It can be frustrating when you Google something related to your business and want to see your own website, but your competitors are at the top of the rankings instead.
Why would that happen? At the end of the day, it can be especially frustrating when you're taking the time to publish content, invest in a good website, and don't get the implementation results you need. When I talk to small business leaders like manufacturers and other tech companies, I often hear similar challenges.
There are a few common reasons why your business isn't showing up on Google's initial search results page. To understand why they aren't listed, you need to understand Google's priorities.
Google's primary goal is to help customers find the answers they're looking for as fast as possible, not to optimize your business as a seller. Google also has a set of parameters that specify the order in which pages are ranked on search implementation results pages. Unfortunately, these 200+ elements change frequently and aren't always intuitive.
So, we've put together this quick guide. This quick guide explains why you aren't ranked in industry-related terms and three possibilities for how to lay the foundation for achieving that ranking.
3 reasons why it doesn't rank on Google (yet!)
Let's take a closer look at the 3 most common reasons why your business's website still isn't ranking for the search terms you want to rank.
1. Focus on only one side of the on-page and off-page SEO coin
On-page SEO is about communicating to Google that your business is an opinion leader for a topic or service through keywords and technical SEO strategies. On-page SEO helps you strategize keywords to attract and optimize the human eye and Google crawlers.
Effective on-page SEO requires tactics such as writing meta descriptions on every website page, making sure headers are formatted in H1 format, and creating SEO-optimized page titles.
Off-page SEO is another website that proves you're an expert through reviews, backlinks, and technical aspects of SEO that aren't visible “on page.” Generally, off-page SEO is more important than on-page SEO. You can create great content by targeting keywords, but without off-page work, you probably won't be able to get the rankings you deserve.
Why is off-page SEO important? It helps build the authority of the website. Google uses an internal “page rank” score to calculate user authority and influence user rankings based on that. According to Google's algorithm, the higher your authority, the more likely it is that your traffic and rankings will increase. It's important to remember that this score isn't fixed, it changes over time, and there are multiple factors that influence it.
Backlinks (links from other reliable and authoritative websites to your website) are one of the key factors for increasing authority. Keep in mind, though, that off-page SEO will hardly be a challenge if on-page SEO is lacking. To get backlinks from other sites, you first need to publish valuable content!
Getting other high quality websites to metaphorically show trust in your website through backlinks can be tough. Here's what we're doing to our clients to earn organic backlinks and gain more domain authority.
- Create a “pillar page” that acts as a one-stop resource for your audience.
- Link all “chapter” content to individual published blogs.
- Insert expert quotes from other thought leaders, and once published, have them share or link (for your own benefit!).
- Sharing a page on social media makes it easier to view.
- Add pages to the top-level navigation dropdown so users can easily find them.
The power of internal links
Think of a website like a city. If there's only one road leading one-way through a city, it becomes very difficult to access and explore from outside.
However, if there are various interconnected roads (such as links) across a city, cars (such as Google and users) can navigate the site more easily. We want users to enjoy their time and come back later, preferably when they're ready to buy.
It's all about user experience. A great user experience is a good Google experience.
2. Your content has no value to viewers
We all clicked on the website and realized that it didn't answer our questions, and we tried to exit the page as soon as possible. Even if the website helps explain your services and offerings, the website may be rejected if content is not delivered to answer pressing questions.
To keep curious visitors, it's important to convince your target audience and Google that you're worthy of their trust. Most people can smell that classic “bad salesman” type person a mile away. It's the same on the internet.
We've all seen this type of website.
That's why it's important to create content that focuses on helping readers rather than promoting services or products. Google wants to provide services to users, and if content matches that, Google's algorithm can help them rank higher.
But not all content is created the same way. The more you focus on your content to make it unique and valuable to your readers, the more rewards you'll get from Google. Top-notch content includes the following elements:
- We provide real value and solve key issues faced by customers through meetings with subject matter experts (SMEs) or the use of high-quality research.
- Create content that offers a truly unique and insightful perspective.
- Develop buyer personas to ensure your content is tailored to your target audience.
- Instead of leaning towards outright advertising, the focus is on helping viewers.
- I write for real people, not just Google's SEO bots.
At Aspire, these elements are just an essential part of the service we provide to our clients. These high content standards were first strengthened with Google's “Helpful Content Update” in August 2022. Simply put, an algorithm update means the following:
- Make sure your target business users find your content useful.
- After reading the content, someone should leave the website feeling they've learned enough to reach their goals.
- Avoid automated tools that create content on many topics.
If an article you're writing (or about to write) doesn't include industry insights or answers to helpful questions, or if you pay for links to spammy websites, Google will penalize you. This also happens when companies “try to cram in keywords” the phrases they want to rank in their content.
Keyword stuffing worked years ago, but it's an outdated technique and doesn't work today (in fact, Google punishes).
As a benchmark, if your article is around 1,000 to 1,200 words, I recommend inserting the desired keyword 5 times. If you use much more than that with the same number of words, it's too much. Also, if you only use it once or twice, you're probably not showing that you're knowledgeable about that particular topic. As a result, Google's crawlers won't receive the signals they need to rank pages.
3. Google Search Console and website are not optimized
This is one of the big opportunities I see in my first meetings with many clients. In order to become close to Google and rank brightly in the #1 search implementation record, it is necessary to use the Google search console.
With this free tool, you can grasp what kind of searches users are doing on Google because the keywords that drive traffic to website pages, ranking in average searches, and domains are displayed in search implementation records. By monitoring this data, you can more accurately understand what your audience is searching for, which affects your SEO strategy.
Once you've connected your sitemap to your business's Google account and created domain properties within the platform, you'll need to submit your sitemap. A sitemap basically tells Google what your site is about, so you can eliminate the trouble of guessing crawlers. This means it's easier to start crawling and ranking sites, especially if it's a new site or a site with hundreds of pages.
Google doesn't rank websites. Rank individual website pages.
Google Search Console is also an invaluable tool for detecting key technical issues and SEO opportunities within a website. Your business's website page (whether mobile or desktop!) If it doesn't work, then the user experience won't be good. If the user experience isn't good, Google will reduce your website's domain authority and ranking potential.
Take time to address critical website errors in Google Search Console and evaluate which pages are performing well. That way, you're off to a good start to creating and optimizing content. If your business is geographically focused, make sure your Google My Business profile is reviewed and updated regularly.
How to improve your business rankings in 2023 and beyond
There's no silver bullet for ranking website pages higher on Google. The numbers Google uses to evaluate website pages are unknown, but not all of them are publicly available.
This is part of the reason it takes months for an SEO strategy to be implemented, but that implementation track record is worth it.
The point of this article is that businesses need to create useful content. That's why a content strategy is essential in an inbound marketing framework for client engagement. We create high-quality SEO-driven content for our clients, but that content isn't created in full compliance with Google's algorithms. We focus on providing valuable insights and gaining the trust of our clients' audiences and Google.
If you follow these recommendations, you will be on the right track. Also, helpful content updates won't have a significant impact on the website.
As we head into 2023, let's focus on creating optimized, useful content for our audience rather than Google's algorithms. Google continues to make major content updates, so we're here to answer any questions you may have.
0 comments