316 Strategy Group

Important Google Update for Business Owners:

On May 21, Google officially released its May 2026 Core Update.

And if history repeats itself, many sites will likely see significant volatility over the next few weeks.

Core updates are becoming increasingly tied to:

Content quality
Authority signals
User intent alignment
AI search behavior
Brand trust and entity strength

This is especially important right now because Google’s AI-driven search experiences continue expanding alongside traditional rankings.

That means visibility shifts may not always look like simple ranking drops anymore.

You may see changes in:

Organic traffic quality
AI Overview visibility
CTR behavior
Branded search demand
Conversion patterns

The biggest mistake companies make during core updates? Reacting too quickly with aggressive changes before the rollout finishes.

We help our clients navigate these changes all of the time, and the results speak for themself.

If you want help evaluating how this update impacts your SEO and AI visibility strategy…reach out to us.

One of these photos has generated 20,622,190 views.

What do these photos have in common?

Every single one of them has generated more than 1,000,000 views on Google.

And every single one was photographed and uploaded to Google Business Profiles by our team at 316 Strategy Group.

The biggest surprise?

Most business owners still treat their Google Business Profile like a digital phone book listing. In 2026, it's much more than that.

Google, AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other large language models are constantly looking for signals that a business is active, relevant, trustworthy, and current. Fresh photos, updated content, reviews, and engagement all contribute to that digital footprint.

One photo we uploaded for a local business has now exceeded 20 million views. Think about that for a moment.

20 million opportunities for someone to discover a business.

If your Google Business Profile hasn't been updated in months, you're missing one of the most powerful local marketing assets you already own.

The businesses winning today aren't just optimizing for search.

They're optimizing for discovery.

📍 Google Maps
📍 AI Overviews
📍 ChatGPT
📍 Gemini
📍 Perplexity
📍 Local Search Results

Your next customer may never visit your website first.

They may discover you through a photo.

The ice cream was melting faster than we could film it 🍦

What seems like a simple video idea often comes with a few challenges behind the scenes. Between the summer heat, melting ice cream, and trying to get every shot before it disappeared, this one kept us moving.

We had a fun afternoon creating content and making the most of a hot day ☀️