Ten Times Faster, and Still Not Fast Enough

A few days ago I was sent an IG reel by my colleague at Calidascope. It was around 60 seconds in length, about a little button Google had released, and it had me singing, in my head, “The Times They Are a-Changin’” by Bob Dylan. With one little change. In my head it sounded something like this — “The speed of change it is increasing”.

The little Google button (the Google “Preferred Source” button) isn’t particularly revolutionary, as in, it’s not going to change the world in a hurry, but it is a neat little button that automatically drops into the bottom of a blog post, and does the following:

By tapping the button the reader will effectively be letting Google know that they trust your site. That they like your material, and that they’re happy to see more of it in the future. In simple English, Google will give your content more weight in the reader’s own search results.

For those of you who’d prefer that in a list, here it is:

• Your posts/articles/stories are more likely to appear in Google’s “Top Stories” for those readers, marked with a “preferred” badge.

• When Google’s AI Overviews or AI Mode cite your content, readers who have chosen you will see the same badge.

• It turns one-off visitors into a loyal audience, a bit like a follow or a subscribe, but inside the Google Search ecosystem.

• It costs you nothing, and it doesn’t change anything for readers who don’t click it.

Once you’ve inserted the code into all the right places, the button appears on every article/post automatically, including new ones, so there’s nothing extra for anyone to do when publishing a new post/article.

There’s also a simple link version you can add to newsletters and social posts (I haven’t tested that one yet).

One little click does all of that. Very, very cool.

DON’T BE MISLED BY ‘LITTLE BUTTON’

There is some work to be done to get it working, and a couple of boxes to tick to ensure your site is eligible.

I started with the official documentation (tap here).

Five Years ago, I wouldn’t have stood a chance getting this working on a WordPress site (it was almost the only thing I knew). I’d easily have spent 8 hours Googling and reading, and phoning a friend to work out what it all meant, and exactly where the 2 lines of code had to go.

This week I chose 3 sites, on 3 different platforms (WordPress, Squarespace, Netlify) and had them all up and running in 90 minutes.

HOW I DID IT

First stop was my Claude (I say ‘my Claude’ because it’s not the same as yours). I dropped in the official documentation URL and asked my Claude to confirm that what I heard on the IG reel was correct, and if my Claude could help me implement. I knew the answer before I asked, but it’s how I roll.

We then had a short conversation to be sure that the 3 sites I’d selected might benefit.

• My own site - Netlify. I test all new things I discover here, before adding them anywhere else.

• Space for Giants - Squarespace. An organisation that focusses on human-elephant conflict (HEC), as they write articles regularly.

• Champagne Castle Hotel - WordPress. A hotel in the Central Drakensberg that has a ‘news’ section that is added to monthly.

80 minutes later (after a 10 minute conversation with my Claude) and it was all working, just like the instructions said it would.

A FEW IMPORTANT THINGS I LEARNED

Things are moving really quickly at the moment. New ‘neat little buttons’ and gazillions of other very cool and useful tools are being created and churned out daily. Keeping up with change at this speed has been my biggest challenge, and my favourite one.

As I reflect on this exercise, I’m blown away by the numbers. From 3 days of work (assuming I could even do 3 different platforms) to all 3, perfectly executed in 90 minutes. That’s around ten to fifteen times faster. I did feel like a demi-god (think Maui from Moana) for a few moments.

In my ‘old world’, working out how to do something took far longer than the doing itself. In my ‘new world’ getting things done has become the far easier and faster part. I’m now having to spend time on what I see as the important bits. Sifting through all the new ‘buttons’, assessing their value for a client, creating a solid business case, and then writing a clear brief, so that my Claude can implement. I’m doing more strategic work, and less intensive execution.

I don’t know about you, but I’m really loving all of this. I’m feeling more empowered and alive than I have in the longest time. While a fair chunk of the planet is worrying about AI destroying humans, I’ve simply moved to a new seat, in a new department, in a different building, thinking about new and exciting things, and getting more valuable work done in less time.

And here’s the irony in all of this. My Claude has made me ten times faster, and I still wish I could work four times faster.

Hey, Bob. The times aren’t just a-changin’. The speed of change, it is increasing. And I’m humming along.

#NufSed