Your web designer said they do SEO. They installed a
Speaker:plugin and charged you two grand extra. You probably got
Speaker:absolutely fuck all. So what's the fix? How do
Speaker:you tell if your web designer has stitched you up and what do you do
Speaker:about it? I'll tell you that in just a moment.
Speaker:Okay, here's what you need to do. 1.
Speaker:Check if you have Google Search Console setup. Log into your
Speaker:Google account, go to search.google.com
Speaker:search console and see if your website's there.
Speaker:If it's not, you've got no data about how Google sees your site,
Speaker:none that needs fixing immediately. Set it up
Speaker:yourself. It's free, and Google has instructions. Or get someone who knows
Speaker:what they're doing to do it for you. And the same with Google Analytics.
Speaker:Go to analytics.google.com and check if your site's connected,
Speaker:if it's not there or it's set up wrong, like it's tracking the web
Speaker:designer's test site instead of your own, which happens more often than you think.
Speaker:Sort it. You need to know how many people are visiting your site, where
Speaker:they're coming from, and what they're doing when they get there. 2. Take
Speaker:a look at those 10 keywords you gave your web designer. Open an incognito
Speaker:window in your browser and search for them on Google. Be honest. Are
Speaker:you anywhere on page one? Page two? No, please. Page ten no,
Speaker:please don't. If you're nowhere to be found, those keywords aren't doing
Speaker:shit for you. Don't blame yourself. You didn't know what to pick,
Speaker:but now you need to actually research what your customers are searching
Speaker:for. Use Ahrefs free keyword tool
Speaker:or get someone who understands keyword research to do it properly.
Speaker:Do not use ChatGPT. 3. Look at
Speaker:search intent for each of those keywords. Think about what someone
Speaker:searching that term actually wants. Are they looking to buy?
Speaker:Looking for information? Trying to find a local business? If your
Speaker:content doesn't match what they're after, you're wasting your time. This
Speaker:is where proper SEO strategy comes in, understanding
Speaker:not just what people search, but why they're searching it.
Speaker:4. If your web designer genuinely doesn't
Speaker:understand SEO, and a lot don't because it's not their job.
Speaker:Stop expecting them to. It's not a dig at them.
Speaker:They're amazing at design. That's what you hired them for.
Speaker:But if you want amazing SEO as well, you need to either bring in
Speaker:someone who specializes in it or learn enough yourself
Speaker:to at least audit what's been done and spot when you're being fobbed
Speaker:off with bollocks. And finally, I'll tell you in just a
Speaker:moment.
Speaker:And finally, if you're about to hire a web designer and
Speaker:they say they do SEO, ask them exactly
Speaker:what that means. Do they do keyword research? Do they
Speaker:set up search console analytics? Do they create a content
Speaker:strategy? Do they build proper tracking so you can see what's
Speaker:working? If they say, oh, yeah, we install
Speaker:Yoast and optimize your meta tags, that's your red
Speaker:flag right there. That's not SEO. That's
Speaker:the absolute bare minimum. You want someone who either
Speaker:works with an SEO specialist or is honest enough to say, I
Speaker:can build you a technically sound website, but you'll need someone else
Speaker:for the SEO side because that honesty is worth its weight
Speaker:in gold. Now look, there are some awesome
Speaker:cracking web designers out there who genuinely understand
Speaker:SEO or who partner with people who do. If you've got
Speaker:one of those, brilliant, hang on to them. But if your
Speaker:SEO consisted of handing over 10 keywords and getting a plugin
Speaker:installed, you've been sold a load of bollocks. Don't feel
Speaker:bad about it. These people are convincing. But now you know
Speaker:what actual SEO looks like, you can go and get it done properly.
Speaker:That's it for this week. And if this helps, don't keep it to yourself.
Speaker:Hit follow on SEO fucking what? Wherever you're listening so you don't
Speaker:miss the next episode. And if you want me to take a look at your
Speaker:website and tell you what's going on with your SEO, find me on
Speaker:LinkedIn. Until next time, get found, make money,
Speaker:stop stressing, be non wanky.