An Interview About Something Much Bigger Than Search Rankings

International Business Times recently interviewed Royal Restrooms co-founder David Sauers about an issue we have been dealing with for more than a year: the sudden loss of our Google Business Profiles and much of the digital history that had accumulated around our company during more than two decades in business.

The article, titled How Royal Restrooms Is Approaching Online Visibility and Clearer Service Information, discusses suspended local profiles, customer reviews, photographs, outside companies hired to assist us, business categorization and the challenges of maintaining accurate information across third-party platforms. Interestingly, the published article was very careful not to specifically identify Google, instead referring more broadly to third-party platforms, business listings and online visibility.

We understand that editorial publications choose their own language and how they approach a story. At Royal Restrooms, however, we can be more specific about what happened to us because we lived through it.

Our Google Business Profiles disappeared.

For a company that began in 2004, that meant much more than losing a handful of listings on the internet. It meant losing access to a digital history that had taken approximately 20 years to build.

Thousands of Customers Helped Build That History

Royal Restrooms has served weddings, corporate events, festivals, construction projects, commercial renovations, emergency response operations and countless other projects throughout the United States. Over the years, customers left reviews, posted photographs, shared experiences and helped establish an online record of who we were and what we had accomplished.

That information mattered because it was not advertising written by us. Much of it came directly from customers.

A bride could see photographs another bride posted from her wedding. A contractor considering restroom trailers during a major commercial renovation could read what another customer experienced. An event planner could see our equipment operating at actual events rather than relying entirely on marketing photographs supplied by our company.

When those profiles disappeared, much of that customer-created history disappeared with them.

Some photographs existed only on those profiles. Thousands of reviews that had been accumulated over years were no longer visible. Locations that had established histories in their communities suddenly appeared very differently to someone searching for Royal Restrooms for the first time.

That is difficult to quantify on a spreadsheet because reputation is not simply a number.

This Was Never Just an SEO Problem

It would be easy to describe what happened as an SEO issue, but we believe that description dramatically understates the impact.

Today, a company’s digital presence is often the front door of the business. Before someone calls, they search. Before they request a proposal, they read reviews. Before they trust a company with their wedding, renovation, festival or emergency project, they want to know that the company is established and experienced.

When that history suddenly disappears, the business itself has not changed. The trucks are still there. The trailers are still there. The employees are still answering the phone. The customers are still being served. Twenty years of experience does not suddenly vanish.

But to someone discovering the company online for the first time, the picture can look completely different.

That is the part of this experience that concerns us the most.

Even Our Business Category Became Part of the Problem

There is another issue discussed in the International Business Times article that may seem small but is extremely important to Royal Restrooms.

How do you categorize what we do?

Royal Restrooms does not provide traditional porta potties. Our primary business is mobile restroom trailers with flushing porcelain toilets, sinks, mirrors, climate control and many of the features people associate with an actual indoor restroom.

Yet online business categories do not always make that distinction easy.

Terms such as portable sanitation or portable toilet service may technically place companies into a broad industry category, but they do not necessarily explain the actual product being offered. Someone searching for an air-conditioned bathroom for a wedding may not even know the words “restroom trailer.” Another customer may search for a temporary bathroom during a restaurant renovation, an outdoor bathroom with flushing toilets or mobile restrooms for a construction project.

That difference in language has pushed us to reconsider how we explain our business online.

We cannot assume customers know our industry’s terminology. We have to meet customers where they are searching and explain what Royal Restrooms actually provides.

Twenty Years of Experience Still Matters

One of the dangers of today’s digital marketplace is that a newly created company can sometimes appear beside, or even above, a business that has spent decades developing operational experience.

A website can be built quickly. Social media followers can be accumulated. Advertising can create immediate visibility. Artificial intelligence can generate enormous amounts of content.

Operational experience cannot be created overnight.

Royal Restrooms has spent more than 20 years learning the details that customers rarely think about until something goes wrong. Delivery logistics, placement, electrical requirements, water availability, waste management, trailer maintenance, event schedules, servicing, emergency response and customer support all happen behind the scenes.

That experience matters when you are servicing someone’s wedding. It matters when a restaurant or retail location is trying to remain open while its permanent restrooms are being remodeled. It matters when hundreds or thousands of people arrive at a festival. And it certainly matters when restroom and shower facilities are being deployed following a hurricane, natural disaster or other emergency.

Our challenge today is making sure the digital version of Royal Restrooms accurately communicates the experience of the real company behind it.

What This Experience Has Taught Us

If there is one lesson we believe every established business should take from our experience, it is that you cannot allow the history of your company to exist entirely on platforms you do not control.

For years, businesses were encouraged to build reviews, photographs, customer interactions and local visibility on major search platforms. That made sense because those were the places customers were looking.

We still believe reviews and business profiles are extremely important, but our experience has changed how we think about digital ownership.

Our website matters more than ever. Our own photographs matter. Our own articles matter. Our own customer stories matter. Our social channels, videos, press coverage and direct relationships with customers matter because together they create a much broader picture of who Royal Restrooms is.

The goal is not to abandon third-party platforms. They remain an important part of how customers discover businesses. The goal is to make certain that no single platform represents the entirety of a company’s reputation.

We Appreciate International Business Times Telling the Story

We appreciate International Business Times taking the time to interview us and bringing attention to Royal Restrooms’ experience. Their article approaches the situation primarily through the broader subjects of digital visibility, accurate business information and helping customers better understand the services we provide.

Those are important conversations.

For us, however, there is another part of the story that deserves to continue being discussed. When decades of customer reviews, photographs and business history can suddenly become unavailable, established businesses need better ways to understand what happened, correct problems and communicate with the platforms that increasingly influence how consumers discover them.

We are continuing to rebuild what was lost while also building something stronger.

Royal Restrooms was not created by a search engine, a business listing or an algorithm. It was built over more than two decades through employees showing up, trailers being delivered, customers trusting us and thousands of events and projects being successfully completed.

Our digital presence should tell that story.

And we intend to make sure it does.  You can read the article here on International Business Times.