You may have asked yourself, Why Isn’t My Website Ranking on Google? The fact of the matter is that there are several factors to consider. The quality of your website’s Domain Authority, Page Authority, and even how it’s structured are a few things to think about. But if you’re still perplexed as to why your website isn’t ranking.
Let’s begin with the basics.
If your website isn’t showing up in Google search results, and you’re not sure why there may be several ranking factors contributing to your lower placement.
The first thing you should consider is relevance. In search engines, the most relevant information is vital. Google spider robots crawl your website’s content and match it to the keyword/search query a searcher is looking for. If you’re duplicating material from reputable sources or your on-page content isn’t comprehensive enough to cover the subject being searched, Google won’t include your site in search results.
Google Ranking Factors to Boost Search Result Placement
Keyword Placement & Density
It’s important to use the keyword you’re targeting in the title tag, at the start of the page content, and elsewhere on the page. This is critical for SEO!
It’s also critical that your material is written for humans, not search engines, and that it reads naturally and is not “keyword-stuffed” to entice Google web crawlers. Keyword stuffing is a term used to describe when you include too many keywords in your content. It can be seen as spammy, which means Google may punish your website for it. Your objective with Google-credible content is to create relevance signals, not overwhelm it!
Another thing to think about is your domain. Select a domain that contains the keyword, if possible, and put the keyword as the first word in the domain. Don’t worry; experiment with adding a keyword to a subdomain if you already own a domain. For example, try setting up a page domain like this: www.seo.website.com rather than www.website.com/seo.
SEO is an excellent program for website owners to help them optimize their sites properly and naturally. Keyword density is an essential measure for any SEO campaign. Aside from other things, it may tell you how easy it is to comprehend your material, how frequently the keyword/phrase appears on the page, whether your pictures are optimized, and much more. If you’re looking for the swiss army knife of WordPress SEO, there’s also Rank Math.
Image Optimization
Because Google’s web crawlers cannot view images, you must assist them in deciphering the meaning of the photos on your website. The image’s file name, alternative text, and title tag should all be clear. Keep your description brief and varied. Sometimes this means going outside the box for a website with many similar pictures throughout.
Read How Your Website Images Affect Your Search Ranking to learn more about image optimization and best practices.
Content and Site Updates
NEW CONTENT IS LOVED BY GOOGLE. To keep your material fresh and unique, update your website and create new blog entries on a regular basis. Significant changes are a better indication to Google than minor ones, so try to make as many changes as possible when updating your site.
You should create additional material that adds value to the searcher and your target audience beyond blog entries and pages. Here are some recommendations:
- Videos
- Infographics
- Interactive Maps/Tools
- E-books, Whitepapers, Downloadable Templates
Monitor Time on Site
If your website visitors rapidly leave or bounce from the site, Google may determine that the information on your page is irrelevant to the search query used to discover it. Make sure your material is interesting and conveys the correct message. If people spend time on your website, you provide value that Google would want to share with potential new customers!
Cleaning House to Increase Your Website’s Search Ranking in Google
Check for Poor Domain History
A website that ranks poorly with Google could have a lousy domain history. Penalties like Penguin and Panda were created to target abusive tactics used to increase web rankings, and your site may be negatively affected. Be careful hosting with spammers and conducting “black hat” tactics. Google will eventually recognize this and drop your website into oblivion!
Renew Your Domain Registration
Keep your domain current, and attempt to get longer domain registrations if possible. Google values a longer registration more highly than a shorter one, and they give more credibility to websites that they believe will endure for many years. Short-term registrations on domains with little or no authority appear to be less legitimate since they may not be actively maintained or are used for a temporary cause compared to an established site on the same topic.
Test Page Speed
A website that loads slowly will fall in the rankings compared to sites that deliver content quickly. This is because a slow-loading page sends the message that your site’s content isn’t good enough, says Google. Plus, if a page takes a long time to load, your visitors will abandon your site, which will affect your bounce rate.
Check Your Site’s Backlink Quality
Ensure that you’re sending the proper signals to Google about your website. Google will regard as manipulating the ranking system if you have low-quality or spammy inbound links, resulting in a penalty for the website. Therefore, link building should be natural. Authoritative sites with a high level of trust tend to help websites rank higher because they provide quality resources to readers.
Several tools are accessible, such as the Moz browser plugin, Ahrefs, and Screaming Frog SEO Spider, to assist you in your link building.
Internal website linking is also necessary for Google and producing high-quality inbound links. So make sure your website has enough internal connections to direct people to relevant content parts. For example, add a link to your contact page, or if you mention a service you provide in a blog article, add a link to that service page.
Make sure your links are all working correctly. Also, inspect and repair any broken links to ensure that Google receives a high-quality signal.
What If You’re Using the Wrong Keywords Together?
The popularity of your keyword phrases is important. It’s the basis of your SEO strategy. If you’re attempting to rank for a term with a monthly search volume of 100, there’s not much chance that you’ll make it to the top spot on Google. Make sure the keywords you’re considering have a lot of search traffic. This will be a walk in the park compared to climbing an uphill struggle when it comes to ranking. Identify which words and phrases customers use to locate comparable sites and create content around those themes.
Google is Not Indexing Your Website
With search engine optimization (SEO), you could write content that represents the topic very well, but if nobody sees it, then why bother? You need to make sure people can find your website. Other techniques for increasing your search engine optimization (SEO) include using popular websites and social media platforms. Consider having an SEO audit done on your site.
Although finding out Why Is My Website Not Ranking in Google is important, the essential thing you can do as a website owner is to take action. Use this as motivation to learn what you need to know well enough so that your site starts ranking high on search engine results pages, whether it’s because of lack of content or another reason.
No Authoritative Backlinks
When Google identifies a website with one link from a blog on a related topic and another from a site that is not as closely related, it automatically assumes the first is more authoritative (and thus superior) than the second. Getting links from high-authority websites may help you increase your “link juice.”
Not Optimized for Mobile Devices
With the growth of mobile web browsing, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. If you haven’t already optimized your site for mobile devices, now is the time! Make sure all of your written information is accessible on cellphones and other handheld gadgets as well.
Your Website Has Been Penalized By Google
In the past, receiving a penalty by Google was routine. Google claims that there are more than 200 signals it considers when ranking websites and sentences that may impact those evaluations. If your site is penalized, you’ll have to take action before it can reappear on the results pages again. The first step is to learn about why this happened and how it may be addressed through resources like this blog post. As a general rule, there is a disavow tool on Google Search Console that can be used to tell Google which links should no longer be associated with your website.
Many issues may hinder your website from ranking on Google’s SERPs. And unfortunately, there is no way to instantly discover how to remedy any issue you learn about. However, with a bit of study and elbow grease, you should be able to get things back on track.
Citations Needed In Local Search Results
Citations are important because they aid in establishing your company’s legitimacy. Unfortunately, Google is doing an algorithmic update that will most likely impact many sites, including those that have been “optimized” by citation providers or even SEO firms. What could be behind this? Well, oftentimes, these types of companies will not provide a link back from their site to yours with consistent information about what is being optimized. So why do you think Google would penalize these types of listings? That’s right – they don’t trust them as much as those listings that have been properly optimized. “Why Is My Website Not Ranking in Google?” you ask? Perhaps because you’re not cited right, and the work to fix it has only just begun!
Google Released a New Algorithm Update
It’s probably an algorithm update. Why do I think that? Well, if you follow sites like Moz (which publishes updates straight from Google), you’ll notice that a major upgrade occurs roughly once each year (plus or minus a few months).
What was the impact of this change? This particular upgrade was very likely to affect a variety of back-links, spammy links, and social media profiles. Why is this important to you? Because if your website is spammy in any way – whether it’s due to human error or malicious intentions – there’s a good chance it will be targeted.
Conduct a Website Audit to Identify SEO Troublemakers
While these factors are among the most important in terms of influencing your search engine results, Google uses over 200 distinct ranking factors in its search engine algorithms. As a result, there may be a variety of causes for why your website isn’t performing well.
If you’d like some help finding the “SEO troublemakers” that are keeping your website from ranking well on Google, we’re here to help!
Remember the following:
- Make sure your website is relevant to the term you want to rank for.
- Maintain your material fresh and unique.
- Avoid spammy tactics!
If your website is not ranking in Google, we got you covered. Get in touch with our team today and book your free consultation.