Plain-English answers to the questions you keep asking.
Evergreen explainers for small-business owners. No jargon, no SEO blog filler — just what each thing actually means and what to do about it.
-
How do I get my business cited in ChatGPT and Perplexity?
AI search engines name businesses they can verify three ways: an unambiguous entity (schema markup + Google Business Profile + Wikidata), authoritative independent mentions (Reddit threads, YouTube videos, local press, vertical directories), and crawlable structured content on the business's own site. If all three are in place, AI citation typically takes 60–180 days. Without all three, it doesn't happen — no matter how good the website is.
Read more → -
How do I rank higher on Google Maps?
Google Maps ranks businesses on three main signals: relevance (does your Google Business Profile match the search?), distance (how close are you to the searcher?), and prominence (how well-known are you across the web?). Most local businesses can move 2–5 positions in 60–90 days by completing every GBP section, fixing NAP consistency across the top 30 directories, and accumulating reviews with category-relevant keywords. Proximity caps reach — if your customers are 15+ miles away, the work shifts to service-area pages and citation density, not just GBP optimization.
Read more → -
How to optimize a Google Business Profile (the 2026 checklist)
A fully-optimized Google Business Profile in 2026 has every section completed (services, attributes, products, hours, business description), the correct primary category plus 4-6 well-chosen secondary categories, 30+ recent photos across interior/exterior/team/work-in-progress categories, weekly posts, all reviews responded to within 24 hours, and name/address/phone matching exactly across 30+ directories. Most local businesses have done 30% of this list. The 70% gap is the highest-leverage local-SEO move available, and it's free.
Read more → -
What are Apple Maps Ads and should your local business use them?
Apple Maps Ads are paid placements inside Apple Maps that surface a sponsored business at the top of search results and inside the new Suggested Places feature. They launch in summer 2026 in the US and Canada, run on an auction model (pay per view or tap), and require a claimed Apple Business listing as the foundation. For most local businesses with iPhone-heavy customer bases, claiming the Apple Business listing now is non-negotiable; running ads should wait until there's price discovery in your category.
Read more → -
What is Apple Business Connect (and how is it different from Apple Maps Ads)?
Apple Business Connect is a free tool that lets businesses claim their Apple Maps listing, manage their hours and photos, and surface their business across Siri, Spotlight, CarPlay, and the Apple Maps app itself. It's the entity infrastructure underneath Apple's local-business stack — the equivalent of Google Business Profile. It's distinct from Apple Maps Ads, which is the new paid placement launching summer 2026 on top of the same listings. Claiming your listing is free, takes ~30 minutes, and influences your discoverability across Apple's entire local-search surface.
Read more → -
What is generative engine optimization (GEO)?
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of getting a business named in the answers AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, and Claude give back. It overlaps with SEO but the deliverables are different — extractable answer-shaped content, entity infrastructure (schema, Wikidata, Google Business Profile), and earned mentions on the third-party sources AI engines actually weigh (Reddit, YouTube, vertical directories). Most GEO programs target 60–180 days to first category-level citation.
Read more → -
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is the practice of getting a business to show up in Google's location-based search results — Google Maps, the local pack, and the regular blue-link results when someone includes a city or 'near me'. It's the kind of SEO that matters most for any business whose customers come from a specific geographic area.
Read more →