We recently had the pleasure of hosting Claire Carlile for an Ask Me Anything (AMA) in our #seo-local channel, diving deep into All things Local SEO. She covered everything from rebranding and citations to link building and AI’s growing impact on local search.

Claire is a Local Visibility Expert at Whitespark with over 20 years of experience in digital marketing. She is a Platinum Google Business Profile Product Expert, and a leading voice in the Local Search Ranking Factors survey.

Claire is passionate about helping businesses and agencies sharpen their Local SEO skills and processes.

Want to join our next AMA or see what else the WTS Community Slack has to offer? Head over here for more info.

Local SEO Fundamentals

What are "offline" or untraditional ways we can think about boosting our local SEO?

Start with COMMUNITY!

How can you connect with your community, and find your community?

In the real-life actual world there will be businesses with which you share a commonality - think about partnering with them for some LOCAL SYNERGY!

Off line is great for local businesses in so many cases, think:

• Flyers
• Posters
• Local radio,
• Local events
• Local referrals

There are just so many opportunities to raise awareness of your products and services when you’re involved with the right offline communities. Find your people and connect!

What is the #1 most important thing I should do (besides set up GBP) for my local retail craft store to get more people in the door?

Aside from setting up and optimising a wonderful GBP there are just so many things you could do!

There’s a massive audience on socials if that’s your thing! You could also work on your:

• Website
• Local PR
• Foundational local links (like chambers of commerce)
• Partner with nearby businesses
• Host open evenings or workshops, and invite local creators or influencers.

Managing Google Business Profiles

What are the best tools and key metrics for reporting on multiple Service Area Business (SAB) GBPs?

I did a webinar with Dana DiTomaso, it’s still relevant and should help!

Watch here.

Top-level overview:

1. GBP Performance
2. Useful conversions made on the website from GBP traffic (use UTM tagging)
3. Call tracking

Within the last 3-4 weeks we’ve noticed our leads, sales, and installs coming from our GBPs has dropped… what advice do you have for staying on top of the SERP?

Using something like Mobile Moxie helps track SERPs across devices and locations to spot changes.

Ranking grids help too.

Check your UTM tagging and GA4 tracking to confirm if the drop is traffic-related or SERP-related.

Brand, Rebrands & Competitors

Do you have any tips for a company going through a rebrand when it comes to local?

Oooh there are many parts of the rebrand.

1. Audit old mentions - Make a list of all existing online (and ideally offline) references to your old brand.
2. Prioritise updates - Start with the most important mentions first. Use advanced Google search operators (if they still work) and citation tools like Whitespark to find them.
3. Check backlinks - Use Google Analytics to find referring sites and backlink analysis tools to identify backlinks that need updating. Reach out to these sites to update your brand information.
4. Update brand assets - Ensure all new brand guidelines, including visual and textual assets, are applied consistently across all channels.
5. Leverage relationships - Where pre-existing relationships exist, use this as an opportunity to refresh connections while updating digital assets.
6. Embrace the reset - Although it may feel like starting over, these steps help maintain visibility and strengthen your new brand identity.

One of our clients has a generic name, what’s your advice to keep our top rankings?

Great question and one that comes up a lot since people starting changing their business name (or starting out in business) with a purely keyword rich name with no unique branding led modifiers.

Personally, I'd think about re-branding if they can find this in their heart at all - it's so hard to squeeze brand performance and longevity out of a business name link that.

However, in the absence of the opportunity (or the will!) to do this keep on keeping on - building brand around what you have - earning reviews and doing all the good things I am sure you are doing!

How can businesses without a physical address (like WTS), but with a presence in multiple locations (like event-based companies), tap into local SEO?

You could have a GBP if they had an office space where they make in person contact with customers - a 'head office'.

This can be useful for managing your brand as it's essentially easier to manage your 'local entity' via GBP - though of course Google will only show your local knowledge panel when the searcher is in a location that Google feels it is relevant to serve.

Since you run events in so many different locations (though you can't have a GBP for those) you are essentially tapping into the local marketplace for each of those locations.

Optimising for AI & Evolving Search

Any tips to optimise listings for LLMs & AIO?

Everything’s changing fast!

LLMs are still developing in how they source and display info.

Focus on making the most of Google first - that’s where most conversions happen.

Try using LLMs to see how they surface your business and what questions your audience asks.

For tracking, check out:

• Dana DiTomaso’s GA4 guides
• Kick Point’s ChatGPT Atlas Browser/ARIA guide

First of all, it's likely that Google is still driving the lion's share of traffic and actions on your website, right?

So - do everything you can here. LLMs and AI are shiny but not at the expense of making sure you're making the most of the regular search opportunity.

Aside from that, use LLMs and see how they're solving the problems that your customers and potential customers would go to Google for?

In my experience outside of Google search, the bottom of the funnel experience for searchers is POOR - they'll do their research in LLMs and then head over to Google to find the actual local results.

As for understanding the local search opportunity I'd subscribe to Near Media because they do a bunch of consumer resting and have an excellent commentary on local search in this changing search landscape.

Crystal Carter had a webinar this week with Amanda Jordan on SEO tips for LLM’s - and I'd recommend following Crystal for all things LLM / AI!

Local Listings, Citations & Maps

Any advice for optimising for Apple Maps?

Apple Maps is tricky! The interface is clunky and it’s hard to measure traffic (you can’t UTM tag your main link), but it’s still worth keeping updated. Check out this guide from Krystal Taing.

Besides GBPs, which online profiles do you consider must-haves for local businesses?

This is quite niche dependent - for example travel has specific sites you need to be on, same for law, restaurants etc.

I usually do a brand search for my business, and then lots of competitors, and then your most important search queries.

Look at the first three pages or so - which sites come up again and again?

You probably want to be on these.

Using a link intersect tool can also be useful - plus in your website and a few of your competitors and it will spit out places they are mentioned / have links that you don't.

Also - use the LLMs - describe your business and your niche and ask where should you be listed? Where would people expect you to be listed? Hope that helps!

What is the best way to audit, clean up, & maintain your NAP information?

So - there are a bunch of companies that offer citation clean up - you could engage one of these.

I know Whitespark do a good job.

OR you can do it yourself - it just takes a long time and some of the weirder sites are tricky to get your head around.

Having a document that is the 'one source of truth' when you start the process is of course required - it might be that some of the mentions of your business aren't SUPER WRONG and you decide that you leave these one.

Make sure you tackle the ones that are most important first.

So, look at anything that appears for a brand name search on the first few pages of Google.

Check the LLMs to see what they come up with also.

Check backlinks, check referring sites in GA.

Location Pages & Link Building

Do you have any great examples of “perfect” location and service pages?

Hey lovely! OOOOH I wrote a course on that - it's FREE

What are some advanced tips for link building for local businesses? How much does it matter? And are citations still a thing?

I love building local links - think relationships first and make a note of all of these.

How could each of them result in a link?

Often you can offer a testimonial or case study to suppliers and you can get a mention on their website - take this example

Links matter - especially when they drive traffic. Same with citations!

Key Takeaways

Community matters

Partner locally, attend events, and use offline tactics to boost visibility.

GBP is key

Optimise Google Business Profile and support it with social, website, PR, and events.

Track performance

Use tools like Mobile Moxie, ranking grids, UTM tags, and call tracking.

Rebrands need cleanup

Update old mentions, backlinks, and brand assets; refresh relationships.

Protect your brand

Build brand equity and reviews; rebranding optional but consistency is crucial.

Event-based businesses

Use a head office for GBP and target regional/country-level visibility.

AI & LLMs

Focus on Google first; use AI to understand audience questions and trends.

Listings & links

Keep Apple Maps and niche profiles updated, maintain NAP, optimise pages, and build links.

Want to join our next AMA or check out what else the WTS Community Slack has to offer? Head over here for more info.