But where’s the organic traffic?
Plenty of business owners find themselves asking the same thing. A site might tick every design box, yet still be buried in search results. That’s not a design failure, it’s a visibility issue.
The design might be slick, but if Google can’t work out what the site’s about, it won’t rank.
What Google Looks For (Hint: It’s Not Style Points)
Visitors see colours, logos, and layout. Google sees code, content, and structure. It’s not judging your design; it’s trying to understand your purpose.
That means your most important content needs to be machine-readable. Fancy animations and slick transitions can actually get in the way, especially if they hide content behind scripts or bury keywords in images or overlays. If your main headings are tucked into banner graphics or loaded via JavaScript, Google won’t be able to render or interpret them.
A site that looks sharp on the surface can be invisible underneath.
You Got a Site Built for Humans. But What About the Robots?
Most websites are written with users in mind, which is precisely as it should be. But it’s easy to forget that Google needs its own signals. It doesn’t respond to catchy taglines or brand slogans. It needs clarity.
A homepage with a bold heading like “Your Partner in Progress” might land well with humans, but to a search engine, it’s gibberish.
If your site doesn’t clearly explain what you offer, where you offer it, and who it’s for, there’s nothing for Google to work with.
Wondering If It’s Even Worth It?
The short answer: yes.
Apply a few basic SEO principles to a business that previously had zero visibility, and results can follow within weeks, especially for local search terms.
SEO isn’t guesswork. It’s about structure, relevance, and fixing the gaps that hold your site back. If you’re curious about how much difference this can make, you’ll find B2B SEO case studies that show exactly what kind of turnaround is possible without rebuilding a site from scratch.
Why Good Websites Still Don’t Rank
Even if your site is well-built and technically sound, it might still be falling short. Here’s why.
No Keyword Planning (or the Wrong Kind)
This one tops the list. If you’re not targeting the phrases people actually search for, you won’t show up, no matter how sleek the site looks.
Some telltale signs:
Pages titled “Our Services” or “Solutions” with no real keywords
No mention of your service locations
Repeated use of abstract or salesy copy instead of plain-language service terms
Try searching for your key service and city, e.g. “plumbing repairs in London.” Are you on page one? If not, look at who is. Their headlines, content structure, and keyword use are usually the difference.
Weak Content and Poor Structure
Thin pages don’t help anyone. If you’ve got a single paragraph and a photo on a key page, it’s unlikely to rank. The same goes for pages where the headings make no sense or are out of order.
What helps:
One clear H1 heading per page
Subheadings that guide readers and search engines alike
More than just vague promises, actual information about what you offer
Think of each page like a short article. It needs structure and substance.
Indexing and Crawling Problems
Just because a page exists doesn’t mean Google can find it.
Things to check:
Is it listed in your sitemap?
Is it blocked by robots.txt or noindex tags?
Are there any broken links leading to it, or is it totally disconnected?
A quick “site:yourdomain.com” search in Google can help you see what’s actually indexed. If you’ve got 50 live pages and only 15 are showing, something’s off. On the flip side, if 200 results show up but you’ve only built 40 pages, you’ve probably got index bloat from archive or duplicate content.
Too Much JavaScript
Modern web frameworks often rely heavily on JavaScript. That’s fine if search engines can still read the output.
Sometimes, they can’t.
Use the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console to see how a page looks when rendered by Google. If the main content doesn’t appear, that page likely won’t rank well.
One-Page Design That’s Too Shallow
It’s tempting to put everything on one long page. It feels neat. But if you’re offering multiple services or targeting different locations, this structure limits your reach.
Google can’t easily match one-page layouts to specific queries. Spreading your content across well-structured, topic-focused pages gives you far more visibility.
The SEO Box-Tick That Doesn’t Go Far Enough
Many design-led agencies offer “SEO” as part of the package. But often, it stops at:
Adding a meta title
Installing a plugin
Submitting a sitemap
Following these tasks isn’t an SEO strategy; it’s a basic checklist.
Real SEO takes more than that. If your agency didn’t research keywords, analyse competitors, or map out a strategy for content and structure, it probably wasn’t real SEO.
How to Check Your Own Site’s Visibility (No Tools Needed)
Here are five quick tests any business owner can do:
Search your business name. Do you show up?
Google “site:yourdomain.com”. Are your key pages there?
Look up your core service + location. Who ranks, and are you in the mix?
Load your homepage on a phone. Can someone figure out what you do in five seconds?
Run a PageSpeed Insights test. How bad is your mobile score?
These checks don’t require fancy software. If something feels off, it probably is.
Fixes That Don’t Involve Rebuilding Everything
Good news: a total overhaul usually isn’t needed. You can get better results by addressing structure and clarity.
Here’s what to focus on:
Update your homepage heading to mention your service and location (e.g. “Kitchen Fitters in Brighton”)
Break out each core service into its own page
Make sure page titles and meta descriptions reflect real searches
Link between blog posts, service pages, and your contact page
Compress images and switch to faster-loading formats (e.g. WebP)
Use one H1 per page, then split out topics with H2s and H3s
These are practical changes, not cosmetic ones. And they can move the needle fast.
Final Thought: Looks Aren’t Everything
A sleek site might impress visitors, but Google’s looking for substance, not style.
What Google really wants is clarity. It needs to know what you offer, where you offer it, and whether your content matches search intent. That has to be reflected in headings, structure, and internal linking, not just in how the site feels visually.
Bottom line, style doesn’t drive search visibility. Strategy does.
