It’s a nightmare for any business — you pull up Google and search your most valuable keywords. Results flash on your screen, but alas. Your site isn’t showing up on Google.
If you’ve been wondering why your website isn’t appearing on Google, we have some answers for you. We will show you how to improve your online ranking and increase your revenue.
If you want to improve your website’s ranking in search engines, here are some tips that may help.
If you want to improve your website’s ranking on Google, our free SEO tool can help you identify issues with your site and give you recommendations on how to fix them.
Why search rankings matter
If your site doesn’t show up on the first page of Google search results, three-quarters of people won’t find or contact your business.
If your website is not appearing on Google, you are missing out on potential customers and income. You will want to identify and fix the problem as soon as possible.
Reasons your site doesn’t rank — and how to fix poor rankings
There are a number of reasons why your website might not be appearing on Google, or why it might be ranking so low that it isn’t visible. Some of the factors that can influence this include… If you’re wondering why you can’t find your website on Google, there are six potential reasons. Luckily, there are also solutions for each issue.
1. Your website isn’t indexed
There are several reasons why your site is not being index by Google bots and as a result, it will not show up on Google search results.
If your website is new, it can take several weeks for Google to index your site and reflect the changes in search results. This is particularly true for new websites, which generally have fewer inbound links. Google considers both the number and quality of inbound links when ranking sites.
Domain authority takes time to build so new websites shouldn’t expect to see immediate rankings.
If your website is not appearing on Google, check to see if you have “no index” tags on your site. “No index” tags tell search bots not to crawl and index specific pages, which can prevent your website from appearing on Google. You should consult an SEO agency before using “no index” tags, to make sure it does not prevent ranking for pages you want to be ranked. A robots.txt file can also prevent Google crawlers from visiting your site, so you should check that you have not accidentally disallowed any pages you want to be ranked.
Websites that operate on WordPress have features that instruct search engines not to index the sites. If you want to make your website private, you need to go to Settings >> Reading and uncheck the box next to Search Engine Visibility. Wondering how to index your site on Google?
Take a look at these tips
Once you have an account, you can ask Google to index your website. If your website is not appearing on Google, you can create an account on Google Search Console which will allow you to ask Google to index your website. This function tells Google to go to your sitemap.xml page and have it scan and store your URLs. Google doesn’t promise that your site will show up on its search engine results pages right away, especially if your site is new. Give it some time.
To ensure Google can find, crawl, and index your pages, you can update the “no index” tags in your code and robots.txt.
2. Your website has a penalty
Penalties can prevent your site from appearing in Google search results. If your website is not new and you have a proper robots.txt file, this may resolve your question of why it does not appear on Google. If your site is not up to Google’s standards, it may be taken down from search results temporarily or permanently.
Google penalties include:
- Deindexed: Google completely removes your domain from search results.
- Penalized: Your domain still exists, but you can’t find your pages via a direct search. This penalty may result from a Google algorithm update, or Google can manually apply it.
- Sandboxed: Your Google traffic drops suddenly, but your domain wasn’t Deindexed or Penalized.
How to fix a Google penalty Check Google Search Console for penalty alerts. If you site is penalized by Google, you will need to take action to change your website to fit Google’s standards.
Google may remove your site from its search results if it believes your site is violating its policies. If this happens, you can submit a request for your site to be reconsidered.
3. Your website isn’t optimized for search
If you’re wondering why your website isn’t appearing on Google, it might be because you need to improve your SEO. Search engines take into account numerous factors when deciding how to rank websites. SEO can help you ensure that your website is optimised for these factors, resulting in a higher ranking on SERPs. SEO covers multiple techniques created to improve your standings and enable you to acquire more conversions (and income) online.
The most beautifully designed site will not show up in search engine results pages without SEO. Also, your business will become very difficult to find and contact.
How to fix a website that isn’t optimized for search Start by conducting a comprehensive SEO audit of your site. An SEO audit checks your website against best practices for SEO and provides you with a report of areas that need improvement.
When optimizing your site for search, here are a few things you’ll want to consider:
- Clean up your site’s code and technical SEO
- Ensure your site loads quickly
- Streamline your website design and navigation to provide a positive user experience
- Include target keywords in your site copy, headings, and page titles
- Create in-depth, quality content that answers searchers’ questions
You may want to buy a custom SEO package depending on your time and resources.
This is a list of the 8 most important local search signals that will help your business succeed in a very competitive local search market.
#8. Physical Address in City of Search
If you are looking for a Mexican restaurant in Boston and you see a result for a Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles, it is not going to be helpful. On average, a customer is willing to travel 17 minutes to reach a business in their local area. This means that if your business is located near the person who is searching, it has a better chance of being chosen than a business that is located farther away.
If you want to improve your citation data, make sure to include your complete address whenever possible. You can help increase awareness of your business by offering discounts or other incentives to users who check in on Foursquare, Yelp, or Facebook. Do not list your business in nearby cities or towns if it is not actually located there. If you do this, you’ll only make Google angry and hurt your chances of ranking well locally.
#7. City, State in Landing Page Title
The more important local SEO factors are, the more important it is to have a precise address match. Your business’s address should be published on business pages and directories across the internet for people to find. It’s essential to have your website be the loudest voice screaming out these details from the rooftops to get a coveted top rank on local searches.
A good way to improve your chances of ranking well in search engines for your business location is to pay attention to your on-page ranking elements. Make sure to include your city and state in your title, H1 tag, title tag, meta description, and URL for your landing page. This will help ensure that your page comes up in search results for people in your area.
For businesses that operate in multiple cities, it is recommended to create separate landing pages for each city. This allows you to specifically target your audience for each location with more customized content. If you want your content to rank in different cities, you need to make sure that the content is original and not just a copy with the city names replaced. Otherwise, Google may consider it to be duplicate content and penalize you.
#6. Quality of Inbound Links to Landing Page URL
This is where Google’s Pigeon begins to have an impact. The factors that are important for ranking highly on regular web searches are also important for ranking highly on local searches. Links from low quality or spammy sites that are warned against by Google.
It’s a good idea to avoid having links from low-quality or low-authority websites in your local link profile. You should disavow any links that you do not want associated with your website using Google’s Disavow Tool or a third-party tool like Rmoov. These tools can also help you map out and analyze your link profile. You can try to contact the person who runs the website that has the link to yours and ask them to remove it.
#5. Proper Category Associations
Google allows businesses to list their business in categories on their My Business page to help users quickly find the businesses they are looking for when they do a local search. The categories you choose for your business should be based on the type of business you have, not on the products and services you offer, according to Google.
A Google tip: In addition to the three main categories of ‘Storefront’, ‘Service’, and ‘Brand’, you can list up to five subcategories to make your listing as focused as possible. Although you can’t create custom categories anymore, you can still try different combinations of ‘what your business is about’ to fill in all five category options.
#4. Quality of Structured Citations
Choose sources for your citations carefully, as the credibility of the source will affect how much weight the citation carries. You would trust a math professor’s explanation of a theorem more than your kid brother’s, and similarly, a citation from a credible source will carry more weight than one from a less credible source. Citations from high authority websites are essential for local SEO. This point concerns the quality of your citations and the websites where you find them. Your citations should come from authoritative websites.
If you’re going to be citing someone’s work in your paper, be sure to include their name, the title of the work, the date it was published, and the URL. When citing someone’s work in your paper, include their name, the title of the work, the date it was published, and the URL. If you want potential customers in your city to be able to find your business easily on Google, be sure to include a good description of your business that includes your city name and relevant keywords. If you want your citation to be successful, you should include high quality images. These images can help you get a carousel position. Several other sites besides Google My Business Page can help you stay ahead of your competition, especially if you focus on building detailed, structured citations on high authority sites. Good examples include Yelp, Zagat, Yahoo Local, FourSquare, Manta, and TripAdvisor.
#3. Quality of Inbound Links to Domain
The number of unique inbound links specific to each local landing page is a ranking factor. The number of unique inbound links to each local landing page is a ranking factor. The overall quality of the inbound links to your domain is important. A good website will usually be found with links from other strong domains. These links help raise the search ranking of the site that they are linked to.
If you want to improve your website’s ranking, focus on developing inbound links with local anchor text through your content marketing efforts. As long as your business is mentioned on high authority sites, you don’t have to worry about including NAP details or images.
#2. Consistency of Structured Citations
Citations that are structured offer search engines more accurate information about your business. Business directories and yellow pages are now given more importance by Google in local search rankings after the Pigeon update. This is because these pages typically have a clear and easy to understand format with the Name, Address and Phone Number of the business as well as reviews, descriptions and images. This promotion is happening because it boosts Google’s SERP rankings. When creating listings for your business on directory sites, it is important to use the same format and include the same information on all of the listings. This will prevent search engines from becoming confused and users from being unable to find the information they are looking for.
If you’re looking to improve your local SEO, you may want to consider investing in some tools to help you manage your structured citations. This will ensure that your data is consistent across all of the different directories and IYPs, and that your business is sending strong signals to search engines. If your business is small, tools like Synup can help you get started and keep your listings for free. I prefer to use two heavy-duty tools – Moz Local and Yext.
Set aside some time to create separate citations for each location you have an presence in and make sure your descriptions and details are unique to each location.
#1. Domain Authority of Website
The most important thing that makes you different from your competitors in a crowded marketplace is how strong your domain is. Something that’s important to achieving success in local SEO is being ranked high in search results for keyword+city combinations. This is because it reflects the trust that users and search engines have in your brand and domain name.
A good strategy for digital marketers to use after the Pigeon update is to focus on improving their top-down approach to local search rankings. Try to create a website that will be respected and admired by people in your field. It is important to have high-quality links from authoritative websites with the appropriate keywords and anchor text pointing back to your site. Make sure your brand is recognizable and not just focused on improving your search rankings. The benefits you will receive from these activities will be greater than the effort required to complete them!
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