading them, and how carefully. AI search tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google’s AI Overviews now use your reviews as one of the clearest signals available to decide whether your business is trustworthy enough to recommend. And here’s the part most...
AI Overviews vs Featured Snippets: What’s the Difference and Which Should You Target?
Every few weeks, someone asks me whether Featured Snippets are “dead” now that AI Overviews exist. The honest answer is no, but the confusion is fair, because these two look similar on the surface and get talked about interchangeably in half the SEO content out there. They are not the same thing, and treating them as the same thing is exactly why so much SEO advice on this topic...
Schema Markup for Local Businesses: A Beginner’s Guide for AI Search
Type “schema markup” into Google and you will land on a dozen guides written for people who already know what HTML is. That is not you, and it is not most local business owners either. So let’s slow down and do this properly. By the end of this, you will know exactly what schema markup is, why it quietly decides whether ChatGPT or Google trusts your business enough to mention...
llms.txt Explained: Should Your Website Have One in 2026?
Short answer first, because I know that’s what you’re here for: no, llms.txt will not get you cited by ChatGPT, ranked in Google’s AI Overviews, or found by Perplexity. Google has said this directly. If you’re adding it hoping for an AI-search ranking boost, you’re going to be disappointed. But that’s not the whole story, and I think most of what’s...
How to Track Your AI Search Visibility: Tools and Metrics That Matter
Do you know if ChatGPT is recommending your business? Or whether you show up in Google AI Overviews, Gemini, or Perplexity? Most business owners have no idea. And you cannot improve what you cannot see. Your customers are no longer only on Google; they are asking AI tools for recommendations, and if you are invisible in those answers, you are losing customers you will never know about. Once...