Jesse Cunningham Explains Google’s Invisible Search Update

0:00Most people have no idea what's coming down the wire because of what Google is doing. 10 weeks, 8.4 times more self-citations. This is from April of this year to now. A self-citation, what is it? What is Google up to? Now, this is good for us. We're going to go over this real quick. So, Google's AI modes shift to citing itself. Wasn't any question to anyone that Google is a for-profit company? We have to remember that in this video, right? So, right here they asked, "What is the best restaurants in New York City?" And guess what? Right here in front of our face is

0:32a Google Business Profile card, more or less. Here's my question to you. Do we have to leave that little section of Google and go to a restaurant's website anymore or a niche website or any website because it has something like this? No, we don't. Google wants to keep us on their platform. Over here, what are the best headphones? Here's the best headphones. So, Google is going to do what Google always does, and we We're going to talk about how to get ahead of it, right? But, they always want to keep us on their platform to monetize. Google is a for-profit company, right? Summary

1:03of takeaways, but here's the citation share drop. This is what's crazy, right? That is a big jump since April. Now, Search Engine Journal says, "Much of what AI mode sites for local and product queries is Google's own properties, not independent websites, not independent websites, right?" That's what people have been freaking out about for a long time is that Google takes away clicks from websites. It's happening before our eyes, no doubt. That squeezes publishers and brands the way every self-citation pattern does. The citation lands on Google's own service instead of an outside site. Now, I'm not here complaining about what Google's doing

1:37because they're a for-profit company. If I was the CEO of Google, I would do the same darn thing if I had AI Gemini doing this type of stuff, no doubt. So, my question to you, to me, is what do we do about it? Now, here's what's crazy. We have to understand the spike hit the industries that live on phone calls. That's what's crazy. Think of home services, restaurants, hospitality and travel, real estate, healthcare. Man, I talk about microsites all the time on this channel. A microsite is a lead generation website that gets people I'm basically the middleman, right? You can

2:07go through this channel, you can see what I'm talking about. But Google is the true middleman. My goodness, why do you think they're the middleman? Well, they want to monetize their free, {quote} free users. If you ever use a platform and you're not paying for it, you are the product. And this is the perfect example because if you want to use AI mode on Google and you want a plumber, well, they're going to hook you up with the plumber, but they're going to use the Google Business Profile so you don't have to go to their website so Google can collect the data on you to

2:34then eventually serve you ads in a better manner. That's the name of the game. It's always been the name of the game. Now they are more or less perfecting this darn thing. Now if I come over here and say who is the best plumber in Heights, Houston, let's do AI mode. Let's see who it says. And right here we have Hugo Plumbing. If I click on this, right? What's going to show up?

2:51It's a Google Business Profile to the right here. Interested. If I click on the image, what's going to happen? Still the Google Business Profile. Let's click here if this blue link will go to their website. Okay, there we go. But we still that's very interesting. We still keep the AI in the left part. So we're still technically on Google. Very, very interesting. And same thing, if I click on this one, Nick's Plumbing, to the right is the Google Business Profile. So and here's a little map. Very cool cuz Google of course already has Google Maps. So how important is a Google

3:20Business Profile for a local business website right now? More so than ever. And here's what I think. The card is built from data you control, right? So when Google is going to reference a Google Business Profile, who controls that data? Well, the business owner does and that's a good thing. So to juxtapose that almost everything in the AI shift nowadays for SEO and AEO has taken control away from us, the user, the end user, the SEOs.

3:45You can't make ChatGPT site you as easily. You can't file a ticket to get into an AI answer, but local card is different, right? It's fed by free profile the business already owns. Now, I love that word free, right? That was the poison pill we all took 20 years ago when we started giving Google all the data, all the Google business profile stuff, all the Google Maps. It's it's self-generated in a way because we do the reviews ourself. We like the product. The world likes the product.

4:14It's a free profile. Therefore, Google can do anything it wants with it. But, the business owner, right? Dictates the hours, the categories, services, photos, reviews. I do a lot of videos on this channel about how to optimize Google business profiles. It matters more than ever, right? And most profiles are embarrassingly empty. So, here's exactly what I'll do right now, right? Go where the citations already are. So, today open your GBP where your clients fill every box, period. This month keep building the tight local pages that earn rankings underneath. I did a video the previous one to this to show you how to

4:44do that. And then, if you want to build this lane with us, the microsite track is where it is at. So, if you have a local business or interest in local business rankings, microsites kind of just don't even play this game. It just kind of sidestep all of this madness.