Is It Time to Rethink SEO? Welcome to the Age of DDO

We’ve been hear­ing the term SEO (Search Engine Opti­miza­tion) for decades. It’s a sta­ple in dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing, espe­cial­ly for con­trac­tors. But here we are in 2025, and the way peo­ple search, dis­cov­er, and decide has evolved — fast.

Hon­est­ly, I’m not the first to say it, and I won’t be the last: it might be time to expand how we think about it.

Let’s call it what it’s becoming:

👉 DDO — Dig­i­tal Dis­cov­ery Optimization

Because rank­ing on Google alone? It’s just one piece of the puz­zle now.

SEO Is Still Alive and Well

Let me be very clear:

We’re not giv­ing up on SEO. Not at all.

You still need:

• A fast, mobile-friend­ly website
• Great writ­ten con­tent that educates
• Blog posts that answer questions
• Loca­tion pages, ser­vice pages, trust-build­ing content

SEO is still a foun­da­tion­al piece of your dig­i­tal pres­ence. But it’s no longer enough by itself — espe­cial­ly if you rely heav­i­ly on leads from the internet.

The New Real­i­ty: Beyond the Search Bar

Con­trac­tors are telling me they feel it — that spir­it of over­whelm. It’s real. We’re in a shift where cus­tomers are find­ing what they need in new ways.

Search doesn’t just hap­pen on Google any­more. It hap­pens on:

• YouTube

• Red­dit

• Tik­Tok

• Chat­G­PT and Gemini

• Local apps and niche directories

Peo­lare NOW ask­ing ​“best painter near me” or ​“old­est painter that does his­toric restora­tions near me” to an AI assis­tant — or watch a 30-sec­ond YouTube video before mak­ing a call.

From Hur­dle to Opportunity

The con­trac­tors who embrace tech­nol­o­gy don’t view it as a bur­den. They see it as a springboard.

They:

• Edu­cate their audi­ence with help­ful info

• Record videos and walkthroughs

• Post drone shots or time-laps­es of their work

• Build trust long before the estimate

In oth­er words, they’ve start­ed act­ing like dig­i­tal media com­pa­nies… that just hap­pen to paint houses.

What I’ve Seen After 16+ Years

Many of the paint­ing com­pa­nies I’ve worked with over the past 16 years came to me because they want­ed to stay sharp and grow. And I’ve watched them do just that.

Oth­ers… got stuck. They fought change. They resist­ed the tools that could have helped them.

That doesn’t mean they failed — some are still run­ning great lifestyle busi­ness­es with a hand­ful of painters and steady income. And that’s awe­some! But even those com­pa­nies need to stay on their toes. The econ­o­my shifts. Win­ters slow down. Com­peti­tors adapt.

The New­com­ers Are Hustling

And then there are the new guys.

They didn’t have decades of repeat/​referral work. So they went all-in on:

• Google Reviews

• Strong brand­ing

• Social con­tent

• Video

• Embrac­ing the uncomfortable

And it worked. In a few short years, they’re com­pet­ing with com­pa­nies who’ve been around a long time — push­ing the vet­er­ans to reeval­u­ate how they want to show up.

So… What Kind of Busi­ness Do You Want?

You get to decide.

But if you’re aim­ing to grow, you can’t afford to ignore the shift.

That means con­tin­u­ing with strong SEO, and expand­ing into DDO—Dig­i­tal Dis­cov­ery Opti­miza­tion.
It means being curi­ous, flex­i­ble, and open to how peo­ple dis­cov­er busi­ness­es today.

It means rec­og­niz­ing that:

• SEO still matters

• But so do answers on AI tools

• And being seen across more than just Google

Let’s stop see­ing all of this as a chal­lenge — and start see­ing it as a big opportunity.

Ready to evolve?