Your website could be struggling to reach top rankings for many different reasons. After all, there is a lot to search engine optimization. Here are some of the possibilities you need to consider.
1. Your Website Is too New
If your website is only a few months old and you have limited content and backlinks, you can’t expect it to rank highly. There does seem to be a time period where newer websites appear lower in rankings. This is called being in the Google Sandbox. It could take a while for Google to establish that you’re producing great quality content and creating good backlinks.
2. The Website Looks Pretty but it Doesn’t Offer a Good User Experience
You may have a modern looking website that looks great on the surface but its appearance is deceiving. User experience could be one of the issues holding it back. Google wants to give users the best possible experience and your website may not be giving them what they are looking for. It’s possible to track user experience by measuring time spent on your site, bounce rate and more. If you notice a problem, you need to work hard on improvements to see better results.
3. Your Target Keywords Are too Competitive
Beginners usually try to target keywords with the most search volume for search engine optimization. This is a mistake since they’re unlikely to rank for those very competitive keywords. It’s better to look for keywords you can feasibly rank for with your current domain authority and resources. You can expand and start targeting more competitive keywords as your website grows.
4. You Don’t Have Enough High-Quality Backlinks
Not all links are worth having, but a good portfolio of high-quality backlinks is still an important ranking factor. Try to find natural ways to increase your links and avoid ways that raise a flag for Google. To get some legitimate links from authoritative websites in your industry, guest posting and commenting on blogs are methods that work.
5. Your Competition is Doing More than You
If you’re not publishing fully SEO optimized content on a regular basis and building your portfolio of quality backlinks, you can be absolutely sure your competitors are doing so and, therefore, they will rank higher than you.
6. You Treat Your Website as Though it Exists in a Vacuum
Factors such as time spent on your site, engagement on social media and mentions around the internet all affect your rankings. Google looks at many different signals. Building a community on social media, for example, makes more people visit your site, read your content and click your links which in turn can boost your rankings.
7. Google May Have Penalized Your Website
If you have a Manual Action penalty, it can remove your website from the search results. This will definitely mess with your search engine optimization. If you were ranking well and then suddenly you aren’t anymore, you may have received a penalty. You need to check if you have a penalty and read the Google Manual Actions report to find out where you’re not compliant so you can start correcting the issues.