If you’ve ever wondered why your website isn’t ranking in Google, you’re not alone. The truth is that there are numerous variables at play. The Domain Authority, Page Authority, and even the structure of your site are all factors to consider. However, if you’re still stumped as to why your website isn’t ranking on Google, this essay will offer some guidance on how to proceed.
Let’s start at the beginning.
If you’re not sure why your website isn’t showing up in Google search results, there could be a variety of ranking factors at play.
The first thing you should consider is relevance. Google wants to give searchers the most relevant results. They achieve this by crawling website content and matching it to a searcher’s keyword or search query. Google will not show your website if it copies content from authoritative sources or if your on-page content does not adequately cover the topic being searched.
Google Ranking Factors for Better Search Result Positioning
Keyword Density and Placement
Proper keyword placement is critical for Google to discern a page’s topic. Include the keyword / phrase you’re after in the title tag, the first paragraph of the text, and throughout the rest of the page. This is crucial in terms of SEO!
It’s also crucial that your content is created for people rather than search engines, and that your website reads naturally rather than being “keyword loaded” to entice Google web crawlers. Keyword stuffing should be avoided at all costs, as it appears spammy and may result in a Google penalty. Your objective is to generate Google relevancy signals, but don’t go overboard!
Another item to think about is your domain name. Include the term in your domain selection, and if possible, make it the first word in the domain. Don’t worry if your domain has already been registered; simply add a keyword to a subdomain. Try using www.seo.website.com instead of www.website.com/seo as a page domain.
Yoast SEO is a fantastic plugin for helping business owners effectively and naturally optimise their pages. It can tell you how easy your text is to read, how many times your keyword/phrase appears on the page, whether your photos are optimised, and much more. There’s also Rank Math if you’re searching for a WordPress SEO swiss army knife.
Image Enhancement
Because Google’s site crawlers can’t see photos, it’s crucial to explain what the images on your page signify to them. Your image’s file name, alt text, and title tag should all provide context. Keep the description brief and the text varied. For a site with similar photos throughout, this may require some creativity.
To discover more about image optimization and best practises, see How Your Website Images Affect Your Search Ranking.
Site and Content Updates
Google adores new content. By routinely updating your website and adding new blog articles, you can keep your material fresh and unique. Smaller changes send a weaker signal to Google, so aim to make big changes when making updates.
You should generate additional material that adds value to the searcher and your target audience in addition to blog posts and pages. Here are a few suggestions:
- Videos
- Infographics
- Interactive Tools/Maps
- Downloadable Templates, E-books, Whitepapers
Track Your Time on the Job
If your website visitors leave rapidly, commonly known as bouncing, Google may conclude that the information on your page is unrelated to the search query that brought them to your site. Your article should be interesting and convey the right message. If visitors stay on your site for an extended period of time, you’re offering value that Google will want to promote with new customers!
Cleaning House to Improve Google Rankings for Your Website
Look for a bad domain history.
A website with a poor Google ranking may have a terrible domain history. Penguin and Panda penalties were developed to tackle abusive practises used to boost web rankings, and your site may suffer as a result. Use caution while hosting spammers or engaging in “black hat” activities. Google will ultimately notice this and will delete your website!
Domain Registration Renewal
Keep your domain up to date, and buy longer domain registrations if possible. Longer registrations are considered more legitimate by Google, and they give greater credit to websites that they feel will last for years. When compared to an established site on the same subject, domains with short term registrations appear less authoritative because they may not be constantly maintained or be for a transitory reason.
Page Speed Test
When compared to sites that serve material swiftly, a website that loads slowly will fall in the results. A delayed loading page gives a bad quality signal to Google, which it wants to relay to searchers. Plus, your clients want speed, so if a page takes too long to load, they’ll leave quickly, severely impacting your bounce rate.
Check the Backlink Quality of Your Website
Make sure you’re sending Google the appropriate signals about your website. If you have low-quality or spammy incoming links, Google will see this as a form of ranking manipulation and will punish your page. Link creation should be organic. Because they provide valuable information to readers, authoritative sites with a high level of trust tend to assist websites rank higher.
To assist with your link strategy, there are several tools accessible, including the Moz browser plugin, Ahrefs, and Screaming Frog SEO Spider.
Internal website linking is just as crucial to Google as building high-quality inbound connections. Make sure your website has enough internal connections to drive visitors to relevant content pages. Add a link to your contact page, for example, or if you highlight a service you offer in a blog post, a link to that service page.
Also, look for and fix broken links because they can send a low-quality signal to Google, lowering your site’s visibility in search results.
What if you’re using completely incorrect keywords?
Your keyword phrases’ search volume is important. It’s the foundation of your SEO campaign. If you’re attempting to rank for a keyword with only 100 monthly searches, there’s a slim chance you’ll reach the top of the search results page. When choosing keywords for your website, make sure they have a high search traffic. When it comes to ranking, this will be easier than fighting an uphill battle. To identify similar pages and produce content around those topics, learn what terms and phrases people are using.
Your website is not being indexed by Google.
You could develop excellent content for search engine optimization (SEO), but if no one sees it, why bother? Make certain that people can locate your website. Posting on other prominent websites and using social media platforms are two SEO strategies. Consider performing an SEO audit.
It is critical to comprehend Why is My Website Not Ranking in Google? As a website owner, the most important thing you can do is take action. If nothing else, use this as motivation to learn everything you need to know so that your site can begin to rank well in search engine results pages.
There are no credible backlinks.
When Google finds a website with one link from a relevant blog and another link from a site that isn’t as closely related, it assumes the first site is more authoritative (and thus better) than the second. Getting links from high-authority sites will help you increase your “link juice.”
Not compatible with mobile devices
The popularity of mobile web browsing is growing. It’s time to make sure your site is mobile-friendly if you haven’t already! Make sure that all of your material is also viewable on smartphones and other mobile devices.
Google has imposed a penalty on your website.
Receiving a Google penalty has been a thing for quite some time. According to Google, it employs over 200 signals to rank websites, and fines can sometimes affect their rankings. If your site has been punished, you’ll need to take action before it appears again in the search results. The first step is to learn everything you can about what went wrong — and how to correct it – using resources like this blog post. In general, Google Search Console has a disavow function that you may use to tell Google which links should no longer be linked with your website.
There are a slew of reasons why your website isn’t showing up in Google’s search results. Unfortunately, learning more about them may not always provide you with immediate insight into how to resolve the issue. With a little research and elbow grease, however, you should be able to get things moving in the correct way.
In local search results, citations are required.
Citations are vital for your business because they increase the legitimacy of your local listing. Google has recently implemented an algorithmic modification, with more expected to follow, that will have an impact on citations on many sites, including those that have been ‘optimised’ by citation service providers or even SEO firms! Why is this possible? These providers frequently do not provide a link from their site to yours with consistent information about what is being optimised. Why do you believe Google might punish these listings? They don’t trust them nearly as much as listings that have been appropriately optimised. “How come my website isn’t ranking in Google?” you might wonder. Perhaps because your citation is incorrect, and the process to correct it has only recently begun!
Google has updated its algorithm.
It’s almost certainly an algorithm upgrade. Why am I saying this? If you follow sites like Moz (which publishes updates directly from Google), you’ll notice that a major upgrade happens once a year (give or take a few months).
What kinds of things may this upgrade have changed? This modification was most likely aimed against certain backlinks, spamming links, and social media profiles. Why is this important to you? Because if your site is spammy in any manner, shape, or form, there’s a significant chance it’ll get hit by Google’s next major change!
Reference: SEO Company Malaysia
