It’s January — still — and it’s now been over two months since my first post on this new blog. In that post, you’ll recall how I explored the many reasons for resurrecting my web design blog, just a few short years after my previous efforts ground to a halt after a mere four posts.
Based on the lack of posts since November, you’d be forgiven for thinking I’d forgotten about my blog for a second time. And, this time around, after just a single post! I haven’t forgotten of course. I’ve just been really busy with… y’know… Christmas and stuff.
Just four days after that first blog post, I made a fairly major change in the search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy for my website. And it’s been downhill ever since. (Fear not — there’s a happy ending!)
There’s no place like Reading for web design
After relaunching this website back in late August 2024, I’d focused my geographical SEO efforts not on London — the relatively nearby, readily accessible capital city of England, where, in a former life, I used to live and work — but on the delightful cathedral-free city of Reading, which is now my closet major town, and the place I call home, having moved to the area a few years ago.
It didn’t take long for my website to start reappearing in searches and begin climbing the Google rankings again. By October I already ranked second for “freelance web designer reading” — my primary keyword. I had quite a collection of number one rankings by November, and became aware of a couple more in early December.
I was pleased with how relatively straightforward it was to make a decent impact on local search results, at least for Reading. I’d also made an impact on some other named areas in the borough of Reading. But I hadn’t made much of a dent in London.
London is still where it’s at for freelance web designers
This relative lack of impact upon the Big Smoke was perhaps no surprise. London is large, and there’s a huge amount of competition. Did I seriously think I’d make much of an impression there — and quickly — by targeting London second, after Reading? Well, not really, but I was interested to give it a try. Although I didn’t need to wait any longer before making some changes.
Two things were nagging at me. The first: I could see from Google Search Console that there were, unsurprisingly, far more people searching for a freelance web designer in London than in Reading. Five times as many, at the very least. I appeared in these searches, but only averaged around 20th position in the rankings. For searches in Reading I had, as mentioned, made the top two.
The second thing on my mind was this: in my previous life in the capital I had reached the hallowed number one spot for “freelance web designer london”. My memory is perhaps a little hazy, but I do remember that it tasted so good, plus I couldn’t keep up with enquires. The temptation was too great; I had to give it another go! And so I did, making just enough changes to my website so as to hopefully have some kind of impact on London, while hopefully not negatively impacting on Reading.
Suffice to say, my rankings plummeted across the board.
SE… Oh. Indeed.
Where I was once 2nd, I was now 6th. Where I was previously 7th, I was now 59th. I no longer ranked well for Reading. I’d dropped in searches for London too. And it was a familiar pattern all the way through the many keywords I was tracking*. I’ve had some cracking keyword-based dreams in the past, but this was truly the stuff of SEO nightmares. What was I thinking!?
It’s beginning to look a lot like I do actually know what I’m doing
Fortunately, I think it might just turn out OK. It was Christmas after all, and that possibly goes some way to explaining the sleigh-ride-like slope of my website performance. Sounds plausible, right? It might also have had something to do with my new blog of course. The rest I put down to the change of SEO strategy — but what a great time to implement it though: when everyone is really busy with Christmas and stuff, and probably not very busy searching for web design.
Anyway, here’s that happy ending I promised. In the last few days I’ve leapt from 15th to 8th for “freelance web designer london“. There’s still some way to go, but the trajectory is upward, and all things are generally moving in the right direction. You see, Toto — I really DO know what I’m doing.
Merry Christmas!
The End.
*Throughout all of this, you’ll be thrilled to hear that I have remained the number one international superstar DJ in Reading!