Why your SEO friendly websites aren’t ranking

In this episode, I’m joined by SEO specialist Nikki Pilkington to talk about the difference between SEO friendly and SEO optimised, and why that distinction matters so much for web designers.

We dig into how good websites end up being labelled “not working”, how easily expectations drift, and why web designers often carry responsibility for outcomes that sit firmly outside their role.

We get into:

• What SEO friendly actually means from a web design and build perspective

• Why SEO friendly is a baseline, not a ranking strategy

• How “just add the keywords” quietly sets you up for problems later

• Where your responsibility as a designer genuinely starts and ends

• Why selling SEO as a one off is a trap, even when clients ask for it

• How blurred roles damage trust between designers, SEOs, and clients

• The conversations that protect you before a project even begins

• How to stop your work being judged on results you were never hired to deliver

If you want clearer boundaries, more confident explanations, and fewer projects where everyone looks bad six months later, this episode will help you put language around things you probably already feel.

Skip to the good bits:

00:00 Why designers get blamed for SEO results

01:21 SEO friendly vs SEO optimised (what you are actually delivering)

02:40 How client expectations quietly drift

03:49 What is and isn’t a web designer’s job

08:10 Why SEO can never be “done”

11:00 Where projects start going wrong

15:24 The danger of saying yes to everything

17:13 What good SEO collaboration looks like

20:40 Protecting trust in your work

About Nikki

Nikki Pilkington is an SEO consultant specialising in B2B service businesses. Nikki helps businesses show up on Google for searches that actually bring in clients, not just traffic. Find out more about SEO services or read more SEO advice on her blog.

You may also like to listen to Nikki’s podcast SEO F***ing what!