Intellar

06/08/2025

Here's a quick insight on how AI surfaces local businesses on search results:

LLMs use a chain of thought ranking score. This means that a local result within AI is shaped by things like:

> Chain-A = looks at static directory citations
> Chain-B = looks at Google Business detail and proximity
> Chain-C = looks at semantic relevance within website content

Every chain is ranked individually against the relevance to the prompt/query within AI search.

The business with the highest total score for all chains wins.

All chains are logged, so if a user asked a follow up question, like "which store is closest to me", the results can be re-ranked.

One key thing that stands out to me in this process is AI's reliance on static citation information.

If you ask ChatGPT:
"show me where [business name] is", you will see the thought process. It looks something like this:

> The user wants to know where X is. Maybe they need a map
> I'll search for "[location] map. I've found that the address is X"
> Image results don't provide me a map. Maybe I could use a static street map, or an aerial image of the address.
> I think I can show an image carousel with a map of [suburb], which I found, along with maybe a bus route map. I’ll choose the best images to present.

Result comes back and the location details are citied from places like:
> localsearch, Yelp, YellowPages, Cyclex

Public directories like the above give static markup. These are faster to fetch and than Google/Bing, and avoid any API issues.

The key takeaway from this is that:
> Citations matter A LOT for AI search
> NAP (name, address, phone) consistency is also a major factor in chain of thought ranking
> Given Google's AI Overviews & AI Mode both can return aggregated summaries of local businesses, citations are still a key factor in local SEO.

So while citation work itself is the same as ever, it's become a stronger lever for AI.

18/03/2025

Since late 2024 and into 2025, Google has been actively indexing LESS. Largely in part due to the wave of rubbish content from AI.

The flow on effect of this is Google cutting the crap, and prioritising value. So when it comes to writing copy, you should too.

This is how to optimise website content for SEO in 2025.

Copywriting for SEO has changed in the age of AI. SERPs are different, algorithms are frantic. So what's working with content? Write to rank with these 10 tips.

11/03/2025

For any business that operates with a local listing, whether you're a plumber or an enterprise chain, you can improve the CTR on your local listing with Google Business Profile justifications.

See what they are and how they work here:

Improve the CTR on your local listing with Google Business Profile justifications. See what they are and how they work here.

13/12/2024

Great to see growth on existing results:

> New content
> New collections
> Iterating old content
> Content format changes for higher gain rates
> Some tech fixes

Direction set by matching business focus with keyword research:

> Gap analysis to highlight keyword upside
> Content performance audit to identify pages needing attention
> Mapped against priority products/brands

Fast implementations led by SEO data drive this.

11/11/2024

Here are some stats for a local service area client of mine.

This has been hit in 3 months, with month 3 returning the growth you see in the image.

Part of the reason why I think this has worked well, and in a shortish time (for SEO) is due to having a set a productised deliverables each month.

> X amount of content (articles, landing pages, other site copy). Could be something like 2 articles and a bunch of landing pages.
> X amount of backlinks. Guaranteed base amount, could be 1, could be 10.

Then, remaining monthly time is allocated to action priority tasks, initially these are typically:

> High impact technical fixes
> Citations
> Keyword research
> Performance review (click trends, query counting)

From there it's all about ongoing deliverables and enhancements.

22/10/2024

Will Google Lens bring a resurgence in voice search?

In case you missed it, you can now use Google Lens to perform a video voice search at the same time:
https://blog.google/products/search/google-lens-voice-search/

For a while now you've been able to use Google Lens to activate a search. But this was a bit of an annoying process.

> Take a photo
> Search manually
> Hopefully get your question answered

With this update, you can now video what you see and voice search all in one go. An action like this was one of the biggest selling points of voice search when it first launched.

Seamless ease of use, faster answers on the go.

The answers given from Lens trigger an AI Overview result. So this looks like another avenue of optimisation for SEOs.

Why care?

> Google Lens gets 12 billion uses per month
> Additional impact from image/video content optimisation work
> High value for certain niches - skincare & travel come to mind

18/10/2024

Google's "long click" metric and why you need a good website:

We know now Google uses click data for ranking.

While there are likely many click signals, which probably don't exist in isolation, the concept of a long click should change the way you think of SEO and design.

Often, you can enhance a landing page’s performance by making a few strategic changes to how existing content is structured. Here are some practical tweaks:

> Moving content snippets to the top of a page - think ecom collections
> Reformatting content for SERP features - think tables, bullet points, high information gain answers at the top
> Improving readability - optimise your content for scanning and dwell time
> Finetuning your navigation - header, sub header, sidebar and anchor text links. Make it easier for people to go deeper into your site in less time.

A long click is a signal to Google that a user found what they want. This is when someone clicks on a result and does not return to Google.

Keeping people on your site after an organic click is what your landing page design and content needs to do.

16/10/2024

Good technical SEO is also about knowing what not to action.

Alt tags, meta descriptions, code minification, redirects on dated blogs, 404s - all that can wait if your time, and/or a developers time can be better spent on high impact implementations.

Things like:

> more detailed schema
> additional meta fields for richer content
> navigational changes and/additions for better discovery and UX
> landing page design elements
> content reformatting

Try to recognise what a site needs, or is lacking against competitors. That will give you a good starting point for technical enhancements.

15/10/2024

Struggling to gain access to a Google Business Profile listing?

After working through hundreds of these, there are a few common issues:

> Lost login credentials. When listings are years old, or there's been ownership and/or staff changes, sometimes these do get lost.

> You're not receiving the access invite. There's a bug which has been actively on and off for a while now. Some email addresses don't get invite emails, and Google support for this is non-existent.

The best work around is to request ownership yourself. You can do this here:
http://business.google.com/add

This will send an ownership request to the primary owner of the listing. This email can help resurface login credentials, or is just a quick way to initiate access requests.

14/10/2024

SEO is a long game but that doesn't mean there aren't quick wins to be had.

I've had this client just over 2 months now. In that time we have:

> Tidied up key technical issues like Shopify out of the box navigation, reduce duplication and crawl bloat with canonicals and robots.txt edits)
> Added collection page content
> 10x articles - Mostly comparison and trend pieces to support products and categories
> 8x links built - DA 1 website, rolling out consistent, niche relevant links.

There's still a lot of upside to be had, but moving early on the key things that feed SEO (key tech bits, new content and links) can get the needle moving for a website quickly.

> +202 (37.2%) uplift in organic clicks
> +1,670 (29.7%) increase in unique keywords

24/06/2024

Google has made some interesting updates to their AI Overviews, significantly reducing their frequency in search results.

Originally appearing in up to 64% of searches, they now show in just about 8.71% according to SERanking.

Similarly, SEOClarity's recent findings saw them in only 7.6% of searches, a sharp drop from 17.4% earlier this year.

AI Overviews are all the talk with SEOs at the moment, with the primary focus being on visibility impact, and also the strategies businesses need to adopt. However, with such a low trigger frequency on mostly informational queries, what do SEOs need to focus on, and what do they tell clients?

Well, one interesting update is that Reddit no longer appears in the top 10 domains for AI Overviews. This comes after it got to a point where Reddit was SO prominent it became a meme.

But now, Reddit is being replaced by sites like http://runnersworld.com (DA85) and http://healthline.com (DA92) — I include DA as it’s clear that authority and niche expertise are becoming increasingly critical for AI Overview inclusion. Sound familiar?

Google wants to serve trusted and expert websites. Sounds like their goal from 20 years ago. Not much has changed there, and I stress that.

Here are a few numbers to consider:
- 84.72% of AI Overviews link to sites also in the top 10 organic results - So traditional blue link rankings matter.
- They average 4,342 characters and appear with ads 87% of the time - this is a big real estate battle especially with Ads.
- Industries most affected include: Relationships, Food & Beverage, and Technology.

For me, AI Overviews are another SERP feature for us SEOs to chase. Inclusion may swing CTR on particular queries, but given the low frequency, we should not be bending to reshape a strategy around them. We optimise for inclusion, much like we do for any keyword or SERP feature.

That means proactive tracking and reactive content/technical updates if an AI Overview is taking away from your visibility, or, presents an opportunity to increase it.

Outside of that, the fundamentals to be included in AI Overviews are the same as they are with SEO in general. Great content from great websites.

How are you adjusting your strategies to maintain or enhance your SEO effectiveness?

18/06/2024

You may have seen the stats:

41% of users have used TikTok as a search engine.
64% of Gen Z has used TikTok as a search engine.

Does this mean Google is losing ground?

Arguably, no. 91% of people say Google is still the most helpful discovery platform.

That said... have you noticed you're using social media more often to search for products or discover new brands, especially on platforms like TikTok, Pinterest and Instagram?

Maybe it’s the first place you see a new brand.

Social search is reshaping brand engagement as Gen Z and millennials lean towards platforms like TikTok & Instagram for brand discovery, alongside Google.

I've seen first hand how brands are finding success with authentic, visual content that speaks directly to users.

What does this mean for SEOs?

Leverage social content to enhance SEO led content strategies. This is something I am doing. Many SERPs have image and video packs, so to best match search intent, those should be part of your SEO content too. Arguably, to even rank highly for some queries, they are required.

What does this mean for brands?

Well the rise of social search requires a reshaping of SEO strategies. Here are some steps on how these channels can complement each other:

1. Social and SEO teams should be part of more conversations together
2. SERP analysis can help shape social talking points and creatives
3. Social engagement and commentary can help shape landing pages and content
4. Enhance landing pages and articles with any relevant videos or images from social
5. Share keyword data

What else would you add?