Why Your SEO-Friendly Website Isn't Ranking
From Websites Made Simple: How to have a successful website design business by Holly Christie (Website Design Business Mentor)
February 9, 2026 · 23 min · Episode 53
About this episode
Holly Christie discusses the misconceptions around SEO-friendly websites and the responsibilities of web designers with SEO specialist Nikki Pilkington.
If you’ve ever delivered a well built, SEO friendly website and then found yourself being blamed when it doesn’t rank or generate leads, this episode will feel very familiar. Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie. Check out my new offer: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/ It’s a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring real questions, tricky client situations, fuzzy boundaries, and those moments where you’re thinking, “This isn’t actually my job, is it?” 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…
People in this episode
Host: Holly Christie
Guest: Nikki Pilkington
Topics covered
- SEO
- web design
- client expectations
- responsibility
- SEO optimization
- website ranking
Keywords
- SEO friendly
- website ranking
- web design
- client expectations
- SEO optimization
- responsibility
- keywords
- designers
- mentoring
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