Why Your Website Isn't On Google (And Whose Job It Was)

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Your web designer said your new site was SEO-friendly.

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It probably is.

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That's not the same as anyone finding it, and nobody told you.

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This is SEO Fucking What.

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I'm Nikki.

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Over 30 years in this, back before it was called SEO, and I help

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small business owners actually make money from their websites.

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Today, I want to talk about two phrases that sound like the same

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thing and are absolutely fucking not.

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SEO-friendly and search engine optimised.

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You'll have seen the first one.

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It's on every web design proposal in the country.

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Fully responsive, SEO-friendly website.

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You read that, you nodded, you signed, and six months later, you're on the

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phone asking why you're not on Google.

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Back in episode six, I had a bit of a go at designers who charge

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two grand extra for installing a plugin and calling it SEO.

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This isn't that episode.

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This one is a bit fairer to designers because most of

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them aren't conning anyone.

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The problem is that no one ever sat down and agreed where the design

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job stops and the SEO job starts.

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You didn't agree it.

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They didn't agree it.

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The SEO didn't agree it, if you've got that far.

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And everything that falls into that little gap is the stuff

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that's keeping you off page one.

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So let's have a look at what the two phrases mean.

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So SEO-friendly means the site won't get in Google's way.

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Google and other search engines, of course, can find the pages,

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read them, tell a heading from a paragraph, and load the thing on

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a phone without it falling over.

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That's a capability.

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It's a site that can rank.

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Search engine optimised means the site has been built around what your

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customers actually type into Google.

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Somebody has looked at the searches, decided which page goes after which

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search, written the titles and headings and copy to match, and worked

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out how the site earns enough trust to sell to the people who find it.

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That isn't a capability.

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It's a set of decisions, and they're made with search data

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that your designer usually hasn't got and was never asked to find.

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It's a bit like a kitchen fitter.

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They can give you an awesome kitchen.

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Worktops are level, the oven's wired properly, your drawers close slowly,

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but they're not cooking your dinner.

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And if you never hired anyone to cook, you can't blame the

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kitchen fitter that you're hungry.

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An SEO-friendly site with no optimisation is a gorgeous kitchen

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with fuck all in the fridge.

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It's ready, it's just not doing anything.

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And this is what winds me up.

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SEO-friendly has turned into marketing copy.

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Every theme says it.

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Every page builder says it.

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Wix says it.

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Squarespace says it.

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The bloke on Fiverr says it.

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It means so little now that I've seen sites sold as SEO-friendly that were

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still telling Google not to index them.

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Friendly my arse.

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So there's a line, and let's draw it because this is where I think the line

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goes, and you're welcome to argue with me.

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The designer owns the build.

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Headings used for structure, not for making text big.

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One H1 per page, H2s that mark actual sections.

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If the designer picks an H2 because they like the font size, that's

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a build fault, not an SEO one.

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I did a whole episode on H1s and titles, episode 21, so I won't go round it again.

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It needs pages that load properly on a phone and don't take a fortnight.

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Hosting, image sizes, the plugins, and the theme that loads everything on every page.

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That's build.

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Sensible URLs, services/hr-consultancy, not ?page_id=4471 or copy-of-home-2.

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Taking the don't index this setting off before launch.

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Every platform has a way of keeping a site out of Google while it's

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being built, and somebody has to switch it off when it goes live.

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You would be amazed how many times this doesn't happen.

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Actually, if you listen to this show regularly, you won't be amazed.

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And then there's a redirect map.

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If there's an old site being replaced, every old address

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needs to point at its new home.

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I did an episode on that.

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It's episode 11 if you want the full rant.

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There needs to be a sitemap with real pages in it, not tag pages, test

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pages, and that thing called sample page that's been there since 2019.

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And then I think it's the designer's job to make sure that Search Console,

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Analytics, and the domain sit in your name, not the designer's.

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That was episode two, and it still matters.

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And once the designer's done their job, the SEO owns the

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strategy, the keyword research.

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So what people actually search and how they phrase it, which is never

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how you'd phrase it, by the way.

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The SEO owns deciding which page targets which search.

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So you haven't got three pages fighting each other for the same thing.

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Writing or briefing the meta titles and H1s based on that

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research, that's an SEO job.

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The content plan after launch, links, reputation, all the stuff that

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makes Google trust you more than the next person, that's an SEO's job.

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And watching it, fixing it, reporting on it months after months because

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a site doesn't rank on launch day.

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It ranks over months and only if someone keeps working on it.

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So there we have the designer's job and the SEO's job, but then

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there's a bit in the middle where it all kind of goes to shit.

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So who decides the H1 on your main service page?

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Because the designer's gonna drop in your tagline because it looks beautiful, but

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an SEO would change that to something that people would actually search.

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And because neither of them was asked which they're gonna do,

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who knows what's gonna happen.

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Who checks the copy?

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You wrote it, the designer pasted it in, and nobody compared a single

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word of it to a single search.

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Who writes the meta titles?

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The plugin generates "Home - Company Name", and nobody

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touches it again for five years.

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Who's watching launch week?

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Site goes live.

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The designer invoices.

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The SEO hasn't been hired yet, and nobody opens Search Console for a month.

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None of this is hard.

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None of it's expensive.

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It just doesn't belong to anybody.

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And the stuff that doesn't belong to anybody doesn't get done.

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After the break, the conversation to have with your designer before anybody

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draws a single wireframe so the gap never opens up in the first place.

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Right.

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Before anyone opens Figma, get these answered in writing, not

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in a nice chat over coffee that everyone remembers differently.

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Who's doing the keyword research and when?

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It needs to be done before the design, not after.

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If the answer is nobody, then your page plan is a guess with a nice font.

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Who writes the H1 and the meta title on each page?

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Not, "We'll sort it," someone's name.

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Who's going to write that?

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Who switches off the noindex at launch, and who checks it's actually gone?

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Ideally, two different people because the person who forgot is

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the person least likely to notice.

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Who builds the redirect map, and who tests it?

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Same rule, two people.

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Whose names are Search Console, Analytics, and the domain in?

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They should be in yours every time.

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What happens in the week after launch?

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Who's watching for errors?

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Who's checking pages are getting indexed?

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That's usually the SEO's job.

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When does the designer's job end, and what's in the handover?

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A date and a document so everyone knows when the baton's

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passed and who's holding it.

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And designers, if you're listening, I said in episode six that the designer

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who tells you, "I'll build it properly, but you'll need someone else for the

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SEO," is worth their weight in gold.

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It's still true.

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You don't have to do the SEO.

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Say so at the quote stage, say what you will do, and name who picks up the rest.

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That's not dodging the work, it's being a grown-up, and the client

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trusts you more for it, not less.

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And business owners, if your designer says, "Oh, don't worry,

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it's all SEO-friendly," don't argue.

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Just ask which of those seven things they're doing.

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Not to catch them out, so you know what's left over and who

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you need to hire to do it.

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So here's your homework for this week.

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Number one, check that you're not hiding from Google.

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and your domain into Google.

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If hardly anything comes back, you've got a problem.

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Then go to your homepage, right-click, View Source, and search for noindex.

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If it's sat there on a page you want people to find, ring someone today.

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Not next week, today.

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Number two, look at your homepage H1 and meta title.

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Do the 30-second check from episode 24 on the H1, then look at what your

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homepage says in Google's results.

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If it says "Home" or just your company name, that's nobody's job being done.

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Three, if you've had a new site in the last couple of years,

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ask for the redirect map.

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If the answer is, "The what?" You've got your answer.

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Open Search Console and look at how many pages are coming back as 404 not found.

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And number four, write the list.

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Designer, SEO, you.

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Who owns what?

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One page.

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Stick it somewhere you'll find it again, because the next time something

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breaks, that list stops a three-way blame argument before it starts.

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And look, none of this is a dig at designers.

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Good ones are worth every penny, and the best I've worked with are the ones

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who know exactly where their job stops.

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The problem was never the designer.

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It's a phrase on a proposal that sounds like a promise and isn't one.

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If you're a web designer or you're about to hire one, I've built

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something for exactly this problem.

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It's called the SEO Build Pack for Web Designers.

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It's the stuff I wish every designer had before they handed a site over.

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A client SEO brief to fill in before you design anything, a page plan with

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a worked example so every page has a search to go after, a build and launch

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checklist, a redirect map spreadsheet, a plain English handover document you

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can put your own logo on and send to the client, and a cheat sheet with answers

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to the SEO questions clients always ask.

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It works whether you build on WordPress, Squarespace, Webflow, Wix,

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Shopify, Framer, or anything else.

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It's £35, one payment.

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Use it on every project.

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No subscription, no course, nothing to upsell.

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It won't turn anybody into an SEO, and it doesn't pretend to.

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What it does is make sure the site you hand over can actually rank, and that you

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never get the, "Why aren't we on Google?"

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phone call again.

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Business owners, send the link to your designer.

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Designers, go and get it.

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The link's in the show notes.

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If this was useful, follow SEO Fucking What wherever you're listening

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and send it to your web designer.

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They'll either thank you or get very defensive, and both tell you something.

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Until next time, get found, make money, and go and check that fucking noindex tag.