So, if Google refuses to index your site, follow this checklist from @miriamellis.bsky.social's new blog post to become more visible in AI (which is the future of search anyway):

If Google’s refusing to index your pages, there's still a way to stay visible online. When people search with AI tools, the answers they get often cite social media posts, sometimes even more than traditional website pages.

The review you got might be bad. But your reply could make it worse if you do not know what you are doing. Negative reviews matter more than ever.

The user search journey has changed completely, and every SEO needs to create a map of it.

This is one of the easiest ways to help Google’s AI understand your business:  Add Services to your Google Business Profile. People are asking AI increasingly specific questions.

These 8 simple habits helped grow my social following to 66,000+ across multiple platforms: 1. Stay active before and after you post. Reply to comments, engage with other people’s content, and do not just disappear after hitting publish.

Your Google Business Profile description could become part of an AI answer about your business.

Everyone is obsessed with getting recommended by AI. But THIS matters more. A new Yext study found that only 5% of people go directly from an AI recommendation to making a purchase. Everyone else is doing some version of what Yext calls the “verification loop”.

It’s 2026. You need to stop ignoring your business’s social media accounts. A lot of small businesses started posting a few years ago, gave up after a couple of months, and have not touched their accounts since.

Your AI slop isn’t fooling anyone

We now have a grid tracker that tracks EVERYTHING about your competitors - their rankings, review growth, categories, business name changes, their mom’s last name (ok maybe not that), you name it. I am excited to announce the new Analyze tab in Whitespark’s Local Ranking Grids.

I asked ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini the exact same question about a local business, and they all gave me a different answer. I asked: “Does Texas Coffee Traders Cafe offer sugar-free drinks?”

I did not expect the Google Business Profile + Gemini integration to be this good. We got early access, and it can already do some genuinely useful stuff. @clairecarlile.bsky.social and I did a deep dive on this and so much more on today’s podcast episode.

AI search engines are dumber than you think. You need to spell things out for them, or they will just ignore you and cite your competitor instead.

Google is bringing back GBP Messaging - with an AI chatbot for your business. Native messaging is coming back to Google Business Profiles, but now, with an AI agent that answers customer questions based on data from your profile and your website.

5. The Promote tab is very interesting to me. It says “Launch ads in just a few clicks so customers can message you directly from Google Search Results”. It sounds like you’ll be able to create Google Ads for your services and people can engage with your “GBP AI Chatbot” directly from the ad.

4. In Settings, you can: - Set up a welcome message - Add conversation starters - Upload your logo - Toggle “Customer handoff” on to get notified when your AI agent needs human help

3. Insights (coming soon) will give you data about your audience, conversions, and conversations. Presumably, you’ll get analysis and trends about what people are asking about in the chat.

1. Clicking the “Messages” button in the NMX now opens a page with 4 tabs - Messages - Insights - Settings - Promotion 2. Messages are divided into 2 sections: - “Needs your attention” - “Handled by your AI agent”

Here are 3 major local SEO developments you missed from the last 3 months: Read about 20 more important local search developments in @miriamellis.bsky.social's Q2 2026 Roundup on whitespark*ca/blog.

If I were just starting SEO today, Detailed is one of the first free tools I would install. It’s hands-down my favourite SEO Chrome extension because it’s super simple to use and gives you tons of useful SEO insights in just a few clicks. Here’s how I use it:

AI holds grudges. A new Seer Interactive study found that negative comments from super old reviews can keep showing up in AI answers. They tested this on themselves and found a negative review from 2018 still being repeated by AI.

AI is getting totally crazy. The US government shut down Fable 5 and Mythos, and now Anthropic is requiring some people to upload their government ID to continue using it. What’s happening here?

🚨 Huge SEO news: Google must now be more transparent about rankings, including AI Overviews. The UK competition regulator is forcing Google to give businesses more transparency around search rankings and major ranking changes, even in AI overviews.

Still using a ridiculous Gmail address you made when you were 13? 😬 Good news. Google says you may now be able to change it. Here’s how to check if you have the option:

Your website is probably making this mistake: It might be getting traffic, but if people have to work too hard to contact you, you’re probably losing leads.

This is the best query fanout tool I’ve seen yet. Huge shoutout to @markwilliamscook.com, who can’t stop, won’t stop coming up with brilliant tools.

If you’re a business owner or an agency managing Google Business Profiles, this is definitely something you should pay attention to: Google is now asking your customers this question: “Does this business offer rewards in exchange for reviews?” (see screenshot below).

🚨 Breaking Google News: Gemini can now help manage your Google Business Profile. You will soon be able to connect your Business Profile directly to Gemini and ask it to help with things that normally require going into the GBP dashboard.

Google just gave us the ultimate shortcut to “rank” #1 in AI Overviews and AI Mode. It’s called Preferred Sources, and here’s how it works: