There is nothing more disappointing than dedicating countless hours to your website design, only to find that it isn’t ranking on Google. Despite the thoughtfully incorporated visual elements and well-written content, nobody is coming across your business—why? Ranking on Google isn’t always about what you’re doing wrong—sometimes, you need to take a closer look at what you aren’t doing, which may include the following.
Your Website Isn’t Indexed
If Google hasn’t listed your website, do a quick search using the prefix site:yourwebsite.com. If your website comes up, you can rest assured it’s already been indexed by Google. If not, you can leave it up to the fact that your website is newly published and speed up the process by manually listing it on Google Search Console. If you’re using a DIY website builder, ensure that you set your site to allow indexing by all types of search engines.
Your Website Isn’t Mobile-Responsive
If you haven’t yet noticed, mobile usage is overtaking desktop surfing at an almost exponential rate. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you’ll likely be penalized by Google. To double-check your standing, give your site a run on their mobile-friendly test tool.
If you’ve failed the test, you can rely on simple fixes such as installing a plugin to translate your desktop layout into one that is also mobile-responsive or use a new theme altogether. If you’re working with an outsourced web designer, creating mobile-responsive alternatives won’t usually cost too much. Whatever the case, you’re better off starting over than trying to convert an old website that may pose more problems than you’d expect.
Your Content Isn’t Optimized
Well-written content will fail to rank if you aren’t incorporating the appropriate keyword research. To improve your SEO strategy, leverage tools such as Google Keyword Planner to craft content according to keywords and phrases your potential target market is already using.
Refrain from keyword stuffing, as overfilled sites tend to be penalized by Google for doing so. Integrate relevant keywords naturally and your traffic will rise in no time.
Your Meta and Title Tags Aren’t Optimized
Meta tags exist to let search engines know what your content is about. Without optimized tags, Google won’t know what to tell users your website is about. As such, your website may be tagged as low-quality and drop in rankings significantly.
The better the information you provide potential readers, the greater your chances of driving traffic to your site. Assimilate only relevant keywords and keep your description under 55 characters for optimum performance.
You Have No Backlinks
Backlinks are a fairly self-explanatory feature—they link back to your website from a third-party page. If other websites are pointing visitors to your content, it lets Google know that your website is credible and worthy of ranking. While you won’t have direct control over the number of backlinks you score over time, you can ensure a greater number of backlinks by writing similar topics or sharing your link on other reliable sites.
Backlinks are an excellent long-term strategy that focuses on creating engaging content that readers deem useful and shareable. To improve your backlinks, always prioritize quality over quantity.
Conclusion
SEO is far from a one-and-done job—it’s a constant effort that requires a sufficient amount of housekeeping as you continue to grow your website. More difficult than ranking is knowing how to remain there. Practice the right SEO habits and your website can remain with the top 10 results on Google for as long as possible.
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