Why Your Website Is Not Ranking On Google?
This is the first part of a two part post on why your website does
not rank favourably on Google. These factors are equally relevant to
other search engines such as Yahoo and Bing. You have a great website
for your company. It has been built professionally by an experienced
web design company. The content is proof read and of a very high
quality. Everyone says your website is great. So why aren’t prospective
customers finding your website? You know there are millions of people
who need your product and are actively searching for it on the
Internet?
One of the most likely reasons is that leading search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing hate your website. Although you are confident you have a great product and a great website, you are just not doing enough for Google and other search engines to consider your website valuable enough to rank in the organic search results for your desired search terms. Here are 20 reasons why your website does not ranking favourably on Google:
One of the most likely reasons is that leading search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing hate your website. Although you are confident you have a great product and a great website, you are just not doing enough for Google and other search engines to consider your website valuable enough to rank in the organic search results for your desired search terms. Here are 20 reasons why your website does not ranking favourably on Google:
1. You Have Not Done Keyword Research
Keyword research is at the heart of SEO. Good keyword research is conducted with the help of real data so you can make the right decision. It is important to choose keywords that customers are actually searching for. Google have a great free keyword tool where you can enter your search terms and it will give you the total monthly search volumes along with the total competition to rank for the search term. It also offers suggestions on alternative phrases that you can use. It is one of the best keyword research tools. 2. Your Keywords do Not Appear in Page-Content
Google scans the content on the page to determine the relevance of keywords. To rank favourably, it is important for the keyword to appear frequently in the page content. Although it is good to use the keyword frequently, it is equally important to maintain a natural language written with readers in mind. Excessive usage should also be avoided. Keyword density over 4 to 5% can be damaging.3. You Are Trying to Rank For Too Many Keywords
Trying to make one page rank for too many keywords is not feasible and should be avoided. Each page should focus on only one or two phrases. This way you can concentrate all your efforts towards that. If you wish to target multiple phrases, use different pages on your website.4. Your Primary Keyword is Not Part of Your Page Headings
The headings on a page are important for SEO. It is good SEO practice to include your main keyword as part of your page heading. In HTML markup allows for multiple heading tags e.g. h2, h2, h3. h4. etc. H1 and H2 are most important and should include your keyword.5. None of Your Images Have Keywords in Descriptions (ALT tag)
In HTML, when we embed an image on a web page, we have the option to provide an alternate description. This is called ALT tag in short in HTML. The ALT description is not actually displayed on the page but exists in the code and displayed only if the image is disable or not displayed on the browser for any other reason. Search engines are not able to read the image and use the ALT description instead. Try to include your main keyword within the ALT description where relevant.6. You Don’t Link to Other Pages on Your Website
Creating links between related pages of your website improves the accessibility of information and also benefits SEO. It is a good proactive to inter-link related pages together where feasible. A simple link within the text where relevant can improve your page views and improve indexing on search engine results. To maximise SEO benefits, try to use keywords in the anchor text of links.7. Your Meta Tags Do Not Include Keywords
Of the different Meta tags, Meta tags for title and description are most important for SEO and used by search engines to determine the topic of your page. This is the information that is also displayed in search results. Make sure you use your keywords in both the title and description Meta tags for the page. And make sure you use unique tags for all pages.8. You Don’t Have a Blog
Blogging is one of the most effective SEO techniques today. Google loves websites that publish new content and blog is one of the best ways to achieve this. Host the blog under your primary domain name for best results.9. You don’t Update Your Website Frequently Enough
Google loves fresh content. Websites that are serious about a strong online presence update content anywhere from a daily to weekly basis. It may not be feasible to update the core pages of your website regularly. This is one of the reasons why blogs have become so important for SEO.10. You Don’t Have a Sitemap
A sitemap is simply a page on your website with a list of all individual pages on your website together with their hyperlinks. Sitemaps assist search engines to index your website. It increases the chances of all pages of your site being indexed.11. You Have not done Competitive Analysis
Although competitive analysis is vital for building a successful web presence, it is overlooked by some. Identify your main competitors and study their websites. See what they are doing and try to find how you can do it better. You can also use successful businesses in your niche as a source of inspiration. From an SEO point of view, an in-depth analysis of the top ranking website can prove very valuable. An effective SEO technique is to study their on-page SEO and analyse external factors including external links. Following the same approach can help achieve similar rank for your website.12. Your website only contains information about your company and its products
Gone are the days when you can get away with offering information about your business and products only. If you want your website to succeed, you need to offer a wide range of information relevant your audience. This may include industry news, guides, and tutorials as well other information relevant to your niche. Google favours websites that have a high authority and reputation. One of the best ways to achieve this is by offering a wide range of generic information relevant to your niche.13. Your URLs are not search engine friendly
Using recognizable words, especially your keywords, in your blog post URL will help Google to make sense of your blog posts. The bonus, of course, is that your blog posts will be easierto remember for everyone else. So take a minute to edit your blog URL before you publish.14. There are broken links on your website
Sometimes old URL’s change or old links stop working. Check all your links periodically to make sure there are no broken links. Broken links not only affects usability but can also affect how search engines view your website.15. You Copy Content From Other Websites
Google can penalise you for copying content from other websites. It is OK to draw inspiration or even write on the same topics; however the choice of words should be your own.16. You Don’t Use Social Media Enough
Social media has become integral to SEO. There are so many aspects of social media that social media optimisation has become a field in itself. Some basic tips are:
- Don’t limit yourself to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
- Build and expand your presence across many social channels.
- Share all new content on your website across your social networks.
- Encourage other to share, include share buttons on all your web pages.
- Share quality information from many external sources, not just content from your own website.
17. You are not taking advantage of Call to Action
Call to actions encourages users to perform a desired action on your website which usually takes them one step closer to a sale. Call to action typically include buttons, links, banner etc. that encourage actions such as making an enquiry, completing a request a call back form, subscribing to your newsletter or buying an actual product. Use effective call to action on all pages and display in a prominent place of the website to improve conversions.18. You don’t engage website visitors
Comments give your blog the kind of freshness that search engines just love. Comments also show that your blog posts are still relevant to readers. Invite readers to leave their thoughts and continue the conversation or blog about something a bit controversial to get the discussion started!19. You don’t monitor your statistics
Google Analytics is a great free tool to monitor who is visiting your website. It gives you detailed information on visits, keywords used to arrive at your website, other websites that are bringing visitors, the popularity of pages and many other metric that offer a useful insight into your website traffic. You should monitor these stats closely and take necessary action to improve your performance.20. You never link to other Websites
Although it may not appear as a good strategy to send visitors away to other websites, Google can reward you for genuinely sharing quality relevant content with your users. Use this carefully, as you don’t want to loose visitors.Don't Miss A Single Updates
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