Whitespark Wrapped? 🎁

Counting down my top 5 posts from 2024 as the year comes to a close

December 31, 2024

Hello friends!

It’s the last day of 2024, so I wanted to look back on everything I’ve posted this year and revisit my best tips with you.

So, here’s your 2024 Whitespark Wrapped 🎁

1. The one where I made you an awesome free tool to check your rankings from any location 📍

Everyone loved my tip about adding a UULE parameter to a Google search query to see results from a specific region without using an extension or being physically there.

Here’s the traditional way to do it:

  1. Generate a UULE for the location (Find a tool by googling “uule generator”)

    You will get a code that looks like this: &uule=w+CAIQICIQRWRtb250b24sIENhbmFkYQ

  2. Run any search in Google.

  3. Replace the last part of the URL for your search with the UULE parameter.

    For example:

    http://google.com/search?q=sushi+restaurant &uule=w+CAIQICIQRWRtb250b24sIENhbmFkYQ

Since everyone liked this so much, I made a free tool to make the process faster and easier. What makes my tool special is that it works great on mobile 👇️ 

And here’s a quick video of the tool in action 👇️

2. The one where I told you about an insane GBP scam that can destroy your rankings 😫

This year, scammers really enjoyed moving their competitors’ map pins into lakes, deserts, on the top of Mount Everest, etc.

In case you haven’t heard, when someone moves your map pin, you lose all your rankings in your actual location. And here’s the kicker:

Google lets anyone move your pin (wtf) 🙃

It gets worse:

If you try to move your pin back, Google may suspend your Profile (WTF x 10!) 🤬

But don’t worry. Whitespark quickly developed a solution 👇

Here’s how the scam works on how our tool prevents it 👇️

3. The one where kids vandalized their schools’ GBPs using the “Suggest an edit” button 😟

You know what was not on my 2024 bingo card? Children renaming schools all across the US and Canada to "Hawk Tuah School".

But it happened, which is why every business needs a GBP Monitoring service like Whitespark's $1/month Local Platform.

Check out the comments on this LinkedIn post to see how bad the Hawk Tuah epidemic was.

4. The one where I launched my free local SEO courses ✍️

I’ve been doing SEO for 26 years and local SEO for 16 years.

I’ve always been passionate about local SEO and have wanted to share my knowledge with others who want to learn. And this year, I did!

I launched two free email courses, and 4000+ of you signed up to learn about my favorite subject! Thank you all ❤️ 

If you missed this, here’s what the two courses offer 👇️

1. Local SEO 101: A beginner course that covers all the fundamentals of local search — for both your Google Business Profile and your website. If you are a beginner digital marketer or a business owner, this course will teach you everything you need to know to rank and convert locally.

2. Local SEO 401: An advanced course that goes beyond the basics and covers next-level ranking and conversion strategies, lesser-known tips, and new research.

Both courses are 100% free and take 20 days to complete.

You can sign up here and get your digital marketing ducks in a row for 2025 👇️

5. The one where I told you how to make your first million 💸

Watch this if you want to get rich 👇️

@darrenshawseo

If you’re not a millionaire yet, WATCH this! #seo #marketing #memes #fyp #millionaire #hustle

Still reading? As a parting gift for 2024, here’s the one where I breakdanced better than Ray Gun 🕺

I plan on delivering even more helpful local SEO content in 2025, so make sure to follow me on all the platforms, and get excited for a productive and fun 2025 👇️ 

Appreciate you all! Happy New Year 🎉

Darren