Pretty site with little text or clear content? What Google sees

You got the site back from the designer and it looks exactly the way you wanted: a large photo across the full width of the screen, a four-word slogan, three icons labelled “Quality”, “Experience”, “Reliability” and a “Contact us” button. In the presentation it impressed everyone. Three months later, you search Google for the name of your service and your city, and the site is nowhere.

The problem is not the design. The problem is that the page says nothing. It does not answer any question that someone types into Google, so Google has no reason to show it. And it does not answer the questions a person has when they land on it by chance either, so the person leaves.

Below you will see what Google reads from a page, what a visitor looks for in the first few seconds, and how to lay out the text without ruining the design.

What Google reads from a page

Google does not look at a page the way a person does. It reads the HTML code and extracts text, headings and links from it. From these it decides which searches the page deserves to show up for.

Concretely, Google looks at:

• The text in the HTML. The words that actually exist on the page, as text, not as an image. If your page only contains “Solutions for your business”, that is all Google knows about you.
• Headings that mean something. An H1 that says what the page is and H2s that split the content by topic. “Tax advisory for companies in Cluj” says something. “Welcome” says nothing.
• One page per topic or service. If you offer bookkeeping, payroll and tax advisory, each one needs its own page. A single page that mixes them all will not be strong for any of them.
• Frequently asked questions with answers. People search Google in the form of questions. A page that contains the question and the answer, as text, has a direct advantage.
• Concrete facts. Where you work, when you are available, how much it costs or how long it takes, who the service is for. These are exactly the words people type.
• Internal links between pages. From the service page to the case study, from the article to the service page. This is how Google understands which pages matter and how they connect.

The rule is simple and has no exceptions: Google cannot rank a page for “tax advisory Cluj” if the page does not say anywhere what you do and where. It does not guess and it does not read the slogan out of the photo.

Three kinds of searches, three kinds of pages

Not all searches want the same thing. When someone types something into Google, they have an intent, and Google tries to show the page that best matches that intent.

This is why a single “pretty” page is not enough. Someone looking for information does not want a form, someone who wants to book does not want a long article. Each intent needs its own page, and the pages connect to each other through internal links.

What the visitor sees in the first five seconds

A person who lands on your page, from Google or from a link, has four questions in mind. If they do not get answers quickly, they leave.

1. What do you do? Not “solutions”, not “integrated services”. What you do, in the words they would use themselves.
2. For whom? Small companies, clinics, individuals, restaurants. The visitor wants to recognise themselves.
3. Why should they trust you? How many years you have been working, how many clients, what results, what others say.
4. What should they do next? Call, fill in a form, see the prices, read more.

A “hero” with an image and a slogan leaves all four questions unanswered. The visitor scrolls a little, sees three icons with adjectives, finds nothing concrete and closes the tab. That shows up later in the statistics: a high bounce rate, a few seconds on the page, zero forms submitted.

The simplest test you can do right now: show your homepage to someone who does not know what you do, for five seconds, then ask them what you do and for whom. If they cannot answer, neither can Google.

You do not choose between pretty and with text

The most common objection sounds like this: “I do not want a wall of text, it ruins my design”. It is a false choice. Pages that look crowded do not have too much text, they have text without structure. Well-placed text is part of the design, not its enemy.

The tools are the same ones any good designer uses:

• Visual hierarchy. A large heading, a subheading, then the body. The eye knows where to look first.
• Sections with a clear heading and two to four sentences. Not ten-line paragraphs. Each section answers a single question.
• Lists for what the service includes, for steps, for criteria.
• Comparison tables when you have packages or variants. A table says in ten seconds what would take three paragraphs.
• FAQ boxes at the end of the page, with the questions you get on the phone.
• Images with a purpose. The product, the team, the location, a result. Not stock photos of people shaking hands.
• White space between sections, so the page can breathe.

How to turn a slogan into three useful sentences

Take the slogan out of the hero and replace it with three sentences: what you do, for whom, what comes next. A few examples:

Before: “Your health, our priority.”

After: “Dental clinic in Timișoara, Circumvalațiunii district. We treat adults and children, with appointments in the same week. Call or pick a time online.”

Before: “Digital solutions for your business.”

After: “We build and maintain WooCommerce online stores for companies in Romania. We handle hosting, updates and security, so you can sell. See how we work or ask for an estimate.”

The “after” version fits under the heading, in the same hero, with the same photo. The difference is that the page now contains the service, the city, the audience and the next step, as text, for Google and for people.

How much text a page needs

There is no magic word count. There is a single question: does the page fully answer what the reader came to find out? If yes, it has enough text. If not, something is missing, no matter how many words it has.

In practice, a complete service page covers:

• What the service includes, point by point. What is in the price and what is not.
• Who it is for and who it is not for. Turning away the wrong audience increases the trust of the right one.
• How it works: the first contact, what happens next, what the client needs to prepare.
• How long it takes and, where possible, how much it costs or what price it starts from.
• Frequently asked questions, the real ones, the ones you hear on the phone.
• Proof: numbers from your own activity, case studies, reviews with names, certifications.

When you fill in these points with short sentences, you naturally end up with a few hundred words, without padding.

For an online store, the category page follows the same logic. The product grid stays at the top, and below it you add an explanatory text: what types of products are in the category, which criteria to choose between them by, which situation each one suits. Someone searching for “running shoes for asphalt” wants exactly this guide, and Google finally has something to read on a page that would otherwise be just photos and prices.

The traps “minimalist” pages fall into

Some pages have text, but Google still does not see it. The most common situations:

• Text hidden in images. The slogan, the list of services or the opening hours placed as a picture. Google does not read letters inside an image, and the screen readers used by people with visual impairments even less so. Text goes in as text.
• Content rendered only by JavaScript or hidden in accordions. Google can process JavaScript, but not always and not immediately. If the important text appears only after a click or after a script runs, you are gambling on what Google sees. The main text has to be in the HTML from the start.
• The same page in three versions. “Accounting Cluj”, “Accounting services Cluj” and “Accounting firm Cluj” as three nearly identical pages. This is called cannibalisation: the pages compete with each other and none of them climbs. One topic, one page.
• Text written for the robot. The same keyword repeated in every sentence, paragraphs that say nothing to a human. Since 2022 Google has a system called “helpful content” that evaluates exactly this: whether the text is written for people or for rankings. Text for the robot loses.
• “Under construction” pages that are published. A menu with eight pages, five of which say “coming soon”, sends the visitor and Google into a void. Publish only what is ready.

How to measure whether the page says anything

You do not have to guess. Three places show you what is happening:

• Google Search Console. Under “Performance” you see which queries each page shows up for, how many impressions it gets and in which position. If the service page does not show up for the name of the service, it is missing the text. If it shows up in position 30, the text exists but is not good enough. The data is not filled in retroactively, so set it up as early as possible.
• Google Analytics. The landing pages and the time spent on them. A homepage with a few seconds of time and no second page visited tells you the visitor found nothing to read.
• A simple search. Type the name of the service and the city into a private browser window. Open the first three results and look at what text they have. That is the bar.

If you want to see how content is built over the long term, an SEO and content strategy starts exactly here: from the list of services and from the questions clients ask. And if the site already exists and the problem is strictly what Google sees in it, Google optimization takes care of headings, structure and the missing text.

Checklist

For each important service page, in the order they are worth doing:

• The page title (H1) contains the name of the service and, if you work locally, the city.
• Under the title there are three sentences: what you do, for whom, what comes next.
• The main text is in the HTML, not in images and not only in accordions.
• Each section has an H2 that says something and two to four sentences.
• There is a list of what the service includes and what it does not.
• There is a “How it works” section with the steps from first contact to completion.
• Concrete facts appear: where, when, how long it takes, from what price.
• There are three to five real frequently asked questions, with answers as text.
• There is at least one piece of proof: a number from your activity, a review with a name, a case study.
• The page links to at least one other relevant page and receives links from the menu or from other pages.
• There is no other page on the site targeting the same topic.
• The page shows up in Search Console for the name of the service, even if in a weak position.