Why isn’t my website ranking?

This is a universal question that’s been asked be website owners since the dawn of SEO. Why isn’t my website ranking?

Well, to answer this, we first need to clarify a few things.

• What keyword isn’t it ranking for?
• Was it ranking before?
• How long has your website been on Google?
• Have you made any changes lately?
• Have you hired an SEO to work on your website?

What keyword isn’t it ranking for?

If you think how many words there are in the English language, and how many different ways we can phrase things, there are potentially millions of search terms even around the smallest niches. I’ve had clients search for some obscure terms and asked the question, ‘why aren’t we ranking?’.

In SEO, we have to be driven by data. This means, we target and track keywords that have search volume. This means people are actually searching those terms on a regular basis and they are most likely going to drive traffic and conversions. We find these keywords by conducting keyword research, using tools such as SEmrush or Google’s Keyword Planner.

For example, if we have a client who is an insurance broker in London, we would target the keyword ‘insurance brokers London’, because it has 590 monthly searches. We would optimise the page for this keyword and track its Google ranking position. However, the client may check where their website is ranking, and search for a service they offer, ‘corporate risk management services London’. Then they will ask ‘why isn’t my website ranking?’.

The answer to this would be that they haven’t got a page dedicated to this keyword. That they are not targeting this keyword. This keyword has zero search volume, so it is not on the radar of an SEO. If they want to target this keyword then we could optimise for it, but unless there is a page related to the keyword it’s highly unlikely it is going to rank.

Was it ranking before?

This is a big one. If the website was ranking before for a keyword like ‘insurance brokers London’ and now it isn’t, then something has happened. It could be a number of things including:

The page has been removed: Does the page still exist? Sometimes people can change the URL of a page, which effectively means the page that was ranking now no longer exists. Without redirecting the old page to the new version, it could take Google weeks to discover and address what’s happened. The solution would be to either change the URL back, or add a 301 redirect pointing the old URL to the new URL. This way, when Google crawls it, it should fix the issue.

Google has penalised it: Google are always updating their algorithm, and if there is a big core update, such as the Helpful Content or Spam update, then it may have decided that your website doesn’t comply. In this scenario, you need to find out what Google doesn’t like about your website. Do you have too much low value content? You would need to conduct an audit to get to the bottom of it, then fix the issue and wait for Google to overturn the penalty.

How long has your website been on Google?

If your website is still new, then it may not be ranking for your target keywords. It can take anything from three to twelve months for Google to trust a new website enough to start ranking it for commercial or transactional keywords. Over the years I’ve noticed there seems to be a twelve month filter in place for single keywords such as ‘insurance’. I’ve seen websites ranking nowhere at all, and when they reach their twelve month anniversary they start appearing. Google doesn’t admit there is anything like this in place, but I have observed it.

If you have a new website then the key when it comes to SEO is patience. Just keep creating high quality content, and over time your website will start appearing more and more in the results.

Have you made any changes lately?

Have you moved your website to a new platform, or changed the domain name? One of the biggest mistakes people make in SEO is not setting up 301 redirects when they move their website. If the address of a page changes, then it will lose its ranking position unless it has a 301 redirect in place.

Also, if you’ve moved to a new website, has it technical issues that could prevent it from ranking? Do you still have all the on page SEO you had before? You need to compare the page that was ranking to the page you have now, and see if it has anything different that could affect the ranking postiion.

Have you hired an SEO to work on your website?

The problem with hiring an SEO, especially a cheap SEO from somewhere like Fiverr, is they can often do more harm than good. They may be buying backlinks that Google consider toxic, and as these start pointing to your website then they could trigger a penalty that would result in losing your ranking positions. My advice here would be, don’t hire a cheap SEO. And, when you do hire an SEO, make sure they explain in detail exactly what they are going to do. Tell them in no uncertain terms, you don’t want them building backlinks. The only backlinks you want are ‘earned’ from reputable websites.

This covers most of the reasons why a website isn’t ranking. If none of these apply, then it may just be that your website isn’t powerful enough to rank for the keyword you’re checking. For example, if you want to rank for the keyword ‘insurance’, then a competitor audit on the websites ranking on page one will tell you what you need. You may find the websites on page 1 all have thousands of pages, and you only have 50. They may have thousands of backlinks and you only have 100. If your website is a long way being on the key ranking metrics, then it isn’t going to rank, because the landscape is just too competitive.

The solution here is to find out what you need to be able to compete, then put together a strategy on how you can get there.

Good luck!