Darren Shaw

Darren Shaw

@whitespark.ca

🔹 Founder of whitespark.ca/bluesky: local SEO software and services. 🔹 Local SEO educator with 36,000+ newsletter subscribers, 8,000+ YouTube subscribers, and 2,000+ email course sign-ups. 🔹 In charge of the annual Local Search Ranking Factors Survey

1.8K followers 676 following1.8K posts

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🚨 The 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors are OUT NOW! Read the full report and my analysis on the Whitespark website. Watch my new video on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDeA...

youtube.comOFFICIAL Whitespark 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors: What Really Matters (Full Breakdown)YouTube video by Whitespark

Is AI Visibility a SCAM? You probably saw Rand Fishkin’s post talking about three studies that suggest that AI visibility might be BS. The numbers certainly raised some eyebrows:

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So, I definitely think that optimizing for AI visibility is worth it. And if you want AI to recommend your business, build a brand that PEOPLE recommend. @clairecarlile.bsky.social and I talk about this and more in the new episode of the Whitespark Local Update podcast.

Find the full episode on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify!

youtu.beIs AI Visibility Worth the Hype or Just a Scam? | E53 The Whitespark Local UpdateYouTube video by Whitespark

Is AI Visibility a SCAM? You probably saw Rand Fishkin’s post talking about three studies that suggest that AI visibility might be BS. The numbers certainly raised some eyebrows:

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We ask new customers of our Local Ranking Grid software how they heard about us. Guess what their number one answer is? ChatGPT!

Rand doesn’t think you can trust self-reported data, and he makes some good points, but for it to be our NUMBER ONE mentioned source sure seems telling to me.

Is AI Visibility a SCAM? You probably saw Rand Fishkin’s post talking about three studies that suggest that AI visibility might be BS. The numbers certainly raised some eyebrows:

1. One study found that ChatGPT drives just 0.62% of website traffic 2. Another found that organic search drives 39 times more traffic than AI assistants 3. And a third couldn't find a clear connection between AI visibility and increases in branded searches or direct traffic.

However, these studies are missing something huge IMO: they're measuring website traffic, not how people actually discover businesses through AI. I have a perfect example from Whitespark:

🚨 The Google Business Profile dashboard is coming back, and it is way better than I ever could have imagined. It's called Google Business Home, and it brings your Google Business Profile, YouTube, Google Ads, and Merchant Center together in one place.

Here's what you can do with it: - create and publish content - respond to reviews - track performance - manage your business locations - get personalized recommendations to grow your business - and so much more!

This new Local SEO Audit tool analyzes your business, compares it against your top competitors, and tells you exactly where you have opportunities to improve your rankings.

I asked 172 people to click on a photo of a restaurant with goats on its roof (for local SEO research). I wanted to test the theory that you can manipulate the order of photos on your Google Business Profile by getting people to engage with them. Here's what happened 👇

Google just made finding local businesses easier: You can now select an area on Google Maps inside Gemini and ask for business recommendations. Claire Carlile and Elizabeth Linder cover this and more on today’s Whitespark Local Update! 🎧 YouTube, Apple Podcasts & Spotify

If I only had a few hours a week to work on my SEO, these are the 5 things I'd focus on to rank better in Google and AI search 👇

It turns out that Google Posts might actually be our company's #1 social channel. I recently looked at the views Whitespark’s Google Posts are getting, and I was pretty surprised.

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Try publishing those same salesy posts on Instagram or LinkedIn, and they probably won't perform nearly as well. Plus, while social media posts often lose visibility after a day or two, Google Posts can continue getting impressions for months.

So if you've been ignoring Google Posts because you assumed nobody was seeing them, it might be time to rethink that.

It turns out that Google Posts might actually be our company's #1 social channel. I recently looked at the views Whitespark’s Google Posts are getting, and I was pretty surprised.

Some of them are getting more views than my personal social media posts, and I have a pretty engaged audience. They're also absolutely CRUSHING the views we get on Whitespark's Instagram and LinkedIn posts.

People who see your Google Posts are already looking at your business on Google, and they're often actively looking for a product or service you offer. That makes them much more likely to be interested in your offers, promotions, and updates.

Google just made it easier for social media creators to stand out in Search: If you have 10K+ followers on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or X, you might be eligible to claim your own Google Search profile. I recently hit 10K on Instagram 🎉 so I decided to give it a try. Here's how to set it up:

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You can check out my Search profile here (although I haven't finished customizing it yet): profile*google*com/@whitesparkca Your Google Search profile brings your content together in one place, lets people follow you directly from Search, and could help your content appear in Google Discover.

If you're a creator with 10K+ followers, it's worth checking out. And while you're at it, give my Google Search profile a follow.

Google just made it easier for social media creators to stand out in Search: If you have 10K+ followers on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or X, you might be eligible to claim your own Google Search profile. I recently hit 10K on Instagram 🎉 so I decided to give it a try. Here's how to set it up:

1. Go to profile*google*com/claim and sign in with your Google account. 2. Connect your eligible social media accounts. Once you’ve connected your accounts, you can customize your Search profile by editing your info, adding links, and pinning your best content.

Google still shows my Instagram at 9.5K followers, even though I've passed 10K a while ago, and it hasn't pulled in my posts yet. But YouTube and TikTok connected without any issues.

Google is Showing Reddit Trash Talk on Business Profiles?! This is scary for any business on Google: Someone can trash your business on Reddit, and Google might display that thread right on your Google Business Profile.

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- Google your business name + city and check the Web results on your GBP. - Search Reddit for mentions of your business. - Set up a free F5Bot alert for new Reddit mentions. - Respond to relevant Reddit threads as the owner. Be honest, transparent, and helpful.

- Actually FIX the problems people are complaining about. - And do NOT make fake accounts to defend yourself. Redditors WILL catch you. Yep, unfortunately, reputation management extends to the whole internet now.

Google is Showing Reddit Trash Talk on Business Profiles?! This is scary for any business on Google: Someone can trash your business on Reddit, and Google might display that thread right on your Google Business Profile.

Look at the screenshot below. In the Web results on this GBP, right under their own website, is a Reddit thread telling people to avoid the business 😬 You can't remove these Reddit threads from Google yourself, and you can't respond to them directly through your Google Business Profile.

Also, AI tools heavily rely on Reddit, so these same threads can influence what ChatGPT says about your business. So, here’s how to fix it:

Google’s AI Mode Just Made Local SEO 1000x Easier This AI Mode tip from Claudia Tomina is awesome. AI Mode’s follow-up questions are an absolute goldmine for website content.

This is just one of the many topics @clairecarlile.bsky.social and I discuss in the latest episode of the Whitespark Local Update. Find the full episode on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify!

Google just launched a new tool that can detect AI-generated images, videos, and audio. It's called SynthID Detector, and it looks for invisible watermarks embedded in content generated by Google's AI models, NVIDIA, ChatGPT, and Kakao.

Here's how it works: 1. Go to synthid.com 2. Upload an image, video, or audio clip. 3. Let Google scan it for AI watermarks. The tool can even highlight which parts of the content were generated by AI.

But even if the tool doesn't detect a watermark, that doesn't mean the content is real. It just means no SynthID watermark was found. With AI-generated content getting harder to distinguish from reality, tools like this could become increasingly important.

How I'd react to the number of reviews you get in a week…

Here are 4 major local SEO updates you missed from the last 3 months Read about 19 more important local search developments in Miriam Ellis's (@miriamellis.bsky.social) Q3 2026 Roundup, now live on whitespark*ca/blog.

Every SEO explaining what they do

Want to see what Google and AI can *actually* see on your website? Here’s how:

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This is a huge problem for SEO, but it matters even more for AI crawlers, because they completely ignore JavaScript-rendered content. Your most important content needs to be available in the HTML, not hidden behind JavaScript or a button click.

@clairecarlile.bsky.social and her wonderful guest co-host Elizabeth Linder discuss this idea from Daniel Foley Carter on today’s podcast episode, plus more local SEO updates. Find the full episode on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify!

Want to see what Google and AI can *actually* see on your website? Here’s how:

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This is basically the HTML your website sends BEFORE JavaScript starts changing things. 4. Press CTRL+F and look up something important on the page: your main heading, a service description, FAQ content, whatever.

If you can’t find key information in your content, but you know it’s there, this means that JavaScript added it after the page loaded.

Want to see what Google and AI can *actually* see on your website? Here’s how:

1. Open the page in Chrome. 2. Right-click, hit Inspect, go to Network, and click “doc”. 3. Refresh the page, click the page name on the left, and go to Response.