Most websites receive fewer than 10 organic visits per month. Not because the business isn't good, or even because the content is poor — but because the website was built without search engines in mind.
The Core Problem: Builders Don't Think About Google
When a developer or designer builds a website, their goal is usually to make it look good and work correctly. Search engine optimisation is treated as an afterthought — something to "add later." But by the time the site is live, the structural decisions that affect ranking have already been made.
Here's what gets ignored most often:
1. No Crawlable Structure
Google's bots crawl websites by following links. If your site has orphan pages (pages with no internal links pointing to them), broken links, or a disorganised architecture, Google can't efficiently discover and index your content.
The fix: Audit your internal link structure. Every important page should be reachable within 3 clicks from the homepage, and related content should be linked together.
2. Missing or Weak Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Title tags are one of the most direct on-page ranking signals Google uses. Yet many websites either leave them as defaults, stuff them with keywords, or write them purely for humans without considering search intent.
The fix: Write a unique title tag for every page. Lead with the primary keyword, keep it under 60 characters, and make it specific. A title like "London Web Design Agency | Dricomm" is far more effective than "Home | My Website."
3. Slow Page Speed
Core Web Vitals — Google's performance metrics — are now a ranking factor. A site that takes more than 3 seconds to load on mobile loses both rankings and visitors. Most slow sites suffer from unoptimised images, render-blocking JavaScript, and poor hosting.
The fix: Run your site through Google's PageSpeed Insights. Focus on your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) — the time it takes for the main content to load. Compress images, defer non-critical scripts, and consider moving to a modern framework like Next.js deployed on a CDN.
4. No Structured Data
Structured data (schema markup) helps Google understand what your content is about, who it's for, and how it fits into the wider knowledge graph. Without it, you're missing out on rich results — the enhanced listings that show star ratings, FAQs, prices, and more.
The fix: Add appropriate schema to your pages. At minimum, add Organisation schema to your homepage and Article schema to your blog posts.
5. Duplicate Content and Canonical Issues
If Google finds multiple URLs that return the same content — common with filtering parameters, pagination, or HTTPS/HTTP misconfigurations — it gets confused about which version to rank. This dilutes your authority across multiple pages instead of concentrating it.
The fix: Set canonical tags correctly. Redirect HTTP to HTTPS. Use proper pagination markup. Consolidate similar pages where possible.
The Right Way to Build for SEO
The most efficient approach is to build SEO into the site from the start — not retrofit it afterwards. This means:
- Choosing a fast, modern tech stack (Next.js, Vercel)
- Planning your URL structure and site architecture before writing a line of code
- Writing keyword-targeted content that matches real search intent
- Setting up structured data during development
- Testing Core Web Vitals before launch
At Dricomm, every site we build goes through a technical SEO checklist before it goes live. If you want to know where your current site stands, request a free audit — we'll give you a full technical and SEO report within 24 hours.