I never set out to rank for “Coleraine BID”. I wasn’t chasing keywords. I was simply writing about what was happening — the non-payment of agreements, the silence from the current directors, and the strange way organisations go quiet when things get uncomfortable.

But here we are. Post after post, the search rankings began to shift. “Coleraine BID” started appearing more and more in my analytics. People were finding me through these posts — not because I’d optimised anything, not because I’d paid for ads, but because I kept writing about what was true, specific and ongoing.

It turns out consistency and candour are powerful SEO tools.

There’s something rather ironic about it. The organisation itself — with all its resources, PR reach and funding — is fading from the search results. Meanwhile, a handful of posts written by someone simply asking questions and sharing facts are beginning to dominate the conversation online.

But then again, I am a digital marketer — I do know how to gain search rankings and drive traffic for businesses. Still, this wasn’t a campaign. It was just me sharing what was happening, in real time, without polish or spin.

That’s the thing about the web: silence doesn’t protect your reputation. It amplifies other voices — especially the steady, factual ones.

I never expected to become any kind of authority on “Coleraine BID”. I just didn’t want the story to disappear into the fog. Yet now, anyone curious enough to search for it will find a living record — built post by post, month by month, in plain sight.

There’s a lesson here. When institutions stop speaking, the internet doesn’t go quiet. It simply listens to someone else.