6 Reasons Your Website isn't Ranking on Google Featured.jpg

6 Reasons Your Website isn't Ranking on Google

We’re proud to say that, with the Websites 360® website builder, it’s easy for anyone to build a beautiful business website. But, the hard truth is that no matter how great your website is, it only matters if you people can find it online. Suffice it to say, if your website isn’t showing up in the organic search results, it spells trouble for your online presence.

If your website isn’t ranking, before you can fix it, you need to figure out why. There are many things that could cause your website not to rank organically. Today, I’m going to cover just a few of them.

Why your website isn’t ranking on Google

#1. Your website isn’t being indexed

In order for your website to rank on Google, it first has to be indexed, which means that, if indexing is turned off for your website, it has no chance of ranking on Google.

You may be wondering why in the world someone would want to prevent Google from indexing their website. The truth is that there are lots of possible reasons you may want to prevent Google from indexing your website. For example, you may be collaborating with someone on the design or content, and it’s not ready yet.

There are also individual pages that you may not want indexed. A good example of this would be the Thank You page, which should only be seen after someone has made a purchase or signed up for your email newsletter.

Take a minute to make sure that your site has indexing enabled. If you’re using Websites 360®, you can make sure sitewide indexing is enabled by going to Settings and then to SEO.

Make sure that “Allow search engines to index website” is toggled on. To adjust the setting on individual pages, go to the page or post and look under “Search and Sharing” and look for the option to “Allow search engines to index page” to toggle it on or off depending on the page.

#2. You’re targeting the wrong keywords

Keyword research is the foundation of your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, and if you get it wrong, it can make it difficult for your website to rank in the organic search results.

To start finding the right keywords to target, simply think about what you would search for if you were a customer looking for your products or services. For example, a roofing company would want to target keywords, like “roof repair,” “roof replacement,” “roofer near me,” etc. However, different keywords will have differing amounts of competition, and the more competitive a keyword, the harder it will be to rank for it.

Generally, long-tail keywords, which are longer and more descriptive keywords, will have less competition and will be easier to rank for. So, instead of optimizing your product page for “pink shoes,” consider optimizing it for something more specific to the product you’re selling, like “pink platform boots.”

Not only will it be easier for you to rank, but people searching for more specific keywords are generally closer to buying than someone who is just doing research using more general search terms.

#3. Your website has been penalized

Did you know that Google can actually penalize your website if it’s not up to their quality standards? This could result in de-indexing, which removes your domain completely from search results, which means that your domain is still available but can’t be found, or sandboxed, resulting in a sudden drop in traffic.

To find out if your website has been penalized for any reason, you’ll need to log into Search Console. Luckily, if your site has been penalized, Google will tell you why and what you can do to fix it. After you’ve fixed the issues indicated by Google, submit your website so that it can be reconsidered by Google.

#4. Your website isn’t mobile-friendly

These days, fewer and fewer people will be visiting your website from a desktop computer or even a laptop. The vast majority of your visitors will probably be visiting your website with their smartphone or tablet. Google knows this, and since they want to provide their mobile users with the best possible experience, they will also prioritize mobile-friendly websites in the organic rankings.

A mobile-friendly website starts with having a responsive design, which means that the site is designed to automatically reconfigure itself for the device it’s viewed on. You should also make sure content is formatted to be mobile-friendly, that buttons are big enough to push with a finger and that you keep your navigation simple.

Is your website mobile-friendly enough? Use Google’s free Mobile-Friendly Test to find out.

#5. You haven’t been building content

Apart from establishing a strong foundation with the right keywords, continuously creating content for your website is the most important thing you can do from an SEO perspective.

Google wants to provide its users with the best answers to their questions and the most informative search results, and it ranks websites that are regularly adding high-quality content higher in the search results.

In addition to making sure that you’re adding content regularly, you’ll want to make sure that it’s the right kind of content. Google isn’t looking for you to regurgitate what everyone else is saying. They’re looking for content that is unique, original and has authority.

#6. Your website is slow

Google knows its users well, and if there’s one thing they are not, it’s patient. Today’s average internet user has a shorter attention span than a goldfish, which isn’t saying much since a goldfish’s attention span is only about six seconds.

That means that your site needs to be able to both load and inspire your visitor to stick around — all in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, if your website is too slow, Google won’t rank it as high in the organic search results.

Wondering if your website is fast-loading enough? PageSpeed Insights from Google can tell you whether your site is up to par or not. Best of all, they’ll also give you recommendations on what you can do to correct any site speed issues.

Need help getting your website to rank on Google and other search engines? Learn how the content marketing team at Marketing 360® can help. Are you due for a faster, more mobile-friendly website? Our website templates are designed to be ranked! Find the perfect design template for your business website today.

Originally published on 6/3/20