Why isn’t my website ranking? The SEO mistake everyone makes
- Georgina Kerr
- Jun 4
- 4 min read
During the time we’ve been working with clients on SEO, there’s one mistake we see more often than any other. Businesses are optimising their content for the wrong keywords, leading them to ask the question “Why isn’t my website ranking” or “Why is my website ranking but I’m not getting any more customers?.”
When we say this, we don’t mean wrong keywords in the sense that the keywords themselves aren’t relevant to the services you offer, but rather they’re keywords that you could spend six months trying to rank for and don’t actually help your business.
You're ranking for what you want to rank for, not what your customers are looking for
Here’s an example of how this could happen to a local business.
If you owned a wedding photography business in Sheffield, you might think ranking for “wedding photographer” would be your best bet for gaining more business. So, as a result, you spend months optimising your site, building links and creating content around this keyword. If you do it well, this might lead to you cracking into the top 10 for “wedding photographer” searches.
However, it’s important to consider if “wedding photographer” is really what your target customer is searching for. You might realise that nobody searching "wedding photographer" is actually calling you. They're looking at Instagram, or they're searching "wedding photographer Sheffield" from 500 miles away, or they might have already been referred by a friend and they're just searching your name instead.
You ranked for the keyword, not for the customers you want to attract. This is the mistake, and it’s costing businesses in wasted time and effort.
For example, when thinking about SEO for estate agents, it might look something like this.
Estate agents in Sheffield could try to optimise for “property to rent in Sheffield” which might get 500 searches a month, however “two-bedroom terraced house in Sheffield city centre under £1000 per month” might only get four searches, but is more likely to generate a viewing request from a renter ready to move.
Why this happens
It's tempting to go after the biggest, broadest keywords. We know that "We ranked for the keyword!" sounds better in a client meeting than "We ranked for the exact phrase someone uses when they're ready to buy”, but here's the truth: SEO isn't about keywords. It's about search intent.
When someone searches "wedding photography," they might be:
A student researching for an assignment
A bride-to-be on Pinterest inspiration mode
A photographer looking at competitor sites
Someone trying to remember the name of a photographer they saw once
When someone searches "wedding photography Sheffield 2025 prices," they're probably ready to book. This is the key difference between ranking for keywords which will lead to business, and those that look impressive but don’t convert.
The real mistake is skipping the research
Most businesses skip the research phase and either guess on what the best keywords are, optimise for keyword volume, or simply copy their competitors.
None of these strategies work. What actually works is understanding your customer journey, and learning what problems they are trying to solve, what stage of the journey are they at, and how likely is a search around these points to turn into actual business?
What we do differently
When we do keyword research for clients, we look at search intent, how the keyword is relevant to your business, conversion likelihood, the amount of competition, and finally search volume.
We had a student accommodation client who wanted to rank for "student housing." Reasonable, right? Except, that keyword is dominated by comparison sites, student forums, and property portals.
Instead, we recommended optimising for "student accommodation [specific areas]" and "halls alternative [area]" and "where to live as student Sheffield." Lower volume, but actual students or parents looking for places to rent.
Changing these keywords easily helps to target people searching with real intent to engage with the business.
How to avoid this mistake
Start with your customers, not the keywords and ask how they found you. Check if they remember what they searched for and what problem they were trying to solve when they made the search. This will be more valuable to you than any keyword research tool.
Next, make sure you are using keyword tools properly. SEO tools like Moz and Semrush are great for learning more about keyword difficulty and the volume of searches, but it’s important to use them to validate customer language and what you already know about your target market.
Focus on search intent and ask yourself “If someone searched this, would they want to buy from us?" If the answer is no, it doesn't matter if you rank at the top of the page
Target long-tail keywords. "SEO" is harder to rank for than "SEO for estate agents." "Web design" is harder than "web design for small businesses Sheffield." Longer, more specific keywords face less competition and indicate clearer intent.
Think like your customer. Don't optimise for what you think people should be searching, but rather optimise for what they're actually searching. These are rarely the same.
The Honest Truth
SEO takes time, but if you’ve been putting in effort for six months and you’re not seeing better results, the likelihood is that you’re optimising for the wrong keywords.
Businesses can completely transform their SEO results by shifting from "We want to rank for this keyword" to "Our customers search for this phrase and it will actually convert."
If you're not sure whether you're optimising your website for the right keywords, we'd be happy to take a look.
Drop us a message and we can do a quick audit to see if you're targeting search intent or accidentally chasing search volume.
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