# SEO tips for SMEs: what 29 invisible blog posts taught us | Fokuus [Home](https://fokuus.be/en/) [Blog](https://fokuus.be/en/blog/) SEO tips for SMEs: what 29 invisible blog posts taught us # SEO tips for SMEs: what 29 invisible blog posts taught us SEO tips from our own data: 29 of our 32 old blog posts never made it into Google. What we deleted, what got indexed afterwards, and what you as an SME take away. [Anton Pycarelle](https://fokuus.be/en/about/) 25 September 20268 min read time ## In this article - [Where we stood: 32 posts, 29 of them invisible](https://fokuus.be/#waar-we-stonden-32-posts-waarvan-29-onzichtbaar) - [What we changed and why we deleted](https://fokuus.be/#wat-we-veranderd-hebben-en-waarom-we-schrapten) - [Into the index within two weeks](https://fokuus.be/#binnen-twee-weken-in-de-index) - [What disappointed us: impressions aren't customers yet](https://fokuus.be/#wat-tegenviel-vertoningen-zijn-nog-geen-klanten) - [Six SEO tips an SME can take from this](https://fokuus.be/#zes-seo-tips-die-een-kmo-hieruit-kan-meenemen) - [For a local business: the map first](https://fokuus.be/#voor-een-lokale-zaak-eerst-het-kaartje) A blog with 32 articles sounds like a solid SEO foundation. For us, 29 of those 32 weren't in Google's index, with zero impressions in 90 days. They existed, but to anyone searching, they were invisible. In August 2026 we deleted them. So these are not ten SEO tips from a checklist, but lessons from our own mistake, with the numbers to back it up. The ugly parts too. SEO stands for search engine optimization. It means helping search engines understand your content and helping searchers find your site and decide whether they want to visit it; that's how [Google itself](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide) describes it. Creating interchangeable pages in series is not mentioned there. Yet that's what we did. ## Where we stood: 32 posts, 29 of them invisible The 29 posts came out in two batches: seventeen on 4 August 2025, twelve on 3 October 2025, each on one day and each from the same template. Our own guidelines, set alongside the first batch on 4 August, wanted "Emojis in headers" and showed a stats block with "300%" more leads as an example. The work instructions we added on 2 October 2025, a day before the second batch, went further: "ALWAYS copy an existing working article as a base", change "ONLY" three things, "Emojis in ALL H2 headers", and open with "Imagine..." or a question. You see it in the 29 posts. Thirteen literally opened with "Imagine:", twenty-seven had emojis in their subheadings, eleven had a stats block with unsourced numbers, and all 29 had an ad block right after the intro. In our measurement on 20 August 2026, all 29 appeared in Search Console as unindexed, with the status "Crawled, currently not indexed" or "URL is unknown to Google", with 0 impressions and 0 clicks in 90 days. The entire site got 10 clicks from Google in the 90 days through 19 August, half from people just typing "fokuus". The cleanup of our blog, from template to the 25 September 2026 measurement. ## What we changed and why we deleted Rewriting seems like the obvious move, and Google itself calls removing [a last resort](https://developers.google.com/search/updates/core-updates) . But according to the same page, removing entire sections that were originally made for search engines can actually improve the performance of good content on your site. Our blog described that quite exactly: zero impressions, so no rank to lose, and interchangeable text. On 22 August the cleanup went live. Six posts got a 301 redirect to a related page that stayed, the other 23 went to the blog overview. Strictly speaking, that's not what Google recommends: for a page with no real replacement, Google asks for [a 404 or 410](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/troubleshoot-crawling-errors) , and an overview page doesn't replace an article. At the same time, new rules came in: every post contains something only we can write, like a real project or our own data. ## Into the index within two weeks The three posts we've published so far following those rules all appeared in the index within two weeks. The first, about webshops, went live on 20 August, just before the cleanup, and was already included in the 22 August check. The one about website maintenance (3 September) was in it at the 15 September measurement, the WordPress one (15 September) at the 25 September one. Google states that its systems prioritize [the rapid inclusion of quality, useful content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/ask-google-to-recrawl) . Three posts don't prove causation. And in fairness: our real sitemap only appeared in Search Console from 11 August 2026; before that it only knew dead sitemaps from an old WordPress site. So the contrast with the 29 doesn't come from better text alone. Our blog post on contact forms, one of the three old ones that stayed, dropped out of the index in early September anyway: made-up percentages, an ad block, a testimonial nobody had given. We rewrote it on 4 September with our own data; on 16 September it was back in the index. ## What disappointed us: impressions aren't customers yet By 25 September, not a single blog post had generated one click from Google in the past 90 days. The webshop post, our strongest, got 259 impressions in those 90 days at an average position of 28.5: page three. Across the whole site we counted about nine search engine visits per 28 days in September (GA4, Belgium only, cookies accepted only). The pricing guide, another survivor, also dropped out of the index after our website redesign launched. On 25 September we rewrote it by the same rules. Google warns that it [can take several months](https://developers.google.com/search/updates/core-updates) for its systems to see that a site as a whole produces useful content. Impressions per blog post over 90 days. Visible in Google, but not yet with one click. ## Six SEO tips an SME can take from this ### First the index, then everything else The most important SEO tip from our numbers: a page that isn't in the index can't rank, no matter how good the title is. In [Google Search Console](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-console-start) you see which pages are excluded, and with URL inspection you check the status of one page. Also check right away which sitemap Search Console knows. How to check the rest of your site in ten minutes is in [our website analysis guide](https://fokuus.be/en/blog/website-analyse/) . ### One search query, one page, with that query upfront in the title Our standing rule since 3 September: pick search intent first, and put it upfront in title, heading and meta. On 11 September 2026 we found 68 search queries in Search Console for which multiple of our own pages appeared at the same time. For "webdesign kortrijk", the old www version of our homepage was at position 12.8, while our service page on web design in Kortrijk, which exists precisely for that, stayed stuck at 47.8. So neither made it to page one. What we did: ten pages got a link to that service page, and the main heading became "Have a website built in Kortrijk."; the title already started with "Web design Kortrijk". Both changes went live on 25 September. Whether it works, we don't know yet; we'll measure it over the coming weeks. ### Write what only you can write In its [helpful content guidelines](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content) Google asks you questions to test your text against. Two of them should have stopped our old posts: are you creating lots of content on many different topics hoping some will rank well? And do you mostly summarize what others say without adding much? The heavy version is called in Google's [spam policy](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies) "scaled content abuse": creating many pages primarily to manipulate rankings rather than help people. Our test since then is simple: could an agency from Antwerp take this text unchanged? Then it won't go online. And a number without a source never gets in; an honest small figure from your own Search Console says more than a made-up "300%". For visibility in AI answers, we apply the same standard, see [our GEO post](https://fokuus.be/en/blog/geo-seo/) . ### Delete: 301 or 404 If a page gets zero impressions in 90 days and there's nothing to fix, remove it. If another page answers the same question better, redirect with a 301: Google [follows such a permanent redirect](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/301-redirects) and treats the target page as the main version. If there's no real replacement, a 404 or 410 is the honest answer. If there is something there, rewrite it, like our contact form post. ### The code no one sees Whoever copies a page as a template also copies the code. In the [structured data](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/intro-structured-data) of that blog post on contact forms, the code that tells Google what a page is and who it's from, listed another company as author and publisher, with the main version of the page on their website. On every new page, check once in the source code what's there about your page and business, and you're good. ### A brake instead of a hunch Google recommends [waiting a few weeks](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide) before you judge if a change delivered anything. Our blog machine has since put in a brake: if a new post isn't in the index after 14 days, it writes nothing new until we know why. ## For a local business: the map first If an 80/20 rule exists in SEO for a local SME, I don't think it's in more blog posts. For "webdesign kortrijk", the local map pack appears at the top of search results, above any blog post. How to get there is explained in our guide on [Google Business Profile](https://fokuus.be/en/blog/google-bedrijfsprofiel-aanmaken/) ; broader tips for more website visitors are in [ten possibilities for more website visitors](https://fokuus.be/en/blog/10-tips-meer-bezoekers-website/) . We have indexing now, clicks not yet. That's where we stand honestly on 25 September 2026. SEO Search Console Indexing Write a blog Share [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffokuus.be%2Fen%2Fblog%2Fseo-tips%2F) [DotsApp](https://wa.me/?text=SEO-tips%20voor%20kmo%27s%3A%20wat%2029%20onzichtbare%20blogposts%20ons%20leerden%20https%3A%2F%2Ffokuus.be%2Fblog%2Fseo-tips%2F) [Email](mailto:?subject=SEO-tips%20voor%20kmo%27s%3A%20wat%2029%20onzichtbare%20blogposts%20ons%20leerden&body=https%3A%2F%2Ffokuus.be%2Fblog%2Fseo-tips%2F) ## Get Fokuus updates. New articles and Fokuus's updates in your mailbox. You can unsubscribe at any time. ## Anton Pycarelle Founder of Fokuus Anton builds and optimizes websites for Belgian SMEs from Kortrijk. He writes about choices and experiences from real projects. [More about Fokuus](https://fokuus.be/en/about/) ## Keep reading. 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