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Is Blogging Still Worth It in 2026? A Web Developer’s Honest Take

Author: Sean H. Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

If you’ve been following digital marketing discussions lately, you’ve probably noticed the same question popping up everywhere: is blogging still worth it in 2026? The answer, as with most things in the web development world, is more nuanced than a simple yes or no.

For years, we’ve told our clients at Design Web Louisville that content is the best long-term investment. Write regularly. Use your natural voice. Talk about subjects that matter to your business and your customers. Answer specific questions that help people solve real problems. Target those long-tail keywords that bring qualified traffic to your site.

That advice still holds true, but the landscape has shifted significantly. Here’s what we’re seeing in 2026 and what we have been reading in the SEO forums. Now, keep in mind some of the sources are anecdotal, but that has always been the forefront of understanding how SEO works. When working in a black box, we have to learn to trust our intuition and then verify. So, if this feels like we are taking lobbing shotgun shells from the hip, it is because we are, and that method has kept our teeny tiny no advertising model of website design sales ahead of all the big agencies in town, so, you know, don’t knock it and enjoy the ride. 

The AI Impact: Large language models and Traffic

Let’s address the elephant in the room. Large language models like ChatGPT are fundamentally changing how people discover information. One experienced SEO professional on Reddit put it bluntly: “LLMs feed on your content and then show it at the top of Google search. After working hard, you will feel that there is no credibility for your hard work.” But is that the case really? Maybe, but it depends on what kind of content you create. Here is what we have seen. 

While AI tools are effecting traditional blog traffic, 95% of ChatGPT users still use Google for search and half of them prefer to click through to the source if it promises quality content including, and this is the kicker, great visuals. Why, well because while Ai may be using your content to answer a simple question, it now adds your pages feature image as part of the citation. That is new and it is a game changer. 

Historically the only way to get an image on the homepage is to pay to be placed in the ad slot, but now, if you are used in citation, you get a sweet free slot right next to the Ai summary, and stats tell us, if your image is well designed, your page title targeted and your excerpt refined, people will click through. More interestingly, the results for the Ai source at the time of this article are not location bound! (Holy national-reach Batman!) You can see in my example picture below the results for “who is the best personal injury lawyer in louisville ky” pulls from a law firm in… California!? Ok, so I am sure that Google will work this bug out in the very near future, but for those of you who have been dutifully writing great content and including excellent page feature images, you now have a free seat on the seo train to every city in the english speaking world. Even after Ai learns to narrow down to locally limited learned content this is still a boon to those of us who have been doing it right the whole time. 

Honestly, it’s Brian Dettman, he is the best personal injury attorney in Louisville. Don’t trust AI fully yet. They still tend to serve up results that are biased towards the bigger lower quality chains. Example above, note the ridiculous California law firm link for a local question. Hey, AI is in its infancy, it will get there eventually.

Search engines remain essential, and more importantly, they’re not going anywhere. The key difference is that generic, informational content that simply rehashes what’s already available online is essentially dead. AI can spit that out instantly. What AI can’t replicate (yet) is authentic experience, original data, and genuine expertise with excellent images. So keep doing that.

What’s Actually Working in 2026

Based on our work with clients and feedback from business owners across various industries, here’s what still generates results:

First-hand experience matters more than ever. An example we saw this week, an estate agent on a Wix platform wrote a handful of well-crafted articles that barely get views on Google, but ChatGPT picked them up. Result? Three new clients in a few months who specifically mentioned finding the agency through ChatGPT recommendations. Those three clients covered the company’s annual expenses. Not bad for a few hours of writing, and while it may not be traffic volume, it’s precise traffic quality. We have seen the exact same thing, our national reach has actually increased significantly in the last few months. Yes, itty bitty Design Web Louisville hauls in quite a bit of national clients. Never underestimate the little guy. 

Niche expertise still wins. A food blogger with seven years of experience noted that while traffic has dropped from 1 million monthly page views during peak COVID times to 100-300K now, that they are still generating solid revenue. The difference? Authentic content in a specific niche, not generic advice anyone could write. Again, we are seeing more and more surgeon-like precision in traffic. The value has not dropped of, just the volume, and that is good. It means the people who were just contributing to your bounce rate are getting what they need from Ai, with no bounce contributed to your content. The ones you need to dig deep, are still finding you. Now, we don’t take on clients who do low quality high volume content or if we are being honest click bait spam, so we have not seen much drop off. What we have seen in the periphery, lots of junk drawer sites (Looking at you, recipe site that makes us dig to find the actual recipe) getting dunked, going from a fire hose of traffic to nothing. Is it devastating to people who have dedicated their lives to writing a novel for every recipe they stole out of some book? Yes. Is it better for the rest of us? 100%. If you got hit by the Ai traffic diversion, well, maybe it was time for you to take a real look at the way you market to people. 

Most notable here, you see that the search results show that the recipe, the ingredients and the number served come from 3 different sources. Now, I’m not a michelin chef, but if you mad libs your recipes, it might not turn out the way you expect. Again, people are going to click through to the most reliable source, and in all likelihood the AI result with the best image. Humans gonna human, so make sure you have great images. Also, did you notice that Facebook was a top link? Shows how important social media is to your content planning. – Don’t feel bad, we don’t do much social media either, we should, but we don’t, we are busy enough already, but if you can you should! You know what they say, don’t look at the mechanic’s car or the cobbler’s shoes, artisans don’t focus on themselves, lol.

Community and trust building. Several people mentioned that blogging works when it’s about building trust and proving expertise rather than just chasing traffic numbers. One commenter noted that sharing real “first attempts” or even failures gets more traction than perfect guides. The new noise is LLM content getting cranked out rapidly, and the one thing it can’t do, is muddle through the very real process of trial and error in an authentic way. Now Ai is great, don’t get me wrong. I am going to Ai this mess of an article before I post it, but the key is, the mess. The funny thoughts, the little references and easter eggs that come with real authentic content. It’s the gold standard, always has been always will be.

I used to say authentic experience is king. I still do, but I used to, too.

The New Priorities for 2026

If you’re investing in content marketing right now, here’s where your energy should go:

1. Google My Business Is Essential

This might be the single most important digital asset for local businesses. Your Google My Business profile affects local search, Google Maps results, and even how AI tools discover and recommend your business. Keep it updated, respond to reviews, add photos regularly, and make sure all your information is accurate.

2. YouTube and Video Content

Multiple SEO professionals with decades of experience are pointing to the same conclusion: video content outperforms written content in 2026. YouTube isn’t just a platform; it’s the second-largest search engine. People searching for “how to fix a leaky faucet” or “best pizza in Louisville” are just as likely to watch a video as read an article.

3. Advertising on Google Maps

For local businesses, Google Maps advertising offers targeting that traditional search ads can’t match. You’re reaching people actively looking for services in your geographic area, often while they’re mobile and ready to make a decision.

4. Authentic, Experience-Based Content

If you’re going to blog, make it count. Write about:

  • Your actual projects and what you learned
  • Real customer problems you’ve solved
  • Original research or data from your business
  • Behind-the-scenes processes that demonstrate expertise
  • Local insights that only someone in your community would know
  • Real images, not stock junk. Use pictures that are meaningful or don’t use them at all.

Don’t write generic “5 Tips for Better SEO” posts. AI has that covered. Write “What We Learned After Managing SEO for 50 Louisville Businesses” with specific examples and real data.

What We Still Recommend

Our core advice hasn’t changed entirely. Good content is still a long-term investment. Regular updates still matter. Your authentic voice still resonates. But we’re adjusting our recommendations:

Write less, but write better. One exceptional piece of content that demonstrates real expertise is worth more than ten generic posts.

Don’t chase informational keywords. If the question can be answered by AI in two sentences, don’t waste your time writing a 2,000-word guide about it.

Support your content with other channels. Your blog shouldn’t stand alone. Use email newsletters, social media, and video to distribute and amplify your written content.

Focus on conversion, not just traffic. A blog post that brings 50 qualified leads is more valuable than one that brings 5,000 who bounce immediately.

Build topical authority. Instead of writing about everything, become the go-to resource for a specific area. Depth beats breadth. Don’t believe me, see the California law firm who got position zero for a Louisville question in my example above. 

The Reality Check

Here’s the honest truth: if you’re thinking about starting a blog in 2026 purely to generate ad revenue from organic traffic, you’re probably too late. That ship has sailed, been to war with Ai, taken on water and is being towed back to shore. The “golden era” of SEO-optimized fluff content ranking easily is over.

But if you’re using a blog to:

  • Demonstrate expertise in your field
  • Support your products or services
  • Build trust with potential customers
  • Create a community around your brand
  • Provide citations for AI tools to reference
  • Establish thought leadership

Then yes, blogging is absolutely still worth it. Maybe we don’t even call it blogging anymore? Maybe it is evolving to a point where it’s something else entirely? Treat it more like a menu. Be concise. Be accurate and clear. If you are a dentist, yes you should have information about all the services and products and issues you can treat in your office, but do you need a ton of pages for fluff that every dentist has? No, Ai has that covered unless you have something new and meaningful to contribute, that might actually hurt you. For example, we recently rescued a Veterinary clinic from a website design service who included a full vet dictionary of terms and “vet blog” pages to their site as part of a “vet website package.” Oof what a mess! The bulk of the site was just junk drawer information about vet services, and they used the EXACT SAME JUNK on all of their clients’ websites hundreds of sites all with the same fluff competing for the same traffic. Yeah, it wasn’t pretty. We see this a lot, website designers who target a certain niche and churn out the same garbage for all of their clients. You would be better with no website than going with the dumpster fire that is niche website designers. But I digress, this is a major topic, and I might have to write about it in a whole other post, but that is enough for today.

Our Approach Moving Forward, shockingly not much has changed

At Design Web Louisville, we’re helping clients think about content differently. Instead of “we need to blog to get traffic,” we’re asking “what do we know that our customers need to know, and what’s the best way to share that?”

Sometimes that’s a blog post. Sometimes it’s a video. Sometimes it’s a Google My Business update or a well-crafted email newsletter. The medium matters less than the message and the authenticity behind it.

We still believe in the power of good content. We’ve just gotten smarter about what “good” means in 2026. Per the usual, if you are thinking about people and trying to help them or connect with them in a real way, you’re doing it the right way. Slow and steady wins the race. That is why our super small office has flourished without ads for over a decade. 

The Bottom Line

Blogging isn’t dead, but it’s evolved. The strategies that worked in 2015 or even 2020 won’t work today. Generic content is worthless. Authentic expertise is priceless. Choose your battles wisely, invest in channels that actually reach your audience, and remember that content is just one piece of a larger digital strategy. Ai is not the enemy unless you are doing something shady. It pours light on SEO. 

And whatever you do, don’t forget about your Google My Business profile.

The Long and Short of It: Choosing the Right URL in 2026

Author: Sean H. Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

Remember when everyone said your domain name had to be short, snappy, and memorable? Well, the internet has changed, and so have the rules for choosing a URL. Let’s talk about what really matters when selecting a domain name today.

The Google Effect: Why Short Isn’t Everything Anymore

Here’s the truth: people don’t type URLs into their browser bar like they used to. Instead, they Google you. They search for your pizza place, your law firm, or your handmade soap business, and Google delivers your website right to them. This fundamental shift in how people find websites has made the old “keep it short at all costs” advice less critical than it once was. A domain that is just an acranym, might not serve you as well as one that has your full name now, and there a quite a few reasons why.

That said, you still want a URL that’s easy to write and looks professional on your business cards, brochures, and promotional materials. Nobody wants to see “www.bestpizzaandgrindersandcookiesinthewholecityofLouisvilleKentucky.com” crammed onto the side of a pizza box. But could you get away with something longer than the traditional wisdom suggests? Absolutely.

When Long URLs Work (and When They Don’t)

Take a look at some pizza boxes next time you order delivery. You might see URLs like “joespizzaandgrinders.com” complete with stop words like “and” that SEO experts once told you to avoid. Does it hurt their business? Not really. Customers find them through Google Maps, delivery apps, or word of mouth. The URL on the box is just one more touchpoint, not the primary discovery method.

But here’s where it gets interesting. Someone out there owns the domain chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.com. Yes, really. It’s the name of a lake in Massachusetts (also known as Lake Webster, for obvious reasons), and it’s been registered since 2010 to a Bill Murray from Greenville, South Carolina.

Now, before you get too excited, this is probably not that Bill Murray. The famous actor has strong ties to Charleston, South Carolina, where he owns a home and serves as part-owner and Director of Fun organizations locally, but it’s also a common name so who know.

It would definitly track with his long history of excenrtric endevers so for the fun if it maybe it was him? If so, what could the beloved actor possibly be planning with a 45-character domain name? For that matter what would anyone being doing with something so unweldy? We’d love to know. Sadly, there’s no website up at the time of this writing, just the tantalizing mystery of what could be.

The .com Question: Does Your Extension Matter?

For years, .com was king. It still carries weight, particularly for businesses targeting American audiences. People trust it. They expect it. When someone hears your business name, they’ll often default to typing “.com” at the end, much like adding the antiquated “WWW” to the start, although that is a whole other issue for another article.

Custom extensions have become more accepted. A tech startup using .io or .ai? That’s expected. A creative agency with a .design domain? That can actually enhance your brand. A local business using .local or your city extension? That makes sense too.

The key is context. If you’re a traditional business targeting general consumers, .com is still your safest bet. If you’re in a niche industry or targeting a tech-savvy audience, a relevant custom extension can actually work in your favor.

Keyword Stuffing: Should You Load Up Your Domain?

Here’s where modern SEO comes into play. Google is smart enough now that stuffing your domain with keywords like “bestaffordableplumbersinKentuckyandSouthernIndiana.com” isn’t going to boost your rankings the way it might have in 2005. In fact, it might hurt your credibility.

Instead, focus on:

  • Brandability: Is your domain name something people can remember and recommend?
  • Clarity: Does it clearly communicate what you do or who you are?
  • Legitimacy: Does it look professional enough to build trust?

A domain like “smithplumbing.com” beats “bestcheapplumberLouisville.com” every time because it’s cleaner, more trustworthy, and easier to recommend.

A Note on Domain Privacy

Here’s something worth considering when you register your domain: privacy protection. When we looked up that Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg domain, we found the registrant’s name and location because domain privacy wasn’t enabled.

Was this just a wild hair research tangent while writing about funny long domains? Absolutely. Did we stumble on something potentially interesting, perhaps a connection to a famous actor? Probably not. But we’ll enjoy the fun of it all anyway.

The point is, domain registration information is public unless you pay for privacy protection. If you value your privacy or don’t want unsolicited contact from domain brokers and marketers, it’s worth the small additional fee.

So, What’s the Verdict?

In 2026, here’s what really matters for your URL:

  1. Make it easy to spell: If you tell someone your URL verbally, can they spell it correctly on the first try?
  2. Keep it pronounceable: Can people say it out loud without stumbling?
  3. Make it look good in print: Will it fit nicely on business cards and promotional materials?
  4. Choose an appropriate extension: .com is safe, but context-specific extensions can work well too.
  5. Skip the keyword stuffing: Focus on brand and clarity instead.
  6. Consider privacy: Protect your registration information if that matters to you.

The beautiful thing about the modern internet is that there’s more flexibility than ever before. You don’t need to stress about finding that perfect six-letter .com domain. Google will help people find you regardless. Just choose something that represents your brand well and makes sense for your business.

And if you happen to own a ridiculously long or funny name domain and want to do something fun with it, reach out, especially if you happen to be one of our favorite comedy actors, which, fun fact, shot parts of the movie Stripes right here in our Downtown office location at the Normandy Buisness Center!

Transition from call ads to responsive search ads with call assets

Author: Sean H. Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

Google Is Killing Call-Only Ads: Here’s What You Need to Do

If you’ve been running Google Ads for a while, you may have gotten an email recently with the subject line “Action Required: Transition from call ads to call assets.” Google has been talking about this change for a while, but now it’s official. Call-only ads are going away, and if you don’t make some updates, your ads will stop showing.

Here are the key dates:

February 2026 is when you lose the ability to create new call-only ads. February 2027 is when your existing call-only ads stop running entirely.

So you have time, but not unlimited time. Let’s walk through what this means and what you need to do.

First, Check If This Even Affects You

Not everyone needs to worry about this. Call-only ads are a specific ad type where the only thing the ad does is trigger a phone call. There’s no website link. When someone taps the ad, it just dials your number. These were popular with service businesses like plumbers, auto repair, locksmiths, and anyone else who just wanted the phone to ring.

If you’re running regular search ads that happen to have a phone number attached, you’re already set up the way Google wants. That phone number is a “call asset,” and you’re good to go.

To check, log into your Google Ads account and look at your ads. If you see ads that have a website URL and a phone number, those are search ads with call assets. You’re fine. If you see ads where the only action is “Call” with no website destination, those are call-only ads, and those are the ones you need to replace.

Why Google Is Making This Change

Google wants everyone using responsive search ads. These are the ads where you provide multiple headlines and descriptions, and Google’s system mixes and matches them to find the best performing combinations for different searches.

The old call-only ads were simple. You wrote your headlines, attached your phone number, and that was it. Google is moving away from that kind of static ad format across the board. They want the flexibility to test different combinations and optimize automatically.

Whether that’s actually better for your business is a fair question, but it’s the direction things are going and it is always good to stay in compliance.

How to Make the Switch

If you do have call-only ads that need to be replaced, here’s the process:

Start by documenting what you have. Look at your existing call-only ads and write down the headlines, descriptions, and which campaigns they’re in. Note the performance numbers too so you have a baseline to compare against later.

Next, create your call asset. Go to Assets in the left menu, then click the plus button and select Call. Enter your business phone number. You can set it to only show during your business hours, which is useful if you don’t want calls coming in at 10pm.

Then create a new responsive search ad in the same campaign or ad group where your call-only ad was running. You’ll need at least 3 headlines and 2 descriptions, but you can add up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions. Use the copy from your old call-only ad as a starting point, then add variations.

Once your new responsive search ad is running with the call asset attached, let both ads run side by side for a few weeks. Compare the results. When you’re confident the new setup is performing well, pause the old call-only ad.

So to recap here is what you need to do:

Create responsive search ads with call assets.

This is the actual migration. You’ll need:

  • 3-15 headlines (at least 3 required)
  • 2-4 descriptions (at least 2 required)
  • A call asset attached at the campaign or ad group level with your phone number

Set up the call asset

This is under Assets > Call. You can set it to show only during business hours, which is nice for a service business like auto glass.

Let both run in parallel for a bit

Compare performance before sunsetting the old call-only ads.

Don’t Wait Until the Last Minute

You have until February 2027 before your call-only ads stop serving entirely, but I wouldn’t recommend waiting that long. Making the switch now gives you time to test and optimize. If something isn’t working, you want to find out while you still have your old ads as a backup.

If you need help with this transition or want someone to handle it for you, feel free to reach out.

Understanding Link Farms and Private Blog Networks: Why Google Penalizes Them (And How They Catch You)

Author: Sean H. Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

If you’ve been managing a website for any length of time, you’ve probably heard warnings about link farms and Private Blog Networks (PBN). Maybe you’ve even been approached by someone offering to get you “high-quality backlinks” through their network of sites. These offers can sound tempting, especially when legitimate link building feels slow and difficult.

But there’s a reason Google explicitly prohibits these practices. And there’s a reason they’ve gotten increasingly good at catching people who use them.

Let’s talk about what these schemes actually are, how they work, why they fail, and what Google does to the sites that participate in them.

What Is a Link Farm?

A link farm is exactly what it sounds like – a website or group of websites that exist primarily to create links. These sites aren’t built to serve readers or provide genuine value. They’re built to manipulate search engine rankings by artificially inflating the number of backlinks pointing to target websites. With Ai making content development much easier and faster this is going to be the next big issue to worry over in the Google updates to come.

How Link Farms Work

The basic operation is straightforward. Someone creates multiple low-quality websites or acquires domains specifically for linking purposes. These sites get filled with thin content – articles that exist only to hold links. Then they sell links on these sites to anyone willing to pay.

The articles often look somewhat legitimate on the surface. They might be about real topics and contain actual sentences. But if you read them carefully, you’ll notice they’re generic, poorly researched, and exist mainly to justify the presence of several outbound links. They are created quickly, often without even being read or reviewed.

A most recent example would be the scandal over an article written that reviewed current popular books, but as the internet would soon discover, those books? They didn’t exist. They were part of an Ai hallucination. No one read the article, they just pumped it out and published it to get some link backs. It is happening more an more often too. Here is another example of an AI-generated summer reading list featuring fake books: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/20/nx-s1-5405022/fake-summer-reading-list-ai

Link farms operate at scale. A single operator might run dozens or hundreds of sites, churning out content continuously and selling links across all of them. The whole operation is designed to look natural to search engines while being completely artificial.

Why People Use Them

The appeal is simple: speed and control. Earning legitimate backlinks takes time. You have to create genuinely valuable content, build real relationships, and wait for other websites to discover and link to your work organically.

Link farms promise to skip all that. For a fee, you get backlinks right now from sites that appear to have authority. For businesses under pressure to show SEO results quickly, that can seem like an attractive shortcut.

The problem is that shortcuts in SEO almost always become sinkholes eventually. SEO needs a solid foundation. If you build your marketing foundation on bad decisions, quick cheats and cut corners, then just like a real house, it will not hold up for long.

What Is a Private Blog Network (PBN)?

A Private Blog Network is a more sophisticated version of a link farm. Instead of obvious low-quality sites, PBN operators create what look like legitimate blogs and websites. They might use expired domains that used to be real businesses. They might fill the sites with decent content. They might even generate some real traffic.

But underneath all that camouflage, the purpose is the same: to create controlled links that manipulate search rankings.

How PBNs Differ from Link Farms

PBNs try harder to look legitimate. Where link farms are obviously thin and artificial, PBNs invest more effort in their facade:

  • They use diverse domain names and hosting providers
  • They create content that sounds more authoritative
  • They might interlink between network sites to simulate a real web of related content
  • They vary their link patterns to avoid obvious fingerprints
  • They sometimes mix in legitimate content alongside their paid links

The goal is to make each site in the network look like an independent, authentic website that just happens to link to the target sites. In reality, they’re all controlled by the same operator and exist for the same manipulative purpose.

The Economics of PBNs

Running a PBN requires more investment than a basic link farm. Operators need to buy or lease multiple domains, pay for hosting across different providers, create more convincing content, and maintain the sites to keep up appearances.

They recoup these costs by charging more for links. A link from a PBN site might cost anywhere from fifty dollars to several hundred, depending on how established and legitimate-looking the network appears.

For the PBN operator, it’s a business model. For the people buying links, it’s a gamble. And for Google, it’s a violation of their guidelines.

How Google Detects Link Schemes

Google has spent nearly two decades getting better at identifying artificial link patterns. What worked in 2005 doesn’t work now. What might slip past their algorithms today probably won’t work next year.

Here’s how they catch these schemes:

Pattern Recognition at Scale

Google’s algorithms analyze billions of links across the web. They look for patterns that deviate from natural linking behavior:

  • Large numbers of low-quality sites all linking to the same targets
  • Sites that link out to many unrelated websites with no clear editorial reason
  • Sudden spikes in backlinks from sites with no previous relationship
  • Networks of sites that share hosting infrastructure, WHOIS information, or content patterns
  • Links that use overly optimized anchor text across multiple sites

When Google’s systems spot these patterns, they flag the sites involved for further review.

Content Quality Signals

Google’s algorithms evaluate the quality of the content surrounding links. They can identify thin content, keyword-stuffed articles, and text that exists only to justify links.

If a site consistently publishes low-quality content with suspicious linking patterns, that site loses credibility in Google’s eyes. Links from that site stop passing value. Eventually, the site might be removed from search results entirely.

Network Footprints

PBN operators try to hide the fact that multiple sites are part of the same network. But hiding those connections is harder than it looks:

  • Similar WHOIS registration information across domains
  • Shared IP addresses or hosting providers
  • Similar site templates or design patterns
  • Overlapping Google Analytics or AdSense IDs
  • Similar content structures or writing styles
  • Cross-linking patterns between network sites

Google’s algorithms are specifically designed to detect these footprints. When they identify one site in a network, they can often uncover the entire operation.

Human Review

Beyond algorithms, Google employs human reviewers who manually evaluate suspected violations. If your site gets flagged for suspicious links, a real person might look at it and make a judgment call.

Manual reviews are particularly common for competitive industries where the stakes are high and people are more likely to push boundaries.

Competitor Reports

Google also accepts spam reports from webmasters who notice suspicious link patterns pointing to competitor sites. While Google doesn’t act on every report, documented patterns of link manipulation can trigger investigations.

This means even if Google’s algorithms don’t catch a scheme immediately, someone else in your industry might spot it and report it.

What Happens When Google Catches You

Google doesn’t issue warnings before penalizing link scheme participation. When they detect a violation, they act. The consequences depend on the severity and nature of the violation, but none of them are good for your business.

Algorithmic Devaluation

This is the most common outcome. Google’s algorithms simply stop counting the manipulative links. Your rankings drop to where they would have been without those artificial backlinks – or lower, if Google applies a ranking suppression.

You might not even receive a notification. You’ll just notice your traffic declining and your rankings falling. When you check Google Search Console, you might see a message about “unnatural links” or you might see nothing at all.

Manual Penalties

For more egregious violations, Google issues manual actions. These are penalties applied by human reviewers. They’re more severe than algorithmic devaluations and require active work to remove.

Manual penalties come in two forms:

Partial matches: Only some pages on your site are affected. Searches that would normally show those pages won’t.

Site-wide matches: Your entire website is demoted or removed from search results. This is devastating for businesses that rely on search traffic.

Manual penalties remain in effect until you remove the offending links and submit a reconsideration request. Even then, Google might not reinstate your rankings immediately – or ever.

Permanent Damage

Even after addressing the violation, your site’s reputation with Google may be permanently damaged. Sites that have been penalized often struggle to regain their previous rankings, even after the penalty is lifted.

Think of it like a credit score. Violations stay on your record and affect how Google evaluates your site going forward.

Wasted Money and Time

Beyond the direct penalties, there’s the opportunity cost. The money spent on artificial links is gone. The time spent dealing with penalties and cleanup could have been invested in legitimate marketing. And the traffic and revenue lost during the penalty period doesn’t come back.

Businesses that chase artificial link schemes often end up worse off than if they had just focused on legitimate strategies from the beginning.

Why Link Schemes Keep Failing

Google’s entire business model depends on showing users the most relevant, highest-quality results. Link manipulation undermines that goal. So Google invests heavily in detecting and penalizing it.

Every time someone figures out a new way to game the system, Google’s engineers work to close that loophole. The cat-and-mouse game has been going on for decades, and Google keeps winning.

The Arms Race You Can’t Win

PBN operators constantly adapt their techniques to avoid detection. They change their patterns, hide their footprints better, and develop new methods. But they’re fighting against a company with unlimited resources and some of the world’s best engineers.

Google processes billions of searches every day. They have more data about link patterns than any individual SEO operator ever could. They use machine learning to detect patterns humans can’t even see.

The people selling links might claim they’ve figured out how to avoid detection. They might point to current clients whose sites haven’t been penalized yet. But “hasn’t been caught yet” is very different from “won’t be caught.”

The Downside Is Catastrophic

Even if a link scheme works temporarily, the eventual downside is huge. A site that loses its search rankings can lose 50% to 90% of its traffic overnight. For businesses that depend on that traffic, it’s often a fatal blow.

Compare that risk to the modest benefit of getting some artificial links. The math doesn’t work. You’re risking your entire business for a temporary ranking boost that might not even materialize.

What Legitimate Link Building Looks Like

Not all link building is manipulative. There’s a huge difference between artificial schemes and legitimate strategies that earn links naturally.

Creating Content Worth Linking To

The most sustainable link building strategy is creating content that people genuinely want to reference. Original research, comprehensive guides, useful tools, and insightful analysis all tend to attract organic links over time.

This takes more work than buying links. But the links you earn are permanent, valuable, and completely safe from penalties.

Building Real Relationships

Legitimate partnerships with complementary businesses, guest posts on actual publications in your industry, and relationships with journalists all create natural linking opportunities.

These relationships develop slowly. But they’re built on genuine mutual benefit rather than payment for manipulation.

Letting Quality Work Speak for Itself

When you do excellent work for clients, create genuinely helpful resources, or build a reputation in your industry, links tend to follow naturally. People cite authorities. They reference useful resources. They link to businesses they trust.

This organic process might seem frustratingly slow compared to just buying a hundred links. But it’s the only approach that builds sustainable, long-term results without risk.

How to Clean Up If You’ve Used Link Schemes

If you’ve participated in link schemes in the past – either knowingly or unknowingly – here’s how to address it:

Audit Your Backlink Profile

Use Google Search Console to export all the links pointing to your site. Review them carefully. Look for patterns we’ve discussed: low-quality sites, obvious link farms, networks of sites that all link to you, and unnatural anchor text patterns.

Remove or Disavow Bad Links

For links you can control, remove them. Contact the site owners and request removal. For links you can’t control, use Google’s Disavow Tool to tell Google you don’t want those links counted.

Be aggressive in this cleanup. It’s better to disavow some legitimate links than to leave manipulative ones in place.

Submit a Reconsideration Request

If you have a manual penalty, you’ll need to submit a reconsideration request after cleaning up your links. Be honest about what happened and what you’ve done to fix it. Don’t make excuses or try to minimize the violation.

Focus on Legitimate Strategies Going Forward

Once you’ve cleaned up past mistakes, commit to building links the right way. It’s slower. It requires more patience. But it’s the only sustainable path.

The Bottom Line

Link farms and PBNs are tempting because they promise easy results. But they’re fundamentally at odds with how Google wants the web to work. And Google has proven they’re willing and able to detect and penalize these schemes.

The penalties are severe. The cleanup is difficult. And the long-term damage to your site’s reputation can be permanent.

Meanwhile, the businesses that focus on legitimate strategies – creating great content, building real relationships, and earning links naturally – build sustainable competitive advantages that can’t be taken away by an algorithm update.

There are no shortcuts in SEO that don’t eventually become sinkholes. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can focus on strategies that actually work for the long term.

If you’re getting pitched on “high-quality backlinks from our network of sites,” now you know what you’re really being offered: a risk you can’t afford to take.

How to Tell the Difference Between Good Guest Posts and SEO Link Schemes

Author: Sean H. Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

If you manage a business website, you’ve probably received emails from people wanting to publish articles on your site. Some of these are perfectly fine. Others could get your website penalized by Google. The tricky part is knowing which is which.

Over the years of managing websites for our clients and running our own site, we’ve learned to spot the difference. Here’s what we’ve found works.

Understanding What’s Actually Happening

When someone offers to write a guest post for your website, they’re usually after one thing: a link back to their site. That link helps their website’s SEO. This isn’t automatically bad—it’s how much of the internet works. The question is whether they’re offering genuine value in exchange, or if they’re running a link scheme that could hurt your site.

Google is pretty clear about this. They don’t mind natural links that happen because content is genuinely helpful. They do mind links that exist only to manipulate search rankings.

Red Flags That Signal Trouble

Here are the warning signs we watch for when evaluating guest post requests:

They Offer a Link Exchange

This is the biggest red flag. If someone says “I’ll publish an article on your site, and in return I’ll publish your content on these sites,” that’s a link exchange scheme. Google explicitly penalizes these.

The email might say something like: “In return, I could also publish an article on [list of websites].” That’s your signal to delete and move on.

The Email Feels Generic

Pay attention to how they reference your site. Do they mention your actual website name and specific content? Or do they use vague phrases like “your site” and “my latest article”?

If they can’t be bothered to personalize the email, they’re probably sending it to hundreds of websites. That’s not a real relationship.

Pro tip: does the signature say “Best” instead of Thanks, Sincerely or some other more human closing? Best is a popular closing used by Ai writers and the Google automation response. It can be a subtle tip off that you are being contacted en-mass. That is a red flag.

They Reference Old Articles You Don’t Remember

Sometimes these emails claim they previously published something on your site. If you can’t find that article or don’t remember approving it, something’s off. Either they’re lying, or someone else managed to slip content onto your site without proper review.

The Sites They Mention Look Questionable

If they offer to publish your content in exchange, take a look at those sites. Are they legitimate businesses with real content and clear purposes? Or are they thin websites that exist mainly to host guest posts?

A quick Google search usually reveals the truth pretty fast.

They’re Too Eager or Pushy

Legitimate writers understand that website owners need time to consider requests. If someone is pushing hard for a quick yes or sending multiple follow-ups right away, that urgency often signals they’re trying to place links before you think too carefully about it.

Green Flags for Legitimate Guest Posting

Not every guest post request is bad. Here’s what good ones look like:

The Content Is Actually Relevant

The writer is offering content that genuinely fits your website’s focus and would help your readers. For a business website, that might mean articles about your industry, practical advice for your customers, or insights into topics your audience cares about.

If you run a dermatology practice and someone wants to write about roofing contractors, that’s not a good fit. If they want to write about skincare routines or sun protection, that makes sense.

The Writer Has Real Credentials

Look them up. Do they have a legitimate website? A portfolio of published work? A clear professional identity? Real writers and content creators exist—they’re building their reputation and authority through quality content.

Check their website. If it’s an actual business or publication with substance, that’s a good sign. If it’s a bare-bones site with nothing but generic content and outbound links, walk away.

They’re Not Asking For Or Offering Anything Sketchy

A legitimate guest blogger might ask for an author byline with a link to their website or professional profile. That’s normal. What’s not normal is asking you to link to multiple sites, include specific anchor text, or participate in any kind of exchange program.

The Relationship Feels Natural

Good guest posting relationships often develop over time. Maybe they’ve commented on your content. Maybe you’ve interacted on social media. Maybe they reached out with a genuine compliment about your site before pitching an article.

Schemes feel transactional. Real relationships feel like actual people talking to each other.

Their Outbound Links Make Sense

If they send a sample article, look at where the links go. Are they linking to authoritative sources that support the content? Or are all the links going to random SEO tools and questionable sites?

Natural writing includes links when they help the reader. Link schemes include links because they’re trying to manipulate rankings.

What to Do If You Find Questionable Content Already on Your Site

Maybe you’re reading this and realizing you already have some suspicious guest posts published. Here’s what to do:

  1. Check the backlinks – Use Google Search Console to see what sites are linking to that post. If you see links from low-quality sites or the domains mentioned in link exchange emails, that confirms your suspicions.
  2. Evaluate the content quality – Is it actually helpful to your visitors? If it’s thin, off-topic, or clearly written just to hold links, it’s not serving your site well.
  3. Look at the traffic – Check your analytics. Is this post bringing legitimate visitors? If it’s just sitting there gathering dust, it’s not helping you.
  4. When in doubt, remove it – You can just delete questionable posts. For posts that have somehow gotten legitimate traffic, you can 301 redirect the URL to a relevant page on your site. But in most cases, deletion is fine.

A Simple Decision Framework

When you get a guest post request, ask yourself these three questions:

1. Would this content genuinely help my website visitors?

If the answer is no, nothing else matters. Your website exists to serve your customers and prospects, not to be a link repository for SEO schemes.

2. Does this person have legitimate credentials and a real presence?

Five minutes of research usually tells you everything you need to know. Real people have real professional identities. SEO schemers have thin websites and generic personas.

3. Are they asking for anything beyond a simple author byline?

One link back to their legitimate website or professional profile is normal. Link exchanges, specific anchor text requests, or placement on multiple domains are not.

If you get “yes, yes, no” to these three questions, the guest post is probably fine. Any other combination should make you cautious.

The Bigger Picture

Guest blogging done right is good for the internet. It helps writers build their reputation, helps websites get quality content, and helps readers find useful information. The problem is people who abuse the system for SEO manipulation.

Your website’s reputation with Google matters. A few questionable links aren’t worth the risk of penalties or ranking losses. When in doubt, err on the side of caution.

We’ve seen too many businesses get hurt by link schemes they didn’t understand. They thought they were getting free content. What they actually got was a liability.

Need Help Evaluating Guest Post Requests?

If you’re not sure about a guest post request you’ve received, we’re happy to take a look. We can review the proposal, check the requester’s credentials, and give you an informed opinion about whether it’s legitimate.

Managing your website’s content and SEO is part of what we do. Sometimes that means knowing what not to publish, which can be just as important as knowing what to add.

Feel free to forward any questionable requests to us. We’d rather you ask than guess wrong.

How to Use Your Online Presence to Combat Negative PR

Author: Eleanor Hecks Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

Building a business is like building a house — you must pay attention to the little details while ensuring the foundation and framing are solid. Negative comments can stunt growth and leave a bad impression. Knowing what to do when faced with negative online PR can improve your brand image and show potential customers you care.

Have you ever noticed that some companies seem to attract positive comments and mentions? Beneficial branding is intentional. You can improve bad reviews and turn negatives into positives by focusing on a few aspects of your online presence.

Tweak Your Website

Digital PR is a cost-effective way to improve your business’s reputation. A well-designed site centers on keywords the target audience will most likely seek. You can also use specific features to show authority and showcase positive attributes like tools that tie into the services and products you offer.


The “about” page should explain the company’s mission so others can get behind what you do. If you offer guarantees on products or services, share that information on the website. A testimonial or review area is a must. It shows you have happy customers who value what you offer.

Use Social Media to Drive Engagement

Modern social media offers companies a personalized method of engaging customers, and businesses must utilize a strong and positive social presence if they hope to attract and retain customers. As more than a fourth of customers lose trust in a brand after encountering negative social media feedback, the image you project on your social accounts is a vital piece of customer acquisition and retention.

Those who follow you may be longtime clients or interested in doing business with you. Take the time to post helpful content that solves their pain points and shows what you’re capable of as a company. If someone blasted you in a review on a site like Facebook, adding a response on the same platform can show that you care what people think.

Make sure you’re monitoring social media sites for mentions. You can also combat the negatives by highlighting the positive reviews and comments. The more you respond, like and push up the positive comments, the less likely potential customers will get bogged down in the scathing ones. 

Personalize Customer Service

Although many brands are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to improve customer service response times, a personalized touch can make all the difference in how consumers feel about your brand. Send surveys and pay attention to customer requests. A few positive experiences can counteract negative PR. 

Respond Immediately and With Transparency

Your response can make or break brand reputation when dealing with negative PR. Have a plan to respond immediately to any comments on social media or negative reviews. Embrace transparency. 

You’ve likely noticed some brands will attempt to take a negative comment on social media to direct messaging. Customers feel this is you trying to hide something and not be upfront. Have the discussion, within reason, in full view, including your resolution.

Embrace the Power of User-Generated Content (UGC)

What others say about a brand significantly impacts how consumers view it. Be proactive and get some buzz going about how great you are. UGC is one way to show that you have loyal fans who will sing your praises and can come in the form of testimonials, reviews, videos, social media shares and blog posts. 

One user survey showed that 40% of shoppers believe UGC is an extremely important component on their path to making a purchase. Tap in to the power of reputation management by adding a few different types of UGC to your website and social media marketing efforts. 

Negative PR Can Be Positive

When you first see a detrimental comment about your brand, the response may be to panic. However, consider every negative PR piece a chance to turn things around. Such conversations give you insight into what drives customers, and you can use the opportunity to show your brand cares. Do whatever it takes to ensure customer satisfaction and turn negative PR into positive marketing experiences.

Louisville Facebook Marketing Tips: Meta’s Ad Policies for 2024

Author: Gideon Harrington

Digital advertising is always changing, and staying informed about platform policies is important for creating impactful and compliant ads. For Louisville marketing teams looking to leverage Meta’s platforms effectively as we move into 2024, understanding and adhering to these policies is key to avoiding ad rejections and fostering customer engagement. In some cases it can also help increase your impressions.

Three essential Meta ad policies to keep in mind

  1. Avoid Nonexistent Functionality in Ads Ensure that your ad creative is honest and functional. Ads should not contain deceptive features like “fake” video play buttons or other elements that suggest functionality that doesn’t exist. Familiarize yourself with Meta’s guidelines on nonexistent functionality to craft more trustworthy ads.
  2. Respect Personal Attributes It’s important to create ads that are respectful and inclusive. Ads must not imply or make assumptions about a person’s race, ethnicity, religion, beliefs, or age. By following Meta’s personal attributes policy, you can create ads that resonate positively with diverse audiences.
  3. Be Mindful of Personal Health and Appearance When promoting health-related products, it’s essential to do so in a way that doesn’t foster negative self-perception. Ads should be supportive and empowering, aligning with Meta’s policy on personal health and appearance. This approach not only ensures compliance but also builds trust with your audience.

Troubleshooting Rejected Ads: A Two-Step Approach

If your ad faces rejection, here’s how you can address it:

  • Edit and Resubmit Your Ad: Review the ad content for compliance with Meta’s policies. Update the imagery or text as needed to meet the guidelines. Once revised, resubmit your ad through the Ads Manager for approval.
  • Request Another Ad Review: If the reason for rejection is unclear or you believe it’s incorrect, don’t hesitate to request a further review. This step can provide clarification or potentially overturn an incorrect rejection.

For Louisville marketing teams, adapting to these policies is not just about compliance; it’s about crafting ad experiences that are effective, respectful, and engaging. By keeping these guidelines at the forefront of your digital advertising strategy, you can create campaigns that resonate with your audience while maintaining the integrity of your brand.

Avoiding Common Violations: A Guide for Louisville Marketers

To ensure your advertisements are both compliant and effective, it’s essential to recognize and avoid common pitfalls. Here’s a deeper dive into some frequent areas of confusion and how to navigate them:

  1. Personal Attributes Ads should not assert or imply anything about personal attributes. This includes avoiding direct or indirect references to a person’s race, ethnicity, religion, beliefs, or age. Example of Violation: Using phrases like “Are you disabled? We can help!” directly addresses the user and implies a personal attribute, which is not allowed.
  2. Personal Health and Appearance Avoid creating a negative self-perception in your ads, especially when promoting diet, weight loss, or other health-related products. Example of Violation: Using before-and-after images to display idealized outcomes can be misleading and is discouraged.
  3. Low Quality or Disruptive Content Ensure that your ads do not lead to external landing pages that offer an unexpected or disruptive experience. This includes avoiding misleading headlines or prompts for unnatural interaction with the ad, and avoiding landing pages with minimal original content or an abundance of unrelated or low-quality ads. Example of Violation: Ads that use excessively cropped images or force users to click to view the full image can be considered misleading.
  4. Nonexistent Functionality Ads should not contain images with fake functionalities like play buttons, notifications, checkboxes, or other interactive elements that don’t actually work. Example of Violation: Replicating a play button in an ad image is a typical example of nonexistent functionality.
  5. Unrealistic Outcomes Ads must not make promises or suggest outcomes that are unrealistic, particularly in areas like health, weight loss, or economic opportunities. Example of Violation: Claims about cures for incurable diseases or guaranteed financial success are considered unrealistic outcomes.

For Louisville marketers, understanding these common areas of violation is essential. By creating ads that are respectful, truthful, and aligned with Meta’s policies, you can build a more trustworthy and effective advertising experience. This not only helps in avoiding ad rejections but also enhances your brand’s reputation and engagement with your audience.

Google’s Helpfulness Core Update: Write for People, Not for Robots

Author: Reddit Website Facebook LinkedIn

Google’s latest update, known as the Helpfulness update, is reshaping the landscape of SEO and content creation. Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, has shed light on what constitutes ‘unhelpful content’ in the eyes of the world’s largest search engine. As an advocate for user-centric content, Sullivan underscores that the primary red flag for Google is content created with the intent to rank well in search results rather than to genuinely serve end users. While creating content that search engines can find is important, what is more important is remembering your true audience: people.

Stop writing content for search engines

Sullivan’s guidance is unambiguous: content written for search engines rather than human audiences is considered unhelpful. For instance, creating a list of “20 SEO Tricks to rank on Google” that are just common knowledge with the main goal of ranking for “SEO Tricks” instead of providing real value to readers exemplifies content that Google would label as unhelpful. This pivots the focus from search engine optimization to the actual value and relevance for the audience. This will likely have a serious negative impact on sites and pages that employ sketchy methods for keeping people scrolling, for example, recipe websites that bury the actual recipe under a deep bed of search engine bait text. This move is nothing new. We have seen similar updates to search ranking that target and derank unhelpful page designs to falsely increase SEO and SERPs while annoying visitors. The infamous slideshow article trick may immediately come to mind for SEO specialists who suffered through the age of the click-through wars. In the end, the message is simple: write for people, not for robots, because the goal is to create content that helps real people, and keeps the ‘robot’ of AI and SEO tools as a passive intermediary instead of the main target.

Highlights on the Google Helpfulness Core Update:

  • Danny Sullivan’s Warning: Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, highlights the issue with content created mainly for search engine rankings rather than for human readers.
  • Criteria for Unhelpful Content: Writing content like top 10 lists mainly to rank for keywords is considered unhelpful by Google.
  • Content Creation Tools Caution: Using tools to find content topics might lead to content that Google deems unhelpful if the focus is on scoring rather than genuine content creation.
  • Guidance on Useful Content: Sullivan emphasizes creating people-first content that answers questions and provides value as opposed to search engine-first content.
  • Signals for Helpful Content: Google uses web signals to determine content helpfulness, favoring content that addresses user queries effectively.
  • Content and Quality Questions: Google suggests self-assessment questions regarding originality, comprehensiveness, insight, value, and credibility of content.
  • Expertise Matters: Questions surrounding the expertise involved in content creation are crucial for establishing trustworthiness.
  • Page Experience Significance: A good page experience across various aspects is important for high rankings in Google’s systems.
  • People-First Content Approach: Content should be created primarily for people, with a focus on expertise and satisfaction from the reader’s perspective.
  • Avoid Search Engine-First Tactics: Google discourages creating content solely to gain search engine rankings, warning against practices like keyword stuffing or chasing trending topics without genuine expertise.
  • SEO and Content Creation: While SEO is essential, it should complement people-first content rather than dominate the creation process.
  • Understanding E-E-A-T: Google uses E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) as a framework to identify high-quality content.
  • Quality Rater Guidelines: Google’s quality rater guidelines help creators understand how their content may be perceived by Google’s algorithms.
  • Content Evaluation Tips: Creators are encouraged to ask “Who, How, and Why” about their content to align with what Google’s systems reward.
  • Disclosures on Automation and AI: Transparency about the use of AI or automation in content creation can aid in establishing trust with readers.

Sullivan points out that relying excessively on tools to determine content topics can inadvertently lead to the production of unhelpful content. He suggests that content creators should prioritize the “who, how, and why” of content production over merely aiming for a high ‘score’ that would supposedly please search engines.

Answers a user’s question effectively

Responding to a query from Simone de Vlaming about how Google discerns the intent behind content, Sullivan explains that Google’s algorithms look for signals that align with what people generally consider helpful. Content that answers a user’s question effectively is likely to be seen as ‘people-first’ and, therefore, helpful.

crackdown on high-domain-authority news site exploits

The Helpfulness update has implications for SEO strategies. ‘Parasite SEO,’ which exploits high-domain-authority news sites for quick rankings, might take a hit if it dilutes the site’s primary focus. The use of AI in content creation could also be under scrutiny, especially if it leads to content that lacks firsthand expertise or appears automated without clear disclosure. For example, this article employed Ai to design the post image! (Which we are disclosing to you here, but also in our metadata.) ‘Tool-Optimized Content,’ like that created using SEO tools for research, (think SEMrush or AHREFS) will most likely not be at significant risk, since the bulk of research and content development is still person first, and provided it also caters to user needs and offers genuine value.

Focus on Topical Authority

Strategies likely to benefit from the update include building ‘Topical Authority,’ which entails creating focused content around a specific niche. Google favors sites with a clear primary purpose, and a concentration on topical authority aligns with that preference. For example, we allow guest posts but only from a select few and under a limited number of topics that we know our Louisville-local audience of website owners have an interest in. Additionally, content optimized for user metrics, such as minimizing the need for users to search elsewhere for better information, may gain traction. This speaks directly to E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) page and site structure goals. Make it easy for people to find what they want on your site and you will do well with the new helpfulness update.

Navigate the Helpfulness update successful

To navigate the Helpfulness update successfully, Google advises content creators to ask themselves key questions about the originality, comprehensiveness, and trustworthiness of their content. These questions address factors like spelling and stylistic issues, mass production, expertise, and the overall page experience. In plain terms, do you enjoy reading your own content? If not, you may want to rethink your content strategy.

People-First Content is essential

The main emphasis, if you have not already noticed, is on ‘People-First Content.’ Google encourages content creators to craft material that serves their intended audience with depth and expertise. Conversely, ‘Search Engine-First Content’ should be avoided, as it is made primarily for ranking purposes and could lead to penalties. The good news is this is a “if you know you know” situation. If you are not sure what that means there is a good chance you are already doing the right thing because your content is guided by human interaction and your very real experiences that you want to share. If however you are using so many SEO tools to create content that becoming a cyborg is starting to appeal to you, I would strongly suggest taking a step back and taking a “Touch Grass” approach to your content strategy. Slip on your real-world experience and write from the heart. You don’t have to produce The Lord of the Rings or the Magna Carta for each new post, but try to come at it from a perspective that what you write needs to be engaging and influential in a real and authentic way.

A call to action for content with integrity, authenticity, and audience Focus

Google’s Helpfulness update is a call to action for creators to produce content with integrity, authenticity, and a focus on the audience. By aligning with Google’s guidance, content creators can ensure they are contributing positively to the vast pool of online information and standing out in the digital arena.

Helpful Links and resources on Raising the Bar for Content Quality:

Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content

Google Search Status Dashboard
https://status.search.google.com/products/rGHU1u87FJnkP6W2GwMi/history

Interested in seeing what SEOs are saying about the Helpfulness update on Reddit? Check out this thread started by Matt Diggety:

Thoughts on the Google "Helpful Content" Update
byu/matt_diggity inSEO

6 SEO Trends That are Bound to Rule the Coming Decade

Author: Hazel Raoult

Optimizing and ranking your website pre-2010 era was pretty easy. You’d just have to follow simple steps like getting your website up, throwing in a bunch of keywords, writing a bit about the topic, and Voila! Google would start ranking your website on top.

However, that’s not the case anymore. Also, due to the internet revolution, the number of websites that compete with each other to rank higher exploded. Due to these reasons, it started getting difficult for search engines to crawl and index the massive database of the internet.

Today, the Google search index contains hundreds of billions of web pages and is well over 100,000,000 gigabytes. Thus, it needs a formidable way to evaluate and rank each page.

The evolution of Search Engine Optimization as seen in the last decade that ended with 2020 was, if described in one word, stellar.

Search Engines, especially Google have improved their quality and user experience by shifting their focus from keyword-oriented to quality-oriented results. And as the days pass by, SEO will keep getting evolved as and when new trends emerge.

Meanwhile, let’s see some of the SEO trends that are bound to rule the coming decade.

6 SEO Trends That Will Dominate the SERP Ranking for Coming Decade

1. Content Quality & User Intent

Yes, content quality has long been here and affects significantly on the SERP rankings. However, many websites haven’t adopted this as their SEO mantra. They are still focused on short-term SEO gains through building backlinks, optimizing technical SEO, or doing digital PR.

However, these are not suitable for long-term SEO gains. Also, due to the massive size of the database, the Google algorithm will only rank pages that offer remarkable quality on a consistent basis.

Websites creating generic content will have lower chances of ranking than the ones that publish unique, quality content on topics not covered by others previously.

One way to adopt this in your competitive content marketing strategy is by researching well for the user intent of your target audiences to scour unique topics. Now, organize and prioritize these notions by relevance and cover them one by one.

The quality content doesn’t necessarily have to be SEO-friendly but it must fulfill the users’ intent and their expectations. And if the industry leaders are to be believed, Google has long been working to detect the intent behind every search users make.

Thus, considering the value of content quality and user intent it encapsulates, this trend is bound to rule the coming years as a SERP ranking signal.

2. SEO Automation

From admin workflows to IT services and marketing, automation has proven its effectiveness. SEO practices such as website audits, competitor analysis, search intent detection, and many others have already been automated. And from 2022 onwards, it’ll become more widespread as more SEO professionals around the world increasingly adopt automation with open arms.

Driven by AI and machine learning, SEO automation can intelligently do technical audits to scour issues by content type. Also, many SEO experts utilize SEO automation as quality assurance for their SEO services.

Moreover, AI-powered automation tools monitor potential SEO issues in real-time and warn as soon as possible to eliminate and resolve them beforehand. The SEO automation trend is continually picking up the pace. And it has gone from ‘nice to have’ to necessary when dealing with larger and more complex sites.

3. Mobile & Page Experience

Not so recently, Google had announced the mobile-first indexing for the whole web. And recently, it has started implementing a page experience update that aims to rank sites with better user experience scores for both mobile and web.

Thanks to this update, the entirety of the mobile and web, from the discovery phase to engagement, everything will correlate and be in sync to offer the best possible page experience.

The ripple effects of mobile-first indexing and page experience updates will cause a massive re-organization in the SERP ranking that we all can witness in the coming years. Thus, brands should start preparing their website from the onwards to not lose any significant SERP rankings.

4. SERP Localization

As per Brightlocal’s Consumer Survey, consumers that use Google for local business evaluation increased from 63% in 2020 to 81% in 2021. Also, the following graph shows that 21% of consumers use the internet every day to find information about local businesses and 99% have done so in the last year.

(Image Source)

From these statistics, we can idealize that Google will focus more on presenting localized content in the SERP results over the next few years. Already, the location-specific pages or content is outranking those who ranked at the top and focused more on global reach.

This will keep on picking up and become more obvious in the coming decade. Thus, websites with global target audiences will have to necessarily form a local presence to rank higher on localized SERP.

5. Metaverse Marketing

Metaverse marketing may seem like a new trend in the marketing sphere that’s thought to fade away with time. However, it has come a long way from being just another buzzword to a revolutionary strategy for marketers.

Metaverse can be conceptualized as the successor of the internet that we enjoy today. It brings the capabilities of the internet, virtual reality, and augmented reality together. As per Statista, there will be around a billion AR active users in 2022, which is supposed to cross the 1.7 billion mark in 2024.

Just like how brands optimize their web presence to get found on the current internet, they’ll have to find different ways to optimize their presence on the next generation of the internet i.e. Metaverse. A visual content strategy will play an important role in getting found on the Metaverse.

Audit your content strategy to find and optimize it with new content types and can implement AR, VR, and 3D experiences to leverage Metaverse marketing.

6. Voice & Visual Search

As mentioned in the previous point, visual as well as voice search will take precedence over the normal search approach.

As per one report, more than one-third of Americans use a voice search feature while 71% of consumers prefer making a voice search over typing. Another report projects that Google Smart Speaker Sales will hit 140 million in 2025.

This foreshadows that Google will prioritize the sites optimized for voice search and will feature them in the snippet results or show/speak when searched using smart assistants.

The same will apply for the visual search. After the introduction of Google Lens, the search engine giant is becoming better at interpreting SEO-optimized images day by day. The image recognition software will enable users to search for products and other things on the web.

Also, Google Discover uses images for tailored results. Thus, it’s predicted that normal search may start to resemble a lot more like Discover results filled with visuals.

Conclusion

Trends are known for their quick appeal when they appear first in the market. Many of those trends become obsolete after a certain period or when they are no longer relevant to the market. However, the above-mentioned SEO trends have been here for a few years now and we believe they’ll continue to be relevant in the coming years.

As more research and development are being conducted in the same direction, many of the trends listed in this article will go mainstream and rule the coming decade. Thus, brands need to sharpen their knowledge horns to drive sustainable and meaningful growth in the near future.

Author Bio

Hazel Raoult is a freelance marketing writer and works with PRmention. She has 6+ years of experience in writing about business, entrepreneurship, marketing, and all things SaaS. Hazel loves to split her time between writing, editing, and hanging out with her family.

7 Ways Coding Can Help Your SEO

Author: Jasmine Gordon

Nowadays, the world of digital marketing is a competitive battlefield. Like any battlefield, it’s crucial to be fully equipped, which means having a strategic content plan and effective marketing tools.

Indeed, content is king. However, some strategies must not be missed to ensure optimized search engine rankings. Coding is one of them.

For many webmasters, search engine optimization (SEO) is about boosting specific on-page variables to maximize the chances of being ranked for keywords or soliciting backlinks from qualified sources to strengthen off-page SEO. However, coding also plays a critical role in your site’s optimization. By harnessing coding for SEO, you are like building something on a robust foundation.

To help you understand why coding is essential when doing SEO, we’ll walk you through their relationship and how the former can boost your SEO. Let’s dive right in!

Does one need coding skills for SEO?

SEO doesn’t essentially require hands-on coding. But learning to code is a huge plus.

With coding skills and knowledge of technical SEO, one has a significant advantage in better optimizing a website and understanding technical issues that need addressing. A good understanding of SEO source code can also help a professional determine how to display a webpage content and peek at your competitors’ website source code.

To make the most of SEO practices, it’s crucial to have a good technical infrastructure, which includes programming. This programming is essential to optimize a site, especially for Google and cross-platform compatibility.

How coding helps SEO

SEO and coding are profoundly linked, thus providing benefits to each other. To know more about these benefits, let’s discuss how coding helps SEO.

1. Coding facilitates a seamless page experience for users

Page Experience involves a set of factors that measures how satisfactory it is for users to interact with a page beyond its pure information value.

Search engines like Google favor what works for the users better. So, with proper and well-written code, you ensure hassle-free webpage interaction. This means having a technical front that complements your user interface. With this, your website becomes more favorable for Google, thus resulting in improved search rankings.

2. Coding makes indexing easier for the web crawlers

Many say that SEO professionals must have even a little knowledge of HTML and CSS. This may be primarily because making changes to or improving the HTML tags, microdata, and website architecture, allow search engine algorithms to locate, understand, and rank the website faster.

3. Code validation allows for search engine spider accessibility

Search engine spider programs usually have serious limitations in terms of crawling and indexing your website. Given that they only effectively read text, other elements on your site—image, video, audio, and script files—can avert important site text from being crawled and indexed properly.

Should you notice that many parts of your text are missing from your web pages, if you have code validation skills, you can better cross-check if search engines can find your data.

4. Create SEF URL rewrites with coding

Making search-engine-friendly (SEF) URLs, which you can rewrite with coding, is advantageous for both SEO and user experience. To reduce the number of inapposite characters and codes in your URL, you’ll have to modify your website’s codes. But this depends on the specific platform your site runs on. If your site uses WordPress or another content management system (CMS), you will have access to internal dashboards or plugins that will permit you to make important changes. When it comes to open source e-commerce platforms though, you may need to address your permalink structure within your hypertext access file.

5. Coding allows you to establish 301 redirects for proper PageRank flow

When it comes to setting up proper 301 redirects, From an SEO perspective, there are two coding situations to consider in terms of setting up effective 301 redirects. First, you utilize this code to notify search engines that both world wide web (www) and non-www URL versions should be treated equally. Second, should you ever move content within your website, you establish a 301 redirect to inform search engine spiders of the action. By doing so, you reduce the potential loss of PageRank that may occur when backlinks can no longer resolve to your previous URLs.

6. Accelerate loading times with combined code files

In recent times, site loading speed has been considered as a huge search engine ranking factor per Google’s stated desire to reward swift sites in the search results. Unfortunately, if your site is built using many different scripts for additional functionality purposes, loading all the various code files will significantly bring down your site’s performance. To minimize long loading times due to excess script demands, it’s best to combine these individual code sheets into a smaller number of files. This way, you also improve your site’s overall SEO.

7. Utilize “rel=canonical” to deal with duplicate content issues

You may have duplicate content issues if you use a CMS program like Magento, Joomla, or WordPress to build your site. Every time you generate a new post for your website, these systems may automatically create any or all of the following options:

  • Yoursite.com/post-name.html
  • Yoursite.com/category1/post-name.html
  • Yoursite.com/archive/date/post-name.html

Since these different URLs redirect to the same page, search engines may subject you to duplicate content filters within their platforms, especially if you don’t specify exactly how each URL should be regarded or treated. To instruct search engines to better handle your URLs, you can use the “rel=canonical” tag. You can add this feature to your website’s <head> section and tell the search engines to disregard, redirect, or index a specific page for the URL.

In a Nutshell

SEO and coding altogether may be a complex concept, but by considering the best practices and benefits above, you can effectively optimize your search engine rankings and achieve your marketing goals.