Why Your Blog Post Isn’t Working and How to Fix It FAST
Hi, I’m Nikki Pilkington. My site is https://nikki-pilkington.com/ and in this episode of “SEO F**king What” I focus on the harsh reality many business owners face: pouring hours into writing blog posts only to see:
- No results
- No traffic
- No engagement
A talk about solid SEO foundations, not just good writing, to ensure blog content gets found and drives results. Some common mistakes include; clever but unsearchable titles, missing metadata, weak or absent internal links, and lack of clear calls to action—that hold back otherwise strong content from ranking on Google.
You'll get a practical, no-nonsense SEO checklist to transform your blog post process, boost visibility, and finally see your efforts pay off.
📍REMEMBER:
- Ditch clever titles for clear, searchable ones
- Don’t skip the basics—metadata matters
- Structure and internal links are your secret weapon
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Transcript
You spent two hours writing a blog post, you're really
Speaker:fucking proud of it. You hit publish and then
Speaker:absolutely nothing happens. Sound familiar?
Speaker:Let's fix it. This is SEO. Fucking what?
Speaker:I'm Nikki and I've been doing SEO for over 30 years,
Speaker:before most people knew what it was, before it was even called that.
Speaker:I help small businesses and B2B companies get found
Speaker:on Google and actually make money from their website, not
Speaker:just traffic money. Today we're doing something a little
Speaker:bit different. There's no rant about a LinkedIn guru,
Speaker:no horror story about an agency charging you three grand a
Speaker:month to do fuck all. Today, I'm handing you something
Speaker:useful. A checklist. No waffle. Work
Speaker:through it before you publish every blog post you ever write.
Speaker:Because here's what I see Constantly, business owners put
Speaker:in real time and effort into blog content. Writing
Speaker:it, agonizing over it, getting someone to proofread
Speaker:it, and then publishing it in a state that means Google and
Speaker:other search engines are never going to find it. And it's
Speaker:not because it's badly written. It's because the SEO foundations
Speaker:aren't there. So I'm going to walk you through every single
Speaker:thing that needs to be right before a blog post is published.
Speaker:Keep your phone out, write this down, or go to my website and grab
Speaker:the checklist version. But don't just listen to this and do fuck all
Speaker:with it. That's exactly what most people do. And then they
Speaker:wonder why their blog has 47 posts and no traffic.
Speaker:So let's get into it.
Speaker:First thing before anything else. Your title.
Speaker:Is it something people will type into Google? It sounds
Speaker:obvious, but it isn't. I see clever titles all
Speaker:the time. Witty titles, titles the business owner
Speaker:loves because it's a bit of wordplay or a cultural reference.
Speaker:And Google and other search engines has
Speaker:absolutely no fucking idea what it's about.
Speaker:If your blog post is about how to choose an accountant for your small business,
Speaker:your title needs to say something like, how to choose an accountant for your
Speaker:small business. Boring. Yep.
Speaker:Effective. Absolutely.
Speaker:Clever titles don't rank. I'll say it again,
Speaker:because people hate hearing it. Clever titles do
Speaker:not rank. The words someone types into a
Speaker:search engine are the words that the search engine looks for in
Speaker:your content. If those words aren't in your
Speaker:title, you're making Google's job harder. And
Speaker:Google doesn't appreciate that. Think about the words
Speaker:a human being would type into a search box when they have a problem
Speaker:your blog post solves. Use those words.
Speaker:That's your title. That's your H1,
Speaker:then we have metadata. There are two things here. You met
Speaker:a title and your meta description. Your meta
Speaker:title, sometimes called an SEO title, is what shows up as
Speaker:the clickable link in Google search results. It should be
Speaker:written as something people search for,
Speaker:ideally a question, because questions match search intent.
Speaker:It should not have your company name in it. Nobody's searching for your
Speaker:company name when they're looking for the problem you're writing about.
Speaker:Keep it under 60 characters or Google will chop it off and
Speaker:replace the end with an ellipsis, which looks awful and wastes your
Speaker:click potential. Your meta
Speaker:description is a little bit of text underneath the link in search results.
Speaker:It's not a direct ranking factor, but it absolutely
Speaker:affects whether someone clicks on your result or scrolls past it. It
Speaker:should make someone want to click, tell them what they're going to get.
Speaker:Keep it under about155.5 characters.
Speaker:Write it like a human, not like a robot. Summarizing the post
Speaker:if you're using a plugin like Rank Math or Yoast, and you should be
Speaker:using one if you're on WordPress, this is where you fill those fields
Speaker:in. Don't leave them blank and let Google guess. Google's
Speaker:guess is usually worse than yours. Every
Speaker:blog post really needs an image, and the image needs two things.
Speaker:One, it should be relevant to the post, not a generic stock
Speaker:photo of a person smiling at a laptop. Something that relates
Speaker:to what you're writing about. And 2 the alt
Speaker:tag needs to describe the image accurately. The
Speaker:alt tag exists for accessibility. It's what a
Speaker:screen reader reads out to someone who can't see the image. Get that
Speaker:right first and then give your keyphrase
Speaker:fits naturally into that description. Put it in. If
Speaker:it doesn't fit naturally, don't force it. An alt tag
Speaker:that reads Blog post, SEO Checklist, Keyword, Digital
Speaker:Marketing Tips is not a description of an image. It's
Speaker:spam. And let's think about the structure,
Speaker:because this is the stuff that most people get wrong, and this is where it
Speaker:gets a little bit more involved. So stay with me. Your
Speaker:H1 you get one one H1 per page. That's
Speaker:it. Should include your target keyphrase. Should make clear what the post
Speaker:is about. If you've written a title for the post and then your
Speaker:H1 says something different, sort that out before you publish
Speaker:your introduction. First one or two paragraphs. Get your key
Speaker:phrase and search intent in as early as possible. Ideally
Speaker:the first sentence. Definitely the first paragraph. And
Speaker:for the love of everything that is holi do not open
Speaker:with this blog post is about I don't know who started
Speaker:that, but it needs to stop. Just get into it.
Speaker:Your first H2 your H2s are your section headings.
Speaker:The first one should ideally include your keyphrase or a
Speaker:close variation of it to match search intent.
Speaker:Google knows that job hunting and finding a job mean the
Speaker:same thing, so you don't need to stuff the exact phrase in robotically.
Speaker:Subsequent H2s should make sense. You might
Speaker:have to use variations of your keyphrase. They might not even have the key
Speaker:phrase in them, but they have to make sense. The heading and the
Speaker:content beneath it work together. Don't write an H2 about
Speaker:one thing and then write content about something else underneath it.
Speaker:H3s they only ever sit underneath an H2,
Speaker:never on their own. Use them where a section has distinct sub points.
Speaker:Don't create H3s just to break up a wall of text. If you
Speaker:need to break up a wall of text, write shorter paragraphs.
Speaker:Bullet points. Use them where content is genuinely a
Speaker:list or a sequence. Don't use them to break up every
Speaker:paragraph. A blog post written entirely in bullet points
Speaker:is not a blog post. It's a slide deck that got lost.
Speaker:And one more thing on structure. Have a look at your H2S and
Speaker:ask yourself honestly, did I create any of these just to break
Speaker:up the page, rather than because they introduce a new section?
Speaker:If the answer is yes, delete them. They're dead weight.
Speaker:You should be using variations of your keyphrase across the whole post,
Speaker:not just the exact phrase every time. This avoids over
Speaker:optimization, which is a real thing and can actually hurt
Speaker:you. Google doesn't like keyword stuffing, and it
Speaker:reads more naturally for human beings who are also, you
Speaker:know, reading your content. Think about all the
Speaker:ways someone might describe the thing you're writing about. Use those
Speaker:words throughout. Don't Write SEO checklists 74 times.
Speaker:Write checklist for blog posts what to check before you publish blog
Speaker:post SEO Mix it up
Speaker:and then we go to internal links. And this one is so fucking
Speaker:underused it makes me want to cry. Every blog
Speaker:post you publish should link to at least two other
Speaker:relevant pages or posts on your site. More if possible,
Speaker:make them relevant links, links that genuinely help the reader
Speaker:go somewhere useful. Next. And it works both ways.
Speaker:And this is the thing that most people miss. When you
Speaker:publish something new, go back to existing posts
Speaker:or pages that are relevant and add a link to
Speaker:the new one. Your new post shouldn't be sitting there in
Speaker:isolation with no other page on your site pointing to it.
Speaker:That's not how a well structured site works. And think
Speaker:about your anchor text. The clickable words in your link need
Speaker:to describe what the link to page is about. Not click
Speaker:here, not read more, not find out more about our services.
Speaker:Something specific. If you're linking to your Executive
Speaker:Coaching services page, the link text should say executive
Speaker:coaching services or how our executive coaching program
Speaker:works. That tells Google exactly what's on the other end of that
Speaker:link. Click here. Tells Google fucking
Speaker:nothing. If your blog post mentions another post
Speaker:you've written, link to it. If it mentions one of your services
Speaker:or programs, link to it. Every time you name
Speaker:something that lives on your website, ask yourself whether there's a link
Speaker:there. If not, add one. These internal
Speaker:connections are free, they cost you 30 seconds and they do
Speaker:real SEO work. I will make a point here.
Speaker:Don't link every version of the keyword to your page.
Speaker:One link, one page is enough.
Speaker:And then call to action. Every post needs one.
Speaker:One call to action at the end. The Internet has made
Speaker:us all fucking stupid. We have no attention span.
Speaker:We get to the end of something, we don't know what to do next. We
Speaker:click back. Tell your reader what you want them to do next.
Speaker:Link to a relevant service page, link to a course, link to your
Speaker:contact page, link to your social media profiles. Link to where
Speaker:the hell you like. Just send them somewhere. Because if you leave a
Speaker:reader at the end of a post with no obvious next step, they close
Speaker:the tab. You've done all that work and then you've let them walk out the
Speaker:door. The call to action doesn't need to be pushy or
Speaker:salesy. It just needs to exist. This
Speaker:was useful. Here's where you can find out more about working with me. Done.
Speaker:So that's the checklist. And I know what some of you are thinking. It's a
Speaker:lot of stuff. Yep, it is. But most of
Speaker:this is stuff you do once when you set the post up. Not stuff you
Speaker:rewrite for every single paragraph. The structure, the
Speaker:metadata, the alt text, the internal links. Before I get to the
Speaker:homework, a quick word from me.
Speaker:I'm available as an SEO speaker. If you've got an event,
Speaker:a conference, training day, team workshop, and you want
Speaker:someone who really knows their stuff and won't bore your audience to tears
Speaker:with slide after slide of jargon, get in touch. Find me
Speaker:on LinkedIn or through the website at nikkihigh from
Speaker:pilkington.com right, let's get back
Speaker:to it. Here's your Homework. Take
Speaker:your last three blog posts, not future posts, the ones already on your site,
Speaker:and go through that checklist. Against each one, there's a link to a
Speaker:PDF version in the show notes. Start with the title.
Speaker:Is it something people search for? Or is it something you just like the sound
Speaker:of? Then the metadata. Is the meta title there an under
Speaker:60 characters? Is there a meta description? Does it make someone
Speaker:want to Click? Then the structure 1. H1 key
Speaker:phrasing the introduction First, H2 using the key phrase
Speaker:internal links pointing to at least two other pages. And finally
Speaker:the call to action. Is there one? Where does it go?
Speaker:You'll probably find that at least one of those three posts is missing something.
Speaker:Probably more than one thing. Fix them. Don't publish three
Speaker:new posts while those three are sitting there broken. Go back and fix
Speaker:them first. This is exactly the kind of thing that makes a
Speaker:real difference to whether your content ranks. It's not writing
Speaker:more, it's not publishing faster. It's getting the foundations
Speaker:right on what you've already got.
Speaker:And that's it for this one. If it was useful, don't just keep it to
Speaker:yourself. Share it with whoever writes your blog. Share it with your
Speaker:marketing manager. Share it with the person on your team who hits publish.
Speaker:They'll thank you for it. Probably make sure you're following
Speaker:SEO fucking what wherever you listen so you don't miss the next episode.
Speaker:And if you want me to take a look at your blogs and tell you
Speaker:what's working and what isn't, you can find me in the show notes.
Speaker:Until next time, get found, make money. And for
Speaker:fuck's sake, check your alt text.
