From GBP suspension increases to the future of reviews to Liz Reid’s AI roadmap, the Near Memo breaks down what Google’s latest moves mean for small businesses, SEOs, and consumers navigating an increasingly AI-driven search world.| Near Media
AI Mode, Agents & Local It's still not clear whether and how AI Overviews, AI Mode, Web Guide (i.e., AI Organized pages) and Gemini and Gemini in Chrome will co-exist. Many people believe AI Mode is the future of Google's SERP. I'm not| Near Media
Review extortion has become increasingly common on Google Profiles since WhatsApp was added as a messaging option. What you can do to limit the risk.| Near Media
From review extortion scams to new AR tools in Google Maps, ChatGPT’s local blind spots, and YouTube’s rise as a strategic powerhouse — here’s what’s shaping the future of Google and local marketing.| Near Media
Local Searchers Want More from AI The early 2022 - 2024 narrative that Google would be displaced by AI has given way among many SEOs to its polar opposite: ChatGPT hasn't had any impact on Google. That's equally untrue. What we see is a pattern of| Near Media
Near Media is the go-to advisor for executives at multi-location brands and vertical agencies seeking to optimize their search strategy and tactics.| Near Media
Barry Schwartz joins The Near Memo to discuss review extortion, contradictions in Google’s “open web” claims, the decline of publisher traffic, affiliate content debates, and how AI overviews are reshaping perceptions of search quality.| Near Media
Google says, “Good SEO is good GEO.”| Near Media
Google tightens business action link rules, calls the open web “in decline” in court and then retracts, and we explore an AI deal with Apple’s Siri. We break down what these moves mean for businesses, publishers, and the future of search.| Near Media
The Google-ChatGPT Overlap The chart below is getting a lot of attention on LinkedIn and Twitter. The data is from Similar Web. What it shows is the overlap between Google and ChatGPT users. In August, according to Similar Web, 95% of ChatGPT users went to Google, while just over 14%| Near Media
New data on AI Overviews in local search: where AIOs appear, how people actually use Google vs ChatGPT, what DOJ’s remedies mean, and a real client case where a brand-new ‘Summit Holiday Lighting’ triggered an AIO. Tactics & takeaways.| Near Media
Google Gets Off Easy A Jeff Bezos inspired editorial in the Washington Post opines, "A judge did not need to curb Google’s power. AI is already doing that." While there's a smidgen of truth there, it's not nearly as much as the author thinks. As Rand Fishkin will tell| Near Media
We explore consumer acceptance of AI Overviews, how consumer review behavior differs from survey expectations, and why Datos data shows Google search remains strong despite AI adoption.Sign up for free to read| Near Media
Optimizing for ChatGPT via Bing There's an ongoing debate about whether and how much ChatGPT is pulling from Google results vs. how reliant it is on Bing. Bing Places is probably in the mix for local but it's unclear how much ChatGPT uses it. It doesn&| Near Media
Special Cyrus Shepherd interview. What on-page factors are associated with sites that see big gains or declines after Google updates? How one quality rater thinks Google Quality Rater Guidelines should influence our sites. What is the future of SEO and Google?| Near Media
SGE Comes to Google Maps Just as Google is seemingly integrating AI into everything it does, last week the company said that AI is coming to Google Maps. "Simply say what you’re looking for and our large-language models (LLMs) will analyze Maps’ detailed information about more than 250 million| Near Media
SGE Pushes Everything Else Down In the first really compelling study of the impact of SGE on the Google SERP, Authoritas examined results from 1,000 commercial keywords in the US. The main conclusion: traffic from top organic rankings will suffer meaningfully if Google more broadly rolls out the current| Near Media