Darren Shaw

1. It's a "duress category" such as garage door, locksmith, etc. Google puts extra scrutiny on these
2. There is something else wrong with the profiles (usually address guidelines violations)

It would normally only be the primary category that triggers a reverification. If the category change isn't a huge departure it shouldn't trigger reverification. If it is often triggering reverification then either...

Yes! This just happened last week and I am here for it! It was so annoying when they renamed Posts to Updates. So happy they have switched back to Posts.

Yes. That is what I mean lol

It’s a risk worth taking for the ranking gainz lol

But if you turn a blind eye to the shitty code and just pump it out with a “if it works it works” attitude, then ya, you can make apps fast. An example would be my freshness distance calculator. But I’d never ever consider this with Whitespark’s production software.

The main problem is that AI write relatively shitty code. So by the time you carefully dissect everything it’s doing going line by line, and then course correcting it, you could have written it better yourself in the same or less time.

This resonates hard with me, my team, and our experiences. There are some small ways that AI can assist with the processes, but we’re lucky to get 20% improvements in software development productivity.

Yes, everyone will remember you as the business that lied to them about the Taylor Swift tickets, but maybe you’ll be ranking number 1 🔥

I’d love to hear any creative ideas you have for driving branded search! What else could we do?

(3/3)

🔹 You print 10,000 flyers that say “SCAN TO WIN FREE TAYLOR SWIFT TICKETS”

🔹 You add a QR code that links to a branded search for your business on Google

🔹 You put up the flyers all over town and thousands of people end up “looking up” your brand

(2/3)

Unhinged local SEO hack 🧠 (the Taylor Swift effect)

We know that you can drive your rankings up by increasing branded searches for your business. So, what if…

(1/3)

#localseo #seo

You can’t click on them to get to a discover feed like you can on social media platforms, and they don’t have any impact on rankings. Google just doesn’t care about them.

Save the hashtags for social media. On your GBP, they just make you look stupid and take up space.

(2/2)

Local SEO Tip: don’t use hashtags on your Google Business Profile.

Don’t use them in Posts, review responses, descriptions, or anywhere else on the Profile.

#localseo #seo

(1/2)

Just Google “whitespark review checker” to check it out!

(4/4)

It’s a free tool that checks your business’ reviews and ratings across the web, and lets you export the results as a CSV or PDF, or have them emailed to you directly.

And once you know where you stand, you can start improving your review strategy.

(3/4)

But it’s not just about how many stars you have. It’s also about how you compare to your local competitors, and what your reviews look like across the web, not just on Google.

Figuring all that out manually can take a lot of time. That’s why we created the Whitespark Review Checker Tool.

(2/4)

If you’re trying to rank higher in local, reviews matter A LOT. Тhey are one of the most important local SEO factors in 2025.

(1/4)

#localseo #seo

This is definitely NOT what I meant when I said you should ask and answer questions as the business owner on your own Google Business Profile 😄

It only took them a year to reply to their own question, but hey, at least they said “thank you”.

How would you rank the elements of a Google Business Profile?

In my new YouTube video, I rank every major element of the Google Business Profile from S tier to F tier.

Search “whitespark” on YouTube, and my channel should be the first result!

#localseo #seo

… but it also only costs $1/mo per location.

I sleep peacefully knowing that spammers can’t get me or my clients. Google “Whitespark Local Platform” to do the same!

#localseo #seo

(3/3)

Not only does it:

🔹 alert you when someone (or Google) makes an edit to your Profile
🔹 allow you to approve or reject those edits with one click
🔹 let you edit and manage all of your Profiles in one place
🔹 have a beautiful, functional bulk editing dashboard (much better than Google’s)

(2/3)

Ugh, don’t you hate it when spammers change things on your GBP?”

No, no I don’t, actually, because I live in 2025 and we have solutions for this kind of stuff 😌

And by solutions I mean the Whitespark Local Platform. 

#localseo #seo

(1/3)

Not everything cheap is sketchy. Whitespark’s Local Platform is just a solid deal.

(4/4)

🔹 I’m more interested in providing a useful solution to thousands of people, rather than a handful of rich people.

🔹 It doesn’t feel right to try and squeeze every possible cent out of people when you don’t have to, especially small businesses.

(3/4)

The truth is, there is no catch. Here’s why it costs only $1 per month:

🔹 Whitespark is already a profitable company even without this software.

🔹 The operating costs of this system are low, resulting in a decent profit margin, even at $1.

(2/4)

“Why so cheap? What’s the catch?”

That’s what someone asked me about Whitespark’s Local Platform.

#localseo #seo

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Check it out at freshnessdistancecalculator dot com

#localseo #seo

(4/4)

🔹 It has a cool retro video game theme, which AI whipped up super fast and easy for me. 
🔹 It responds to the Konami Code (IYKYK) in a delightful retro video game way.

(3/4)

🔹 It performs a useful function of analyzing the SERPs to calculate "Freshness Distance" so you know how often you need to update your content. Shoutout to Ross Hudgens for the concept!
🔹 I built it with AI using the Cursor IDE and Claude Sonnet 3.5 (and it was kind of a nightmare).

(2/4)

Just dropping in to remind you that I made a cool free SEO tool a while back and you should use it 👇

#localseo #seo