Despite the amount of advertisements that pop up all over the place, the majority of people still find what they’re looking for through organic search. If they aren’t finding you through organic search, this can be bad news. If your website isn’t showing up in Google search results, you likely have some important kinks to work out. The sooner, the better.
The Importance Of High Search Engine Ranking
People have limited patience. It’s not enough to show up past the fifth page of search results, because the average searcher won’t click through that far. Ideally, you want to be on the first page. Even if you aren’t at the very top, you know that people will be likely to see your website. You may start on the fourth or fifth page, but you’ll need to work your way up from there if you want your website to become noteworthy.
Google Might Not Know You Exist
Your website needs to be crawled and indexed for Google to know it exists. Newer websites often don’t have the established connections, like inbound links, to make them visible. Submit your sitemap to Google Webmaster tools. It may not happen overnight (considering the huge influx of requests that Google handles on a daily basis), but your site will eventually be crawled and indexed.
You’ll improve your odds for success if you set the rest of your website up the way Google prefers. They have a specific set of things they’re looking for and you need to be sure you’re following all of their criteria.
Your Keyword Game Is Hurting You
It’s highly unlikely that you’re the only one who has chosen the keywords you’re using. Some markets are more competitive than others and if you find yourself stuck with some highly competitive keywords, you’re going to need to retool your approach.
Choosing uncommon keywords will help you rank higher, but it may not actually help people find you. If you’re using keywords that are rarely searched for, being on Google’s first page won’t help you very much. You need to create a balance, and there are a few approaches you can take.
One of the best ways to do that is to incorporate your location into your keywords. If you do business in a few specific areas, including your location in your keywords will make it easier for the right people to find you at the right time.
Google Is Mad At You
Google can penalize you, or even outright ban you from showing up in their search results. They aren’t necessarily liberal about banning, but there are a few circumstances under which they have to. If your website contains illegal content (although it most likely does not), Google can remove you without warning.
The most common reason Google bans or penalizes a website is for bad SEO practices. If they feel that you’re being deliberately deceptive, keyword stuffing, using third party content without authorization, or building phony links, they won’t take kindly to that. This can occasionally happen by mistake, and if it does, you may be able to fix it.
Google will tell you why you’re being penalized and exactly what they’ve found. You can contest it or resolve the issue, resubmit your website to Google, and they’ll often give you a second chance. You may not have even known that what you were doing was unethical according to Google’s standards. They seem to get progressively strict with time, so it’s best to stay abreast.
What You Can Do To Fix The Problem
Like they say, the first step is admitting you have a problem. Once you’ve done that, you can fix it. Most SEO issues are relatively simple to resolve. As long as you know what you need to do, it’s just a matter of putting a little effort into the solution.
Examine Your SEO
Perform an SEO audit. This sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is. All you need to do is crawl your website and take a look at it through Google Analytics. Once you see where you stand in terms of optimization, you can weigh that information against that of your competitors to see where changes need to be made.
Use Better Keywords
As long as your keywords are relevant to your site, you’re going to see results. Keywords can actually be as long as five words, and it helps to think of what a potential visitor might search when they’re looking for a website like yours. There are many tools you can use for keyword research. It helps to choose a mix of competitive and less competitive keywords.
Build Some Backlinks
If a lot of websites link back to your website, Google will naturally begin to recognize you as an authority. If you want to build some quick backlinks, try guest posting on relevant websites or blogs. Pitch a guest post that is entirely original content and submit it to a website that will allow you either a link in the body of your post or a link in an author bio. Everyone wins – those sites get new content for free and you get backlinks out of the deal.
Show Your Legitimacy
Google has indexes and registries for businesses with physical locations. If you’ve submitted your physical location to Google and they can place you on a map, they’ll know that you’re real. Make sure you have current contact information on your website, and encourage people who have worked with you to check in or leave reviews on your official listing.
Create Stellar Content
Original content is extremely important to Google. Google has a tendency to collapse search results if multiple websites come back with content that’s nearly identical. On top of pleasing Google, you’ll also be pleasing your visitors. People like to share original content, and they like it even more when that content is highly valuable.
Keep Improving
Perhaps the most important thing to remember about SEO is that it isn’t a “one and done” process. You need to consistently clean and update your website, and be on the lookout for relevant keywords that are rising in popularity. SEO is something you’ll need to stay on top of for as long as you have a website.
Call Tucson SEO Pros today for a free consultation. We can help your website rank higher in the search engines!