Why your website isn’t bringing you customers

You might find it odd to read an article about SEO on the O’Matic website.

This is the perfect opportunity to discuss this aspect of your project.

My name is Marine.

I create websites optimized for SEO and conversion.

My clients are self-employed individuals and very small businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Chloé and Thomas design and develop a unique website with the features you need.

As for me, I handle what makes a website visible.

Different areas of expertise, all working together on the same project, to deliver the best results for you.

And the best part is when the two work together.

A website designed from the start to be found has a head start.

You can make up for it later, of course. But you might as well not create extra work for yourself.

Your website is a success.

Your customers tell you so, and you’re proud to send it out.

And yet, when you look at where your contacts come from, it’s always the same thing.

Word of mouth. LinkedIn. Social media.

Or people who already knew you.

Google, on the other hand, doesn’t send anyone to you.

AH.

The store that nobody can find

Imagine you’re opening a store.

Not just any store. A place that took months to prepare.

You didn’t just pick the first place you came across:

• You’ve been searching for a long time and comparing locations
• An architect redesigned the space
• An interior designer chose the materials and lighting
• Experts have approved your product selection
• Your prices were calculated, not guessed
• A communications agency manages your social media accounts

Nothing was left to chance.

Anyone who walks through the door understands right away.

He stays. He looks around. He leaves with something.

That’s the kind of work a studio like O’Matic does.

Except that your store is at the end of a street.

A street that no one walks up.

No sign visible from the main street. No directional signs.

Nothing to indicate that you’re there.

The people who come are the ones you gave the address to.

Search engine optimization is what puts you on the radar of others.

And the reverse is also true.

There’s no point in bringing people to a poorly designed venue.

People come in. They don’t understand. They go out.

You’ve paid for traffic that you aren’t converting.

A beautiful, empty space—what a shame. A poorly designed space in a good location—what a waste.

The two go hand in hand.

What happens after the content goes live

On launch day, everything goes smoothly.

You share the link everywhere. Your friends and family click on it. Your customers congratulate you.

The statistics are rising.

A good sign?

Not really. You’re the one who brought that traffic here.

Two months later, the curve had flattened out.

That’s normal. The novelty has worn off.

What remains is what the site retrieves on its own.

Six months later, you tally up the numbers.

You list your most recent customers. You’re trying to figure out where they come from.

A former client who mentioned you. A meeting. A post that did well.

And no one who found this page through a Google search.

So, no one who didn’t know you beforehand.

Almost all of your visitors come from people who typed in your name or your website address directly.

So, people who already knew you, but from elsewhere.

This is not a manufacturing defect.

The website works. It’s well-designed. It converts visitors.

He just doesn’t have what it takes to go after the others.

The case of one of my clients

I completely redesigned his website.

She wanted something modern, something unlike anything else.

It worked.

And the site does a great job of converting the few visitors it gets.

She didn’t want to invest in SEO at that time.

I completely understand that. It’s a budget, and you can’t do everything all at once.

The result today: Her website is effective, but only when she promotes it.

She needs to share, post, and follow up.

The day it stops, the site stops too.

That’s the real difference.

A website that works for you.

Or a website you’re struggling to keep afloat.

What people really type

That’s what no one explains when you’re first starting out.

Your website answers two questions: who you are and what you do.

It’s useful. It’s even necessary.

But people who don’t know you aren’t looking for that.

They don’t type in your name. Or even your job title.

They type in their problem.

Take over the store.

No one will search for your brand name if it’s not well-known. People search for:

• A housewarming gift
• A lamp for a living room that’s too dark
• A home decor store open on Sundays

It’s the same on the internet:

• How much does it cost?
• How’s it going?
• How long should I expect it to take?
• Who does that near me?
• What is the difference between this solution and that one?

If no page answers these questions, there is nothing to rank.

Google can’t provide an answer to an unanswered question.

The ones that never exist

When I look at an invisible website, it’s almost always the same thing.

A home page. An “About” page. A ‘Services’ page. A “Contact” page.

Everything is here. Everything is clean.

And everything is about you.

What’s missing are the pages that provide answers before the first contact:

• The price, and what causes it to vary
• The practical steps involved in a project
• Case studies, including what was done and why
• Our offerings tailored to your actual needs

You have a services page that lists everything.

Your customers, on the other hand, are looking for one specific thing at a time.

The rule can be summed up in a few words: one page, one question, one solution.

A page that answers five questions doesn’t address any of them.

Everything is decided before the opening

Let’s be honest: it’s hard to make up for visibility after the fact.

When you decide on the directory structure, you’re also deciding on something else.

You decide what will appear in the search results.

It’s still possible to add pages later. It’s just a bit more work.

That’s why framing is so important.

At O’Matic, the Think phase comes before we even talk about design.

We consider the structure, the process, and the project’s actual needs.

That work alone accounts for half of the SEO.

Even when we don’t call it that.

A well-structured website has a real head start.

A poorly designed website cannot be salvaged with content alone.

The next question is which pages to create and what to write on them.

And that’s a second project : mine.

A website isn’t finished on the day it’s delivered

That’s the thing people talk about the least. And the most important thing.

We deliver a website. Everyone is happy. The project is considered complete.

But in reality, it’s just beginning.

Search engine optimization is a long-term process:

• Pages to be added
• Texts that are edited
• Questions we answer because we hear them during appointments

It’s slow. It’s steady.

And that’s what sets a dormant website apart from one that brings you visitors.

People you would never have met otherwise.

Good news: You don’t necessarily have to do it all at once.

My client could very well start doing that next year.

The site is solid. The foundation is in place. All that’s left is to build on it.

So, where should I start?

Do you have a project you want to launch, or a need that falls outside the norm?

This is Chloé and Thomas’s property.

They build sturdy, one-of-a-kind items designed to last.

This foundation is more important than people realize.

Do you already have a website? Is it well-designed, but no one can find it?

That’s where I come in.

We look at what your customers are searching for. We identify the pages that are missing.

And we’ll turn a website that represents you into one that attracts visitors.

Are you just getting started and not sure what you need yet?

Their specifications template is a good starting point.

You’ll get a clearer picture by filling it out than by just thinking about it without any context.

Marine, a WordPress website designer and SEO consultant in Normandy.