SEO F**king What - Get Found on Google and make money from your website with practical SEO tips

"AI can build your whole website in 10 minutes," they said. "Save a fortune," they said. And now you're wondering why nobody can find you on Google. Yeah. About that.

Hi, I'm Nikki Pilkington. My site is https://nikki-pilkington.com/ and in this episode of "SEO Fking What", I'm kicking off a three-part series on AI-built websites — why people are doing it, why I completely get it, and why I still think it's a fking bad idea if you don't understand what you're getting yourself into.

I also give you a quick homework task — a 30-second H1 check you can do right now that might reveal the single biggest SEO problem on your website.

This is part one of three. If you know someone about to launch an AI-built site without a second thought, send them this first. It might save them months of invisible damage.

Get found. Make money. Know AI's limitations.

Links mentioned: Non-Wanky SEO Courses: https://nonwankyseo.com

Follow Nikki:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkipilkington/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkipilkington/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nikkipilkington.bsky.social

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Hi, I'm Nikki Pilkington. My site is https://nikki-pilkington.com/ and in this episode of “SEO F**king What”, I'm calling out one of the most expensive myths in SEO — that spending money on backlinks is something small B2B service businesses need to do. It isn't. And I've got 30 years of evidence to prove it.

Here’s what I’m covering:

• Why Google’s original algorithm got gamed almost immediately — and how the link building industry was born from exploiting it
• The Penguin update of 2012: why thousands of legitimate businesses lost their rankings overnight, while the agencies who sold them manipulative links quietly updated their service pages and moved on
• What Google actually confirmed in 2024 about how much links matter now (their words: “we’ve made links less important”)
• Why the link building industry is still thriving — despite selling something worth a fraction of what it once was
• The free, legitimate links you’re probably already entitled to through professional memberships and directories — and not using
• Why on-page SEO, quality content, and a well-structured website will do more for your rankings than any link package sold by someone who DMed you 15 minutes after following you on LinkedIn

I also give you a proper piece of homework this week. Three things to do right now. None of them cost a penny.

If you’re currently paying for a link building package — or you’ve ever been tempted — listen to this first. It might save you a lot of money and a lot of future headaches.

Get found. Make money. Stop buying fucking backlinks.

Non-Wanky SEO Courses: https://nonwankyseo.com

Google Search Console (backlink report — Legacy Tools, bottom of left-hand menu): https://search.google.com/search-console/

Ahrefs Free Backlink Checker: https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker

Follow Nikki

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkipilkington/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkipilkington/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nikkipilkington.bsky.social

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Hi, I'm Nikki Pilkington. My site is https://nikki-pilkington.com/ and in this episode of "SEO F**king What", I'm talking about the one bit of SEO that isn't a ranking factor but is absolutely the thing that decides whether anyone actually clicks on your listing — your meta descriptions. You've probably never written one, duplicated the same one across your whole site, or let Yoast bully you into stuffing it with keywords. All three are fucked.

Here's what I'm covering:

— Why your meta description isn't a ranking factor — but still decides whether anyone clicks

— What a good meta description actually does (and the 155-character rule)

— Why Google bolds search terms, and why that matters for getting clicks

— The parade of horrors: missing descriptions, duplicate descriptions, and corporate waffle

— Why the Yoast green light isn't the goal — writing for a human is

— A proper before-and-after for an HR consultant that shows you exactly what to write

— The Mark Williams-Cook argument for not writing them at all — and why I still say you should, for small B2B sites

I also give you proper homework. Three things to do this week that will sort out your meta descriptions without taking all day.

If you know someone whose search result description reads like it was written by a committee, send them this. It might be the reason they're not getting the clicks they deserve.

Get found. Make money. Stop stressing. Write it for a human.

Non-Wanky SEO Courses: https://nonwankyseo.com

SearchPilot meta description research: https://www.searchpilot.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkipilkington/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkipilkington/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nikkipilkington.bsky.social

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Your homepage H1 says “Welcome.” Your meta title says “Home.” And you’re wondering why Google won’t rank you. In this episode, Nikki Pilkington explains why H1s and meta titles are two different jobs, why making them identical is a missed opportunity, and why making them disconnected is actively killing your SEO.

You’ll learn how to think of your meta title as the promise and your H1 as the delivery, why “Helping your people thrive” is not a heading, why your company name almost certainly doesn’t belong in your H1, and why Yoast’s green smiley face is not a ranking factor. There’s homework at the end — a proper site audit you can do this week without spending a penny.

0:00 Why Titles Kill Rankings

1:57 What Meta Titles & H1s Actually Are

4:09 Making Them Match the Search

6:05 Your Homepage H1 Needs Work

7:20 Why Your Company Name Isn’t Your H1

7:49 Yoast Isn’t Your Brain

9:00 Your Homework This Week

10:50 Non-Wanky On-Page SEO Course

• Non-Wanky On-Page SEO — £200 or £20/month: https://nonwankyseo.com

• Google Search Console: https://search.google.com/search-console

• — Episode 13 — Stop Blogging Like It's a Diary
• — Episode 14 — Your Competitors SEO Geniuses?...
• — Episode 19 — Google Search Console...

• Website: https://nikki-pilkington.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkipilkington/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkipilkington/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nikkipilkington.bsky.social

This week I've gone off script. Someone posted about an SEO conference billing itself as the UK's most advanced -- sixteen speakers, all male, not one woman on the bill. I said something about it. The response was, essentially, "we had women last year." And here we are.

This episode isn't about quotas or ticking boxes. It's about the fact that brilliant women in SEO exist, they're not hiding, and if your speaker lineup is sixteen mainly white men, the question you need to be asking is whether anyone actually went looking.

In this episode:

• Why "we had women last year" is the laziest defence in the industry
• The women in SEO who should be on every conference organiser's radar
• Why the "we book who applies" argument falls apart when you think it through
• What conference organisers actually need to do differently
• And a word for the women in SEO who keep talking themselves out of putting their hand up

Women I mention in this episode: Lily Ray, Helen Pollitt, Areej AbuAli, Carrie Rose, Lidia Infante, Jo Furnival, Alice Rowan.

Want to find more women in SEO? Start with Women in Tech SEO at womenintechseo.com and WTSFest.

Want me to speak at your event? I'm an SEO speaker, I'm a woman, and I'm available. No waffle, no jargon, no death by slide deck. Hit me up at [email protected]

Follow Nikki:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkipilkington/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkipilkington/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nikkipilkington.bsky.social

Mentioned in this episode:

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Your website could be full of brilliant content and still not rank. Why? Because Google can't figure out how your pages connect. That's what we're fixing today.

Hi, I'm Nikki Pilkington. My site is https://nikki-pilkington.com/ and in this episode of "SEO F**king What", I'm tackling one of the most overlooked parts of SEO — website structure. Not the sexy stuff. The stuff that actually makes your site work. How your pages connect, how Google moves around your site, and why getting this wrong means even your best content struggles to rank.

Here's what I'm covering: — Why your website is like a building, and what happens when Google can't follow the corridors — What a clear hierarchy looks like and why your most important pages need to be close to the top — Orphan pages: what they are, why they're costing you, and how to find and fix them in an afternoon — Internal linking — the most underused free tool in SEO — and how to actually use it properly — Why your link text matters more than you realise (and why "click here" is doing absolutely nothing for you) — URLs, 301 redirects, XML sitemaps, and why submitting to Google Search Console is non-negotiable

I also give you proper homework. Four things to do this week. None of them cost money. All of them will make a difference.

If you've done your content audit and now you're ready to sort out your structure, this is the episode you need. And if you know someone whose website is a complete jumble with no logic to how it's connected, send them this. It might save them months of confusion.

Get found. Make money. Link properly.

Useful links:

Non Wanky On-Page SEO Toolkit: https://nonwankyseo.com

Google Search Console: https://search.google.com/search-console

Screaming Frog: https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/

Follow Nikki:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkipilkington/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkipilkington/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nikkipilkington.bsky.social

Mentioned in this episode:

Join our blogging masterclass

Blogging Masterclass

When did you last actually read every page of your website? Not edit it, not skim it — read it like a visitor would. If the answer is “I can’t remember” or “never” — this episode is for you.

Hi, I’m Nikki Pilkington. My site is https://nikki-pilkington.com/ and in this episode of “SEO F**king What”, I’m walking you through one of the most unglamorous but genuinely useful things you can do for your SEO — a content audit. Not to make your life miserable, but because Google crawls every single page on your website, and right now some of those pages are actively working against you.

Here’s what I’m covering:

1. Why most website owners have no idea how many pages they actually have (and why that’s a problem)
2. How to build a simple URL spreadsheet without needing any fancy tools
3. The intent column — and why filling it in manually is the bit that actually matters
4. The four questions to ask about every single page: Is it helpful? Is it current? Did AI write it (properly)? Does it have a call to action?
5. Why re-dating old posts doesn’t fool Google — and what to actually do instead
6. Why unedited AI content is probably hurting your rankings more than helping them
7. The Keep / Fix / Kill framework — and the priority order for tackling each category
8. Why a smaller, tighter website often outperforms a sprawling one full of filler

I also give you a proper piece of homework. Not the “I’ll do it someday” kind. The start-your-spreadsheet-this-week kind.

If you know someone who hasn’t properly looked at their website in years, send them this. It might save them from a very unpleasant surprise.

Get found. Make money. Go look at your content.

Links mentioned:

Screaming Frog SEO Spider: https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

Crawly: https://crawly.diffbot.com/

Non-Wanky SEO Course: https://nonwankyseo.com

Follow Nikki:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkipilkington/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkipilkington/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nikkipilkington.bsky.social

Chapters:

00:00 — When did you last actually read your website?

00:15 — Welcome to SEO F**king What

00:26 — Why today builds on the last episode

00:38 — Why a content audit sounds boring but isn’t

00:58 — How many pages does your website actually have?

01:22 — Why Google crawls everything

01:40 — The content that actively hurts your rankings

02:20 — What a content audit reveals

02:32 — Step 1: The spreadsheet

03:13 — Step 2: The intent column

03:42 — Tools for bigger sites: Screaming Frog and Crawley

04:34 — Question 1: Is it helpful?

05:34 — Question 2: Is it current?

06:10 — Question 3: Did AI write it?

07:15 — Question 4: Does it have a call to action?

08:31 — You’ve got your spreadsheet. Now what?

09:04 — The Non-Wanky SEO course

09:27 — Keep / Fix / Kill: what to do with each page

09:36 — Leave your working pages alone

09:56 — Update helpful-but-outdated pages

10:28 — Rewrite pages with potential (keep the URL)

10:54 — Deal with unedited AI content properly

11:13 — Consider deleting purposeless pages

11:48 — Your homework

12:27 — Next episode: website structure and internal linking

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I'm going to say something that's going to upset a lot of people who've been bragging about their rankings: being number one for a single word is fucking useless. There. I said it.

Hi, I’m Nikki Pilkington. My site is https://nikki-pilkington.com/ and in this episode of "SEO F**king What", I'm calling out one of the most persistent and damaging myths in SEO — that keywords are either dead entirely, or that you should be obsessing over ranking for the shortest, broadest, most competitive terms possible. Both of these positions are bollocks, and I'm going to explain why.

Here's what I'm covering:

— Why old-school keyword stuffing is dead (but keywords absolutely aren't)

— Why every search is a real person with a real need, and why that changes everything

— The four types of search intent and why matching them is the difference between traffic and clients

— Why "zero search volume" phrases might be your most valuable SEO real estate

— Why ranking number one for "copywriter" or "accountant" will bring you exactly the wrong people

— How to think in topic journeys instead of keyword lists, and why that builds the kind of trust that converts

I also give you a proper piece of homework. Not the "might do that one day" kind. The actual do-it-this-week kind.

If you know someone obsessing over ranking for a single broad keyword and wondering why they're not getting enquiries, send them this. It might save them months of wasted effort.

Get found. Make money. Stop stressing. Start giving a shit about your readers.

Links mentioned:

1. Non-Wanky SEO Courses: https://nonwankyseo.com
2. Google's People Also Ask: Just search for anything on Google and look for the expandable questions
3. Also Asked: https://alsoasked.com/?via=nikki-pilkington (aff link)

Follow Nikki:

1. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkipilkington/
2. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkipilkington/
3. Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nikkipilkington.bsky.social

Mentioned in this episode:

Join our blogging masterclass

Blogging Masterclass

Hi, I’m Nikki Pilkington. My site is https://nikki-pilkington.com/ and in this episode of "SEO F**king What", I’m talking about: the three free tools you need set up before any of the rest of it makes any sense. Because I cannot tell you how many times I've sat down with a business owner for an SEO one-to-one, asked them to share their Google Search Console, and found out they haven't logged in for 18 months. That's like having a sat nav and refusing to look at it, then wondering why you keep getting lost.

And yes, there's actual homework at the end.

Because listening is lovely, but without doing, you're wasting both our time.

You'll learn:

What each tool does and why it matters, how to get all three set up today (it takes about 25 minutes), what to actually look at once they're collecting data, and why ignoring this stuff is one of the most expensive mistakes a website owner can make.

Links mentioned:

1. Google Search Console: https://search.google.com/search-console
2. Google Analytics: https://analytics.google.com
3. Microsoft Clarity: https://clarity.microsoft.com
4. Clicky Analytics: https://clicky.com/101357342
5. Non-Wanky SEO Course: https://nonwankyseo.com

Follow Nikki:

1. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkipilkington/
2. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkipilkington/
3. Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nikkipilkington.bsky.social

Mentioned in this episode:

Join our blogging masterclass

Blogging Masterclass

I got sent an AI search optimisation audit that cost a business thousands of pounds. It was beautifully presented, full of charts and graphs, and packed with confident recommendations about AI citations and ChatGPT visibility.

It also missed a whole BUNCH of stuff.

Hi, I’m Nikki Pilkington. My site is https://nikki-pilkington.com/ and in this episode of "SEO F**king What", I’m talking about: an audit that recommended deleting pages that were actively driving real traffic from Google — because a proprietary AI visibility tool said they weren't getting ChatGPT citations.

I'll break down exactly why this kind of audit is dangerous, not just useless, and what the businesses being sold this stuff actually need to know.

I cover what a real audit should include, why Google organic traffic still dwarfs AI referral traffic for most sites, and the red flags to watch for before you hand over your budget to someone flogging "proprietary AI search tools".

If you've been pitched an AI search audit — or you're tempted — listen to this first.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: Have you been had by an AI search audit?

00:54 What happened: The audit I was sent

01:43 What the audit missed — 462 errors, redirect chains, and more

02:20 The analytics data they ignored: Google vs ChatGPT traffic

03:42 The dangerous advice: deleting pages that were actually working

05:00 Why this makes me so f&%king angry

06:24 The fix: check your numbers

08:17 Red flags to watch for before you pay for any AI SEO audit