Sometimes clients come to me with a very simple yet extremely important question: “Why isn’t my website showing up in Google?”.
Recently, a client approached me starting exactly with this question. He was clearly disappointed and frustrated – his newly built website, created by another developer, was not appearing in search results. He immediately directed his accusations towards the person who built it.
Before drawing any conclusions, I asked him a few basic questions:
- Was SEO optimisation discussed during the project planning?
- Was it determined who would prepare the content?
- Was there any provision for meta tags, heading structure, image descriptions, page loading speed?
- Was anything agreed regarding promoting the website after its launch?
The answers were evasive.
That’s when I started to explain: building a website, even a very aesthetic one, is only the beginning. Behind every site operates a complex mechanism, invisible at first glance – but one that determines whether the site ranks high in Google or gets lost among the crowd.
In this article, I will talk about what clients usually don’t see during the site-building phase but which is crucial for its visibility. I will also explain why responsibility for these actions does not always rest with the designer — and why it is worth clearly defining expectations at the very start of the project.
Where website building ends, and real online life begins
In my conversation with the client, I started with the most important point: explaining the difference between building a website and ensuring its visibility online.
A website – just like a building – can be beautifully designed and solidly constructed. It can have all the necessary visible elements: logo, colours, images, texts.
But if we do not take care of the signposts leading to it — appropriate descriptions, structure, meta information — nobody will find it, except those who are given the exact address.
In practice, this means that merely having a website does not automatically guarantee its visibility on Google. Additional actions are required, which are often not discussed or, if mentioned, are not fully understood.
And this is where the most common misunderstandings begin.
Sometimes topics like SEO, meta tags, speed optimisation, or site indexing were indeed mentioned — but the client, unaware of the significance of these terms, failed to grasp their importance.
They assumed they were “standard” or expected them to be done automatically — without a separate discussion, extra fees, or additional work.
It is also important to remember that the budget plays a huge role here.
Many clients consciously or subconsciously avoid asking questions, fearing that every answer might incur additional costs. Some don’t want to appear ignorant; others simply hope that \”it will somehow work out\”.
Yet we, as designers, are responsible for delivering the website itself — not for handling comprehensive marketing or SEO, unless explicitly agreed.
Moreover, ensuring online visibility is often the task of entirely different specialists: SEO experts, content marketers, technical administrators.
Building a website and promoting it are two different worlds. They can be tackled together, but they can also be separated and assigned to different people or teams — depending on needs, budget, and priorities.
In the case of my client, neither side likely had bad intentions.
There was simply a lack of thorough discussion, clarification, and awareness of how extensive and complex building an online presence can be.
What happens behind the scenes? Essential elements invisible at first glance
When a website goes online, its mere presence does not guarantee good visibility.
In fact, any website can eventually get indexed — as long as its link appears somewhere publicly, even on social media or another website.
But how quickly and at what position it appears in search results depends on entirely different factors.
The essential elements influencing a site’s evaluation by search engines include:
- Meta title – the page title visible on the browser tab and in search results. It must be short, specific, and descriptive of the page’s content.
- Meta description – a short description shown under the title in search results.
Meta description is not a direct ranking factor but has significant indirect importance.
If well written, it increases the likelihood of a link being clicked, improving the CTR (click-through rate), which influences how the page is assessed by algorithms.
If missing, the search engine will randomly select a fragment of text — often an illogical or unclear one.
As a result, the site may appear less attractive in search results and be harder to notice.
- Headings H1, H2, H3 – the proper structure of content. There should be only one H1 per page, clearly stating the topic. H2 and H3 organise sub-sections. They are fundamental guides for search engines.
- Alt tags for images – text descriptions that help understand what an image represents. They are also crucial for users relying on screen readers.
- File names – images should have descriptive filenames, not random strings. Instead of “img1234.jpg”, use something like “spring-flowers-garden.jpg”.
- Page loading speed – impacts user experience and site evaluation by Google.
- Sitemap – a special file informing search engines about the site’s structure and available subpages.
And these are only the basic things that can — and should — be configured during website development.
Without them, a site technically exists and may be indexed, but in practice, it remains almost invisible to search engines.
It is like standing somewhere in a vast desert, without any signposts, maps, or guiding lights.
If these elements are not consciously planned and implemented, even the best-designed website will remain a lonely island in the middle of the ocean: it exists, but no one knows about it.
A conversation that opens eyes
After explaining these basic elements, I clarified another important point:
a web designer is not always responsible for all SEO activities.
Building the website is one task.
Preparing SEO content, technical optimisation, promotion, analytics — these are separate, additional areas, often handled by different people or teams.
So I asked directly: had there been any discussion about SEO during the project briefing?
Was there a plan for preparing meta titles, meta descriptions, image optimisation, sitemap creation, submitting the site to Google Search Console?
The answer was: “No, we didn’t talk about it.”.
Only then did the client realise that the developer he had judged so harshly probably just fulfilled the order placed: building the site, not providing a full SEO service.
And here’s a crucial point:
the fact that these topics were not addressed is not solely the developer’s fault.
Often, clients — for various reasons — do not ask for details:
- because they fear additional costs,
- because they don’t understand the technical jargon and are embarrassed to ask,
- because they want to finalise the project quickly without further discussions.
Each unaddressed issue is like an unfinished piece of a puzzle.
Building a website and achieving visibility — two different realities
During our conversation, I highlighted another key point:
building a website and ensuring its visibility in Google are two different tasks.
A web designer, developer, or UX/UI specialist may build the site.
SEO tasks, content optimisation, results analysis, and promotion may be handled by different experts: SEO specialists, copywriters, marketers.
These tasks can be combined into one comprehensive service.
But they can also be split, outsourced separately, depending on the client’s needs, budget, and priorities.
Most importantly — this must be discussed clearly at the project planning stage.
Otherwise, the new site will be attractive, functional, and technically sound — but remain an invisible island in the ocean of the internet.
Final thoughts
Any website will eventually be indexed.
As long as someone publicly shares its link, a search engine will find it sooner or later.
But the effectiveness of indexing, attractiveness in search results, and chances of being clicked — that’s a completely different story.
This is the story of meta titles, meta descriptions, alt tags, heading structures, loading speed, sitemaps, and many other elements that are invisible at first glance — but crucial for the website’s success.
Therefore, when building a website, remember that aesthetics and functionality are only the beginning.
Effective online presence is the result of conscious, strategic action — at many levels, often involving various specialists.