New GBP Feature: "Get Competitive Quotes"

and other local search updates, thoughts, and opinions

July 14, 2025

Greetings!

Here’s what you might have missed last week in local SEO 👇️

1. Google's new “Get competitive quotes” feature

I saw a post about this from SERP Alert, and I’m not really a fan tbh 🙄

It's far too easy for every person on the internet to press that button and blast a lazy quote request to all the businesses on the list. Businesses will now need to provide a quote without any lead qualification, dealing with way more annoying tire-kickers than before.

A while back, Near Media talked about another feature called “Ask for me”, where Google’s AI calls businesses to ask about services and prices on behalf of users.

This new “Get competitive quotes” feature seems similar to that. Both give more power to users but leave businesses doing more work for less-qualified leads.

Greg Sterling share some reassuring thoughts about this, though — see them in the comments.

2. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Diversify your reviews!

This is how people in Europe see reviews on Google Business Profiles 👇️

This is yet another reason why you should be asking for reviews on different platforms, not only on Google. Diversifying your reviews brings a ton of value to your business:

1. They help Google learn about your business: The more places you're listed on and the more info they have for your business, the better you’ll rank in search.

2. They bring in extra leads: Sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor get traffic too, and you don’t want to miss those potential customers.

3. They show up on your Google Business Profile: Good reviews from other platforms can appear in your GBP’s “Reviews from the Web” section. And in Europe, it’s almost certain that reviews from other platforms will show up.

4. They matter for AI search: AI tools look at more than just Google reviews. To show up in AI results, you need strong reviews everywhere.

5. They boost your rankings on those platforms: Reviews help you stand out not just on Google, but will increase your visibility on the review sites themselves. It’s actually the #1 (only?) ranking factor on most of these sites.

So, I’m saying it again: Start asking for reviews on the prominent review sites in your industry. It’s worth it!

See this post on Instagram.

3. New features in the Whitespark Local Rank Tracker

Many of you have requested these features in the Whitespark Local Rank Tracker, and I’m happy to tell you that they are finally here:

You can now track mobile rankings and export your ranking data into beautiful PDF reports!

Watch the last two videos on my YouTube channel to see them in action 👇️ 

And if you wanna subscribe while you’re there, that would be awesome because we are 3 subs away from 10K!

4. A GBP section you should stop ignoring

The “Identifies as” attributes are an important but often overlooked part of your Google Business Profile you should be optimizing.

These show up prominently in the Overview section of your Profile and are one of the first things potential customers will see.

While they don’t impact rankings for general searches like “hardware store NYC”, they do impact rankings when the search mentions the attribute (i.e. “LGBTQ+ friendly hardware store NYC”).

So, add any “Identifies as” attributes that apply to your business. It makes it easier for people with specific needs to find and choose you.

Though, I’m doubtful that “prolocksmithbrooklyn . com” is owned by a black latino woman veteran who is LGBTQ+ friendly 🙄 Don’t do this. Only add attributes that accurately represent your business.

See this post on Reddit!

5. Having a local SEO software company = noticing GBP trends

We're seeing a huge surge of Google updating social media links on Google Business Profiles in our Whitespark Local Platform software. Hundreds of locations (maybe thousands).

Google said, "we gave you the chance to update these yourself, but you didn't, so we're taking matters into our own hands." 😄

I actually found a cafe that didn’t link their socials to their GBP, so Google took the initiative and… linked the socials of an aerospace technology company to their Profile. Yummy!

 

Don’t forget to follow me on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, and/or Threads for more local SEO tips!

Darren