By Katrina Stapleton
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February 28, 2025
Google is tightening control over its search data, making it clear that businesses must stay within its ecosystem to remain visible . For small businesses, this means one thing — being ‘Google Ready’ is now more critical than ever . Recently, Google made a bold move by restricting search scraping tools that don’t enable JavaScript. This shook up the SEO industry, but more importantly, it revealed a bigger strategy — Google is locking down its data to stay ahead in the AI race. Think of it like a restaurant with a secret recipe: Google isn’t going to let competitors walk into the kitchen and take notes. Instead, it’s making sure its ingredients — search data, Google Maps insights, and business profiles — stay exclusive to its own AI models . For local businesses, this reinforces the need to stay active within Google’s ecosystem and build a presence across Google-trusted platforms to remain visible. This ensures your business continues attracting leads. If Google is the main road customers use to find businesses, you need to make sure you’re on the map.