Michel van Luijtelaar

Thirteen years at Google. One very specific obsession.

Michel van Luijtelaar spent thirteen years at Google, ending his tenure as Measurement & Omnichannel Lead for South East Asia. He was responsible for implementing new measurement products and improving bidding strategies for Google's largest client teams across the region.

In his final years at Google, he worked directly on the omnichannel tooling that became the technical foundation for GMBapi.

He co-founded GMBapi in 2020 alongside Gergan Atanasov, taking the operational and product intelligence from those years inside Google and turning it into a platform purpose-built for multi-location local search.

The Google-first philosophy at the heart of GMBapi — treating GBP as the source of truth and distributing business information to other platforms from there — is his. It is an architecture he understood from the inside.

Why his perspective is different

Most local SEO platforms are built by marketers observing Google's behaviour. GMBapi was built by someone who helped shape that behaviour.

Michel's background means the platform reflects how local search actually works at the infrastructure level, not simply how it appears in the SERPs on a good day.

He holds an MSc in International Business from Tilburg University and has spent his entire career in data-driven marketing and measurement: first at Google, and now building tools for the local search industry.

Speaking engagements

• BrightonSEO, September 2023: "Platforms for Multi-Site Local SEO Optimisation" - Speaker profile  |  Watch on YouTube  |  Slides
• BrightonSEO, October 2024: "Local SEO and Reputation Management for Multi-Location Businesses" - Watch on YouTube
• BrightonSEO, October 2024 (panel): Local SEO panel with Greg Gifford & Claire Carlile - Watch on YouTube
• BrightonSEO, April 2026: "Bridging the Gap Between Blue Pins and Vibe Coding" - Session listing
• Friends of Search 2025: "Local SEO & PPC: How Google Business Profiles Drive Sales — Lessons from Quiosk" (with Nick de Leeuw) - Speaker profile
• Emerce E-Commerce Live! - Speaker profile
• The Evolution of Local Search and SEO - eMarketing Association interview (YouTube, March 2024)
• All slides and presentations

Publications and Media

• Your local rankings look fine. So why are calls disappearing? — Search Engine Land (February 2026)
• Why Google is deleting reviews at record levels — Search Engine Land (December 2025)
• Google's review deletions: Why 5-star reviews are disappearing — Search Engine Land (December 2024)
• Waarom GeoGrids de missing link zijn in je lokale SEO strategie — Marketingfacts (September 2025)
• De kracht van Google Reviews en reputatiemanagement — Marketingfacts (August 2024)
• Mind the map: Bedrijfsvermeldingen in locatie-apps — Marketingfacts (October 2023)
• Warum Sie den Sternen nicht mehr trauen konnen — Der Spiegel (November 2025, quoted as expert)
• Discover the true value of each click with data-driven attribution — Google / DoubleClick Advertiser Blog (December 2017)
• Near Memo: Review removals, fraud detection, and incentivized reviews — The Near Memo (February 2026)
• The Near Memo — Michel van Luijtelaar interview — YouTube
• The Near Memo — Michel van Luijtelaar interview (Part 2) — YouTube
• All articles on Search Engine Land — searchengineland.com
• YouTube channel — youtube.com