Technical SEO, split-testing, local search and algorithm analysis from independent practitioners and specialist agencies — SearchPilot, Lumar, Sistrix, Sterling Sky, Marie Haynes and others.
We connect three stories that are really one story: Apple's launch of ads in Maps, Google's move to charge for more Local Services Ads leads and expand ads across the results page, and Meta's ~$18…
Read on Near Media →A session in partnership with Page 2 Podcast
Read on SearchPilot →TL;DR We realized AI platforms were relaying an inaccurate narrative about Seer Interactive, so we ran a full analysis to find out what else they were saying — and whether the info was accurate Of…
Read on Seer Interactive →Welcome back to our GEO series! In the previous article, we explored candidate page selection and how AI systems determine which pages are eligible for retrieval. Semantic relevance helps inform that…
Read on Lumar →We end the brand-building series with Greg walking through our original research: the "Choosing a Lawyer" study of the Atlanta personal lawyer market. Survey data, ad-creative testing, and a…
Read on Near Media →TL;DR I reviewed our traffic-decline-analysis skill's and found four real problems: a traffic number from the wrong source, a real drop mislabeled "stable," no way to trace where a number came from,…
Read on Seer Interactive →We close the run of solo interviews with a working session on what "brand" means for a local business and which tactics move the needle now that answers are generated, not just ranked. Join Paula…
Read on Near Media →I wanted to do something a little different with this webinar. Usually, these sessions are conversations. This one is me laying out where we have got to with GEO testing, what we have learned from…
Read on SearchPilot →Candidate page selection can determine whether your content is considered for retrieval in AI search. Learn how it works, what influences page eligibility, and what it means for GEO.
Read on Lumar →If you want to know how search engines and AI systems really move through…
Read on Oncrawl →Businesses move all the time, and updating the Google Business Profile to the new address is essential for ranking in the new area. In the case when a business moves to a new state, unfortuantly…
Ranking & Algorithms Local SEO
Read on Sterling Sky →Ranking & Algorithms Local SEO
Read on Sterling Sky →AI search has created a new wave of tactics, tools, dashboards, and very confident advice.
Read on SearchPilot →Prompt Research brings the keyword exploration for AI search, AI Deep Dives deliver data-based analyses directly into the Toolbox and the MCP server is now available to all, no need for API credits.…
Read on Sistrix →Gyi Tsakalakis, of AttorneySync, joins us for Part 3 of our brand-building series — bringing the brand conversation down to earth in professional services, and specifically in legal, where a client…
Read on Near Media →Your monthly roundup of search industry news, brought to you by the Lumar team.
Read on Lumar →Googlebot does not crawl every page on your site every day. It works within…
Read on Oncrawl →When we first published this on July 15, we were working from three days of ChatGPT ads data. Revisiting the data this week, our main takeaways haven't changed, but ecosystem is evolving. Share of…
Read on Seer Interactive →Google shared some interesting information about the future of Search and AI in their most recent earnings call. While many are focusing on the first negative cash flow since their IPO 20 years ago,…
Read on Marie Haynes →Discover how the Lumar MCP server connects your AI assistant to Lumar, enabling faster SEO audits, AI Visibility analysis and workflow automation.
Read on Lumar →Cyrus Shepard, founder of Zyppy, joins Greg Sterling and Mike Blumenthal for Part 2 of the Near Memo brand-building series — this time on the technical side: how Google and AI systems actually model…
Read on Near Media →A session in partnership with Sitebulb
Read on SearchPilot →TL; DR Brands investing in creator ads may not be taking the right actions to see their desired results The industry is focused on helping brands find the right creator, when the real problem is…
Read on Seer Interactive →We explore local branding with John Jantsch, examining how to build trust through offline distinctiveness, mine customer interviews to identify primary differentiators and leverage programmatic…
Read on Near Media →Local Websites in a Sea of SlopPeople increasingly feel that the "open web" is over. The web is now dominated by a small number of powerful "gatekeepers." Beyond this, more paywalls are going up,…
Read on Near Media →Who doesn’t love a good mystery? I've been thinking about the conundrum that is zero-click search a lot lately, partly because of Rand Fishkin's recent study showing that less than one-third of…
Read on Seer Interactive →For years, site architecture served its purpose and served it well: help search engines…
Read on Oncrawl →Discover why small business websites are shifting from growth engines to "trust artifacts" to battle AI search friction, click fraud, and generative slop.
Read on Near Media →The SEO playbook is changing. Optimize for AI search and query fan-out. For years,…
Read on Oncrawl →Standardizing knowledge for the future of AI agents My last piece on Google’s Open Knowledge Format (OKF) was one of the most popular I’ve ever published. Since then, I have been heads down working…
Read on Marie Haynes →How startups, digital goliaths, and everything in-between, use AI to grow online.
Read on Detailed →Google just published documentation on what they're calling the Open Knowledge Format (OKF). It represents a standardized way for agents to access knowledge via very simple directories of Markdown…
Read on Marie Haynes →Working in the search industry means we have all spent a lot of time…
Read on Oncrawl →If you run marketing for a multi-location campground or RV resort group, you have likely watched the same pattern repeat. […]
Read on Onely →Last refreshed Aug 29, 2026 · 7:40 PM · Subscribe to our combined RSS feed
