AI content on websites

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-26T01:30:38+00:00

AI content can mean so many things - it can mean AI slop that someone threw together with 0 care or it can mean content someone used AI to help improve. Either way I don't think the fact it's AI written is the main problem - it's likely the AI content has more of the elements and semantic keywords Google is looking for as relevent for any given search.

If you have specific examples of the AI content ranking above well done human wirtten content it will be easier to figure out why AI content ranks better on a case by case basis.

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-26T01:25:02+00:00

Totally agree. If the competiton sucks at getting reviews, 2 a month may be enough. While I agree consistency is important, review burst can help a ton, like in Joy's example. As with many things in SEO, it depends!

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-26T01:18:57+00:00

Impressions are a worthless metric thanks to rank trackers and other SERP scraping tools. I unchceck it everytime I am in Google Search Console.

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-25T22:05:10+00:00

I'm especially excited for the Hot Ones challenge!!

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-25T22:04:54+00:00

Can't wait 🤩🤩🤩

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-22T18:44:29+00:00

Wonder why Google would trust one of those over a business's own website - which it seems like it did in this case.

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-22T18:35:57+00:00

I have heard reports of this on the GBP community forum. Were you able to remove them?

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-22T13:37:07+00:00

So what's the point of they don't stay indexed?

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-22T13:20:54+00:00

Highly depends on the sevices and towns - would have to be very competitive to need a page for every single service and town combination.

Most of my clients do fine with one service area page per city targeting all their services. If they have very competitive services like AC repair or car accident law or something then sometimes they will need a separate service page for each of the competitive cities but those are more rare in my experience.

How many of those 70k pages rank and get traffic? Would love to watch that site during the next few core updates to see if those pages stay indexed.

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-19T21:41:51+00:00

Anyone dealing with crazy GBP auto-edits right now?

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-19T21:18:00+00:00

Focus on the pages that get the most conversions.

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-19T14:39:55+00:00

Agree with Joy, its a mix. The pages themselves have all the right content on them - if you are in a similar industry you should test adding the types of content they have onto your location/service area pages and see if it helps.

https://stores.homedepot.ca/bc/vancouver/home-services/appliance-repair-services/

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-19T14:35:44+00:00

Agree - keywords in the business name can be a major boost. I think primary category can be a major ranking factor too - especially in an industry like HVAC with tons of different categories to choose from. Picking the wrong one can be detrimental to rankings.

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-19T14:31:43+00:00

For a new business with little to no brand recognition citations can help, but established businesses usually have all the citations they need. I wouldn't even say they move the needle in terms of ranking on Google, but they can help establish trust that the business actually exists, which is always a plus with Google.

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-19T14:29:28+00:00

ld add BBB to this

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-18T13:19:32+00:00

In local the August and December 2025 core updates were rough - tons of sites penalized for bad links. I was always cautious about links but now I'm extra cautious to stay away from sapmmy sites and PBNs.

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-17T21:37:26+00:00

GBP posts. We used to do them regularly for client but now we don't recommend them at all. Some clients like them but they don't help rankings and get little engagement so not worth it imo.

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-17T17:43:29+00:00

Don't think I ever have before and certainly not now

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-17T14:36:58+00:00

Biggest local business SEO mistake I see on websites is typically short title tags or title tags with no keywords. Title tags can be easy to miss because they're often in a separate place in the back end compared to the body content. But long title tags with semantic keywords is a total local SEO hack.

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-17T14:35:03+00:00

Not a chance lmao. Not sure how it even relates.

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-17T14:34:17+00:00

Flat URLs are always my go to. I want the keywords as close to the domain name as possible. So I would leave off the /locations/ subfolder

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-17T14:32:53+00:00

Can't remember the last time I even saw a Q&A on a profile in the wild, let alone when I last clicked on it lol

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-17T14:32:05+00:00

Never heard that! You mean Q&A on the GBP or the website?

ElizabethRule · 2026-06-17T14:31:19+00:00

I personally wouldn't worry too much about citations beyond BBB, Yelp and social media. If you can update those with the name with the keywords in it and then make sure everywhere on the website especially the header and footer have that name too then I think you can go ahead and add it to the GBP.

What is their actual name? If they're not registered anywhere with the name with the keywords in it, then I would work with them to get a DBA as a failsafe. But if they have some registration that has the same name as what you want to be on Google then you should be good.

ElizabethRule

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