A ridiculous thing happened a few weeks ago. We have an agency client that we run SEO campaigns for in Los Angeles and New York and after 6 months of grind we got them to #1 for a critical keyword:
"service + los + angeles"
Ahrefs shows our potential clicks should be 500-600 per month increase yet in GA4 we are seeing an actual increase of 0.
ZERO.
FUCKING … ZERO.
How could this be?
Well, the reality is since Google’s March 2024 update I’m seeing more and more terms go this way. For this particular term we rank #1 for there is now 9 Map listings on that SERP which means our #1 position is so far down the page nobody ever gets to it.
The Verge have a great article about this and they are coining the term “Google Zero”. When Google actually stops giving you any traffic whatsoever for a query you rank for. I’m calling the internet moving forwards “Post Google”.
Post Google is what we need to do, to exist online, once we no longer receive organic traffic anymore from the Search Engine that is still responsible for 81.95% of all searches. And no I’m not talking about buying Ads.
What’s the future for us?
The future is building your own walled garden. Make users start on your website and search using your Search. Not Google’s. This kind of already exists since for a lot of us, “shopping” searches begin on Amazon and “travel” or “best restaurants” searches begin on TikTok.
Due to my love of Python coding, scraping tools and headless browsers, I’ve been collecting datasets for years and a lot of them centred around lists of Best Website Designs because I could use them for design inspiration. I have collected a mass of “Startup” style websites so I decided it’s time to put the collection online and invite other creatives, founders and designers in to the mix.
Introducing…
The Startup about Startups.
Introducing the Startup Heroes
Today I’m launching Startup Heroes.
It’s a Startup where you can list your Startup. It’s like a Startup Directory crossed with a CSS design gallery.
I’m pulling data from various business database sources and merging it with web lookup tools like Wappylyser and ThisRuns to showcase what tech each startup is running on their website.
I am not interested in personal data, so we are a profit-first business. You have to PAY to list your Startup but it is free to search our index and you don’t need to make an account to use the website.
I might add accounts later to let users add multiple Startups and create profiles, but the most data I ever want to have at my fingertips of a user is an email – the rest should never be sent to me. I don’t need it.
If you have a side-hustle, Startup, small business disrupting something interesting – get a free DA56 backlink and your own profile on Startup Heroes. Of course, sign up to our Newsletter to get Startups fired to your inbox every few days.