No matter how visually appealing your website looks, if it is not ranking well on search engines, it doesn’t hold a lot of value.
Why?
Because your audience will most likely have a hard time finding your website if it is not easily visible online.
A website is made up of several elements and for it to function well, everything must be in sync.
Most of the time, when one piece is not operating as it should be, it can greatly affect the overall performance of the whole system.
Here are some of the most common reasons why your website is not ranking well in Google.
1. Your pages are filled with bad content.
A couple of bad posts won’t have that much of a negative effect but pages and pages of bad content will surely pull your ranking down.
Some things that affect the quality of your content include optimization, uniqueness and image quality.
How to fix:
Make it a point to always create unique and engaging content. Duplicate content or plagiarized posts will not just ruin your chance of having a high ranking, this can also put you at risk of getting shut down. See Copyscape.
2. Your site is not mobile-friendly.
These days, majority of Internet users browse using their mobile devices.
If your website is not optimized to be loaded quickly on mobile phones and tablets, Google will not award you with a high ranking.
Additionally, a website that’s hard to load on phones will also run the risk of losing its audience.
Why?
Because why would anyone visit your site if it takes minutes to load?
How to fix:
There are several tests such as the Google Mobile-Friendly Test, to check how your site performs on mobile devices. Typically, these free online website checkers will also display fixes for detected issues.
3. Sloppy SEO methods.
Properly placed keywords will add value to an article.
However, disorganized keywords as well as overused keywords will do more damage than good to your ranking.
Google dislikes pages that are overstuffed with keywords as this can significantly affect the flow of the article, which should read naturally.
How to fix:
Seek out helpful tools such as OnPage to help clean up and optimize your pages. These tools usually work by analyzing your SEO errors and provide solutions to fix your page issues. Additionally, you should also invest some time and effort to learn more about modern SEO techniques. Take some short online courses that tackle these subjects and use your knowledge to improve your site.
4. Crawl and indexing errors.
Technical issues like crawl and indexing errors can also affect your ranking.
Search engines will have a hard time finding your site if your pages and images are not properly indexed.
Crawl errors can also bring down your site’s credibility.
How to fix:
Monitor the backend of your website through Google Search Console. This helpful online web service is used by webmasters to keep track of important SEO elements. It provides a collection of different tools that help you improve your website’s performance.
5. Poor online marketing.
The more you put out your website online, the more you returns you can expect.
If you get lazy with online marketing, Google will not notice your brand.
Your audience will also have hard time knowing what your brand is about.
How to fix:
Aside from modern SEO techniques, you can also promote your site through backlinks, social media channels and email campaigns. External links and outside sources will significantly boost your online presence and help you rank higher in searches.
