The Local Business Growth Podcast

We break down the most valuable insights from our recent interview with SEO expert Mike Blumenthal, titled “AI Success Series: The New Rules of Local Search Rankings.”

Mike shares his advice for local and multi-location businesses navigating today’s rapidly evolving SEO landscape. From the history of local search evolution to the emerging AI-driven capabilities of Google’s Gemini 2.0, we cover everything you need to know to stay ahead.

You'll learn:

• Why brand prominence and schema markup are now critical for local SEO.
• How to navigate AI-driven zero-click searches without losing visibility.
• Why industry-specific strategies matter more than ever for effective SEO.

Whether you’re a small business owner or managing marketing for a multi-location brand, this episode is packed with practical tips to help you thrive in the era of AI.

How do you stand out in a crowded local search landscape in 2025?

Increasing your visibility on Google across every location can feel overwhelming. But with the right strategies, you can simplify the process and achieve measurable results.

Join Joy Hawkins, owner of the Local Search Forum, and founder of Sterling Sky, to discover how you can stand out from the competition on Google, boost your ratings, and attract more customers online.

How will AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT Search and Perplexity impact local SEO?

In this episode, we recap all the key insights from our webinar interview with local SEO expert Darren Shaw, where breaks down the latest trends in AI search and SEO, including:

• The biggest takeaways from Google’s leaked ranking factors in 2024
• How AI-driven search engines rank businesses differently from Google
• The growing importance of citations, reviews, and ‘Best of’ lists
• Whether businesses should start preparing for a post-Google future

Darren also shares insights on how marketing agencies are handling AI tool overload—and what businesses can do to stay competitive.

Darren Shaw:
Founder of Whitespark: local SEO software and services.

• Local SEO educator with 36,000+ newsletter subscribers, 8,000+ YouTube subscribers, and 2,000+ email course sign-ups
• In charge of the annual Local Search Ranking Factors Survey, one of the most cited resources in local SEO
• Speaker at local search conferences around the globe and contributor to SEO publications

 Subscribe and stay ahead in local marketing!

🎧 Listen now and check out the full webinar interview at Birdeye.com.

Marketing is essential if you want to reach more customers. You can pump money into paid advertisements to reach them, but you can also reach a large number of them with referral marketing. 

In this guide, you will learn how to build a marketing referral program to grow brand awareness and increase conversions. Get ready to harness the power of word-of-mouth marketing. 

If you’re a business owner, you need to be on Facebook. 

The most popular social media platform in the world is also the internet’s second-largest review site – and a great place to engage with your customers. 

Learn how to master Facebook reviews and recommendations to attract more customers with Birdeye’s free audio guide. 

Imagine 40,000 index fingers worldwide, clicking on the Google Search bar every second of every day. Those 40,000 searches each second translate into 1.2 trillion searches per year - which means that organic search has become the dominant method for your business to get discovered online. Here's how the best multi-location marketers are making sure that online customer reviews are a key tool for ensuring that their businesses are easily found online.

In this episode, we’ll examine how to optimize your business listings to increase online discoverability and reach more consumers.

This episode we dive into Online Reputation Management, taking a look at why it’s essential for any business, and how you can get started managing your online reputation. We’ve put together ten tips that can help any multi-location business get started.

A huge percentage of the modern customer journey now begins - and very often continues - on Google, making it essential for experience-driven marketers to develop and hone a comprehensive strategy for how to attract, grow and retain customers using Google.

Claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing is pivotal to this goal and provides a myriad of benefits, and in this episode, we walk you through 8 things you need to know to ensure your GMB listing is better and more effective than your competitors' listings.

Google reviews are one of the first things customers see when they search for your business. In this episode, we’ll discuss everything you need to do on Google to make a great first impression. In just 18 minutes, we’ll break down all the steps you need to take to rank higher in relevant search results and collect and manage Google reviews.