Are you putting effort into your website, but you’re still struggling to rank and appear on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)?
You’re not alone, and luckily, you’re not doomed. Several reasons might contribute to why your website isn’t ranking. Search engines are continuously evolving, and keeping up might be challenging at times.
Fortunately, we’ve compiled a list of possible reasons why your website isn’t ranking on SERPs.
Do Brands Still Benefit From Ranking?
Yes. However, ranking isn’t a magical wand that will make all your business dreams come true. It has its perks, but it covers one aspect of your business, which is a part of marketing. Some of the benefits of ranking include:
- Increase Brand Visibility: One of the biggest benefits of ranking on search engine results pages is increased brand visibility. For example, you own a laptop and cellphone repair company and a user searches for “laptop repairs in Soweto” and your business appears at the top, it not only boosts brand awareness but also increases the chances of them contacting you to fix their devices.
- Gain Authority: When your brand ranks highly for specific keywords, you’re able to establish yourself as an authoritative figure for that topic. This also plays a role in building trust amongst users.
- Boost Your Credibility: When users search online, they’re more likely to trust brands that appear on the first page of search results. This is because people trust the search engines they use. For example, if Google ranks a brand on the first page, users assume it has verified the site’s information and credibility.
Identify Why Your Website is Not Ranking
To identify potential reasons why your website isn’t ranking, you have to look at the gaps in your marketing strategy, particularly your website and the SEO issues within your website. Here’s a list of possible reasons restricting your website from ranking on SERPs.
1. Your Website Has Indexing Issues
If your web pages are not indexed, they are invisible. Indexing and ranking go hand-in-hand. Many business owners think Google finds every new page automatically. But, this is not always true. Sometimes, a piece of code called a noindex tag can accidentally block pages. Your robots.txt file might also be telling search engines to stay away. Sites with a weak structure also make it hard for Google’s bots to find all your pages. Use Google Search Console to see which of your pages are indexed and fix any errors you find.
2. Website Speed
Users are bound to leave a website if it loads slowly, and Google takes note of this. Site speed is a direct ranking factor, especially with metrics like Core Web Vitals. It is all about user experience. Look at the following factors in analysing your website speed:
- How long does the main content take to load?
- Does the page jump around while loading?
For some websites, the problem is often large images, too many plugins, or slow, cheap hosting. Choosing a decent web hosting provider can make your site much faster for your audience.
3. Keyword Cannibalisation
Keyword cannibalisation happens when you have several pages on your site all trying to rank for the same thing. This confuses search engines and gives the impression that you are competing with yourself. Search engines get confused about which page to show.
4. Poor Internal Linking
Internal linking essentially means your pages can talk to each other. Internal links help users discover more of your site and show search engines which pages are most important. A smart internal linking strategy shares your popular pages with the ones that need a bit of boost.
5. Poor Content Quality
Are you just filling a page with fluff, or are you helping readers with relevant information? Google can tell the difference. Surface-level content that doesn’t answer the user’s question fully doesn’t rank well, as search engines are intent on properly answering user questions. Ask yourself: Is my content the best answer available on this topic?
6. E-E-A-T
Google wants to recommend websites that are trustworthy. Their framework for this is E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust).. You can show your Experience with real customer stories, expert-backed content. Prove your Expertise and Authoritativeness by sharing well-researched information. If you have a blog, create author profiles to indicate that the content comes from human beings. Build Trust with a clear “About Us” page and contact information. It’s about showing Google you’re a real, credible business.
7. Content Relevance
If your content is all over the place, you’re doing it wrong. Your blog can’t be everything to everyone. If you’re a lawyer writing about the best travel destinations, you’re diluting your message and confusing search engines, as well as your audience.
Google needs to understand what your site is about. Create a tight cluster of content around your core services. If you offer accounting services, write about tax tips, financial planning, and business audits.
8. Content Length
If the bulk of your content contains short articles, you aren’t doing enough. The general consensus among high-ranking articles is that aim for around 1500-word articles. Can you truly give value to a topic in just a few paragraphs? Ensure you are providing in-depth information so that the user doesn’t have to keep looking elsewhere even after reading your content.
Are you putting effort into your website, but you’re still struggling to rank and appear on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)? You’re not alone, and luckily, you’re not doomed. Several Read More
