Blog · updated continuously
What actually changed in local search.
Core updates, map pack shifts and AI search, tracked as they happen and written for contractors rather than for other marketers. No recycled checklists. If we state a number, we show where it came from.
Google local search updates: a running log
Most update coverage is written for other marketers. This one is written for the person whose phone stopped ringing. Newest first, plain language, and what we would actually do about it.
September 19, 2026 · 6 min read
AI search
The AI local pack names far fewer contractors than the map pack
AI Overviews now answer most local searches. But the AI version of the local pack names roughly a third as many businesses as the classic three-pack does. The shelf got shorter, and most contractors have not noticed yet.
September 17, 2026 · 5 min read
Local SEO
Why your city pages stopped ranking in 2026
If an agency built you eighty city pages and your organic traffic fell off a cliff in early April, this is what happened and this is what we would do about it.
September 14, 2026 · 6 min read
Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile primary category is the whole ballgame
Eight of the top ten local pack ranking factors come from your Google Business Profile, and the heaviest one is a dropdown most contractors set once in 2019 and never looked at again.
September 10, 2026 · 5 min read
Map pack
You rank #1 at your shop and nowhere else
Your agency's report says you rank third. It checked from one point. Eight miles north, where half your storm work comes from, you do not appear at all. Both things are true.
September 7, 2026 · 6 min read