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When it comes to sales or online advertising, few things are more important than placing high on Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Doing so is often easier said than done. Many businesses and organizations create a webpage they think is perfect for landing on the top spot of the SERP, only to find that they’re nowhere close. Unfortunately, diagnosing the cause of this low ranking on the results page is no small task. Good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the best way to improve your website ranking, but what are some things that may be hurting your position?
Causes for Poor Website Ranking You May Not Have Considered
If you have poor website ranking on the search engine results page, then you’ve probably heard the same few explanations. The algorithm changes, your keywords aren’t ideal, or your links are faulty. Those aren’t the only possible culprits, though, and you may need to look a little deeper than that. Here are a few less common things that may hurt your website’s ranking on the search engine results page.
Links: Quality vs. Quantity
You may have heard that using as many links as possible is an excellent way to target a wider audience and increase your chances of a site visit. While this strategy may work in theory, it’s often bad advice. Having a lot of links can work, as long as you have the quality to back it up. The more links you have, the harder that will be to achieve. Having low-quality backlinks is a quick way to tank your website ranking.
A low-quality link is one created to manipulate your website’s placement in the SERPs. Low-quality links are often from poor web directories, low-quality articles, and mass-produced guest posts. Another surefire way to get your link flagged as low-quality is by using spam comments or similar tactics to spread your site around.
Erratic Posting of Content
If you post primarily long-form content, you can usually get away with posting once or twice per week. But if you post one 400-word article about once per month, you’re going to get nowhere in the search rankings.
Regularly posting content of the appropriate length can help your website establish its rank, as the Google algorithm refines its opinion of your site as more relevant. But you can’t become more relevant if you never post content, so get your content on a schedule and try to keep it.
Google Hasn’t Indexed your Website Yet
Like all the other search engines, Google organizes the information from billions of websites in one searchable library, called an Index. Since so many websites need to be indexed every single day, there’s no way employees could complete them manually.
Instead, they use an innovative type of software called web crawlers. These web crawlers go from website to website and analyze their information. They look at your base website first, then follow any links on your pages and report what they find back to Google.
For the vast majority of the time, this system of crawlers works pretty well. However, even the most advanced technology is subject to error. The crawlers almost always index your information as websites change and update.
When something does go wrong, though, it can be bad news for your website ranking. If you’re not in Google’s index, you won’t show up in the search results at all.
PC Only or Not Mobile-Friendly Websites
People don’t realize it, but one of the main reasons you may be struggling with your website’s search engine results ranking is because your website isn’t compatible with mobile devices. Believe it or not, most quick searches are done via a mobile device.
A little over half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices, which isn’t likely to change soon. Because of this, Google tends to penalize websites that aren’t mobile-friendly by moving them down a few places in the search results ranking.
Poor Mobile Page Speed
When it comes to mobile websites, another critical factor is having a fast page loading speed. When people use a search engine from a mobile device, they generally look for quick answers and won’t wait more than a few seconds for a site to load.
Mobile Device Pop-ups
Another thing that Google doesn’t like is when websites are compatible with mobile devices is an excess of ads. While intrusive ads are somewhat of an issue on desktops, mobile users experience an unbelievable amount of intrusive or pop-up ads. To discourage this, Google has begun penalizing mobile sites that use these advertising methods.
Ways to Resolve Website Ranking Problems
Many things could be hindering your website’s ranking on Google’s search engine results page. Identifying which item or combination of things is causing the issue is vital to the search engine optimization process. Still, identifying the problem is useless if you don’t know how to resolve it.
Too Many “Unnatural” or Low-Quality Links
The first step to getting rid of or improving low-quality website links is knowing which ones are the problem. There are many places you can find a complete list of what Google will flag as an unnatural link, but it’s easier if you know how to identify them yourself.
The first thing you can do is look for any site messages under Google Search Console. Google Search Console is a web tool offered to website managers for checking the indexing status of and optimizing the visibility of their websites. Search Console helps you measure your site’s traffic and performance by offering valuable tools and reports.
If you have a bad backlink or an unnatural link leading to your site that Google’s ranking system doesn’t like, Console will send a message asking you to fix them. This may not be the case for those of you that only have one or two bad links, though. Google will alert website managers who have unnatural links pointing to their website. Websites that only have one or two bad links may not get noticed by Google right away, but bad links will still affect their ranking.
Here’s an example message from Google regarding bad links:
“Unnatural Outbound links from [ bad link] violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines
To: Webmaster of [website name]
Google has detected a pattern of links from your site to other sites that is either unnatural or irrelevant. This pattern attempts to boost other sites’ ranking in Google Search Results. Such artificial ranking would cause search results to show a preference for results not relevant to the user’s actual query. It also violates Google Webmaster Guidelines. Therefore, we are discounting the trust in links on your site. This manual spam action has been applied to [website name]. To fix this, remove the faulty links on your site and file a reconsideration request. After we have determined that you have complied with our guidelines, we will remove this manual action.”
Google will follow up this message with step-by-step instructions on fixing the issue. If Google does not send you any direct messages like this, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re out of trouble. If you know or think you may have low-quality links to your site, it’s essential to check and remedy those as soon as possible. You can do this using Google Search Console.
Crawler Index Failure
While it’s not likely that your issue is that web crawlers failed to index your website, there’s still a chance. If you think that this is the source of your problem, you need to get it fixed immediately. As always, the first step to doing this is confirming that this is, in fact, the problem.
To do so, open a Google search and type in “site:insertwebsitename.com.” If Google indexed your website correctly, you should see results consisting of your landing page, followed by other pages on your website.
If your website appears as intended, then this is not your problem, and you must keep looking. If your website does not appear, this is at least one of the causes of your issues.
Chances are this means your website is new or recently underwent a significant update or redesign, and the Google crawlers haven’t noticed you yet. You can fix this issue and speed up the indexing process by telling Google about it.
After telling Google about the issue, they will most likely instruct you to submit your sitemap to Google Search Console.
Making Your Website Mobile-Friendly
If you had your website designed or updated in the last few years, your site may already be mobile-friendly. However, low rankings on Google’s search results page may indicate that that isn’t the case.
If you think your website isn’t mobile-optimized, the first step is confirming this theory. There are two very simple ways of doing this. You can google “Is my Website Mobile-friendly?” and copy/paste your URL into the test line that pops up.
There’s also the easier option of taking out a mobile device and visiting or attempting to visit your website yourself.
If your website is not mobile-friendly, here are the steps you need to take to fix the issue:
- Make your website responsive
- Make the Important Information Easy to Find
- Avoid pop-up ads or ads that block any text
- Keep it simple
- Check that the UI is functional
- Don’t use Flash (it’s dead)
- Perform regular testing
Prioritize and Optimize Page Speed
Mobile web page speed is essential to gaining and maintaining an audience. One helpful tool that Google encourages Website managers to use is AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). AMP is also compatible with WordPress websites as a plugin.
Next, try removing or compressing high-resolution images and media, as they will slow down mobile load times. Compressing image file size makes images easier and quicker for mobile browsers to load without decreasing the visual quality for viewers.
Finally, check your web hosting plan to make sure it’s still compatible and valid. An example of why this is important is the death of Adobe Flash. While Flash-based sites are still available on obscure corners of the internet, Flash is no longer supported by any major browsers, including Google.
In Flash Player’s heyday, between 5% and 15% of all websites were reliant on flash in 2018. In 2011, it was 28%. It’s estimated that when Flash bit the dust, as many as several million websites were entirely reliant on it. This covered a lot of mobile sites, which meant that many site managers had to rethink how they managed their website’s mobile aspect. That’s just one example of how a single industry change can disrupt how millions of people manage their online footprint.
Reach out to Content Cucumber for Quality that Counts
Consistent content allows you to use tried-and-true SEO tactics and reduce the impacts of algorithm changes. The algorithm may change weekly, but quality blog post content perseveres through most of them to rank on SERPs and gain views for your business. We don’t chase algorithm trends – we focus on quality evergreen content that will attract visitors no matter what Google throws our way. Book a demo to learn more!
