Your Portfolio Page Title Is KILLING Your SEO

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Go and look at your case studies page or your portfolio page.

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Does the title just say case studies or portfolio?

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I thought so.

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Let's go.

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This is SEO Fucking What.

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I'm Nikki, 30 years in SEO, and today I'm going after the most wasted pages on your

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entire website, your portfolio page, your case studies pages, your testimonials,

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whichever of those you've got.

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And this is what made me want to do this episode.

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I've mentioned case studies three times on this show.

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I've told you your service pages should link to them.

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I've told you they should sit properly in your site structure.

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I've told you they're the kind of page that backs up everything else you do.

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But I've never really told you what to do about the SEO on them.

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So that's today, because these pages should be doing a fuck

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ton more work than they are, and almost no one sets them up properly.

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The first problem is usually that your portfolio or case studies main page

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has the world's most generic title.

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So start with the top level page, the one that lists everything.

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Go and look at the meta title right now.

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Remember, you hover your cursor above the browser, and that's what appears there.

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I'll wait while you do that.

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Does it say "portfolio" and then your company name, or "case

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studies" and then your company name?

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Yeah, course it does.

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So think about what you've just done.

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Every single company in this country with a portfolio page

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has that exact same title.

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Everyone.

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The wedding photographer, the structural engineer, the branding agency, the

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bloke who fits kitchens, all of you sitting there with identical titles

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competing with each other for a word that describes a type of page

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rather than a type of business.

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You've got about 60 characters in a meta title, give or take.

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You've used nine of them and told Google absolutely fuck all.

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So let's use them.

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What about "small business accountancy case studies", or

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"charity video production portfolio", or "HR coaching testimonials"?

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Now Google knows what's on the page.

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Now I know what's on the page,

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and now you're competing with people in your actual niche instead of every

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business in Britain that owns a website.

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And the same goes for your H1, by the way.

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If the heading on the page just says "Our Work" in a nice font, that's a design

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decision, not a communication one.

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Make it say what the work is.

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And while I'm here, testimonials.

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I nearly forgot the testimonials page when I planned this episode, which

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tells you something about how invisible these pages often are, even to me.

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Same rules, same problems.

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"Testimonials" tells nobody anything.

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The second error that most people have is that each individual case study

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or portfolio page is named after the company you've done the work for.

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So let's say you're an event company.

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Your portfolio pages are called things like "Greenwood Hall June

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2026", or "Brands Hatch 2025".

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What is that?

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What is anyone supposed to do with that?

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You know what it means 'cause you were there.

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You remember that job.

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Google doesn't.

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AI search doesn't.

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And the person searching definitely doesn't.

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And there's a worse problem underneath it.

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If I'm searching for Brands Hatch, I want the website about Brands Hatch.

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I want the circuit, I want tickets, or directions, or what's on this weekend.

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I don't want an event management company that once ran a thing there.

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So one of two things happen.

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Either you don't rank because you're up against the actual venue, and you're

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gonna lose that fight most times, or you do sneak in somehow, I land

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on your page, and I'm gone in three seconds because it's not what I wanted,

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no matter how lovely your photo is of the MD standing next to a Ferrari.

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That's a bounce.

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That's a wasted impression.

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That's Google learning that your page isn't a good answer for that search.

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So here's what those pages should be, because these are long-tail

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gold, and you're sitting on them.

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They should be things like "summer wedding management, Greenwood Hall, Hull".

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"Corporate away day at Brands Hatch".

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"WI Summer Fete Organisation, Downton Abbey, Hertfordshire".

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Listen to what's in those.

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The service, the venue, the location.

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You could even add in the type of client.

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And now when someone types "corporate away day at Brands Hatch" into

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Google, because that is genuinely how people search when they're planning

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something, your page has a chance.

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It's not competing with the circuit's own website anymore because it's

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answering a different question.

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And this is the bit that makes these pages special.

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Your case studies are the only pages on your website that naturally

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combine a service with a sector, a location, and a real situation.

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Your service page can't do that because it has to speak to everybody.

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Your case study or your portfolio only has to describe one job, and

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that's where B2B search happens.

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Not everyone types "event management company".

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They type "corporate away day in Kent" or "summer wedding management in Hull".

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You've done those jobs, you've written pages about them, and

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you've called them "Client Project 3".

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And while we're at it, let's look at some other case study crimes.

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These are crimes against case study and portfolio pages, and — I'll try and do

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it quickly 'cause there is a list, and you're probably guilty of at least three.

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One, your case study is a PDF.

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Nobody's finding it, and if they do, they're not reading it on a phone.

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Two, your case study's behind a form.

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You've taken your best proof of competence and hidden it from everyone

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who hasn't already decided to trust you.

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Three, your case study is written entirely as, "We delivered a bespoke solution

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utilising our proprietary framework."

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Nobody reading that sees their own problem in it.

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Start with the situation the client was in because that's

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the bit a prospect recognises.

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Four, your images are called something ridiculous like image_4471.jpg, and they

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have no alt text on a portfolio page where the images are the whole point.

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Five, your case study doesn't link to the service page it relates to, and

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the service page doesn't link back.

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You've got proof sitting on one page and a sales pitch sitting on another

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and no connection between them.

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And six, your most recent case study is from 2021, which tells everyone exactly

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one thing about how busy you've been.

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I know you've been too busy to put your case studies on your website.

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Your potential client thinks you haven't done anything since 2021.

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And I know, I know there's an objection forming in your head

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right now, and it's the real reason most of these pages are so vague.

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I'll deal with it in a minute, along with what to actually do.

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Stay with me.

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Okay, so the objection is, "Nikki, I can't name my clients", which is fair enough.

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Loads of B2B work is confidential, and sometimes there's an

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actual NDA, and that's real.

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But look at what most people do with that.

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They write, "We helped a leading financial services organisation

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improve their processes", and they think they've been discreet.

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What they've actually done is written a sentence that could

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describe literally anything, which helps nobody and ranks for nothing.

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Confidentiality means you can't name the company.

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It does not mean you have to go vague on everything else.

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You can say the sector.

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You can say the size, roughly.

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40 staff, three sites, that sort of thing.

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You can say where they are.

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You can say what the problem was in detail because the problem isn't the secret.

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You can say what you did and what happened.

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So, "A 40-person insurance broker in Leeds was losing two days a month reconciling

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policy data by hand" is anonymous.

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It's also specific enough to rank and specific enough that another 40-person

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broker in any area reads it and thinks, "Oh my God, that's us."

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And before you assume you can't name anyone, go and ask.

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Loads of clients say yes, especially if the case study makes them look organised.

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Ask when the job's just finished and they're pleased with you.

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Same as reviews.

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And now, here's your homework.

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Go and fix your portfolio or case study index page title today.

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The meta title.

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It'll take you 10 minutes.

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Service, sector, and the word "portfolio" or "case studies".

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Same for the H1.

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Then rename your three best case studies.

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What was the service?

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Who was it for?

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Where?

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When?

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If you want to put a date on it.

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Put that in the title, the H1, and the URL if you can do

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it without breaking anything.

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If you can't change the URL safely, leave it and do the rest.

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Then take those same three and check that they link to the relevant service page

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and that the service page links back.

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That's a five-minute job.

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If any of your case studies exist only as PDF or only behind a form,

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put the content on an actual page.

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Keep the PDF if you like, but the words need to be somewhere

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Google can read them easily.

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Do these four things and you'll have done more with your portfolio than most of

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your competitors have managed in years.

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And that's it.

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Follow SEO Fucking What in whichever app you're listening to so the

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next one turns up on its own.

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And if you want to sort out the rest of your pages while you're at it, my On-Page

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SEO toolkit is now completely free.

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10 short lessons, no cost, no catch.

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Go and get it at nonwankyseo.com.

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And if you want the full thing, there's a Non-Wanky SEO course at the same address.

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It's £750 or £75 a month.

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There's no jargon, there's no upsells, and there's no bloke in a rented Lamborghini

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explaining the algorithm at you.

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Until next time, get found, make money, and go and look at that meta title.

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You know the one.