Without notice, in mid-August 2024, Google provided a Core Algorithm update to deliver on its mission to present helpful and reliable results for searchers. The internet is saturated with content, some of it blatantly plagiarized, some generated by Artificial Intelligence and some simply put together so haphazardly that it provides no relevant new information. In addition, too many people have gamed the system over the years (and gotten away with it) by focusing on search engine optimization (SEO) to get rankings and sales leads at all costs. Put simply, there are those who have been able to obtain more prospecting opportunities due to leveraging technology and those who use operational experience to gain an advantage. Designers and remodelers have a unique opportunity to position themselves for ranking strength simply by incorporating their client stories into their marketing strategies.
Integrity and Uniqueness Now Have a Chance
The online judge, jury and executioner (aka Google) is beginning to change the rules and penalties when it comes to ranking high in search results. The desire to achieve higher rankings in search results lead to developing more compelling landing pages. However, creating great content is not as easy as it is made out to be – and some people take shortcuts. For example, it is amazing how many “inspirational” stories begin by using a (licensed or unlicensed) copied image or two, and then deceptively building content around those images. It is even worse when these stories are placed on a website with the primary goal to improve rankings for leads without offering any true value to a visitor to the site who is looking to learn more about a specific topic.
Reputation and Rankings Can Be Downgraded
Google may create a traffic drop to a website when it believes the content was designed solely to perform well in search engine results. Many business owners may claim ignorance because they do not understand how their programmers accomplished higher rankings. Since Google doesn’t care who did the programming, it’s up to the business owner to ask their programmers if they are creating unique content, or copying it from other sources.
Objectively evaluating the content posted on their websites can be a challenge for a business owner. It can be hard for someone to critique themselves or to give honest feedback to family members who may be doing marketing for the company. Despite this, now is the time to question the very nature of how your marketing objectives were obtained. Your marketing can be severely impacted if your website rankings were achieved simply by working the system. Click here to see Google’s suggestions on self-assessing your website and creating useful content.
Cleaning Up the Past May Be Tricky
My goal is to ensure you appreciate how strategic it is to create unique content, but I realize some people may see the process as difficult or too time-intensive to get results.
You may find that you or others built pages on your website in a manner that’s not consistent with the creation of unique content. This is where the past may come back to haunt you. Google advises against making “quick fix” changes, like removing pieces of a story because you were told it was bad for SEO. Instead, focus on making changes that make sense for your users and are sustainable in the long term. It is also ill-advised to delete content, since that can signal to Google that the content was originally designed to trick its search algorithms.
Instead of deleting sections or entire pages of your website, Google advises to focus on improving the content to ensure site visitors are able to clearly appreciate and navigate the stories from an educational perspective.
Our Industry Has an Advantage
The work of designers and remodelers is based on making dreams come true. We are able to show clients many possibilities of what a room could look like before they can even articulate the change they want to make. A designer’s job is to create drawings, introduce material specifications, layouts and so much more. A remodeler puts it all together to realize the project. Everything having to to do with this creative, challenge-filled process is unique – which is a gold mine when it comes to telling true, engaging stories that can be used for marketing purposes.
Articulating dreams and the process of making them come true supports Google’s aim to reward original, high-quality content that demonstrates the E-E-A-T principles: expertise, experience, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.
Creating these unique stories and then surrounding them with relevant SEO topics will help a business rise in search rankings, which in turn will attract qualified prospects who may eventually turn into ideal clients.
Stay True to the Intent of Your Stories
Ask yourself a simple, important question: “Why am I creating content?”. If your answer is that you’re primarily trying to attract search engine visits, that’s not aligned with Google’s goals; you should not expect to be rewarded in rankings, and in fact may be penalized. If your answer is to help people learn when they come to your site, then prepare to be richly rewarded in the Google search results.
—By Brian Javeline, president of MyOnlineToolbox, an industry leader for online marketing education and strategy planning
