Posts by Mounika Sai Pasupuleti
How to Claim Your Business in ChatGPT: What We Learned Setting Up Business Hub
Claim your business in ChatGPT with Business Hub: every step we took, how long verification took, what fails, and what local businesses can do right now.
How to Remove Fake Google Reviews (and What to Do While Appeals Are Delayed)
Here’s how to remove fake Google reviews: report the review from your Business Profile or Google’s Reviews Management Tool, and if Google decides it doesn’t break policy, file a one-time appeal. Google says review evaluation “typically takes several days,” according to Google Business Profile Help on reporting reviews. Appeals are another story right now: on […]
Google Business Profile Messaging: Customers Can Now Message You From Google Maps
Google Business Profile messaging just moved to the front of Google Maps. In its November 2026 small business bulletin, Google said customers on Android and iOS “can now find a prominent Message button right next to ‘Call’,” and that tapping it sends them to WhatsApp or text messages, according to Google’s November 2026 small business […]
Google AI Mode Booking Is Here: How Home Service Businesses Get Connected
Google AI Mode booking is now live for home services in the U.S. On November 4, 2026, Google Search product VP Robby Stein said AI Mode now has direct links to research and book home services through Angi, Thumbtack, Housecall Pro and Jobber, with ServiceTitan coming soon, according to Search Engine Journal’s report on the […]
How Many Google Reviews Do I Need? Benchmarks for Local Businesses
Google doesn’t set a minimum number of reviews, but it does say that more reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking, according to Google Business Profile Help on local ranking. So if you’re asking “how many Google reviews do I need?”, start with 20. That’s the line where customers start trusting you: […]
Bing Places for Business: How to Set It Up and Whether It’s Worth It
Bing Places for Business is Microsoft’s free tool for managing how your business shows up in Bing search results and Bing Maps, according to the Bing team’s announcement of the new Bing Places. It does the same job on Bing that Google Business Profile does on Google. The fastest way to set it up is […]
The AI Bubble: What It Really Means for Your Leads, Ads and SEO
The AI bubble is the fear that tech companies have poured far more money into artificial intelligence than it earns back, and on November 5, 2026, that fear hit the stock market hard. The Nasdaq fell 5.5%, its worst day since April 2025, and Nvidia dropped more than 9%, according to CNBC’s report on the […]
Google Core Update 2026: How to Tell If Your Local Business Site Was Hit
Google released two broad core updates this year: the March 2026 core update, which ran from March 27 to April 8, and the May 2026 core update, which ran from May 21 to June 2, according to Google’s Search Status Dashboard. The short version of the Google core update 2026 story is that May mattered […]
How to Get ChatGPT to Recommend Your Business: What the 1.2% Do Differently
How to get ChatGPT to recommend your business comes down to one job: making it easy for AI to verify you. That means the same details on your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places and review sites, a steady flow of detailed reviews, a page for every service, and mentions on the “best of” lists […]
Google Business Profile Optimization in 2027: The Checklist for Maps and AI Answers
Google Business Profile optimization means filling in every field Google offers, keeping it accurate and earning a steady flow of reviews, so your business matches more searches in Google Maps, the local 3-pack and AI answers. Heading into 2027, the fields that move rankings most are your primary category, honest opening hours and reviews, while […]
ChatGPT Sponsored Agents: What OpenAI’s 2026 Ad Update Means for Small Businesses
On September 16, 2026, OpenAI began testing ChatGPT Sponsored Agents, a new ad format where clicking an ad opens a chat with the advertiser’s own AI assistant instead of sending you to a website. It landed alongside a batch of self-serve advertising tools inside the ChatGPT Ads Manager. If you run a small business, the […]
Google’s google.com/goto Links Are Live: What the Change Means for Your Rankings and Your Data
Google’s google.com/goto redirect links are rolling out. Here is what changed, whether it hurts your rankings, and how to protect your analytics.