My SEO Is Not Working? The #1 Common Mistake Businesses Make

Digital Marketing Articles
Why isn’t my SEO working?

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Why isn’t my SEO working?” — you’re not alone.
At HML Marketing, this is one of the most common concerns we hear from businesses across South Wales.

The good news?
In most cases, SEO isn’t broken, it’s simply being approached in the wrong way.

Let’s start with the number one mistake that holds businesses back.


Mistake #1: Expecting SEO to Work Without the Right Content

Expecting SEO to Work Without the Right Content

SEO without quality content is like building a shop with no products on the shelves.

Many businesses invest in SEO but overlook the most important ranking factor: useful, relevant, well-structured content.

Google’s goal is simple — to show users the best possible answer to their search. If your website doesn’t clearly explain:

  • what you do
  • who you help
  • where you’re based
  • and why you’re the best choice

…Google has very little reason to rank it highly.

Common Content-Related SEO Problems We See

Why Content Is the Foundation of SEO

Search engines don’t rank websites — they rank pages.

That means each service, location, or topic needs its own well-written, optimised content. Thin pages, outdated copy, or duplicated text make it difficult for Google to understand your site’s value.

Strong SEO content:

  • Uses the right keywords naturally
  • Answers real customer questions
  • Is structured with headings and internal links
  • Is regularly updated

Without this foundation, technical SEO and backlinks can only take you so far.

Common Content-Related SEO Problems We See

Many businesses come to us with:

  • Short service pages with very little detail
  • No blog or outdated blog content
  • Content written for Google instead of real people
  • Multiple pages targeting the same keyword
  • Location pages missing local relevance

All of these issues can stop SEO from performing — even if everything else looks “correct”.

What Actually Works

What Actually Works

If you want SEO to deliver results, your website needs:

  • Clear, keyword-led service pages
  • Localised content for your target areas
  • Regular blogs or updates to show freshness
  • Strong on-page SEO (titles, headings, internal links)

At HML Marketing, we build SEO strategies around content first, supported by technical optimisation, ethical link building, and local SEO.

Final Thoughts

If your SEO isn’t working, don’t assume it’s a waste of time. More often than not, the issue comes down to content quality and clarity.

Get that right and SEO starts working the way it should.

📞 Want an honest review of why your SEO isn’t performing?
Talk to the team at HML Marketing today to get the best value. 
Call 01656 457458 or Want Call Back?..

Local teams in South Wales, Newport SEO, Bridgend SEO, Swansea SEO, Cardiff SEO.

Quick Query HML

What is National SEO?

National SEO is a long-term investment that can separate your business from the competitors. Although similar to local SEO, National SEO focuses primarily on ranking for broad keyword terms rather than ranking for specific geographical terms.

Optimising a website involves many activities to increase your rankings and likelihood of people finding your website. We want to increase your websites' relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Here's just a few of the activities we employ -

  • editing website content, adding new content
  • doing HTML, and associated coding
  • promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links
  • optimising mobile search as it's surpassed desktop search
  • promoting mobile first on search is key

HML pledges' to offer the very best value online marketing service to all our members and our guaranteed commitment to outperform your competitors, generate you more income through our rigorous SEO work and comprehensive open reporting.

Seo 6370764

More Options for National SEO?

Find out about what's included in our National SEO membership packages and do compare us, as we pride ourselves on offering the best value comprehensive SEO with guaranteed commitment. National SEO Guide & Pricing

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO (search engine optimisation) targets local people doing local searches for your products or services which accounts for nearly half of all searches.

46%
of searches now have a 'local intent'

So what is local search optimisation?

Local SEO is similar to National SEO in that they both aim to improve the visibility of your website in a web search engine's unpaid results (SERP - search engine results page) often referred to as "natural", "organic", or "earned" results. The higher ranked on the search results page and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive. These visitors can then be converted into customers.

Local SEO, however, differs in that it is focused on optimising a business' for local people searching for its products or services. These can be brick-and-mortar businesses with physical locations, like a grocery store or dentist's office, or service-area businesses that operate throughout a certain geographic area, like an electrician or house cleaning company.

With good enough SEO and authority, anyone in the world can rank for a search query like ‘how to fix my dripping tap’. But when someone is looking to purchase locally a product or service, it becomes ‘plumbers near me’ or ‘best plumber in [their location]’. That’s a local search and you’ll need local SEO to ensure you rank high enough for people for find you.

How do we optimise for local searches?

Local seo mobile

As these people searching, typically include a location or ‘near me’ (which aren’t even necessary if searching using Google Maps), search engines understand that what the searcher wants is business suggestions or lists based on location, and so that’s precisely what they offer up in the local search engine results pages (SERPs).

Ranking for local search involves a similar process to general SEO but includes some specific elements to rank a business for local search. Local searches trigger search engines to display two types of results:

On the Search engine results page: local organic results. The local organic results include web pages related to the search query with local relevance. These often include directories such as Yelp, Thompson Local, Facebook.

The 'Local Pack' displays businesses that have signed up with Google and taken ownership of their 'Google My Business' (GMB) listing.

This includes everything from claiming a business listing to ensuring a franchise location appears in a local search on Google (a process known as location data or citation management). It can also extend to managing online ratings and reviews, local-centric social media engagement, and beyond.