ClimbHigh SEO

03/09/2026

Remember all the headlines saying AI would kill Google search? The big prediction especially the oft quoted Gartner one, was a 25% drop by 2026.

Well, 2026 is here - and Google search just grew another 17%.

People haven't stopped searching. But they ARE getting more answers without visiting websites, and AI tools now recommend specific local businesses by name when asked.

The full story, with some practical illustration, on the blog: https://climbhighseo.agency/strategies-for-creating-unique-content/

01/09/2026

Have you ever asked ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to recommend a local business? Of course you have... and your customers have too.

I tested it with a question about passing on a family farm near in the northern fells. After a bit of revising prompts, five different AI tools all recommended specific Cumbrian law and accountancy firms by name. Some local businesses are getting recommended constantly. Many are invisible. Are you in these recommendations?

New on the blog: how to become the business the AI recommends, with a few examples from around Cumbria.
https://climbhighseo.agency/strategies-for-creating-unique-content/

22/07/2026

When an AI tool recommends a local business - and that's happening more every month - it relies on the information Google holds about you: your profile, your reviews, your website, and how well they all line up.

Connected and consistent? Easy to understand, easy to recommend. Fragmented and contradictory? Easy to skip.

Google's new Business Profile – Analytics connection won't fix a messy online presence on its own. But it shows you, clearly and in one place, whether the picture you're presenting is actually working.

That's the starting point.

Full write-up and a three-minute setup video here: 👉

Google Business Profile Now Connects to Google Analytics: Here’s Why It Matters to Your Business by Ray Cassidy | Jul 8, 2026 | Search Engine Optimisation Services If you run a local business, some of your most valuable marketing data has been locked in a separate silo for years. That changed in J...

09/07/2026

Quick question for local business owners running Google Ads:

Are you paying for clicks on searches your free map listing already wins?

It happens more than you'd think and until now it was hard to spot, because your Business Profile data and your website data lived in completely separate places.

Google's new GBP - Analytics connection puts them side by side. Which means you can finally see where your ad spend overlaps with traffic you were getting for free anyway.

We've covered how to set it up (three minutes, honestly) and what to look for once it's connected:

08/07/2026

GBP Data: Cinderella Comes in From the Cold!

Google made a change in June that most local business owners haven't noticed yet and it's worth five minutes of your time.

You can now connect your Google Business Profile (the listing people see on Maps and in search) directly to Google Analytics. For the first time, your calls, direction requests and profile views sit in the same dashboard as your website data.

No more juggling two disconnected reports to work out what's actually bringing customers in.

We've written up what's changed and recorded a short video showing exactly how to set it up: it takes about three minutes once you find the menu.
https://climbhighseo.agency/google-business-profile-now-connects-to-google-analytics-heres-why-it-matters-to-your-business/

16/06/2026

Businesses which plan and move now will be very hard to catch…

It’s becoming clearer by the day that we're in the early stages of a fundamental shift in how buyers will be pushed into finding and choosing suppliers online.

Most businesses are still optimising for a search engine that's steadily becoming a secondary function of:
Google/Gemini,
Bing,
Chat GPT,
Claude,
Perplexity and any new kids on the block.

Many of your competitors aren't paying attention either and will be late to the party.

That's a window of opportunity for thoughtful, careful business owners.

What the new model requires isn't a mere technical tweak, it’s a fundamental strengthening of many aspects of what was SEO, standard digital marketing and brand building. It requires:

· A sharp, distinctive brand position that the AIs can attach clear attributes to – it has to recognise your "entity" as distinct from your competitors.

· Credible third-party signals (PR, brand mentions, reviews, citations and backlinks) that build your recommendation authority.

· Content that answers real buyer questions, not just keyword matching.

· Intelligence on how AI currently perceives your brand and where the gaps are.

This is exactly what ClimbHigh SEO is positioned for. Not chasing the old algorithms, but building the kind of online presence that earns recommendations, from machines and humans alike.

Are you going to be the juicy apple that is surfaced from a jungle of clutter and spam?

If you want to understand where your business stands in this new landscape, let's talk. The conversation is free. The insight might surprise you.

11/06/2026

Here's an uncomfortable truth: if AI NEVER mentions your business, it's not because the AI model is broken.

It's because there's not enough evidence out there telling old style search engines or the AI bots who you are.

When ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude or Google's AI - Gemini - recommends a business, it's not pulling names out of thin air. It's no longer simply a process of matching a document to the search terms. AIs are now weighing up the wider picture, the evidence, about your brand and whether you are the answer the searcher needs.
>What you do.
>Who you do it for.
>Whether anyone credible has ever said you're good at it.

If your online presence is only a website, that's just built on old style keyword matching, full of content that was built around simple keyword focussed copywriting and not much else, without external backup: then there's no evidence to weigh. You're invisible. Not penalised. Not buried on page two. Just absent from the conversation entirely.

And here's the part many agencies are still not grasping: fixing that isn't a simple technical job. It's two key jobs.

One: SEO done properly. Understanding what your ideal client actually needs to see to stop searching and choose you; then building your content around that. Not just keyword stuffing.
>Answers.
>Clarity.
>Proof.

Two: digital PR. Getting credible third parties: publications, industry voices, real coverage, saying your name. Because AI trusts what others say about you far more than what you say about yourself. So do your customers, by the way.

Do both and something interesting happens. You don't just rank. You get recommended. By the machines and by the humans.

Now, if you're after a quick keyword tweak and a cheap monthly report, we're honestly not the agency for you.

But if you want your business to be the one that comes up when your ideal customer asks, whether they're asking Google, ChatGPT, or a friend, that's exactly what we do at ClimbHigh SEO.

Message us. We'll show you some examples of what the AIs are currently saying about you. That conversation alone is usually worth having.
The example searches below show how one client who carried out a limited project with us, did not advance hugely in traditional rankings against some absolutely massive competitors. However, the fairly simple digital PR content that was created about the brand's particular services, put them in a good position to be recommended as answers for the even more particular questions that their clients may end up asking. As you will see the AIs are inconsistent even on this one simple(ish) query.

10/06/2026

The rules of search just changed... Again. As they did last week and as they will again next week. And it is true - they have evolved into a whole different pathway.
For 20 years, getting found online meant ranking a page - a document - for the right keywords. Climb the results page, get the clicks, win the business.
That chain is breaking.

Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity; they're no longer just retrieving a list of links. They're recommending brands. They interpret what a user needs and decide which business best fits the answer. This is now embedded in Google search.
The question is no longer "can Google find you?" It's "will AI recommend you?"
This is the shift from SEO to GEO (or should we call it REO Recommendation Engine Optimisation, just to get another acronym doing the rounds!) And it shifts everything about how your online presence needs to be built.
Over the next few posts, we'll show you exactly what this means for your business and what you need to do about it now - or further down the road depending on what kind of business you run..
👉 Not everyone has to jump headlong into this, but most businesses need to start planning, so they don't miss what's coming. Then you too can be as happy as me under a pouring sky!
🤪

29/05/2026

Do we really need to get our website ready for AI now?
Short answer: Yes – but! It’s important to recognise that whether we love or loathe the infiltration of AI into our businesses and lives, it’s unlikely to go away any time soon. The levels of investment and intellect going into these developments are mind boggling!
For small local business owners in Cumbria, and the wider Borderlands region it will initially be a case of don’t panic but be aware of the changes coming in. For years brand visibility in search has focussed on ranking. As AI takes hold and Google steals more and more of your visitor traffic (by using your content to feed answers directly to searchers), ranking in the old sense will still be important, but a new layer of challenge is added – how do you also become the brand recommended by the AIs?
In a nutshell I suppose, brands – particularly smaller ones, will succeed by providing clearer basic signals about what you do better than competitors. This shift in emphasis will put you in a good position as Google's AI search and LLMs develop and new features roll out.
Over the last few months, terms like "agentic search", Universal Cart, llms.txt and "agent-ready websites" have started popping up everywhere. The question for any small business owner is probably simpler: do we actually need to do anything about this now, or can it wait until the dust settles? We probably all know the pain of jumping on board with a trend, investing time and effort, only to see that effort wasted when rapidly evolving systems and algorithms change the parameters of the game.
I don’t pretend to have a full grasp of what this stage of evolution holds for us, but this is my understanding at the moment.
I've published a new post on the ClimbHigh SEO blog that pulls together three strands:
Google's I/O 2026 announcements on AI Mode and their newly reworked Intelligent Search Box, explained without the jargon.
Independent analysis on how AI search is changing visibility and brand preference.
Suganthan Mohanadasan's very practical "minimum viable agent-ready" framework, as applied to the kinds of small businesses we actually work with in this region. (i.e. what probably matters now.)
• Get on it now: start testing and experimenting if you are a marketing team, seo agency or owner of a large complex high traffic and revenue website.
• Plan for it now: most SMEs, ecommerce sites and service businesses where competition is strong enough to make any advantage count.
• Hold fire but Keep Your Ears and Eyes Open: small brochure sites, hobby blogs and businesses whose customers are largely offline.
If you run local businesses, trades, professional services, hospitality or a niche ecommerce brands, there's a good chance you're in the "plan for it" group. That means small, sensible steps rather than a panic rebuild of your entire marketing strategy.

13/04/2026

More and more local searches now end with an AI answer or overview, not a traditional list of ten blue links.

Those AI answers don’t showcase businesses at random, they surface brands that look consistent, credible and clearly relevant across a wider and wider range of digital media
For professional services, eco‑minded and outdoor businesses in Cumbria, that’s now as important as “being on page one”.

If you’re not sure how AI search is currently talking about (or ignoring) your business, let’s have a 30‑minute chat: coffee around Carlisle if you’re local, or Zoom/Teams if you’re further afield.